Mumbai, June 22 (PTI): The Securities and Exchange Board of India today suspended the licence of Karvy Stock Broking for three months. The regulator also prohibited Karvy from opening new demat accounts till the end of the year.

Announcing its final order against the brokerage house in an IPO scam unearthed late in 2005, Sebi said Karvy as a depository participant “is prohibited from opening fresh demat accounts till December 31, 2007”.

“The direction will come into force with immediate effect,” Sebi’s whole- time member G. Anatharaman said in the order released today.

The order further said the registration certificate of Karvy Stock Broking, member of the BSE, NSE and the Hyderabad Stock Exchange, was being suspended for three months.

This penalty will become effective on the expiry of 21 days from the date of the order, it added.

Sebi added that Karvy Computershare was also being prohibited from acting as a registrar to any issue for nine months.

However, the ban will not take effect because Karvy Computershare had already been prohibited on the basis of the interim Sebi order of April 27, 2006. Sebi said Karvy was very much in the thick of the IPO scam and the penalty was imposed on the basis of available materials.

Earlier in 2005, the stock exchanges had submitted preliminary observations on the IPO of Yes Bank to Sebi. The exchanges said there were reasons to believe that some entities were involved in large scale off-market transactions immediately after the date of allotment and prior to the listing on the bourses.

Sebi subsequently carried out a preliminary scrutiny and found that many demat accounts in benami/fictitious names were opened by certain entities, who had also cornered IPO shares under benami names.

Sebi acted against the entities through an interim order of December 15, 2005, where it restrained them from participating in all future IPOs and directed depositories to freeze their demat accounts.

Later in April 2006, the regulator passed another interim order, which said Karvy Stock Broking did not appear to be fit to deal in the stock market as a Sebi-registered intermediary. About a month later, Sebi directed Karvy not to act as a depository participant, pending inquiry and final orders, except for acting on instructions of existing beneficiary owners.

Launched with much fanfare a few months ago, the capital protection schemes launched by mutual funds have hit a regulatory hurdle. CNBC-TV18 reports.

More than 35 mutual fund schemes have been rated by CRISIL for the launch of the capital protection funds. But only five have hit the markets to date. The reason for this being that the regulator does not want aggressive portfolio structures and ‘capital protection’ simulataneously.

SEBI is averse to structures called capital protection that have higher exposure to equity and require constant monitoring.

Typically, capital protection funds invest up to 20 per cent in equity but some funds want to go higher than that depending on market conditions. And this does not go down well with the regulator.

Out of the 28 funds that are yet to be launched, 10 are reworking their draft offer documents. SEBI says they will have to remove the word ‘protection’ from their funds in case of riskier product structures.

Krishnan Sitaram, Head, fund services and fixed income, CRISIL, said, “It’s difficult to convince the regulator about the robustness of your structure, of your monitoring aspects. So what happens is if in such structures, which have a large equity content at the beginning, if equity markets fall, as per the structure, you will have to shift large proportions to debt. But if the fund house at its end is not closely monitoring it and wakes up two – three days later in which time equity markets have sharply fallen, then the final objective may not be met.”

Mutual funds say, as of now, the capital protection funds are no different from the monthly income plans they already have in the market. They feel flexibility of high allocation to equity is a must to ensure higher returns.

Fund houses say modification in product structure can offer better value for money to risk-averse investors. They also argue that insurance companies have the go ahead to offer capital protection schemes and this puts them at a disadvantage. It remains to be seen whether the regulator will relent.

With the pressures of time and the sheer choice of options, the entire process of investing can be a very daunting experience for most of us. One faces several issues while investing offline like maintaining of bank and de-mat accounts separately and manually, lack of proper information, tools and advice, constant struggle with the paperwork that is generated (for example: try filling an IPO (new issue) form manually), pressures of time to plan for investments systematically and finally to keeping track of your investment portfolio and net-worth. This either leads to a situation of too much dependency on someone, total inactivity or sometimes even taking wrong decisions while planning your investments.

Fortunately, help is at hand through the online investing platforms that are available to the investors. Today technology enables you to completely plan your investing needs in the comfort of your home and at the time you like, all at the click of the mouse.

All you need is a computer, net connection and a subscription to a 3-in-1 online investing account with any of such service providers. Online mode of investing largely eliminates all the major hassles of investing: – it provides a wealth of information, analysis and tools that enable you to take more informed decisions, virtually no paperwork involved as all transaction records are online and statements available in digital form, invest anytime and from anywhere at your time and convenience (yes, even at night), integrated operations between your bank account, de-mat account and trading accounts and tracking of your investment portfolio and net-worth online anytime.

Today, the online mode allows you to invest across different asset classes like equity shares, Mutual Funds and IPOs amongst others. You can be your own master in planning your investments through the online mode. The online mode provides you the benefit of getting up to date information and analysis, which is often sourced and compiled, in an investor friendly format, from some of the best information providers in their respective fields.

Your advantage therefore:- not only are you able to take more informed decisions for your investing needs but in the process also reduce the probability of risk and improve probability of earning better returns on your investments. *Getting started and services to look out for..

