Uttar Pradesh bourse to set up NSE trading desk

To help make trading easy at the national exchanges, the Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Association (UPSEA) is planning to set up a National Stock Exchange (NSE) trading desk on its premises in Kanpur.

The exchange is the process of getting approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

"The application is under consideration and the nod from Sebi is still awaited," said Bharat Kumar Nadhani, executive director, Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Association.

The application has been filed by UPSE Securities Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the UPSE. UPSE Securities has acquired Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) membership in 2001 and is commencing trading on the BSE On-Line Trading System (BOLT) since then.

The company has been admitted as member of the Calcutta Stock Exchange and further steps are being taken in this regard. The UPSE at present has about 700 companies listed on it.

Sub-brokers are members of the regional stock exchange who have acquired membership of either the BSE or NSE through a subsidiary of their respective regional exchanges.

Talking about the lull that has hit the stock markets last year, Nadhani said before the crash on the stock markets, the daily trading on the UPSE was Rs 2 crore, which has now come down to Rs 1 crore.

Similarly, sub-broking trading was Rs 25 crore daily earlier has now come down to about Rs 15 crores daily. "Value of investment has gone down by almost fifty per cent," he added.

Seeing lack of participation by investors, UPSE has also closed down its landmark Additional Trading Floor (ATF) at Lucknow. The ATF was set up initially to further increase business and to provide online trading facility to Lucknow based members. It commenced online trading in March 1999 with 22 members, who were allotted computer terminals at the ATF. The terminals were connected with UPSE's main server via VSAT.

But seeing almost minimal trading at the ATF the exchange decided to shut it down. "It was a viable decision to make. The trading at ATF was almost minimal, which suggested towards the closure of that additional facility," urged Nadhani.