BSE Limited (BSE) Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to BSE Limited Q3 and FY '26 Investor Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anand Sethuraman from BSE Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you so much, Danish. A warm welcome to all of you for participating in Q3 FY 2026 Earnings Call for BSE. My name is Anand, and I'll be the host for the call. Today, we are joined by BSE's leadership team consisting of Mr. Sundararaman Ramamurthy, Managing Director and CEO; Mr. Deepak Goel, Chief Financial Officer; Shrimati Kamla K, Chief Regulatory Officer; Mr. Sunil Ramrakhiani, Chief Business Officer; Mr. Viral Davda, Chief Technology Officer; Shrimeti Radha Kithivasan, Head of Listing and SME; Mr. Rudresh Kunde, Chief of Product, Strategy and Policy; Shrimeti Vaisshali Babu, MD and CEO of ICCL. Also present here are senior members of our business, Finance and Investor Relations team. The results for the quarter ended 31st December 2025 have been announced and the data pack consisting of financials and investor presentation is available on the BSE website. We will begin today's call with remarks from BSE's MD and CEO on the business and financial performance. [Operator Instructions] Please note that some of the remarks made today may be forward-looking in nature and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements publicly. With this, I would now like to invite BSE MD and CEO, to share his views. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Anand. Good evening, everybody. And a warm welcome to all our esteemed stakeholders for joining the call today to discuss Q3 FY 2026 Earnings. Warm wishes for the New Year to all of you. Let me first talk a little bit about the macroeconomic environment. The global landscape has become more volatile with geopolitical tensions, trade and tariff uncertainties have weighed on global investor confidence. We have seen unprecedented movement of gold and silver prices and outflows from India by FPIs. However, the Indian economy continues to demonstrate strong and stable growth with the year starting on a good note. I take this opportunity to congratulate Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji for successful agreement of the trade deal with the United States. Together with the trade deals with EU and U.K. announced earlier, the move to progressively lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers has the potential to enhance market access boost trade and enable deeper strategic collaboration while further strengthening India's position as a trusted partner. This will enhance the global competitiveness of Indian products while catalyzing manufacturing growth, employment creation and the development of resilient supply chains, directly advancing the vision of Viksit Bharat, which bodes well for the Indian capital markets. I also congratulate Honorable Finance Minister, Shrimati Nirmala Sitharaman ji, for her ninth consecutive budget, articulating a clear shift towards ecosystem-driven industrial strategy and long-term capital formation. For capital markets, the budget offers a blend of structural reforms, liquidity-enhancing measures and regulatory fine-tuning aimed at shaping deeper, more resilient financial architecture. By expanding foreign investor limits, strengthening the corporate bond framework and maintaining fiscal discipline, the budget enhances liquidity and broadens participation. The SGT adjustments also appear to be realigning investor focus towards long-term equity investment and healthier market liquidity. Additionally, the rationalization of the buyback tax removes distortion that previously encouraged tax arbitrage. Moving to Indian capital markets. The defining feature of 2025 was the composition of capital flows, not their absolute size. When foreign portfolio investors retreated during 2025's geopolitical turbulence, India's domestic institutional investors comprising of mutual funds, insurance companies, banks and others deployed INR 7 lakh crores during the calendar year, representing a 33% increase from INR 5.25 lakh crores in 2024. This represented the fundamental change in market micro structure. The year demonstrated that domestic capital could manage foreign outflows without systemic disruption. Equally encouraging is the unwavering commitment of India's retail investors. SIP flows touched a record high of INR 3.34 lakh crores in 2025 from INR 2.68 lakh crores in 2024, reaching new all-time levels and reinforcing the deepening culture of disciplined long-term investing across the country. Against this backdrop, I'm pleased to share that BSE delivered its 11th consecutive quarter of record revenues with consolidated revenues of INR 1,334 crores, surpassing the previous quarter's record of INR 1,139 crores and marking a robust 62% year-on-year expansion. Moreover, with cumulative revenues reaching INR 3,518 crores during the first 9 months of the current financial year, BSE has already exceeded the total top line of INR 3,226 crores recorded for the entire previous fiscal, underscoring the strong and sustained growth momentum across its business segments. I will now share some of the key financial numbers on a consolidated basis for the quarter ended December 31st, 2025, as compared to the corresponding quarter previous year. BSE's operational revenues have grown by 62% to INR 1,244 crores from INR 768 crores. Transaction