Mumbai, July 18 -- Savvy proprietary traders are using the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) stock lending and borrowing mechanism (SLBM) to profit from a pricing anomaly in India's information technology (IT) heavyweights such as Wipro, HCL Technologies (HCLTech), Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), whose underlying shares are trading above their futures contracts.

Known as reverse arbitrage, the strategy allows traders to lock in high single- to double-digit annualized gross returns with literally zero market risk, according to market experts.

NSE's SLBM allows investors to lend shares lying idle in their demat accounts to borrowers for a fee of 3-5% of the share value for periods ranging from one or two months or more. It also...