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BIZ & FINANCE SATURDAY | JUNE 21, 2025

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Derivatives trading boom in India o Global giants step up presence, sparking hiring spree and technological improvements

India’s top engineering schools have become the favoured hunting grounds for talent. “We almost solely hire our traders and software engineers from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs),” said IMC’s Dentand, referring to the country’s chain of prestigious engineering schools. But hiring efforts are now being widened to the universities beyond the IITs, Dentand said. The influx of global trading firms has opened up opportunities for India’s two main exchanges, which are both upgrading their tech infrastructure. The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) plans to add 2,000 co-location racks over the next two years while older stalwart the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) aims to scale up to 500 by the end of fiscal 2026, from none in March 2024. Such racks are servers at exchanges that cut trade execution times to microseconds. “We are a late entrant and need to provide additional value for the unfulfilled demand from high-frequency trading firms and quant firms, amongst others, for co-location racks,” said BSE CEO Sundararaman Ramamurthy. The exchange has spent between 4.5 billion rupees and 5 billion rupees (RM221 million to RM247 million) on technology in the last two years, he said. The NSE and regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India did not respond to queries for the report. – Reuters Renault exit could grease Nissan’s turnaround HONG KONG: A Renault exit could speed Nissan Motor’s turnaround. Selling the remaining US$2 billion (RM8.5 billion) stake in its longtime French partner would help buy time to put its house in order. Accepting the end of an era makes sense for both. Japan’s Nissan has money for a rainy day. The cars business boasted US$10.3 billion net cash as of March 2025, as well as unused lines of credit worth US$14.5 billion. But a lengthy recovery could erode those funds. The unit’s free cash flow turned negative to the tune of US$1.7 billion last year, when it reported an operating loss of ¥268 billion (RM7.7 billion). Things will get worse before they get better: it won’t earn operating income until 2029, per analyst estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. That could make refinancing some US$4 billion of bonds due in 2026 more challenging. Meanwhile, the Renault relationship has drifted. In 2023, their Alliance was rejigged to allow for new partners. Now, new CEO Ivan Espinosa’s plan involves selling Nissan’s stake in their joint Indian plant and consolidating production in Latin America, where the revamped Alliance was supposed to stay strong. Anchoring what remains through a cross shareholding is unnecessary. True, there are ongoing projects. Renault factories currently produce three models for Nissan. Three more will follow in India, and Nissan’s Micra in Europe will use its partner’s EV platform. The latter is important as the European Union’s carbon emissions rules demand carmakers buy credits if they cannot sell enough battery-powered vehicles. But this cooperation could continue or even expand without the pair’s mutual holdings. Moving on would unlock cash. Nissan’s full 15% stake in the French carmaker is now worth some US$2 billion. The pair’s most recent agreement in March allows them to reduce their respective stakes to 10%: Espinosa intends to exercise that option, the Nikkei reported on Monday. – Reuters

MUMBAI: Half a dozen global trading giants, from Citadel Securities and IMC Trading to Millennium and Optiver are ratcheting up their presence in India’s booming derivatives markets – fuelling a hiring spree and pushing exchanges to improve technology. The firms’ hiring plans, being reported for the first time, come amid expectations that large domestic consumer and investor bases will help shield India from global turmoil sparked by the trade policies of US President Donald Trump. The South Asian nation made up nearly 60% of global equity derivative trading volumes of 7.3 billion in April, the Futures Industry Association says, while its regulators say notional turnover of the contracts has grown 48 times since March 2018. For Western firms, the gold rush is too big to ignore, particularly after US trading firm Jane Street earned US$2.34 billion (RM9.9 billion) from its India trading strategy last year, some of the firms’ executives said. “We have seen competition increasing both on the trading front, where you see more players going for the same opportunities, and on the job market as well,” said Jocelyn Dentand of global high-speed trader IMC Trading. The firm plans to grow its team by more than

