NEW DELHI: The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has launched NSE Refiner Standards (NRS) for BIS — Standard Gold. This will enable acceptance of gold bars produced by domestic refiners in India for settlement of the gold futures contracts traded on the NSE platform. The NSE Refiner Standards for BIS – Standard Gold took effect from Friday, July 10, 2020.
Before that, the NSE accepted serially numbered gold bars produced by London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) approved refiners for the settlement of the gold contracts traded on the commodity derivatives segment of NSE. According to the NSE, this initiative is in line with the government’s efforts to transition to Atma Nirbhar Bharat, thereby encouraging ‘Make in India’ program.
This, NSE said, shall facilitate greater participation from the domestic market players in the exchange traded deliverable bullion commodity derivatives by widening the scope of acceptable bullio commodity for delivery on NSE platform.
Ravi Varanasi, chief business development officer, NSE said: “With the launch of NRS for BIS – Standard Gold, NSE aims to offer a fair chance to the Indian refiners, adhering to the BIS notified standards, to be a part of the exchange settlement framework. This initiative demonstrates NSE’s vision and commitment towards inclusive growth of all market participants.” It will also help widen the array of acceptable gold which can be provided by the members for the physical settlement of gold contracts traded on the commodity derivatives segment of NSE.
The launch of NRS comes at a time when gold prices in India touched new highs amid coronavirus-led sharp fall in the economic activity and drop in imports of the yellow metal. Local gold futures is trading around `49,000 per 10 grams during the last couple of days, which translates to gains of over 25 per cent in 2020 so far. Imports were down 99 per cent to a mere 1.4 tonnes in May.