charges comprising revenues from the equity cash, equity derivatives, mutual fund and clearing of segments have registered a substantial increase of 86%, rising to INR 953 crores from INR 511 crores, reflecting robust growth in core trading and settlement-related activities. Other operating income, which includes enhanced data dissemination fees, co-location, Index Services, et cetera, have increased by 56% to INR 92 crores from INR 59 crores. Income from investments has increased by 47% to INR 84 crores from INR 57 crores. Operating expenses increased by 40% to INR 511 crores from INR 364 crores, it may be noted that 51% of the total operating expenses are attributable to regulatory fees and clearing and settlement expenses, all of which is directly correlated to increasing transaction volumes. The operating EBITDA, including contribution to core SGF has more than tripled to INR 732 crores as compared to INR 236 crores with margins expanding to 59% from 39%. The net profit attributable to the shareholders of the company has demonstrated a significant acceleration, more than doubling to INR 602 crores from INR 220 crores, representing a robust year-on-year growth of 176%. This marked improvement across both top line and bottom line performance underscores the company's enhanced operational resilience, disciplined execution and sustained financial momentum. The continuation of this trajectory further reflects the breadth and depth of participant engagement across our platforms, the effectiveness of our strategically aligned initiatives and the progressively increasing confidence that India's capital market ecosystem continues to repose in BSE. As highlighted in our previous earnings calls, the SGF contributions recorded during the quarter reflect the implementation of BSE's revised policy, whereby 5% of transaction-linked revenue is allocated to the core settlement guarantee fund on a monthly basis. The policy framework incorporates an upper limit mechanism to ensure prudent capital management while simultaneously maintaining robust and adequate risk coverage. As of Jan 2026, BSE's core SGF balance stood at INR 1,202 crores, inclusive of an incremental contribution of INR 45.6 crores made during the quarter arising from the application of this new policy. Furthermore, employee expenses for the period increased by INR 22 crores, primarily attributable to the enactment of Government of India's new labor codes notified on November 21, 2025, which introduced a standardized raise definition and revised regulatory provisions relating to graduating, leave encashment and other employee benefit obligations. Let me now highlight a few of the many business milestones in Q3 FY 2026. BSE's SME platform achieved a significant milestone with the successful listing of its 700th SME company on February 1, 2026. The pace of listings has accelerated meaningfully with the most recent tranche of 100 companies added within a span of just 179 days, marking the shortest interval recorded to date. Collectively, these 700 SMEs have mobilized INR 14,735 crores in capital and together represent a cumulative market capitalization of approximately INR 1.8 lakh crores, reflecting the platform's growing depth, scale and relevance within India's evolving capital market ecosystem. The total number of investor accounts registered on BSE has surpassed INR 24 crores with 10 states individually contributing more than 1 crore registered investors, reflecting a broad-based deepening of retail market participation across regional demographics. On the investor education front, BSE conducted 4,841 investor awareness programs during Q3 FY '26 aimed at enhancing financial literacy, strengthening informed decision-making and furthering the protection of investor interest within the capital market ecosystem. BSE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Post to enable the distribution of mutual fund products via India Post vast network of post offices. Under the agreement, selected postal employees will be trained and certified to act as mutual fund distributors using the BSE StAR MF platform to facilitate transactions. This partnership aims to enhance financial inclusion, specifically targeting rural and semi-urban areas by leveraging the BSE StAR MF platform. SEBI, along with BSE, launched the first-ever bond issuer outreach program, introducing the new identity Bond-Ek Sashakt Bandhan. This initiative strengthens our collective push to deepen India's corporate bond market. At BSE, we remain committed to building a transparent digital and issuer-centric ecosystem that broadens participation, enhances trust and position corporate bonds as a key engine of long-term capital formation. BSE's fundraising platforms continue to remain the preferred choice by Indian companies to raise capital by enabling issuers to raise INR 22.4 lakh crores in FY '26 by means of equity, debt, bonds, commercial papers, mutual funds, et cetera. Q3 FY '26 proved to be an exceptionally strong quarter in terms of capital mobilization. A total of 39 companies raised a record of INR 95,272 crores, reflecting the depth and resilience of fundraising environment on BSE. The strong uptick in the IPO pipeline since early 2025 continues to reflect the vibrancy of India's primary markets, reinforcing BSE's position as a preferred listing venue across both the main board and SME segments. Moving on to our trading segment. It