The mobile trading platform launched by the exchanges a few months ago has started seeing a few crores worth of trades coming in of late.
The platform was launched in October last year by the exchanges and a handful of brokers. Though in the initial days the platform did not see much action, brokers are now saying that trades are trickling in.
“The average daily turnover through the mobile trading platform accounts for a few crores already and we have launched our platform just two weeks ago,” said Mr Kedar Deshpande, Head Retail Broking at Edelweiss Securities. “Between 600 and 700 investors are already putting in orders through the mobile platform. This is happening because about 80 per cent of our turnover anyway comes from Internet trading.”
Mr Deshpande was optimistic that the use of the facility would increase. “A lot more clients would start using the platform, initially to monitor their positions and to get real-time quotes. Over a period of time the mobile trading culture will pick up and can surpass Internet trading.”
The BSE had launched the platform on September 21 and the NSE followed suit on September 27. At that time, 33 large broking houses had launched their mobile trading services with BSE. On the NSE, the service was launched a week later.
A BSE spokesperson said that 60 members have taken approval and are providing the services to clients.
Both the exchanges still do not provide data on the volumes traded through the platform.
The Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer of Angel Broking, Mr Amit Majumdar, said the broking house sees about Rs 2 crore worth of average daily turnover through the mobile trading platform.
“About 600-650 of our clients log into the system daily to trade. We do see a fair amount of volumes traded through the mobile trading platform, but many clients still use the facility to check on their portfolios. We have 15,000 and 20,000 clients who have registered for the services till now,” he added.
Mr A. Balakrishnan, Chief Technology Officer at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, said that there has been a slow shift from Internet platform users to the mobile trading platform.
“We see about 3,000 trades a day taking place through the mobile trading platform and the average daily turnover accounts for about 2 per cent of the total turnover. We have about 5,000 clients who have registered for the mobile trading platform,” he said.
Leading BSE stockbrokers Angel Broking, Motilal Oswal Securities, Marwadi Shares & Finance, BCB Brokerage, Asika Stock Broking, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, SMC Global Securities, ICICI Securities, India Infoline, Kotak Securities and Standard Chartered STCI Capital Markets are among those who have started providing mobile-based trading facility to clients.
“The broking firm does not incur much cost. Bigger broking firms already have an online trading platform; the technicals are the same for a mobile trading platform. Only a small amount of upgrade is required. Trades put in through the online trading route accounts for about 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the daily turnover,” said Mr Jagannadham Thunuguntla, Strategist and Head of Research at SMC Global.
Waiting for 3G
Mr Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice-President at Bonanza Portfolio, said that the usage is seen mainly from investors and not traders. “At the moment, speed of connectivity is an issue. Once 3G is launched we will see many more investor starting to use this platform.”
Bonanza Portfolio is offering its Internet trading clients the option to use the mobile trading platform. He said that the number if enquires that are coming in for the platform is “very encouraging”.