Broking shares sink on new margin, usage of funds norms

Shares of broking companies come under heavy selling pressure on the bourses on Monday, on concerns over upfront margin and a new FAQ, especially on the usage of funds after selling shares, posted by the bourses.

Shares of ICICI Securities plunged 10 per cent; Motilal Oswal 4.15 per cent; Edelweiss Financial 4.65 per cent; 5Paisa Capital 5 per cent; and Geojit Financial crashed 10 per cent.

Already brokers were upset on SEBI’s proposal for traders to maintain upfront margins even in the cash segment. Henceforth, clients need to bring in margin money in their accounts even before the execution of transaction as against the current practice of once at the end of the day. As per minimum upfront requirement of VaR+ELM, broking houses can extend only to that extent for intraday leverages, which broking houses fear, will kill intra-day trading. Besides, both the NSE and the BSE published an FAQ on margin collection and reporting on Saturday. According to brokers, while most of them are still ‘irritant’ but ‘bearable’, the one on usage of funds post sales is the biggest concern.

According to FAQ, traders cannot use the proceeds from selling of their own stock holdings to buy other stocks for two days. Exchanges currently settle transactions on T+2 basis, that means when one buys the stock, that will get in to his or her demat account only after two days and similarly, on selling a stock, the credit will reaches reaches the account on T+2 days only.

While the new rule is set to kick in from August 1, broking community is trying to reach out to SEBI and the exchanges to reconsider this. Brokers are hopeful that exchanges will understand the hardship this rule can put into traders and revert it soon.