Mumbai, May 10: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has extended the deadline for some companies for commencing trading in dematerialised form. There are 63 companies in the list and were included among the securities for compulsory trading in dematerialised form for institutional investors and Overseas Corporate Bodies (OCBs) with effect from May 15, 2000.Sebi officials said that these companies were found to have not signed the agreements with either of the depositories. Sebi will holding a meeting in the last week of this month to assess the progress made by the companies in the dematerialisation process.
Sources said: "these companies will be expected to sign up with the depositories in another 15 to 20 days time and ensure that their scrips are being traded in the demat format.
Elaborating on these companies, sources said that many of them were having problems in setting up VSATs (very small aperture terminals) while in some other cases the concerned registrars have not been transferring the shares - in other words, making the necessary transfer from the physical to the demat form.
Some of the companies have also stated that there is hardly any trading being done on their scrips and as such changing into the demat form will only worsen the situation. Sebi has already given instructions to stock exchanges to suspend trading in the scrips of those companies, which are not dematerialising their securities according to the schedule laid down.
Officials said that any further delay by the companies will result in strict action against them.
Hughes Software Systems has also been included in the list of securities in which trading will compulsorily be done in the demat form with effect from June 26.
From this date 140 scrips will be compulsorily traded in the demat form for all categories of investors.
The sheer volume of numbers is expected to create some problems for the registrars concerned, especially with a number of companies expected to announce book closures and go into no-delivery soon.
The securities watchdog has stepped up its pace of dematerialisation and according to the target set by its chairman, D R Mehta, by the end of the year at least 97 per cent of the scrips being traded should be in the demat form. Among the companies whose demat deadline has been extended are - AFT Industries, Bell Ceramics, Berger Paints India, Birla Ericsson Optical, Graphite India, Hindustan Sanitaryware, Swil Ltd, Torrent Power, Pearl Polymers.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.