The Market Quill
Tracker

Market rule-change tracker

Every major change from SEBI, the exchanges and the Union Budget that affects what retail traders and investors pay or are allowed to do, newest first.

How to read this: Each entry is a short summary. Dates and details come from official circulars and broker notices; always check the original circular on sebi.gov.in or nseindia.com before acting.
  1. 1 April 2026

    STT on futures and options raised

    Budget 2026–27 raised Securities Transaction Tax on futures from 0.02% to 0.05% of the sell-side value, and on options from 0.10% to 0.15% of the sell-side premium. STT on exercised options is 0.15% of intrinsic value. Equity delivery (0.1%) and intraday (0.025%) are unchanged.

    What it means: F&O traders pay noticeably more tax per trade, often far more than brokerage. Read the full explainer →

  2. 1 March 2026

    NSE transaction charges revised

    NSE's transaction charges moved to 0.00307% for equity cash, 0.00183% for futures and 0.03553% of premium for options (from 0.00297%, 0.00173% and 0.03503%). Brokers pass these through at actual cost.

  3. 1 April 2025

    Intraday monitoring of F&O position limits

    Exchanges began checking index-derivative position limits during the trading day (at least four random snapshots), not just at end of day.

  4. 1 February 2025

    Upfront option premium and no calendar-spread benefit on expiry day

    Brokers must collect the full option premium upfront from buyers. The margin benefit for calendar spreads was removed on the expiry day of the expiring contract.

  5. 20 November 2024

    SEBI's F&O tightening: bigger lots, fewer weekly expiries

    • Minimum contract size for index derivatives raised from about ₹5 lakh to ₹15 lakh, so lot sizes went up.
    • Each exchange may offer weekly expiry on only one benchmark index.
    • An extra 2% extreme-loss margin on short options on expiry day.

    What it means: More capital needed per trade, and fewer weekly expiries to trade.

  6. 1 October 2024

    STT on F&O raised; uniform exchange charges

    STT on futures went from 0.0125% to 0.02%, and on options from 0.0625% to 0.1% of premium (Budget July 2024). The same day, SEBI's “true-to-label” rule made exchanges charge a flat, uniform transaction fee instead of volume-based slabs. Several brokers changed their pricing in response.

  7. 23 July 2024

    Capital gains tax changes

    Short-term capital gains on listed equity rose from 15% to 20%. Long-term capital gains rose from 10% to 12.5%, and the yearly LTCG exemption increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹1.25 lakh.

  8. August 2024

    SEBI restricts finfluencer tie-ups

    SEBI-registered entities (brokers, AMCs and others) can no longer associate with or pay unregistered people who give investment advice or make return claims. Pure education is still allowed.

  9. 28 March 2024

    Optional same-day (T+0) settlement launched

    A beta version of T+0 settlement went live for a limited set of stocks, alongside the standard T+1 cycle.