MCX-SX's number of members to be announced today

Gearing up to begin operations as a full-fledged stock exchange, MCX-SX (MCX Stock Exchange) will announce the number of its members on Monday. While speculation is rife about the launch of new products in equity and other segments by MCX-SX, currently present only in the currency derivatives segment, the market is keenly awaiting the number of members to gauge the response for a new stock exchange.

MCX-SX had announced the launch of its membership drive on September 5 and its introductory membership offer ended on October 18.

When asked about the numbers and the response to its membership drive, an MCX-SX official said, “We are in the process of compiling the application forms and hence ,cannot comment at this point in time. We will make a formal announcement on Monday.”

Experts say stock exchanges have historically begun operations with a small number of members and the count grows over a period of time, while others say that the numbers could be high in case of MCX-SX as the times have changed and the markets have developed considerably since a new bourse came up last time.

The country's oldest stock exchange BSE was established in 1875 with 318 members, while NSE came up much later in 1994. Announcing its membership drive last month, MCX-SX had offered a competitive transaction fee and membership fee structure, in comparison to its rivals BSE and NSE. MCX-SX is currently present only in currency derivatives segment, with about 750 members. It recently got market regulator Sebi's nod to deal in stocks, equity futures and options, interest rate derivatives and wholesale debt markets.

BSE has listed out a total of 1,083 members on its website, while NSE has more than 1,400 members. MCX-SX has said would target people from smaller cities through its competitive cost-structure. Currently, the market participation and liquidity is limited to less than 2 per cent of population and is heavily dominated by top metro cities. The new bourse has also announced a barometer index of 40 top stocks based on liquidity and non-promoter market value among other factors. To be called 'SX-40', the new flagship index would compete with other benchmark indices like BSE's 30-share Sensex and NSE's 50-stock Nifty.