Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange Goes On-Line

Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange has gone on-line from yesterday. After Calcutta, it is the second bourse in the eastern region to switch over to screen-based trading in line with the recommendations of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange, established in 1990, is currently averaging a business of Rs two crore per day. This is expected to go up five-fold over the next six months following computerisation, says T D Bhayana, founder-president of the bourse.

The new system will also bring in greater degree of efficiency and transparency to the trading, he added.

On the projected growth of business, Bhayana said, a lot of transactions from Bhubaneswar are now being diverted to major bourses like the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and Calcutta Stock Exchange due to problems in finding matching buyers or sellers in the outdated "outcry' system of trading. With incidents of proper matching expected to improve through screen-based trading, the volume of business is bound to increase.

 

The Bhubaneswar Exchange management has provided 60 terminals to its members in the trading floor, and some of the brokers' offices functioning from the building.

The terminals are inter-connected through Local Area Network (LAN).

The total cost of the software and hardware is estimated at Rs One crore.

This is the cheapest cost borne by any stock exchange for going on-line, points out V K Singh, executive director of the exchange. It was possible because the management decided to develop the software locally, he said. A local firm, Illanos Systems, has developed the software for a fee of Rs 10 lakhs.

Of the 60 terminals provided to the members, 50 are in use and 10 have been kept aside for contingency purposes.

The members have to pay Rs 500 per month towards the recurring expenses for the use of terminals. The introduction of screen-based trading system has fulfilled one of the basic requirement for the Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange to become a member of the newly formed Indian Stock Exchange Service Corporation Ltd (ISESC).