Weekly Expiry

Q: Which Indian index options have weekly expiry now?

Nifty 50 on NSE, expiring every Tuesday, and Sensex on BSE, expiring every Thursday. SEBI's October 2024 circular limited each exchange to one weekly-expiry index; NSE discontinued Bank Nifty, FinNifty and Nifty Midcap Select weeklies from November 2024 and BSE discontinued Bankex and Sensex 50 weeklies. Those indices now have monthly contracts only.

Q: Why did Nifty weekly expiry move from Thursday to Tuesday?

SEBI's May 2025 framework restricted each exchange's equity-derivative expiries to either Tuesday or Thursday. NSE chose Tuesday and BSE kept Thursday, so the two exchanges' weeklies no longer fall on the same day. NSE's circular FAOP68747 made the change effective for contracts expiring from 1 September 2025; the first Tuesday Nifty weekly expired on 2 September 2025.

Q: How many Nifty weekly contracts trade at once?

NSE lists several consecutive weekly expiries alongside the monthly, so at any time a trader can choose the nearest Tuesday or one a few weeks out. A new weekly is introduced after each expiry. When a weekly and the monthly fall on the same last Tuesday, that contract is the monthly.

Q: How does a weekly option differ from a monthly?

Same underlying, same strikes and lot size, less time. A weekly carries less premium, less vega, far higher theta per day and much higher gamma near expiry. Its implied volatility reflects only the coming sessions, so it diverges from the monthly's around events. The weekly is the instrument for short-horizon views and for writing time decay; the monthly for longer views and volatility exposure.

India had five weekly index expiries a week; now it has two. What survived, which day each falls on, and how the weekly contract behaves differently from everything else on the chain.

In short: a weekly expiry contract is an index option that settles every week rather than every month. Since SEBI's October 2024 rule allowing one weekly-expiry index per exchange, only two remain in India: Nifty 50 on NSE, expiring every Tuesday (from September 2025), and Sensex on BSE, expiring every Thursday. Bank Nifty, FinNifty, Nifty Midcap Select and Bankex now trade monthly contracts only. Weeklies carry less premium, decay far faster and concentrate gamma into one session a week.

What changed, and when

Contract	Before Nov 2024	Now
Nifty 50 (NSE)	Weekly, Thursday	Weekly, Tuesday (from Sep 2025); monthly last Tuesday
Bank Nifty (NSE)	Weekly, Wednesday	Monthly only, last Tuesday
FinNifty (NSE)	Weekly, Tuesday	Monthly only, last Tuesday
Nifty Midcap Select (NSE)	Weekly, Monday	Monthly only, last Tuesday
Sensex (BSE)	Weekly, Friday	Weekly, Thursday; monthly last Thursday
Bankex (BSE)	Weekly, Monday	Monthly only, last Thursday

Two decisions produced this table. SEBI's circular of 1 October 2024, part of a package to curb excessive index-options turnover, allowed each exchange to offer weekly expiry on only one benchmark index from 20 November 2024; NSE kept Nifty 50 and BSE kept Sensex. SEBI's May 2025 framework then required each exchange to settle all its equity derivatives on a single day, Tuesday or Thursday; NSE moved to Tuesday for contracts expiring from 1 September 2025 (circular FAOP68747), BSE stayed on Thursday. If the expiry day is a holiday, settlement moves to the previous trading day.

How a weekly behaves

A weekly is the same contract as the monthly, with the same strikes, lot size and settlement, but with days rather than weeks of life. Everything that depends on time is compressed. Premiums are a fraction of the monthly's; theta per day is several times higher; gamma near the money on the final day is extreme; vega is small. The weekly's implied volatility is a forecast of the next few sessions only, so it diverges from the monthly's whenever an event sits inside the week.

