Sensex climbs 261 on strong buying
Mumbai : Despite a technical snag that brought the BSE Online Trading System to a temporary halt towards the end of the day, strong buying support on the back of sound fundamentals, coupled with upturn on the Nasdaq, pushed up the 30-share Sensex by 261.81 to 4,795.80 points on Wednesday. The commencement of a new account trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also buoyed sentiment, and the S&P CNX Nifty ended with a gain of 76.65 points at 1,436.10. The day's rally has come as a welcome relief to the much-battered stock values.

The day's rally was largely driven by operator buying. The trading sentiment was also aided on report that the ensuing monsoon will also prove favourable. However, foreign funds were picking up stocks of infotech, media and other strong old economy companies more notably in counters like Zee Telefilms, Reliance, Himachal and Global Tele.

The decision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to relax circuit filters by an additional four per cent is expected to propel the market further up. However, the SEBI's move to rectify the anomaly in the badla system may act as a damper and may not be well-received by the market.
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SEBI to relax price band in 200 scrips to 12 per cent
Mumbai :The risk management committee of Sebi today announced that the price band for the top 200 scrips will be relaxed by an additional four per cent from the present eight per cent from May 2. According to SEBI officials, once a scrip touched the eight per cent price band in either direction, a further relaxation of four per cent would be allowed in that direction after a cooling period of half-an-hour.

The relaxation would be applicable for top 200 scrips as identified jointly by the BSE and the NSE. SEBI officials said the exchanges had already identified 100 scrips and the final list would be announced on April 27. The list would cover scrips in the A and B groups.

However, the relaxation could be done only on the BSE or NSE. The other exchanges could relax the price band only after it was effected either on the BSE or the NSE.

According to SEBI, if any of the 200 scrips hit the price band on the BSE or the NSE, it would be communicated to the other exchanges by email to allow them to effect the changes too. The information would also be communicated through PTI and Reuters.

In case the price band was hit on either side in the last half-an-hour of trading, the trading in the counter would be restricted up to the price band for 15 minutes instead of half-an-hour. Thereafter, it would be relaxed by a further four per cent.

Further, the risk management committee also observed that there is asymmetry in cost to the long buyer and the short seller, with the former having to pay carry-over charges to carry forward their position, unlike the latter.

To provide a level playing field, the committee has proposed that a short seller who does not either own shares or has not borrowed shares (in which case it will be deposited with the clearing corporation/house) the carry forward charges shall not be payable to the short seller.

Thus, all naked short sales will not incur badla. These carryforward charges will be credited by the stock exchange to its Investor Protection Fund. As this may require changes in the software of the stock exchanges and the modalities for this have to be decided by the stock exchanges having carry forward facility, this would be effective for all settlements ending after May 31.
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Asian brokers in mega deal for online trading
Hong Kong: Japan's Aizawa Securities Co, Taiwan's Capital Securities Corp, South Korea's Dongwon Securities Co, Hong Kong's Japan Asia Securities Group and Tai Fook Securities Group unveiled plans to integrate their existing on-line trading platforms to create a single internet interface, which will be launched in June as the Asia Stock Exchange Network.

The joint venture will allow investors to punt on stocks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Combined, the five companies have 800,000 clients and a daily aggregate transaction value of up to $700m, of which around eight per cent is conducted on-line. The companies hope to double this percentage to 15 per cent in a year.

Korea's Dongwon Securities has the most developed on-line customer base of the group, with up to 51 per cent of its turnover generated from orders placed online, up from three per cent just a year ago. However, on-line orders account for only three per cent of the business at Tai Fook and Aizawa.

From June, clients logging onto the website of any one of these five brokerages will be able to access websites of the other four and place orders on-line, the companies said.
Investors need only one trading account with their local participating firm. Settlements and other logistics will be handled by participating companies business-to-business.
The arrangement is based on revenue sharing, which will come from commissions charged on transactions.
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