Coronavirus: Brokers face hurdles after lockdown imposed by state govts

This prompted industry body Association of National Exchanges of Members of India to write the authorities.

People working in the broking industry complained about difficulties in reaching offices because of the curfews imposed by various state governments.

This prompted industry body Association of National Exchanges of Members of India (Anmi) to write the authorities. “Anmi requests government, Finance Ministry and Sebi for closure of share markets unless all state governments declare share broking and depository services as essential services exempted from lockdown and curfew,” said VIjay Bhushan, president, Anmi. Industry players say while Mumbai, Gujarat, Rajasthan have declared capital markets as essential services on the ground they were facing difficulties convincing the authorities. Naresh Pachisia, MD, SKP Securities on Tuesday tweeted that “Mumbai Police is simply not letting colleagues commute to office.” 

Broking officials say while most of their staffers have been ordered to work from home, there is a need for some employees to come to the office, where the infrastructure is.

Earlier, Anmi had raised this issue with Sebi. The market regulator had highlighted this issue in a circular it issued on Monday.

“Government of India, has requested the state governments / UTs to keep the services of stock market entities exempted from the purview of lock-down and to permit the essential staff of the stock market participant to commute so as to ensure that the Sebi regulated stock market entities function smoothly,” it had said.