The total as well as daily turnover increased despite a marginal decrease in the number of shares traded and a decline in the number of trading sessions during 1997-98. A total of 213.84 crore shares were traded during 1997-98 as compared to 221.70 crore shares traded the previous year whereas 247 trading sessions were held in 1997-98 as compared to 249 sessions previous year.

DSE president Deepak Chowdhry told The Financial Express: "the growth in the average daily turnover, despite poor market conditions is indicative of the fact that the exchange's growth plans have been propelling it in the right direction".

Chowdhry said the bourse collected Rs 7.17 crore as listing fee on a billing of Rs8.90 crore during the year - one of the highest collections in the history of the exchange - despite the fact that there has been hardly any fresh listing due to sluggish primary market conditions. "On the investor front, there has been an appreciable fall in investor complaints against listed companies and an increase in the number of complaints redressed", he added.

The exchange received 7,453 complaints by investors, relating largely to non-receipt of dividend and shares sent for transfer, against various listed companies as against 9,036 complaints received the previous year. Of these, 5,958 complaints were redressed by the exchange compared to 4,758 previous year.

Regarding complaints against member brokers, the DSE president said the exchange invoked various penal provisions as per its rules and in some cases, settled investor complaints by adjustment in the member's capital adequacy deposit. The investor complaints have since come down to 76 from 121 as of July 31, 1998, he said.

The exchangealso suspended trading in the scrips of 10 companies on account of their failure to be responsive to investor grievances. The number of shares in the specified category was also increased to 121.

During the year, there was a net outflow of one per cent security deposits from the exchange, which refunded Rs 12.59 crore to 180 companies that had come out with right/public issues during the previous years. The exchange also received Rs 71 lakh as one per cent security deposit from 14 companies coming out with public/right issues.

The number of corporate members on the exchange doubled during the year as 171 members converted to corporate bodies compared to 83 members the previous year.