Towering BSE: market capitalization of US$1.58 trillion
Bombay Stock Exchagne (BSE) is offering a wide range of investment opportunities, including mutual funds with interest rates of 6% to 8%, allowing Indians, non-Indian residents and foreigners to invest on monthly basis.
BSE’s electronic platform-based Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), launched in January 2015, is averaging 65,000 transactions a day and peaked at 120,000 per day in September, said its chief business officer V. Balasubramaniam.
“A lot of young people are investing on monthly basis,” he noted, while highlighting new opportunities for them to invest through the Exchange SIP (XSIP).
Elaborating, he said ‘Indians, non-Resident Indians and foreigners can invest in Portfolio Investment Management Scheme (PIMS) through XSIPs.”
BSE has more than 250,000 registered XSIPs, mostly its brokers.
There is a flexibility of investing through such schemes and converting earnings or on liquidation of a position into foreign currency for repatriation as all such investments are rupee denominated.
“There is no restriction on any repatriation,” assured Balasubramaniam.
BSE has also applied to the Security Exchange Board of India to set up commodity exchange.
“We are gearing up to offer contracts in a wide range of commodities including gold, precious/base metals, oil, natural gas and products from the agriculture sector,” he said.
“We have not finalized a specific contract to start commodity trade but it will be on commodities popular in India,” stressed Balasubramaniam.
A BSE subsidiary, Market Place Technologies, has further improved transaction speed of its trading system Bolt+ or T7. The Deutsche Boerse technology, T7, is now managing transaction in six microseconds, making it the world’s high speed exchange. It was previously 200 microseconds.
The 140-year BSE has the largest number of listed companies, 5,788 as of October 2015, and market capitalization of US$1.58 trillion. fii-news.com
