New Delhi, August 11: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has implemented several measures to mitigate losses for retail investors in the equity derivatives segment. As a result, losses for the fiscal year 2026 have decreased by 18%, amounting to ₹91,685 crore. This information was presented by the government in Parliament on Tuesday.
In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary noted that following regulatory changes implemented in November 2024, SEBI has observed a decline in the number of unique investors participating in the equity derivatives segment, along with a reduction in trading activity.
According to Chaudhary, investors incurred a total loss of ₹1,11,788 crore in the futures and options (F&O) segment during the fiscal year 2025. The number of unique retail investors in this segment has dropped by nearly 20%, from 9.81 million in fiscal year 2025 to 7.86 million in fiscal year 2026.
He stated, “After the regulatory measures, SEBI has noted that the number of unique investors in the equity derivatives segment fell from 9.81 million to 7.86 million in 2025-26, and total losses decreased from ₹1,11,788 crore to ₹91,685 crore compared to last year.”
Despite the overall reduction in losses, the average loss per investor increased from ₹1,13,913 to ₹1,16,654 over the year.
The minister also mentioned that total turnover in equity derivatives has decreased, falling from ₹213 trillion in fiscal year 2025 to ₹202 trillion in fiscal year 2026.
SEBI’s measures include correcting weekly and monthly index derivatives products, increasing contract sizes for index derivatives, enhancing tail-risk coverage on expiration days, pre-collecting option premiums from buyers, removing calendar spread treatment on expiration days, and intraday monitoring of position limits.
In May 2025, market regulators introduced additional measures to streamline expiration days on exchanges and strengthen risk monitoring and disclosure in the F&O segment.
Chaudhary added that meanwhile, revenue from the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on F&O trades rose significantly, increasing from ₹7,893 crore the previous year to ₹27,695 crore.
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