Mumbai, Jan 19: The much-awaited evening trading session on the OTC Exchange of India, called the OHM session, kicked off on Friday, with an overwhelming response from the participants. The total trading volume at the end of the session stood at Rs 25 crore, with 4,70,000 shares of over 50 companies being traded on the segment. The Rs 25 crore volume is double that of the regular volume of around Rs 10-12 crore witnessed in the normal morning session trade on the exchange. Domestic financial institutions also participated actively in the trading session.The success of OHM has not only put a stop to the debate about the viability and survival of the exchange, but also created a feeling of security among the different categories of market participants including small and midcap brokers. As reported earlier in The Financial Express, the jobbing community was particularly enthusiastic about the evening trade session, since they saw a new ray of hope there. The session is held from 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm.
A delighted OTC managing director Pradeep Mohnot said: "We have got very encouraging response from the members for the OHM session as more than 102 members logged into the system and more than 400 user IDs were provided by the exchange.
The exchange had set a base minimum capital for brokers at Rs 4 lakh each for trading on this segment. Most brokers exhausted this limit within minutes of the session kicking off which limited the final trading volumes.
Brokers have now been asked to enhance their bank guarantees and take the base minimum capital level to Rs 1.25 crore each, which would give them greater leveraging capacity to trade on this segment in the coming days, Mr Mohnot said.
On the session, 2,500 orders were punched into the system and 1,700 orders were executed, giving an execution rate of 66 per cent. Domestic financial institutions like Unit Trust of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India also actively participated in the session, which further boosted market sentiment.
In tune with general market sentiment on Friday, technology stocks rode high on the session on the back of good results declared by most tech companies so far, and particularly by Wipro, which turned in a very healthy net profit growth of 120 per cent on the day. Satyam Computer was the most actively-traded stock on the session, with a trading volume of 59,216 shares. The price of the stock jumped from Bombay Stock Exchange's closing price of Rs 418.25 to Rs 423 at OTC.
However, Infosys declined from BSE's close of Rs 6,779 to Rs 6,747 with a volume of more than 4,000 shares. Wipro also rose from BSE's close of Rs 2914 to Rs 2985 at OTC, with volumes of close to 1,200 shares, indicating that the OTC evening trading session would become a good benchmark of how the major markets would open the next morning.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
