According to exchange officials, most of these companies have been erring in paying their dues despite repeated reminders. In many cases the companies were not even traceable. "We did not want the investing public to suffer. Even after many reminders there has been no response. Hence, we decided to make the names of the companies public," said a senior BgSE official.

On being asked whether these companies would be delisted by the bourse, the official added that the governing council of the bourse will take a formal decision soon. He, however, added that it was a cause for concern as a majority of the defaulters were non-regional companies. "In many cases we discovered that the companies werefloated by fly-by-night promoters and hence untraceable. We will work out some strategy to protect investors interests soon," he added.

The non-regional companies yet to clear their dues together comprise 82. Of these 19 have sought delisting but are yet to clear their dues. They are: Andhra Cements, Brilliant Securities, Bombay SIlk Mills, Carbon Composites, Crest Paper Mills, DCW, Eicher Motors Ltd, Lok Hosing Constructions, Lunar Diamonds, Neha Proteins, Nihon Nirmaan, STerling Estates, Sparc Systems, Vatsa Corporation, Asean Industrial Structures, Mazda Industries, Sesa Goa, Laxmi Cements and Profitcore Pipes Ltd. The 15 non-regional suspended companies failing to honour their commitments are: Rajdarshan Industries, Beekay Software, Bhuvan Tripura Industries, Crystal Agritech, EBF Finance, Flower & Tissue, La Medical Devices, Magnavision Electronics, Naisargik Agritech Ind, Pappilon Exports, South East Agro Ind, Shyam Prints & Publishing Co, SKN Ind, Supreme Rubber reclaimers and Western Paques. Theother non-regional companies in the list are Asian Flora, Ashville Investments, Amit Securities, Apeego, Appu Industries, Arihant Cotsyn, Arex Ind, Bagade India, B L Ind, BTW Ind, Canbay Polyfilms, Continental Coffee, Claswin Credit Capital, Comet Glass, Dugar Finance, Encore Growth Finance, Elite Appliances, Globe Stocks & Securities, Inlac Grantson, Kiran Syntex, Marg Securities, Manjeera Construction, Spark Plugs, Maruthi Organics, Modern Denim, Modern Syntex (I), Modern Threads, Orient Vegetexpo, Prajay Engineers, Platinum Finance, Paramani Replast, Rexnord Electronics, Rolta India, Rossel Finance, Raj Packaging, Solar Busiforms, Scarlet Flowers, Shyam Flexi Pack, Sangam Helath Care, Skyland Leather, S M Dyechem, Suryodaya Plastics, Stiefel Und Schuh, Taneja Aerospace, Valueline Securities, Yenepoya Minerals, Poshak Apex and Cirlac Data Systems. Of the 36 regional companies in the list, 19 have already been suspended. These are ABN Granites, Acme Spinners, Asian Tractors, Dunford Fabrics, HartonCommunications, Intermodal Transport Tech Systems (Karnataka), Karnataka Minerals, Mitsugen Glazes, Mothercare India, Naveen Textiles, Navalco India, New Century Leasing, Ready Foods, Raghoji Cements, Samrat Housing & Leasing, Star Spin Twist, Tunghabadra Pulp and Dempo Dairy Industries. The other firms in the list are Powerflow, Bemco Jacks & Allied Products, Titan Foods, Cosmos Leather Exports, Cavalet India, Federal Securities, Grandleas Florex, Gogto Textiles, Great Western Ind, Indiana Dairy Specialities, Janzen Castmetals, Jayavant Products, Shimoga Steels, Shrishma Fine Chem, NP Chewing Gums, Southern Green Fields, Sipani Automobiles and Shetty Leasing (I).

Business up at BgSE

Despite the dismal capital market conditions, the Bangalore Stock Echange has managed to register an impressive increase in its business for the year 1997-98. The traded value of the BgSE saw a 97 per cent increase to Rs 8636,98,97,085 crore from Rs 4389,43,73,456 crore in the previous year.

During August the bourseregistered the highest value per month of Rs 918.68 crore. Corresponding to the value of traded securities, the number of scrips traded on BgSE also improved. The total number of shares traded for the period stood at 23,56,06,814 up by 8 per cent over against 21,93,06,413. The average value traded per day during the current year is Rs 29 crore. The number of contracts executed has also gone up in tandem to 6,95,140 from 6,26,932 earlier.