Slow-moving zero

Sebi needs to hasten slowly on T+0 as stakeholders are yet to be convinced

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) gave a big push to deepen the T+0 settlement cycle by extending the number of stocks to 500, giving brokers incentive to charge differently. The regulator also made it mandatory for all brokers to offer the option to investors. These actions come against the backdrop of negligible activity in the T+0 segment since its launch with 25 stocks in March. The beta version has seen just 125 trades in the last seven months, with transactions of less than ₹10 lakh. Worse, there has been no trade under this cycle on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) since September and June, respectively. Clearly, despite the hard-sell by Sebi's top management, brokers and investors don't seem to be convinced about the utility of this settlement cycle.