continues to maintain strong growth momentum, supported by healthy volumes and increased client participation across key business lines. Cash market trading volumes remained at long-term normalized levels at INR 7,645 crores in Q3 FY 2026 against INR 6,800 crores in the same period last year. On the regulatory front, SEBI directed exchanges to introduce a closing auction session to be implemented from 3rd August 2026, replacing the existing methodology of determining closing prices through the volume weighted average price of trades executed during the final 30 minutes of continuous training. The shift is anchored the objective of ensuring a fair, transparent and representative closing price, particularly given its critical role in derivative settlement, index computation and mutual fund net asset value calculations. In addition, SEBI has aligned the pre-open auction session with the CAS framework. The pre-open session will remain 15 minutes long, although marketer limit orders follow a similar equilibrium price discovery mechanism with random closure and improve transparency through dissemination of indicative prices and other imbalances BSE is preparing to implement the changes to ensure a smooth transaction for all market participants. The BSE Index Derivatives segment continued to exhibit a strong and sustained growth trajectory during the quarter with the average daily premium turnover reaching a new record of INR 19,459 crores, more than double recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous year and representing a sequential increase of 30% Q-o-Q. Following the transition to a Thursday expiry cycle, we have observed a pronounced expansion in open interest, deeper market participation and the broadening of the contract's liquidity profile. Sensex Index options has consequently advanced to rank among the most actively traded contracts in 2025 with continued momentum observed in 2026 so far. In addition, BSE has revamped the Bank KICS index to make it broad-based and representative of the evolving banking landscape. Following this enhancement, we are witnessing a marked increase in market participation and liquidity, further strengthening the index relevance as a benchmark for investors and market participants. We remain focused on further enhancing market depth by expanding participation, evolving our product suite, particularly through the promotion of longer tenure contracts and strengthening our technology infrastructure through systematic upgrades to data center capabilities and connectivity framework. Co-location continues to constitute a strategically significant component of our broader diversification agenda, serving as a critical enabler of enhanced market access, latency-sensitive trading infrastructure and long-term revenue stability. During the quarter under review, Co-location revenues stood at INR 48 crores, broadly in line with the previous quarter. The revised throttle charge framework introduced in July 2025 continues to support the steady performance with utilization trends remaining healthy. Turning to our mutual fund distribution business, BSE StAR MF, continues to serve as a strategically important pillar of our market infrastructure ecosystem, playing a critical role in facilitating retail participation at scale and strengthening the efficiency and transparency of mutual fund transactions nationwide. During the quarter, the platform delivered yet another period of record performance with revenues increasing 14% year-on-year to INR 72.5 crores. Transaction volumes also exhibited strong momentum, rising 21% to 21.7 crore transaction in Q3 FY '26. Notably, the platform achieved a new monthly peak of 7.97 crore transactions in Jan 2026, further reinforcing its position as a high-growth, systemically critical distribution channel within India's mutual fund landscape. Moving to our subsidiary business now. BSE's Clearinghouse, Indian Clearing Corporation Limited, ICCL, continues to grow in Q3 FY '26 with equity settled turnover at INR 8.14 lakh crores and equity derivatives premium turnover at INR 12.57 lakh crores, the number of equity derivatives contracts settled stood at INR 364 crores. This was enabled by major stake upgrades, including reengineering of our real-time risk management system and scaling trades per second per member from 3,000 to INR 27,000. BSE Index Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of BSE offers a comprehensive portfolio of 200-plus indices spanning broad-based, Thematic, Factor and Strategic Equity categories, serving over 350 marquee clients, both domestically and globally. As of December 2025, passive products tracking our indices has surpassed INR 2.7 lakh crores in AUM with 85 passive schemes benchmarked to our indices. Since the acquisition of 50% stake from S&P DJI. The company has launched 50 new indices, significantly accelerating innovation. Additionally, the company has obtained RBA approval for 2 debt indices, expanding our product suite beyond equities. Overall, this quarter, we recorded our strongest performance to date across multiple dimensions, including top line and bottom line expansion, new listings, transaction-linked revenues, clearinghouse activity, market data services and index-related revenues, underscoring the scalability, resilience and the operational depth of our diversified business model. These outcomes reaffirm the effectiveness of our...

