This percentage includes shares delivered with respect to all securities at the bourse and considering that demat facility is itself available in only about 250-odd scrips (compared to more than 5,000 scrips listed at the bourse) the figure of 41 per cent is quite stunning.

Delivery of demat shares was allowed in the physical segment of exchanges from April 6 onwards. This had led to a unified segment and the aim was to finally reach a high percentage of demat shares being delivered in this segment so that this segment would become more of a demat segment. This is precisely what seems to be happening.

In the case of BSE, the percentage of demat shares delivered with respect to all scrips was 23.37 per cent for settlement ended October 5. Thisfigure rose to 30.20 per cent for October 12. The rise continued with the next two settlements, ie ended October 20 and October 28, seeing demat shares delivery to the extent of 36.24 per cent and 37.81 per cent respectively.

The figure in the case of individual scrips like ICICI, IPCL, SBI, IDBI and Reliance has been in excess of 95 per cent consistently during this entire period.

In the case of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), too, the increase has been pronounced although not as much as it has been in the case of BSE. In NSE, the percentage of demat shares delivered has risen from 25.30 per cent for settlement ended October 7 to 30 per cent for settlement ended October 28.The Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) is witnessing even a higher share of demat delivery. In its case, the delivery of demat shares has increased its share from 55.90 per cent for settlement ended October 9 to 56.19 per cent for settlement ended October 23.

``There has been an all around acceptance of demat trading with over 80 percent of the clearing members at the leading bourses being involved in the pay-in of shares. This itself proves that trading in demat shares is not confined to institutions only but also to retail investors, both high networth as well as the small investors,'' said a senior depository official.

``As more and more scrips get added to the list of securities where demat trading is permissible, the percentage of demat shares being delivered would rise even further and paper would further get eliminated. Simultaneously, Sebi would keep coming out with its list of scrips where no physical shares would be traded in. The rate at which the physical paper is shrinking from the market, it does not appear to long before the entire market would be in a demat mode only,'' the official explained.