ISE director and former president of Coimbatore Stock Exchange D Balasundaram said here that ISE had opened talks with NSDL to kick off trading in electronic shares. The country's only stock depository had given in-principle clearance for ISE to join the NSDL, he said, adding that ISE was now working on plans to put in a place a Rs 10-crore settlement guarantee fund. The country's second national exchange was hopeful of raising the funds for the gurantee fund by the end of January and kicking off trade in electronic shares by February.

He said the exchange was all set to go live once the pending formalities were completed. Two factors dragging the formal inaugeration of the exchange would be settled soon. The exchange has to gazette itsrules and regulations in Delhi and Mumbai and the register the participating exchanges with it. The exchange, once operational, would have 4,000 members on its roll, he added. Already five exchanges had started mock trading in the new system and another three would commence it this week. The exchanges which already commenced mock trading include the ones at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kanpur. The Cochin Stock started mock trading in ISE on Friday. Once ISE comes into existence, all the participating exchanges will have a uniform trading cycle of Thursday to Wednesday.

He said ISE would have a 100-stock sensitive index being developed by its own index team. The index committee is expected to finalise the scrips by December 15.