Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 14 (ANI): The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) on Monday announced the successful launch of its Monthly Electricity Futures (ELECMBL) contracts, marking a significant step forward in the development of India's electricity derivatives market.

Electricity Futures are standardised financial contracts that allow buyers and sellers to lock in the price of electricity for future delivery at a specified time and quantity.

According to NSE, as of 2:00 PM on the first day of trading, more than 4,000 lots, representing over 200 million units of electricity, had been traded.

The contracts saw a total turnover of Rs 87.36 crore, with a volume-weighted average price of 4,368 per megawatt-hour (MWh).

The first trade was executed at Rs 4,430/MWh, and by mid-afternoon, prices were trending at around Rs 4,364/MWh. The launch witnessed healthy participation from a wide spectrum of market players, including power generators, distribution companies (discoms), large industrial consumers, and financial intermediaries.

'This launch provides a transparent, risk-managed platform for participants to hedge electricity price volatility, support long-term power planning, and contribute to India's broader energy transition goals,' NSE said in a statement.

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) was the first exchange in India to implement electronic or screen-based trading. It began operations in 1994 and is ranked as the largest stock exchange in India in terms of total and average daily turnover for equity shares every year since 1995, based on SEBI data.

'NSE is a pioneer in technology and ensures the reliability and performance of its systems through a culture of innovation and investment in technology. NSE is the world's largest derivatives exchange by trading volume (contracts) as per the statistics maintained by the Futures Industry Association (FIA) for the calendar year 2024,' NSE said in a press release. (ANI)