The stock market will be in your hands, literally.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), India’s capital markets regulator, on Friday approved trading in shares through mobile phones, in an attempt to encourage wider and easier participation of investors.
The step has the potential to increase stock market trading activity manifold because of the extent of mobile penetration in India.
One in two citizens, or 650 million people, use mobile phones. That’s a penetration of 50% compared with just 10% in the case of internet.
“It’s a revolutionary step considering the fact that mobile has overtaken the PC hardware, said B Gopakumar, executive vice-president, Kotak Securities.
“Though some brokerages do provide URL-based mobile trading, the mobile application-based trading would really change the way people trade as it would be much easier and with better client interface,” he said.
Satish Menon, director, operations, at broking house Geojit BNP Paribas said the move makes access to markets much easier for retail investors.
“Earlier they had to place orders through telephone or access their accounts online which was not possible always,” Menon said.
Sebi has allowed brokers registered with it to provide securities trading using the wireless technology once stock exchanges set up their systems and give the go-ahead.
A National Stock Exchange official said, “It’s just a matter of time before we can launch the facility.
As and when brokers get ready with their connectivity, we’ll help them start the services.
A Bombay Stock Exchange official said the bourse has been working on this and “it would do it ASAP”.
Sebi, in its circular, listed out broad security features which brokerages need to comply with before they start providing the service to clients.
“Adequate measures should be taken for user identification, authentication and access control using means such as user-ID, passwords, smart cards, biometric devices or other reliable means, to prevent misuse of facility by unauthorised persons. A unique identification number as given in case of Internet-based trading shall be made applicable for securities trading using wireless technology,” said the Sebi circular.
The applications for mobile trading can be downloaded by customers from the online stores of telecom service providers or through brokerage websites.
The brokers would provide a software or application(developed through third-party developers like Religare Technova, Omnesys etc) to clients who need to install it on their handsets before they start trading.
Some brokerages intend to send the link to their clients for downloading the application software.
Mobile trading can take on any basic handset provided it is Java enabled and GPRS compliant. Even the CDMA handsets having Internet access can be used by investors to access the mobile trading platform.
Though the features and navigation would be easier in high-end phones, the basic phones would still do the job of getting the quotes and placing orders after confirming the user name and security passwords.
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