Bse Card Tag Falls To Rs 78 Lakh

The off-market value for the Bombay Stock Exchange membership card has dipped in the prevailing volatile market conditions. According to informed sources, the price of the card has fallen to Rs 78 lakh. Surprisingly this is the value being quoted by buyers who are keen to gain membership at the exchange when the markets have touched their nadir.

It is learnt that there are only one or two sellers for the card at these levels and no deals have been struck. BSE officials were unavailable for comment on this issue.

The previous deal struck was at the Rs 93 lakh levels a few months ago, while an off-market deal at the Bombay Stock Exchange had touched Rs 1.2 crore late last year. This deal involved a medium-sized brokerage and the card value arrived at, including office premises stood at Rs 1.2 crore.

Alongside, most of the large FIIs have already garnered memberships at the major bourses.

The last FII deal struck was of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) buying a BSE card for just above Rs 1 crore a few months ago.

According to marketmen, a combination of several factors has led to the shrinking stock broking business and the resultant slide in the membership card.

Brokers are struggling to weather 1995-97, the toughest years ever witnessed. The brokerage levels at the major bourses over a period of time have dipped sharply to 0.15 paise for key pivotals at the BSE and 0.10 paise at the NSE.

The heady days of FIIs buying BSE cards at Rs 4.11 crore (ING Barings) and Rs 3.66 crore (W I Carr), besides Rs 2.6 crore for Credit Lyonnais seem to be long past.