Mumbai:Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Friday kicked off currency futures at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here in a move that is particularly expected to help small- and mid-sized companies to hedge their risks while dealing in foreign exchange.

The first deal at the exchange-traded futures began at 8:45 a.m. with a lot size of $1,000 each, and within three hours, as many as 19,871 contracts had been executed, data with the stock exchange showed.

"After having launched currency futures, we need to revitalise exchange-traded interest rate derivatives markets, offer exchange-traded credit derivatives and also need to strengthen the corporate bond markets," the finance minister said.

"These three products are high on the priority list of the government and I ask the government to move forward on this," he said, adding that the aim was to build a sophisticated financial market in the country.

To encourage active participation in the currency derivatives segment, the stock exchange authorities decided not to levy transaction charge on trades till Sep 30. But members will have to pay Rs.500 towards the investor protection fund.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) have also received permission from the markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to start currency futures.