Interestingly, brokers are now questioning the logic of stock exchanges to accord first preference to institutions delivering these demat shares. They instead want that the demat shares should be first delivered to them. As many as 91 lakh shares demat shares have been delivered to the BSE in the settlement ended April 17, which concluded on Monday. Of these, 58 lakh shares have been delivered to the clearing house as `vyaj badla' shares while 22 lakh shares have been allotted to custodians on behalf of theirinstitutional clients. The value of these 91 lakh shares is estimated at Rs 135 crore. In the previous settlement, the volume of demat shares delivered was 64 lakh shares valued at about Rs 90 crore. Of these, 44 lakh shares were sent to the clearing house as `vyaj badla' shares.

"The popularity of the move is on the increase," said National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) managing director CB Bhave, but sources indicate that brokers have already started demanding that first preference be given to them on receiving the demat shares. At a meeting of the National Stock Exchange's committee on settlement issues (Cosi) on Saturday, brokers had suggested that they should be given the first preference as institutions should in any case be moving towards dealing only in demat segment.

Not anticipating such an overwhelming response from brokers, exchanges like NSE and BSE had decided that the first preference for allotment of the demat shares delivered in the physical segment would be given to institutions. BSEput `vyaj badla' shares as the second priority and other investors including brokers as the third. As a result, a number of brokers could not receive demat shares as the demand far outstripped the supply. Simultaneously, the number of accounts that have been opened with NSDL has also gone up to 15,500 from 11,500 on April 6.