Mumbai, June 3: With the second list of shares for compulsory demat trading by institutions coming into effect on June 1, the depository is witnessing a deluge of dematerialisation requests. Depository participants (DPs), custodians and registrars say that about 10-15 crore shares of these securities have been dematerialised in the past 10 days while a similar amount are in various stages of dematerialisation.The rush is expected to take the number of shares dematerialised with the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) past 200 crore shares. The figure had gone up to 192 crore in the wake of the sudden rush by institutions close to the deadline. The value of shares dematerialised is about Rs 30,000 crore despite the fall in the market prices, and the value of shares in the pipeline could be between Rs 5,000 and 6,000 crore. "If the market improves, the value of shares dematerialised could well push to levels past Rs 40,000 crore in the very near future," said a broker DP. The 22 securities which havebeen added to the earlier list of 8 are BSES, ACC, HPCL, Tata Chemicals, Telco, Gujarat Ambuja, HLL, M&M, Infosys, Great Eastern Shipping, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, BPCL, Arvind Mills, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Indian Hotels, Grasim, VSNL, Castrol, Crisil and Ranbaxy.
The total amount of shares held by institutions in all these securities is expected to be about 100 crore shares. "The rush is greater this time round on account of the greater liquidity imparted due to the April 6 measures which allow demat shares to be delivered in the physical segment as well," said a registrar source. "As against the last time round, when institutions only started dematerialising heavily after the deadline, the concept has been well understood as also the will of Sebi to keep expanding the list," the source added.
As a result of the heavy levels of dematerialisation being witnessed in these securities, demat as a percentage of the company's equity has also gone up significantly. Close to 20 per cent of BSES's equity hasbeen already dematerialised. In the case of Crisil, the figure is 22.10 per cent. The levels have gone past the 15 per cent mark with respect to HDFC, Grasim and Hindalco. In the case of Infosys, the percentage has crossed 40 per cent. Gujarat Ambuja and Arvind Mills have both crossed the 10 per cent mark.
As of date 11 companies have seen more than 20 per cent of their equity dematerialised, while the figure is more than 10 per cent with respect to 37 companies. "We have already sent 75 per cent of the holdings in these 22 securities for dematerialisation. Its happening much faster now," said an official at HongkongBank's custodial services.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