I'm sorry to interrupt you sir, but there's a lot of disturbance from the background.

These outcomes reaffirm.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

Shall we reconnect.

Yes, yes, please.

Is this better?

Yes, you may please proceed.

These outcomes reaffirm the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives and the deepening trust placed in BSE by participants across the financial ecosystem. As we move forward, BSE remains firmly committed to strengthening India's capital market architecture with integrity, innovation and resilience at its core, supported by a healthy IPO pipeline, sustained retail participation and the expanding adoption of our trading, clearing and settlement platforms. We are well positioned to enable the next phase of market development. Our strategic focus will continue to center on broadening opportunities, simplifying market processes and upholding the highest standards of governance and institutional discipline. Together, we will continue to build a more vibrant, inclusive and future-ready market for all stakeholders. Thank you for your continued trust and support. I'm sorry for the disturbances and noise, which you might have encountered during my speech. With these updates, I now hand over the call back to Anand.

Thank you so much, sir, for the remarks. We will now open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, Danish.

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from the line of [ Sucrit D Patil ] E.Y.E.S.I.G.H.T. Fintrade Pvt Ltd.

I have 2 questions. My first question to Mr. MD, sir is, how do you see BSE balancing between expanding new product offerings, strengthening technology infrastructure and protecting the profits? As investor participation and competition evolves, what will guide your decision-making process on which of these areas should get the strongest focus in the coming quarters? That's my first question. I'll ask the second question after this.

Thank you, first of all, for asking this question. I'm not sure whether these objectives that you're talking about are conflicting. Actually, I feel they are complementary. As MII, we don't strive hard to protect the top line or bottom line. We try to provide services which will suit the market's requirement and fulfill the market's demand for products and better the economy in terms of capital creation. When we adhere to this process, naturally and necessarily infrastructure building becomes part and parcel of it and profits becomes an automatic outcome. And therefore, we don't have to go towards making profit as a specific goal. So our focus will continue as what it was. It will be deepening and broadening the market. Enhancing customer delight and in the process, help in the capital formation for the economy. All our product introductions will be keeping in mind these broad strategic objectives, and this is what will be guiding. We are very confident and sure when we pursue these objectives, profit is a natural corollary that will be happening.

My second question to Mr. CFO is, again, along the similar lines, as BSE plans for the next few quarters or next few years, which financial signals or metrics will be most important in guiding decisions on cost control, cash flow management and capital allocation for technological investments. How do you see these particular levers shaping BSE's ability to protect the margins and deliver sustainable value as the exchange business grows?

So thank you for this question. Protecting margin and managing cost is a continuous process. So it doesn't get driven by any one particular objective. Ultimately, the overall objective, what MD sir mentioned is what guides us in terms of maximizing capital formation, maximizing providing best infrastructure to the market and we get guided by the development of the market. As I mentioned, cost control, et cetera, is guiding a regular process, which we continue to manage.

Now we request all participants to please limit their questions to one per person, and please follow the queue.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Swarnabha Mukherje from B&K Securities.

