Extended trade from today, brokers buck up

Paresh Gandhi, director at brokerage firm BM Gandhi Securities, is not sure if he will be able to spend an hour at the gym. With trading in the stock markets starting at 9 am from today, Gandhi would have to start an hour early for work.

While Gandhi, who lives in South Mumbai, can still afford to leave at 8 am, those living in the suburbs expect their routine to be affected even more.

Despite the protests, brokers are gearing up to trade for an additional 55 minutes on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

For starters, the morning meetings at brokerages have been advanced to 8-8.15.

Typically, these meetings review client positions and decide the day's trading strategy.

Before trading starts, analysts working for large broking firms and dealing with foreign institutional investors spend the pre-market hours preparing their notes and making client calls.

"The trading systems and processes have been restructured," said Shashi Bhushan, chief executive officer of Way2Wealth Stock Broking.

While broker firms have tweaked the software and beefed up infrastructure for business, some are even making arrangements to serve breakfast in office.

Others are introducing shifts for traders to deal with the new trading hours. For clients, the margin amount could also be enhanced to reduce dependence on banks in case of an emergency.

"The risk management team and analysts will need to come early. We prepared for Monday's margin obligations last Friday," said Angel Broking Managing Director Dinesh Thakkar.

Dharmesh Mehta, head of broking at Enam Securities, said those on the retail broking side would need to be more cautious and collect adequate margins to ensure there is no panic in case of a sudden need for funds before banks open. "The move to extend trading hours despite inadequate banking infrastructure to support it will be put to test when markets are volatile," he added.

Though Bhushan said his firm was looking at the prospects of enhancing performance-based incentives, a salary hike for dealers was something that was not on the agenda for the moment.

"There will be no change in the pay scale of dealers or analysts as volumes are not as significant as they were in 2007," said Enam's Mehta.

But brokers have not completely given up on their opposition to the extended trading hours. On Friday, the Chennai High Court admitted a petition filed by a trader, Uday Kumar, against the Securities and Exchange Board of India, BSE and NSE. The petition lists several points relating to the move to extend trading hours. The court will hear the case on Monday.