Brokers also pointed out that for some period of time there could be a slight squeeze on the supply of these shares as investors still go about dematerialising their shares and this could provide an opportunity to speculators to push the prices up.

However, with most of the institutions and active traders already having dematerialised substantial chunks of their holdings in these shares (most of these scrips have already seen more than 50 per cent of their equity already dematerialised and this does not include the promoter holding), it is unlikely thatthere would be many investors who would be caught on the wrong foot.

"It was felt by many market experts that the compulsory demat trading will gain acceptance only slowly and it will take time to reach the pre-compulsory demat levels of trading in those securities. However, today's trading statistics have belied their expectations and out of 12 securities, 9 securities traded more than their earlier volumes. In that sense, the first day of trading of compulsory demat trading, the volumes have surpassed the pre-demat levels. This trend is expected to gain ground in the coming days",NSE said.

Among the 12 stocks, Bank of India and IndusInd Bank registered gains of over 8 per cent to be locked at the day's highest price. While Bank of India was locked at Rs 23.95, IndusInd Bank was locked at Rs 21.90. VSNL also shot up by 7.74 per cent to close at Rs 772.50. SBI, Larsen, HDFC, BPCL and BSES registered gains of over 3 per cent contributing largely to the sharp gains witnessed by the market indices.