I just wanted to understand in terms of the core SGF contribution, so the limit that you have in mind, so how much runway for that is left? If you can give some color on that, that would be very helpful.

Thanks for this question. At this point of time, if you recall, we decided to contribute 5% until we reach a threshold of 150% in this quarter, we have reached the threshold of 150%, limiting, therefore, the requirement to contribute the amount to lesser than 5%. That is where we stand.

Our next question comes from the line of Supratim Datta from Jefferies.

What we have seen in the last few months is commodities has emerged as a key segment of interest for both HFTs as well as retail traders. Just wanted to understand how are you seeing that category? And is that this a category of interest that you would like to build in the next coming years?

Thanks for this very valuable question that you have asked me. As you would recall, BSE commenced its journey in derivatives very late and very recently, somewhere around some 30-plus months back. We started it from scratch. And therefore, we needed to consolidate ourselves, put ourselves in a growth path and the policy of deepening and broadening of markets and customer related were to be achieved. So I think slowly and steadily, we are reaching there. And we do recognize the fact that commodities are very important underlings from a nation's perspective and its overall economic development. So clearly, once we feel well stabilized in what we have started to do and once we feel we are resilient, we will certainly be embarking on all the available opportunities, including commodities with the same seriousness with which we took derivatives for equities. I hope this answers your question.

Yes. Just so, when would you think that you have become resilient on the equity derivative side so that you can pursue these new opportunities?

Honest 30-plus months before when I started, I never thought I will reach this place in 30 months. So it's very difficult to put a time line. It can be anything. So the package for us in equity derivatives has been really swift. We hope the same way we progress further so that we can take up other areas.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities.

Sir, my question is on the strategic direction that you laid in terms of gaining market share in the cash segment and also improving on the monthly contribution in the option side and also the institutional participation. So where we are in that journey, maybe if you can update us versus last quarter commentary. And also in terms of the market share that we see in terms of Co-location and Clearing Corporation, we are currently in terms of revenue market share for Colo, we are at 14%, around 14%, 15%. In Clearing Corp, we have gained to around 25% to 27%. So is it fair to assume that these market share will converge to our options market share eventually in the...

On the cash market segment and in the monthly options to start with, as far as cash market segment, clearly, we felt there need to be a level playing field in the market, which was absent. So with a lot of regulatory advocacy, common contract notes were brought in place. What we are understanding from the market participants is that while they absolutely realize the benefits of common contract nodes, when they seek algo approvals so that the SOR can be implemented and best price execution could be implement for the market participants, there are quite a few bottlenecks that they are encountering. We are very confident that wisdom will prevail and the market will be ready to embrace competitiveness with open mind so that the market participants get the benefit of best price execution and become exchange agnostic. I think it's a transformation and it's, therefore, a journey. All participants need to embrace what is good for the market without thinking what is good for themselves. And we are confident that it will happen. More and more participants are getting aligned with this. Particularly mutual fund and insurance companies have started seeing the benefits of embracing this path and getting the benefits of best price execution. As far as long term rather -- other than -- rather than -- always we used to measure it in terms of other than weekly expiry. Other than the current weekly expiry, our market share has started -- market share means the share of whatever we trade within that has started growing. And earlier, we were nothing there in the next week and next to next week. Today, we are very proud to say, including the monthly other than the current week, total volumes of around ours, 5% comes from that. I think this is a starting process, and we will be going further ahead. Amit ji, I'm not actually remembering your second question. I think you talked about Co-location. Co-location was never...

Co-location. Yes. Yes.

Clearing Corporation. Yes, now I remember. Co-location, we never started as a profit center. As we earlier also stated, deepening and broadening of markets was a necessity for us. And without Co-location, it could not have happened. It is incidental that we put in place Co-location as a requirement, and it has become a profit center. At this point of time, we are planning to allocate 80 more racks, which is in the offering soon, which way and how will depend upon multiple factors. With that, we will be having around 500 racks in place. Currently, the Co-location revenue is somewhere around INR 45 crores to INR 48 crores per quarter. We think it will get stabilized at that level if you are not planning to increase any charges, which at this point of time will not be done ad hoc. It will be only at appropriate time, appropriate levels. As far as Clearing Corporation is concerned, we are putting a lot of efforts to improve the technological supremacy and efficiency of Clearing Corporation. Traveling from 3,000 trades per second per member to -- in Clearing Corporation, the capability to 27,000, I think, which we are doing now in itself is a great achievement. And there is still a long way to go. We will strive hard to provide the best of services, therefore, so that there is a level playing field in the market in the area of clearing as well.

