SEBI adds 22 scrips to demat

Mumbai, April 24: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has expanded the compulsory demat list – stocks in which institutions will be allowed to trade only in the dematerialised form (electronic transfer of shares instead of the conventional physical delivery) — by adding 22 more scrips. The new list will come into effect from June 1.

This will take the number of stocks in which institutions can only trade in the demat form to 30. The list will be expanded to 50 by August 15. Institutions will be allowed to buy in the physical form, provided they dematerialise their holdings immediately and sell only in the demat mode. The securities which have been shortlisted are Telco, BSES, ACC, HPCL, Tata Chemicals, Gujarat Ambuja, HLL, M&M, Infosys, Great Eastern Shipping, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, BPCL, Arvind Mills, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Indian Hotels, Grasim, VSNL, Castrol, Crisil and Ranbaxy. SBI, Tisco, Reliance, L&T, Bank of India, IDBI, ICICI and IPCL were the eight stocks earmarked earlier forcompulsory dematerialisation.

According to NSDL MD C B Bhave, the number of shares owned by institutions in these 22 securities will be about 100 crore. This amount is about the same number they owned in the eight securities. "We expect at least 70 crore of these shares to be dematerialised.The harmonisation of the two segments from April 6 onwards, coupled with the expansion of the list, should leave no room for institutions to feel that they should not dematerialise their holdings in other securities as well.