Futures contracts of Japan's benchmark start-up stock index attracted meagre volumes on their debut on Tuesday as investors remained cautious about the new derivative product.
Trading in Mothers Index futures was 2.6 billion yen ($24.5 million), a small fraction of the 114 billion yen turnover in its underlying cash counterparts, which are mostly driven by speculative Japanese retail traders.
In contrast, trading volumes of the Nikkei and Topix futures contracts were 60 percent of their underlying components on Monday.
The Mothers Index - an acronym for Market Of The High-growth and Emerging Stocks - comprises biotech ventures and other small-caps, and is known to be much more volatile than the main board. It attracts largely speculative investment, much of it from domestic retail investors.
The new futures contract - which is managed by the Osaka Exchange - enables investors to trade the index at a preset future date.
One of Osaka Exchange's main marketing points for the index futures was the ability to take short positions in Japan's 3.5 trillion yen Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market, which has historically been limited by thin liquidity.
Hiromi Yamaji, the president of the Osaka Exchange, Japan's main financial derivatives trading centre, said last month foreign players have shown strong interest in the Mothers futures. However, institutional investors are cautious.