"Some of the members are taking the initiative to set up terminals in the Gulf countries and trading outside the country is expected to start during the current calendar year," NSE managing director Ravi Narain told The Financial Express in an interview.

He said that the move basically is to provide non-resident Indians an equal opportunity to trade in domestic stocks with the same kind of ease as is done by investors within the country.

Though the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed setting up of trading terminals a couple of years ago, the cost of leased lines in international circuits were prohibitively high. They were costing Rs 40 lakh per4 line per annum till recently. The advent of Internet has changed this situation as it is a cheaper way to reach out to other countries.

"NSE, which already has tie ups with the London and Singapore stock exchanges, is also holding talks with some US stock exchanges. The exchange also has technical interfaces with London Stock Exchange and Singapore Exchange, so that cross-trading of stocks listed on these exchanges and vice versa.

"NSE has preferred to take the route of tie-ups, as the efforts of some stock exchanges for mergers internationally have not borne fruit so far," Mr Narain said. Recent proposals for the merger of LSE and the stock exchanges at Frankfurt, Paris and Belgium have not materialised and there was no agreement in their future structure and the benefits that would accrue to both the exchanges involved in each case.

NSE has recently had a brain storming session on changes taking place in the international capital markets and how to position the exchange in the present scenario, Mr Narain added.