Taking its price war with main rival National Stock Exchange (NSE) a notch above, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has announced waiver on all transaction charges for brokers from semi-urban areas, with effect from next month.
The move is a part of BSE’s efforts to attract more business from brokers operating from areas other than big cities, such as Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. In a circular to its members, BSE said, “Transaction charges accruing to BSE, equivalent to annual connectivity costs of the member pertaining to BSE, will be waived for semi-urban areas, with effect from March 1, 2011.”
The transaction charges will be waived for trading in any segment of BSE, the bourse said. “Semi-urban areas are defined as towns falling outside the municipal limits of Mumbai (including Thane and Navi Mumbai), New Delhi (including Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon), Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad (including Secunderabad) and Bangalore,” BSE said.
NSE had in May last year decided to waive the transaction charges for brokers engaged in the cash and derivative segments through leased lines from rural and semi-urban areas. Prior to the waiver, the brokers were paying Rs 1 lakh every year for these transactions.