Weekly vs Monthly Expiry — NSE F&O Schedule
One weekly expiry per exchange (NIFTY Tuesday on NSE, SENSEX Thursday on BSE) plus the monthly. What changed in 2024-2025, which contract expires when, and why it matters.
India's expiry calendar was rebuilt in 2024-2025. SEBI now allows only one weekly index expiry per exchange: on the NSE that's NIFTY (Tuesday), on the BSE it's SENSEX (Thursday). The weekly contracts for BANK NIFTY, FIN NIFTY and MIDCAP NIFTY were discontinued — they're monthly-only now.
Knowing which contract expires when is the price of admission for trading these cycles. If you learned the old calendar — a different index every weekday, NIFTY on Thursday — almost all of it has changed.
The two surviving weekly expiries
NIFTY 50 — Tuesday (NSE). The highest-volume index option in the world by contract count, and the NSE's only remaining weekly. It moved from Thursday to Tuesday on 1 September 2025.
SENSEX — Thursday (BSE). The BSE's weekly index option, and the only weekly outside Tuesday. SEBI had the two exchanges pick different days so weekly volume isn't all concentrated on one.
Discontinued weeklies. BANK NIFTY, FIN NIFTY and MIDCAP NIFTY (NIFTY Midcap Select) all lost their weekly contracts under SEBI's November 2024 one-weekly-per-exchange rule. They trade monthly-only now.
Monthly contracts — index and stock
On the NSE, the monthly contracts for NIFTY, BANK NIFTY, FIN NIFTY, MIDCAP NIFTY and every single stock all expire on the last Tuesday of the month. (BSE's SENSEX monthly is the last Thursday.) If the day is a market holiday, expiry shifts to the preceding trading day.
Individual stock F&O (RELIANCE futures, HDFC BANK options, etc.) is monthly-only — there are no weekly stock contracts — and it is physically settled: hold an in-the-money stock position to expiry and you take or give delivery of the shares.
Strota tracks daily rollover percentage during the last week of each monthly cycle, so you can see how much OI is being carried forward into the next month.
Why the schedule matters
With NIFTY's weekly on Tuesday and SENSEX's on Thursday, the week now has two index-expiry pressure points instead of one crowded Thursday — intraday volatility, theta decay and pinning cluster on those two days for their respective indices.
The monthly last-Tuesday settlement is the heavy one: the NIFTY weekly AND monthly, plus the BANK NIFTY/FIN NIFTY/MIDCAP monthlies and every stock contract, all expire together — peak volume and gamma.
And if your strategy leaned on a BANK NIFTY weekly for cheap, fast-decaying premium, that instrument no longer exists — BANK NIFTY is monthly-only, with a slower theta profile.
Common misreads
- Using the old calendar — NIFTY is Tuesday now (not Thursday), and BANK NIFTY/FIN NIFTY/MIDCAP weeklies no longer exist.
- Forgetting the last Tuesday is BOTH the NIFTY weekly AND every NSE monthly (index + stocks) — the heaviest expiry of the cycle.
- Holding an in-the-money stock F&O position into the last-Tuesday expiry and getting an unintended physical-delivery obligation.
Key takeaways
- One weekly per exchange (SEBI, Nov 2024): NIFTY weekly Tuesday (NSE), SENSEX weekly Thursday (BSE).
- BANK NIFTY, FIN NIFTY, MIDCAP NIFTY weeklies were discontinued — monthly-only now.
- NSE monthly (index + all stocks) expires the last Tuesday; SENSEX monthly the last Thursday.
- Stock F&O is monthly-only and physically settled (share delivery on ITM positions held to expiry).
- Holidays shift expiry to the preceding trading day — happens a few times a year.
Expiry-day questions
Which index expires on which day now?
On the NSE, NIFTY is the only weekly and it expires Tuesday; BANK NIFTY, FIN NIFTY, MIDCAP NIFTY and single stocks are monthly-only, all settling the last Tuesday. On the BSE, SENSEX expires weekly on Thursday (monthly last Thursday). This replaced the old setup where a different index expired every weekday.
On a holiday week, does expiry shift?
Yes — any expiry day that falls on a market holiday shifts to the preceding trading day. So a NIFTY Tuesday expiry that lands on a holiday settles on the prior session (usually Monday). Always check the exchange holiday calendar around festival weeks.
Why does the last-Tuesday-of-the-month NIFTY have so much more OI than a normal weekly Tuesday?
Because it's BOTH the weekly AND the monthly expiry — monthly OI is roughly 5-10x weekly OI for NIFTY. The last Tuesday also settles every BANK NIFTY/FIN NIFTY/MIDCAP monthly and all single-stock contracts, so volume and gamma exposure peak on that day.
I hold a stock futures position — when do I have to deliver?
Stock futures are physically settled. If you're long futures into the last-Tuesday monthly expiry, you'll receive delivery of the underlying shares and must have full margin for the share value (not just futures margin). Most retail traders close stock futures before expiry to avoid this.
Are there weekly options for individual stocks?
No. Individual stock F&O has always been monthly-only — there are no weekly stock contracts. And after SEBI's November 2024 reform even index weeklies are limited to one per exchange (NIFTY on the NSE, SENSEX on the BSE).