NEW DELHI, Mar 9: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has decided to expand its presence to 250 cities by 1998-end. ``NSE plans to issue more V-SATs (very-small aperture terminals) to its trading members for increasing the turnover of the exchange and establishing a presence in more cities,'' says R Ramaseshan, assistant vice-president (northern region).According to Ramaseshan, NSE's trading terminals would be available in 250 cities by the year-end from 176 cities at present. He, however, said no target had been fixed regarding the turnover of the exchange.
NSE has been increasing its presence in various parts of the country and it has increased it's trading terminals from 31 cities in March 1996 to 161 cities by December 1997 and then again to 176 cities by February 1998 in 18 states.
The expansion of the exchange had to be stopped for some time due to satellite related problems. However, after the problem on Insat-2B was solved, the exchange decided to go ahead with its expansion ofterminals.Ramaseshan also said NSE would add more terminals in cities where it already had a presence to provide better competitive services to investors.
Meanwhile, NSE is increasing the terminals in non-stock exchange centres (NSEC) as the share of these centres have been continously increasing.
The contribution of NSEC has increased from 0.36 per cent in the beginning of 1996 to 10 per cent by December-end 1997. In terms of value, the quarterly turnover has increased from Rs 146 crore (Jan-Mar 1996) to Rs 8,826 crore in the fourth quarter of 1997. Ramaseshan said, the market share of NSEC in NSE's turnover is expected to increase once the targeted terminals in 250 cities is achieved along with consolidation in cities where it has modest presence.
However, he added that the expansion will be through existing trading members and no fresh membership will be issued. At present, NSE has 1,020 trading members across the country; recently, 29 members surrended their membershp to the exchange.
He also saidthat the exchange has applied to the department of telecommunication's (DoT) "standing commiteee of frequency allocation", the apex body for granitng permission for V-SATs. ``After we the get the permission, the V-SATs will be allocated to members,'' he added.
