The Securities and Exchange Board of India said late on Thursday it has approved the introduction of futures and options contracts in 31 new stocks recommended by the country's two leading stock exchanges.

Options and futures are already allowed in 29 stocks. The market regulator said it would permit trading of 31 new stock derivatives on the National Stock Exchange, the country's largest bourse. Of those, 21 will also be eligible for derivatives trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange, India's oldest.

This followed applications the two exchanges submitted to the market watchdog based on certain criteria.

Last November, Sebi said it had decided to extend derivatives trading to more stocks and had authorised stock exchanges to choose the shares.

A Sebi panel had earlier recommended that the new stocks should be among the top 500 in terms of market capitalisation and average daily volume. The following is the list of new stocks on which derivatives trading will now be allowed.

On both exchanges: Aftek Infosys, Geometric Software, GTL Ltd, HCL Technologies, Hero Honda, Himachal Futuristic, Hinduja TMT Ltd, Hughes Software, Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd, KPIT Infosystems, Mastek Ltd, NIIT Ltd, Polaris Ltd, Rolta Ltd, Shipping Corp of India Ltd, SSI Ltd, United Phosphorus, Visualsoft, Wipro, Zee Telefilms, Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

On the NSE only: Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, CMC Ltd, Engineers India Ltd, Hexaware Technologies, Infotec Enterprises, ICICI Bank, National Aluminium, Silverline Technologies and Tata Elxsi.