Mumbai, Feb 7: Trading in the demat segment seems to have come of age if the statistics of trades recorded in the past week are any indication. As many as six out of the 8 securities selected by the Securities & Exchange Board of Infia (Sebi) for compulsory demat trading for institutions recorded a 80 per cent plus growth in turnover last week as compared with the turnover recorded in the first fortnight of compulsory demat trading -- from January 15-30.The week was also witness to two interesting developments. The ICICI stock on one day came close to overhauling the volumes recorded in the physical segment at National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the very next day the Bank of India stock went a step ahead and overhauled the volume in the physical segment. On Friday, three scrips recorded a turnover in excess of 1 lakh shares, a sign of things to come. The most spectacular jump in turnover came from ICICI, a 2104.32 per cent increase over the first fortnight of compulsory trading.
Last week saw 9,82,950shares traded in the demat segment at both NSE and BSE, as against a turnover of a mere 46,708 shares between January 15-30. IPCL has witnessed a 242 per cent rise in turnover. The turnover last week was 3,73,900 shares as against a cumulative turnover of 1,54,300 shares in the first two weeks of the compulsory demat regime.
In the case of L&T the rise was 120.60 per cent up from 11,868 shares in the first fortnight to 14,313 shares last week. It was followed by Reliance with a 114.50 per cent increase. The scrip witnessed a traded volume of 1,55,253 shares last week as against a cumulative 1,35,585 shares in the first fortnight. Bank of India came next, with an 80.97 per cent rise. 2,70,200 shares of the scrip were traded last week, as against 3,33,700 shares in the first fortnight, taking the total traded volume in the scrip to 6,03,900.Tisco added another 61,970 shares to its traded volume, an increase of 79 per cent over the first fortnight's figure of 78,041 shares. The only scrip which did notwitness a spectacular rise was the State Bank of India scrip which saw a mere 4.23 per cent increase. Buoyed by a massive 8 lakh share deal the scrip had recorded a combined turnover of 16,60,700 shares in the first fortnight, to which only 70,308 shares were added last week. Bulk of the volumes have however come from trades at NSE and the volumes at BSE continue to remain sluggish. "The trend is reminiscent of the one observed in the levels of dematerialisation. This too started slowly and then had an exponential growth. The same thing happened when NSE came into existence. We may not to be too far from a sudden surge in traded volumes on the demat segment if the events of the last week are any indication", said a depository source.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