Worked example (illustrative numbers)

Suppose NIFTY is at 24,000 on a Wednesday with implied volatility at 14%, and compare the 24,000 call on the weekly expiring next Tuesday (6 days) with the same strike on the monthly expiring in 27 days:

	Weekly (6 days)	Monthly (27 days)
Premium	₹185	₹424
Per lot (65)	₹12,025	₹27,560
Theta per day	about −16	about −9
Vega per IV point	about 12	about 26
Gamma	about 0.0009	about 0.0004

The weekly costs less than half as much, loses time value twice as fast in rupees and four times as fast as a share of its premium, moves half as much on a volatility change, and responds twice as sharply to the index. A trader with a view for the next two sessions wants the weekly; a trader who thinks volatility is cheap wants the monthly. On the Tuesday itself, the weekly's at-the-money gamma is many times the monthly's, which is why expiry Tuesdays have their own character on NSE.

The weekly calendar as it stands. NSE and BSE weeklies are two days apart, so there is an index expiry on most Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Why it matters to an options trader

It is where the volume is. The nearest Nifty weekly is the most traded options contract in India; its chain is the one most traders mean when they say "the chain".
It resets positioning every week. Open interest, PCR and max pain on the weekly describe a seven-day bet; on Bank Nifty they now describe a month.
It is the theta trader's instrument. Writing weekly premium on Nifty is a standing trade; the loss of Bank Nifty and FinNifty weeklies moved a great deal of that activity onto Nifty and Sensex.
Two expiries a week means two event days. Nifty on Tuesday and Sensex on Thursday give traders two high-gamma sessions, on two exchanges, with different hedging flows.

Common mistakes

Trading Bank Nifty or FinNifty as if a weekly still existed. Strategies built on their Wednesday and Tuesday weeklies have had no contract to trade since November 2024.
Assuming Nifty expires on Thursday. It has been Tuesday since September 2025; Thursday is Sensex.
Carrying a weekly over the weekend for a Monday view. Three calendar days of decay on a six-day contract is a large share of its value.
Reading the weekly's IV as the market's volatility view. It is a view on the next few sessions; the monthly and India VIX describe the broader picture.
Forgetting holiday shifts. A Tuesday holiday moves the Nifty weekly to Monday and shortens every position's life by a day.

Indian-market specifics

Weekly contracts: Nifty 50 (NSE, Tuesday) and Sensex (BSE, Thursday). Monthly only: Bank Nifty, FinNifty, Nifty Midcap Select (NSE, last Tuesday), Bankex (BSE, last Thursday), and all stock options.
Lot sizes after the January 2026 revision: Nifty 65, Sensex 20; Bank Nifty 30 and FinNifty 60 for the monthlies.
Index options trade until 15:40 on expiry day on NSE; settlement is in cash at intrinsic value against the final settlement price.
SEBI's 2024 package also raised the minimum contract value to ₹15 lakh and added an extra margin on expiry-day short positions, both aimed at the weekly-expiry market.

FAQ

Which Indian index options have weekly expiry now?

Nifty 50 on Tuesday (NSE) and Sensex on Thursday (BSE). The rest are monthly.

Why did Nifty weekly expiry move from Thursday to Tuesday?

SEBI's 2025 framework allowed each exchange one expiry day, Tuesday or Thursday; NSE chose Tuesday from September 2025 (circular FAOP68747).

How many Nifty weekly contracts trade at once?

Several consecutive weeklies alongside the monthly, with a new one introduced after each expiry.

How does a weekly option differ from a monthly?

Less premium and vega, far more theta per day and gamma near expiry, and an IV that covers only the coming sessions.

The weekly chain, from the latest close

The Nifty option-chain page shows the current weekly's strikes with open interest, PCR and max pain; the Sensex page does the same for BSE's Thursday weekly. In the app, the calendars page lists the exchange holidays that shift an expiry to the previous trading day.

Nifty option chain Sensex option chain

Related terms

Expiry, the full calendar and settlement rules
Theta Decay, the weekly's defining feature
Bank Nifty and FinNifty, the contracts that lost their weeklies
Weekly vs monthly options, the longer guide