Boredom prevails in broking houses, as trading volumes keep dwindling. One sub-broker in Chennai was seen playing ‘Solitaire' when this correspondent visited his office. “Dealing is a boring job now. We get only a few calls. Neither clients nor our broking friends, who otherwise call and share market speculation or rumours, are calling us like before,” rued the sub-broker. The low level of activity is also due to the fact that some of the brokers' clients are trading through Internet. “Only when they are preoccupied they call us to square their positions,” he added.

Mr Ramesh Chordia, another Chennai-based sub-broker of a Mumbai-based firm, said he received more than 100 calls from various big broking houses in the last one-and-half months to take up a franchise for them. “This shows the desperation of the big brokers,” he said.

Another dealer said: “Trading activity these days is restricted to only to the opening and closing hours. I am finishing all my domestic work such as paying electricity or telephone bills, banking activity et al between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.”

Another sub-broker said, “our parent company is now advising us to lure customers with free demat and trading accounts if they bring in a ‘sizeable' number.”

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