Also seeks alliance with other regional bourses.
As part of its plan to start intra-day trading from November this year, the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) has initiated talks with the country’s second-largest bourse, the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange (ASE), for a tie-up.
DSE, which is set to resume trading after a gap of almost eight years, is also looking at other stock exchanges for business alliances.
At least two officials close to the development confirmed that DSE and ASE were in talks and that they aimed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the near future.
“We are talking to regional stock exchanges, including ASE, for tie-ups to provide them the DSE trading platform. DSE wants to go national and, for that, we are inviting brokers from across the country,” said BK Sharma, general manager, market operations, DSE.
He said, “Both the exchanges require clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for a tie-up. If the deal materialises, ASE brokers can trade on DSE platform.”
Sources in ASE said that a meeting with DSE officials was scheduled for Thursday to explore possibilities of a tie-up. “We are also in talks with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) for tie-ups, though nothing concrete has come out as of now,” they said, adding that they would require approval from the board before entering into any kind of agreement with any player.
DSE is the second-largest exchange of the country in terms of number of companies listed on it — 2,855. Out of these 2,855 companies, 2,343 firms, including 1,800 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are exclusively listed on DSE.
Over the last decade, the exchange had created a commendable track record with the DSE index crossing 1,000 points in 1992 and its trading volume touching an all-time high of Rs 9648.69 crore in September 2000.
“We will give single-window services for listing of securities on DSE. This will help DSE stabilise its trading operations at the earliest and also enhance liquidity of the scrips listed on it,” said Sharma.
DSE has 379 members and plans to add 100 more by the end of the current financial year. Since there has been no trading on DSE for almost eight years now, only 600 listed companies had complied with their obligations. DSE offered a 60 per cent rebate to those who paid their arrears, and 300 companies took advantage of it.
So, now only 900 companies are eligible for trading on the exchange. Despite the absence of trading for such a long time, DSE has a cash reserve of Rs 100 crore. Once it functions smoothly for six months, the bourse may be allowed to foray into derivatives trading.
DSE has also announced two innovative schemes — Amnesty Scheme and New Deposit-Based Trading Membership Scheme — to revive the dead scrips of the exchange.
