The Hindu Business Line : Brokerages decide to play it safe in the face of terror

Some brokerages asked staff to report to work at suburban branches near their residence. In other places, only those who had urgent work came in but left as soon as the markets closed.

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Nov. 28 Most financial firms located in south Mumbai operated with a skeleton workforce as a large number of their employees did not turn up for work.

Some firms did not open their offices in south Mumbai where the terror attacks happened, and are continuing to be dealt with.

As a precautionary measure, many of them opted to remain closed, said the head of research of a broking house.

In case of some broking firms whose south Mumbai offices remained open, their employees who live in the suburbs were asked to report at suburban branches of their offices and were asked to work from there.

“We had asked all our employees to work from our Vikhroli office and not to come into south Mumbai today,” said Mr R. Balagopal, Vice-President, Fedex Securities.

Most big broking firms have their trading rooms in the suburbs also, so the trading activities were not affected in a big way, said a broker.

At another big broking house, not many people turned up except those who had urgent work to finish, or those who are in the arbitraging, options trading department as it was F&O expiry today.

Some employees were given the option to work from home, according to brokers.

While some firms resumed work on Friday, employees were asked to leave early.

At Dolat Capital, a broking firm, most of the staff turned up but left as soon as the stock markets closed.

“We had asked only those people who were absolutely necessary to come in today, but business was normal,” said a source from Enam Securities.

Some firms who thought they could resume work on Friday had to ask their employees to leave as soon as rumours of fresh shooting started doing the rounds.

“Very few people came in today and most of the employees were asked to come in only on Monday after everything settles down. The ones who came in today left early (as soon as the markets shut around 3.30 p.m.).

“Sub saab log jaldi nikal gaye (All left early),” said the security guard at PINC Securities.

At some of the buildings in Nariman Point, where companies such as DSP Merrill Lynch are housed, the security guards said that almost nobody had turned up for work at any of the offices in the buildings.

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