Mumbai: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) will seek to expand its footprint through alliances rather than by taking stakes in other bourses, its managing director and chief executive officer Ravi Narain said.

Product alliance: NSE managing director Ravi Narain.

India’s biggest exchange is trying to fend off escalating competition in its territory.

“The future belongs to exchanges doing product alliances,” said Narain.

The benchmark Nifty will be traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 19 July, making it the only globalized index in emerging Asia. The Nifty already trades in Tokyo, Singapore, India and Europe.

NSE has already tied up with the Madras Stock Exchange to get more scrips listed and is reaching out to new investors. Narain said he was talking to other such regional bourses for a similar arrangement.

The bourse has also sought approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch derivative products that will allow investors to hedge against volatility. Narain said that the first step would be taken soon when the exchange will broadcast real-time movements in the India VIX, its measure of stock price volatility. NSE currently offers investors information about the value of the VIX at close of trade.

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Narain also said NSE was “doing homework” on setting up a bourse for small and medium companies.

anirudh.l@livemint.com