Expiry Date

The expiry date is the last day a futures or options contract can be traded. When trading closes at 3:30 pm on that day, every open contract is settled and stops existing. In India, NSE’s equity derivatives expire on Tuesdays and BSE’s expire on Thursdays.

Expiry days in India (2026)

This schedule has applied since 1 September 2025, when NSE moved its expiries from Thursday to Tuesday and BSE moved from Tuesday to Thursday. Many older articles still say NSE contracts expire on the last Thursday, which is no longer true.

Since November 2024, SEBI has allowed each exchange only one weekly index expiry. That is why Nifty 50 is NSE’s only weekly contract, and Bank Nifty, FinNifty and Midcap Nifty now have monthly expiries only.

What happens when expiry falls on a holiday

If the expiry day is a trading holiday, contracts expire on the previous trading day. Three NSE holidays in late 2026 fall on Tuesdays, so those Nifty expiries move to Monday:

• Dussehra, Tuesday 20 October: expiry moves to Monday 19 October.
• Diwali Balipratipada, Tuesday 10 November: expiry moves to Monday 9 November.
• Guru Nanak Jayanti, Tuesday 24 November: expiry moves to Monday 23 November. This is also the November monthly expiry for all NSE contracts.

Expiry calendar: October to December 2026

*Moved to Monday because of a Tuesday holiday.

Sensex monthly contracts expire on 29 October, 26 November and 31 December. None of the holidays in this period fall on a Thursday, so Sensex expiries stay on schedule.

What happens to your contract at expiry

• Index futures and options (Nifty, Bank Nifty, Sensex) are cash-settled at the index’s closing value on expiry day. In-the-money options are paid their intrinsic value in cash. Out-of-the-money options expire worthless.
• Stock futures and options are physically settled. Open stock futures and in-the-money stock options turn into delivery: you have to buy or deliver the actual shares at the strike price, with the full amount or the shares in your account. That is why most traders close stock F&O positions before expiry.

Worked example: Nifty weekly expiry on 6 October 2026

Tuesday 6 October 2026 was a Nifty weekly expiry, and the Nifty closed at 22,776.10 (Stolo Market Pulse). Every Nifty option expiring that day settled against that number. For one lot of 65 units:

The buyer of the 22,700 call receives ₹4,946.50 per lot and the seller pays it. In the money does not automatically mean profit, though. If the buyer had paid a premium of ₹90 for that call, the result is a loss of (90 – 76.10) × 65 = ₹903.50, even though the option finished in the money. Exercised options also attract STT at 0.15% of intrinsic value, which is ₹7.42 on this lot.

Why expiry day matters for traders

• Time decay is fastest. An option’s time value has to reach zero by the close, so theta is at its most aggressive on expiry day. Premiums of out-of-the-money options can collapse within hours.
• Gamma risk is highest. Near-the-money options can swing from worthless to valuable on a small index move. That gamma risk is what makes expiry day both attractive and dangerous for option sellers.
• The index can drift toward heavy OI strikes. Traders watch max pain and option pinning, where the index tends to settle near strikes with large open interest.
• Margins are higher. SEBI charges an extra 2% extreme loss margin on short options expiring that day, and calendar spreads lose their margin benefit on expiry day.
• Positions need rolling. Traders who want to keep a position open beyond expiry close it and open the same position in the next expiry. That is a rollover, and it mostly happens in the last few sessions before monthly expiry.

To see where open interest is stacked ahead of expiry, use Stolo’s option chain analysis.