For private circulation only

March 25, 2019

February has the least number of trading days in the year. It is also the Union Budget month. So in these respects it is special. But our performance in this month was nothing exceptional this year. We could not sustain the momentum provided by the Diwali Blockbuster Stock Ideas contest that had boosted our cash market share in the previous month. Our futures and options market share improved marginally. The overall average daily brokerage dropped month on month. Our new client additions declined by 9% compared with the previous month but the performance was better compared with the rest of the industry. In mutual funds, our SIP book stood at Rs.58 crore. We now have 10 months to achieve our annual target of a Rs.100-crore SIP book. The assets under management in the mutual fund distribution and portfolio management service businesses were stable. Though we achieved 100% target in the education business, we clearly need to buck up. All the other targets are also achievable and I know you all have the potential to do amazing things. So here’s hoping to see better results for March.

After years of waiting, we can finally offer commodity trading facility to our customers under our brand. The market regulator, SEBI, and the Reserve Bank of India changed the norms for eligibility criteria and allowed stock brokers and the broking subsidiary of banks to participate in the commodity market in 2017. Subsequently, we have obtained all required approvals and made all the preparations to launch the commodity trading facility from all our platforms including the website, Sharekhan Mini, Sharekhan App and TradeTiger. Before we go live it is important that we thoroughly test the commodity section of each and every platform to ensure everything runs smoothly post-launch. This is a Herculean task and cannot be done by one or a few people. Every relationship manager and dealer must activate the commodity trading facility on his/her terminal right away and start trading in commodities from a few accounts for the next few weeks. We need at least 1,000 clients on board before the launch. So let’s work towards the milestone.

We have completed the project of recategorising mutual fund schemes on our digital platforms. The website, Sharekhan Mini and Sharekhan App, and customer portfolios on them now display the schemes as per the revised categories of the mutual fund industry. Following the October 2017 mandate of SEBI to standardise the scheme categories and the characteristics of each category, all fund houses completed the process of recategorising and rationalising their schemes by June 2018. As part of the exercise some schemes were merged whereas many others saw a change in their fundamental attributes and nomenclature. The rationalisation of the funds is good and has made it easier for investors to select schemes as per their financial goals and risk appetite. We have informed customers of the changes so that they know what has changed in their investment portfolio as a result. The changes may have an impact on their holdings and they may ask questions. We should be prepared to answer all their questions and allay their concerns, if any.