to 100 by the end of 2025, a spokesman said, up from 70 now. “Optiver is investing ambitiously in India, with a view to expanding to 100 FTEs by year end and scaling further in the years ahead,” the spokesman added. Amsterdam-based trading firm Da Vinci and London-based Qube Research and Technologies are also recruiting for quantitative trading roles in India, public postings for jobs show. Global trading firms are also looking to expand in India by recruiting aggressively from top domestic universities and poaching from home-grown competitors. They have hired about 300 people in India in the last two years across the trading, technology, compliance, risk, and legal functions, Hong Kong-based recruiter Aquis Search estimates. “We foresee a good run for the next few years,” said Annpurna Bist, its head of quant and tech. Intensifying competition has driven up salaries, with even junior traders paid more than double the figure of three years ago, said Bhautik Ambani, head of AlphaGrep Investment Management, one of India’s leading quant trading firms.

50% by the end of 2026 to stand at more than 150, added Dentand, the managing director of its India unit. Foreign investors turned buyers of Indian stocks in April and May, purchasing a net US$2.8 billion, as they abandoned their previous selling stance from October 2024 to March 2025, prompted by high valuations and slower growth in earnings. US-based Citadel Securities, a market making firm founded by well known investor Kenneth Griffin, runs a leaner team of around 10 in India but has ramped up capital allocation to its operations, said a source familiar with its plans. “In India, we’re constantly looking for talent and constantly hiring,” said the source, who sought anonymity in the absence of authorisation to speak to the media and declined to give details of the plan. Hedge fund Millennium is expanding its India desk via Dubai and Singapore, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter, who also sought anonymity on the same grounds. Millennium declined to comment for the story. Citadel Securities did not respond to an email seeking comment. Netherlands-based Optiver, which launched India operations in 2024, plans to grow its team

The EU’s latest move targets €150b in healthcare goods, from masks to X-ray machines, amid rising trade tensions with China. – UNSPLASH PI X

EU bars China firms from major medical equipment deals

BR U SS EL S : The European Union (EU) yesterday banned Chinese firms from government medical device purchases worth more than €5 million (RM25 million) in retaliation for limits Beijing places on access to its own market. The latest salvo in trade tensions between the 27-nation bloc and China covers a wide range of healthcare supplies, from surgical masks to X-ray machines, that represent a market worth €150 billion in the EU. “Our aim with these measures is to level the playing field for EU businesses,“ the bloc’s trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said. “We remain committed to dialogue with China to resolve these issues.” In response, China accused the EU of “double standards”. “The EU has always boasted that it is the most open market in the world, but in reality, it has gradually moved towards protectionism”, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular press briefing.

surcharges on imports from all over the world, including Europe. The EU has decided to take a tougher stance on trade in recent years, adopting a vast arsenal of legislation to better defend its businesses against unfair competition. In April 2024, the commission opened an investigation into Chinese public contracts for medical devices, the first under a new mechanism introduced by the EU in 2022 to obtain better access to overseas state purchases. China, on the other hand, accuses Europe of protectionism. After a year of negotiations, the commission, which manages trade policy on behalf of the 27 member states, said it had failed to make any progress with China. “The measure seeks to incentivise China to cease its discrimination against EU firms and EU made medical devices and treat EU companies with the same openness as the EU does with Chinese firms and products,“ Brussels said. – AFP

“Under the guise of fair competition (the EU) actually carries out unfair competition, which is a typical case of double standards.” The European Commission said in a statement the move was in “response to China’s longstanding exclusion of EU-made medical devices from Chinese government contracts.” Brussels said just under 90% of public procurement contracts for medical devices in China “were subject to exclusionary and discriminatory measures” against EU firms. In addition to barring Chinese firms from major state purchases, “inputs from China for successful bids” would also be limited to 50%, it said. Over the last three years, Brussels and Beijing have come into conflict in a number of economic sectors, including electric cars, the rail industry, solar panels and wind turbines. The decision on medical devices comes at a time of heightened trade tensions with President Donald Trump, which has imposed customs