Our next question comes from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

My question is on stock options. How do we kind of scale up that segment? Is it linked to the cash volumes? And what are the efforts and what are the plans for that particular segment? Because I think that's a decent part of the industry volumes in terms of premium turnover and the premium to notional is also significantly better there. So what are the thoughts on that particular category over the medium term?

It's a very good question that you're asking. BSE always looks for product diversification in its portfolio. Certainly, therefore, stock options would be one of the areas which we'll be looking into. As you would be knowing, comparatively, stock futures were more attractive products for the market compared to stock options. The stock options were therefore getting slightly lesser attention compared to stock futures. And as I said previously, we recently started our journey just around 30 months before, and it was fortunate for us that we were able to grow to the level where we are. Now we have -- our primary focus has been at this point of time on cash market volumes and bringing in level playing field there and ensuring other than the current week options gaining traction. Slowly, we are progressing there. At the appropriate time, like what we talked about commodities, we will be putting in efforts for stock options as well to gain momentum at BSE and use the existing infrastructure of market participants and technology so that we can leverage on it and provide a very good alternative competitive platform for the market participants.

Sir, just a follow-up on that. Is there any linkage between cash volumes? Are we having a low market share in cash volumes and stock options? Would there be any linkage in that sense?

It is very difficult to say that because the market micro structure is not that easy to predict. Whether the stock market volumes will increase stock options volume or the vice versa will happen or they will continue to exist. See, today, if you look at it, the cash market is fungible across exchanges. The stock options in a way are fungible across exchanges. So I don't know whether there is any prerequisite of one to be present in the same exchange or the other. So it's very difficult to give an answer in that sense. The stock as an underlying is very active in Indian markets. That in itself, therefore, should be sufficient for picking up stock options. Probably it may not be venue sensitive. That is one view, but we have to wait and see how it unfolds.

Our next question comes from the line of Deepak Ajmera from IGE India.

Congratulations on a great set of return. And also congratulations considering or looking at January number where SENSEX is higher than the NSE in terms of [indiscernible] turnover NFT. So my question is on the charges. To my knowledge, premium compared to the turnover, we are charging lower than the NSE. So what is plan there to increase the same.

Ajmera ji, thank you for your congratulatory messages, and thanks for kindly attending this call and asking this question. And thanks for noting the way in which SENSEX is growing. Now at this point of time, the charges that we make are around INR 250 lower on a per crore basis. If you recall, we started our journey with no charges, then we went into INR 500, and then we slowly increased it to some mid-level. And then we ultimately landed up with the current charges that we are. Charges are not fixed and written in stone. Certainly, they have some scope for further increase. As I always say, depending on the market's capability to bear the cost, there are multiple costs that are evolving in the market. Profit cannot be a sole objective for an MII. It also has other responsibilities. Keeping that in mind, any increase in charges will be considered at an appropriate time for appropriate reasons and after considering what the voice of customer would be in this regard.

Our next question comes from the line of Deekshant Boolchandani from DB Wealth.

Congratulations management on the good results. What is the sort of impact that we are envisaging?

I'm really sorry, Mr. Boolchandani your voice is very low.

Okay. Is this better?

Yes, please go ahead.

So management, what is it that we are thinking on the recent changes that the government has made on the STT? What are the reflection in the markets that you have started to expect that what can happen now? What are your thoughts on it?

