Brokers flock to Amritsar

It seems that the city has a huge potential in terms of investment in stock market as almost of the broking houses of national repute excluding

Regional brokers are luring investors to invest in the stock market. Broking houses like India Bulls, Motilal Oswal Securities, Karvy, Sharekhan, Apollo Sindhoori, India Infoline, Fortis, Kotak Securies, to name a few have already made their presence on the map of the city.

Recently Arcadia also opened its office in Amritsar. Sources said in the last two years, the number of broking houses in the city had almost doubled.

At present, more than 60 brokers, including national, regional and sub-brokers are housed in the city, indicating that the holy city has huge potential and that every one is to avail themselves of existing opportunities.

According to data available with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Amritsar is placed second after Ludhiana in terms of demat account holders. Ludhiana had 29,248 deemat account holders up to August 2505, which was the highest in Punjab, while Amritsar had 25, 087 account holders up to the same period.

Talking to Business Standard, Krishan Pal Thakur, chief branch manager, India Bulls said, "People here are risk-loving. The awareness level here is quite high. People are actively involved in trading, that is why so many broking houses are coming up here."

Commenting on the participation of women in trading, he said currently was 3-4 per cent, which needed to be boosted. He added that although online-trading was at an infant stage, it was gaining momentum with time.

He further added that since there was potential,companies were sustaining here.

The recent unprecedented stock market bull run is scripting new trends in the are seeing a tremendous surge in the number of new equity investors. The fall in interest rates, lack of job opportunities in Amritsar, failure of non-banking financial corporations in the small towns and expansion of trading terminals in far-flung areas by the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange coupled with the desire to make quick money, have triggered this trend.

Commenting similar views, Vishal Thakiar, Branch In-Charge, Apollo Sindhoori, said," People here have money, the only thing we have to do is to convince them, once they get the convinced, the services matters, not brokerage. In nutshell, we can say there is huge potential in Holy City, which is still untapped, the need of the hour is to hit the target audience. When asked about the future of sub brokers, he said that they have to go M & A, in order to sustain themselves.

Echoing Similar Sentiments, Vikas Kumar, Branch Incharge, Fortis Securities Limited said," The awareness level among the customers is quit high, and there is a tough competition due to presence of national and regional players. Ultimately this has proved a bonanaza for the customers, as they don't have to approach the broker for bargaining purposes, on the contrary the broker approach the investors to offer special brokerage. The Brokerage ranges from 20 paise to 50 paise depending upon the value of the stock, they purchase, he added.