Companies on a delisting spree

Alok Agarwal
21 Sept 2001

Mumbai: Days of multiple listing on stock exchanges are over. In the good old days, when the primary market was booming, multiple listing or listing of shares on more than one stock exchange was the most sought-after trade. The argument was that investors should get the opportunity to trade or invest in shares of the company they desired at the exchange closest to them. This, in fact, brought into vogue the importance of regional stock exchanges. They thrived, as companies vied with each other to get their shares listed on these stock exchanges.

Its pass now - thanks to the advent of screen-based trading, first on the National Stock Exchange, later on the Bombay Stock Exchange and finally on the Internet. The technology has bought the world closer and investors, sitting in any part of the world, can now trade, invest or disinvest without having to travel to their nearest regional stock exchange.

And volumes have dropped considerably due to this. For example, Reliance returned volumes of only 63,843 shares on 14 September on the Calcutta Stock Exchange and 24,667 shares on the Delhi Stock Exchange. Since companies have to pay listing fees to regional stock exchanges, many of them have decided to get their shares delisted from these exchanges.

Some of the companies, which have decided to delist their shares from regional stock exchanges: are Reliance Industries Ltd, IFCI, Prism Cement, Kovalam Investment & Trading, Shree Rajasthan Syntex, Bhatinda Chemicals, Ami Computers, Keswani Synthetics, Asian Tea & Exports, Sam Leaseco, Shaw Wallace Gelatins, IFCI and Jenson & Nicholson.

Reliance Industries has decided to delist its shares from Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore and Cochin stock exchanges. IFCI has decided to delist its shares from Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkatta and Chennai stock exchanges.