Mr. Tarun Shah

In the commodity market speculation plays a major role and more controls need to be put in place, opined Tarun Shah, CEO, Sharekhan.

Speaking to Business Standard during the launch of Ahmedabad branch, 108th in the country, Tarun Shah said, "We are waiting for the commodity market to mature and suitable for retail investors."

The volumes of commodity trading, according to Shah, are controlled by a few players; and often leads wrong conclusions.When asked about the Centre's move to keep away certain essential commodities from the purview of trading, Shah said, "If there is a misuse, the government is right in proposing a ban."
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Sharekhan will use the proceeds to fund the company's strategic initiatives, Shah said, adding infrastructure and new branches would be the main focus.

Mr. Tarun Shah, CEO of Sharekhan, commented, "We are very excited to have General Atlantic as a partner.

Their global network and extensive contacts will help ShareKhan to continue its growth in a very robust market," ShareKhan Chairman Shripal Morakhia said ShareKhan CEO Tarun Shah said, "GA brings a wealth of experience including a deep understanding of the Financial services and consumer sectors.

The retail investors in the capital market are the most neglected lot with no access to research and Sharekhan, the retail broking arm of SSKI Group, one of the oldest members of the BSE, seeks to fill this vacuum felt by retail investors, according to Mr Tarun Shah, CEO, Sharekhan, Mumbai.

Speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of the opening of the Coimbatore branch of Sharekhan , he said the company had invested about Rs 13 crore in the last two years in creating the requisite infrastructure by way of branches and for Internet trading.

With presence in about 80 cities across the country now, it will seek to consolidate its presence in the current year and focus on expanding its membership.

He said Sharekhan enjoyed about 20 per cent market share in Web business (Internet trading) in stock markets.Three years ago , Web trading showed lot of promise but with the market witnessing a downturn, there was not much interest among retail customers.

The company has been adding around 1, 000 customers a month and felt that for retail customer, Web trading was a `very good medium' particularly as it provided live information.

Mr Tarun Shah, when asked about the number of investors who were hooked on to Web trading, said numbers could be `misleading'.While his company has about 10,000 plus customers, ICICI Securities claimed to have 1.20 lakh customers and there were other players like HDFC too.His estimate was that the number of active Web traders would be in the 30,000-50,000 region.

He said this number was growing at 5 per cent to 10 per cent a month and this was a segment that could not be ignored.He said in Sharekhan, Web trading constituted about 1 per cent to 2 per cent of the revenue in 2001-02.
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Mr Tarun Shah said Sharekhan recently obtained licence to offer Portfolio Management Services (PMS).It was offering a range of products to suit retail investors and PMS when launched, would cater to the requirements of the high net-worth individuals.The entry-level investment for PMS membership may be around Rs 5-Rs 10 lakh, which was needed for having a well-diversified portfolio.This could be by way of taking over existing portfolio or fresh investment, he added.

When contacted, Tarun Shah, CEO, Sharekhan said there were several options that the firm was looking at and private equity was one of those.

When contacted, Tarun Shah, CEO, Sharekhan said there were several options that the firm was looking at and private equity was one of those.