BNP Paribas SA accounted for nearly half of the record $4.2 billion in stock trades linked to MSCI Inc.'s index rebalancing through India's new closing-auction system, according to people familiar with the matter. The Paris-based bank executed about 180 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) of trades during Monday's closing auction, putting the French lender ahead of its Wall Street peers. The bulk of the transactions were carried out for global institutional investors, including hedge fund giant Millennium Management.

The trades were executed through India's new closing-auction mechanism, which was introduced to handle large index-related flows more efficiently. This marks a significant milestone for the French bank in the Indian market and highlights the growing importance of the country's equity markets for global institutional investors.