No trading in stocks, demand for deferral products

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JULY 23. Stock brokers all over the country refrained from trading to press their demands including to re-introduction of deferral products which was banned by the regulator earlier.

The brokers presented a memorandum to the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) explaining the problems faced by them.

They also met the Maharashtra Chief Minister and the opposition leader.

Brokers stated that some of the major reforms like introduction of derivatives products and rolling settlement are undisputed.

However, the manner and timeframe in which the reforms are proposed to be implemented and the overall preparedness for the same.

More specifically complete phasing out of deferral products, non availability of bank finance, drying of liquidity, overlooking the domain knowledge of broking community in implementation and lack of progress in demutualisation are some of the issues raised.

Negative impact of the mutual fund sector and the ability of the market to facilitate raising of funds, future of regional exchanges, resolving the turnover fees matter were some of the other issues taken up by brokers.

In West Bengal, brokers met the Chief Minister and gave a memorandum. In Ahmedabad the brokers took out a rally.

Reports received from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kanpur also confirmed that the brokers have abstained from trading today.

The next course of action will be decided by the core committee of all the exchanges which will meet some time next week. ``However, the members will continue to draw the attention of various ministers, Reserve Bank, JPC members and regulatory authorities towards the problems faced by the industry,'' stated a press release issued by the core committee.

Interestingly it further stated, ``we will also involve the investors in the movement so that effectively we can present our problems.''

PTI reports:

Lacklustre activity

MUMBAI, JULY 23. The non-participation of brokers adversely impacted trading with only 42 specified counters getting quotes that led the benchmark to close in negative terrain on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

Attributing the selective trade in a few scrips to small transactions by institutional investors, mainly foreign funds, market sources said securities industry association of India, which was formed last Tuesday, had given a call for boycott of trading to protest implementation of rolling system and ban on carry-forward.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened steady at 3340.89 against last Friday's close of 3340.75 and later moved in a narrow range of about 30 points before closing at 3330.98, a net fall of 9.77 points.

The BSE-100 index also eased further by 6.46 points to 1571.97 compared with last weekend's close of 1578.43. The total volume was at a historic low of Rs. 7.62 crores.

Under the leadership of Infosys, majority of new economy counters displayed a weak trend. Last weekend's feeble Nasdaq advices also partly aided the downslide in tech stocks.

However, a few old-economy shares attracted foreign funds buying.

The BSE-200 index and the dollex were quoted moderately down at 346.70 and 122.48 compared with previous close of 347.97 and 122.95 respectively.

The BSE-500 index moved down further by 3.57 points to 1017.91 against last weekend's close of 1021.48.

Only 14 index-based shares were traded out of which six registered losses while eight closed with gains.

Shares of SBI (non pari-pasu) clocked the highest turnover of Rs. 4.22 crores followed by Reliance, Global Telesystem, NIIT and Cadbury.

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