Thank you, Mr. Boolchandani ji, for congratulating us, and thanks for attending this call and asking this question. I think you are primarily referring to the STT increase. The other part of it is, of course, with regard to the buyback, the category instance. I think that's a very wonderful change. A lot of people talk about the STT. So let me take the question to reflect to that area and answer you. It had 2 portions. One is increasing the STT for futures and second is for options. As I have been telling the press also before, my experience from the past is that whenever STT charges are increased for options, it has not had any meaningful impact on the volumes and volumes have continued as before. That is the experience that I have seen from my limited knowledge of what I have seen in the market. As far as futures are concerned, I think the thought process behind the move probably could be twofold. One is to encourage long-term equity investments among retailers instead of getting into the derivatives. And secondly, to encourage longer-term future contracts which may help mutual funds and other institutions which are permitted to trade derivatives. Both if materialize, will be in the interest of the market. So I think there will be some time to adjust and reorient for the market. And once it happens, it will be in the interest of the market as more retail people may move towards mutual fund and long-term equity investments and mutual funds which are doing arbitrage funds and others may think of a longer-term option instead of monthly option so that the cost that would be debated to the funds will get lower.

Sir, just a follow-up here. A good chunk of our growth has happened because of the futures introduction by BSE. And if the charges go up more than double on STT, wouldn't that be a problem for our growth trajectory just from a basic perspective?

It's a very valid question that you're asking. But the truth is slightly different. The growth of BSE's derivatives has been based on SENSEX options volumes. At this point of time, in comparison to the SENSEX options, SENSEX futures are still at a very nascent stages of growth. Because it is at a small level, I don't think it will have much impact because of any increase or decrease. If it had been a significant chunk, there is a probability for us to rethink on what could be the strategy for futures. Since at this point of time, it looks like more a supporting volume for options that is happening in very nascent stages. We do not find any impact specifically coming on SENSEX futures because of the change.

So this is more of a neutral news for us rather than a negative news for us or an impact on our direct business.

Boolchandani ji, I think we should restrict it to one question. You had 2 questions. And if you are getting into 3 questions, I have replied you. I'm sure you get what I'm saying. You should get into the queue again, yes.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Devesh Agarwal from IIFL Capital.

Congratulations on a very strong performance. Most of the questions have been answered. Just 2 clarifications. First, did you say that you are nearly at 150% of your core SGF requirement. And to that extent, the incremental contribution will not be there from the coming quarter or it will come down? That is first. And secondly, the increase in the STT that has happened on the futures side, would that in any way directionally, can the volume shift from futures to either equity options or cash? Is that a possibility?

As far as the SGF, if you look at it, most of the time, what we talk about SGF is more on a retrospective basis. On a prospective basis, it's not very amenable for prediction. That is why a ad hoc number of 5% and 150 were arrived at [ bias ] to prevent any shocks. In this quarter, with the type of parameters that we have seen, we found that there was no need for us to contribute the entire full 5% and we restricted somewhere around 3% plus, I guess, because we touched the top line of 150%. Will the same thing will continue, and therefore, there will be no need for any contribution in the next quarter? No. It is not. As we always maintained, the algorithm for computing the SGF requirement is a complex one. And therefore, depending upon what is the highest open interest and other things in the next quarter, there may be a need for contributing or there may be no need. The move is not to predict and prevent. The move is to normalize so that there are no sudden jerks. As far as the STT is concerned, your question was, will that result in move towards options? Will that lead to move towards equity -- underlying equity volumes? My impression is that the way the futures STT is structured, I think it is more to encourage people, particularly retailers to think of participating in longer-term equity and for mutual fund and others to think about longer-term futures instead of monthly futures. So that could be the result. Options at this point of time for various reasons in the growth trajectory. Because of that, while the growth may be slightly slower compared to what it was, I think it will still grow and may not show any severe impact because of the STT increase. All these are what we consider could be truth. The time will tell what is the right thing. And maybe we have to wait and watch to see what type of reaction the market has because market cannot be just predicted with our own understanding. Market is complex, and so we will have to wait and watch is my reply to your question.

Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constraint, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anand Sethuraman for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you so much, Danish. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. Thank you.

Thank you, Anand sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of BSE Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.