To start investing online you would need to register as a member for an integrated 3-in-1 online trading account with any of the service providers like www.idbipaisabuilder.in . The 3 accounts are: (1) trading account, which enables you to transact online, (2) an Internet enabled bank account for online money transfers through Internet, with any of the banks with whom the online service provider has a tie-up with and (3) your Demat account, where your shares will be deposited.

To say that online investing has grown extraordinarily fast over the past couple of years is akin to describing Marilyn Monroe as reasonably attractive. While it may be easy to trade on the Net, finding the right online broker takes some doing.

Given that online trading is still at a nascent stage, online brokers are willing to offer many options — brokerages that decline as volumes soar, waiver of account opening charges, access to research reports, and the facility of transacting in financial instruments through the trading website. So whom should you choose? The answer depends on a host of variables — both qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative factors are usually a little hard to assess and largely pertain to expectations of service standards. It helps to talk to acquaintances who trade online about the website’s reliability, ease of fund transfer and transaction, and the customer service quality of the e-broker, the only human interface in the entire mechanism. Nonetheless, there are some key factors that help you compare e-brokers.

Brokerage. It’s a recurring cost and can potentially draw down returns. Every player claims that his brokerage is the lowest or at least promises to charge the minimum once an investor opens an account and starts trading. But this promise is contingent on the trading volumes of the investor.

The brokerage differs from company to company. To give an indicative figure, ICICIDirect.com charges 0.75 per cent for a quarterly volume of less than Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) and 0.25 per cent for an amount in excess of Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million).

The brokerage for the quarter that follows the opening of an online trading account is determined by the opening amount of investment, irrespective of the subsequent investments in that quarter.

Any amount due to either the broker or investor over and above the brokerage paid is settled every quarter and the opening amount of the next quarter determines the brokerage that will be paid in that quarter.

While 5paisa.com has the lowest brokerage — 0.25 per cent — on delivery, Angel Broking offers the lowest — 0.02 per cent — on intra-day trading (see A Comparative Look at Online Brokers).

Position traders — investors who buy and hold securities for the long haul — typically opt for low brokerages. Daily traders, who trade in large volumes, usually settle for what brokers call zero per cent brokerage.

This does not mean that they are not charged brokerage, but alludes to a fixed brokerage fee irrespective of turnover or up to a certain turnover for a period of time: higher the investment, lower the brokerage.

For instance, Reliance [Get Quote] Money charges Rs 500 for delivery-based volumes up to Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) for two months. If one trades with 5paisa.com for the same volume, the brokerage amount will be Rs 2,500 (at the rate of 0.25 per cent brokerage). So, at this volume, Reliance Money scores over 5paisa.com. However, the fixed brokerage of Reliance Money is higher than 5paisa.com’s brokerage for investments less than Rs 2 lakh.

For onliners

• Brokerage is a recurring cost. Higher trading volume slabs attract lower brokerage. You’ll also have to pay an annual maintenance charge.
• Some brokers insist on a minimum transaction volume and charge their lowest brokerage for it.
• Opt for the same depository and trading body to avoid delays in settlement of shares and cash.
• Margin trading could attract higher brokerage than regular transactions.
• Online brokers provide regular updates on market favourites.
• Pick the online broker with the maximum number of collaborating banks.
• Check out the website’s speed and reliability, ease of fund transfer, and the e-broker’s customer service quality.
• The broker’s infrastructure should be able to handle large trade volumes.

Account opening and maintenance costs. In order to trade, an investor needs to open two accounts with the brokerage firm – a demat account to keep the shares and a trading account to trade.

If cost is an issue, you may select Almondz, for instance, since it charges only Rs 400 for opening an account (see A Comparative Look at Online Brokers), but do not hold a demat account with one company and a trading account with another since it delays the settlement of shares and cash.

Another fixed cost is the annual maintenance charge. While some companies such as Kotak Securities have a high maintenance charge, Almondz, Religare, Reliance Money, 5paisa.com and IndiaBulls [Get Quote] charge nothing at all.

Minimum trade requirements. Some online brokers insist on a minimum transaction volume for which they charge their lowest brokerage. For instance, ICICIDirect.com has set its minimum transaction at Rs 500 and charges a brokerage of Rs 25 on it. Geojit Financial Services [Get Quote] has not fixed a minimum transaction amount, but the minimum brokerage is Rs 20.

Margin trading. This is available in the online domain and involves paying only a proportion of the trade value upfront. Such trades could attract higher brokerage than the regular transactions.

Mostly traders, who go for intraday transactions, go for this form of trading. Investors typically invest for longer periods and margin trading is not suitable for them as brokers charge huge interest on the value of the trade that is not paid upfront.

Access to research. Online brokers provide regular updates on market favourites – stocks to buy, hold or sell – through the Net as well as SMS. Apart from this, a relationship manager is appointed who works as an intermediary between the investor and the broker, and plays the helpful tipper.

Investors need to remember amidst the daily onslaught of tips that too much trading does not necessarily translate into big bucks.

Tie-ups with banks. To trade with a broking company, you need to have an account with one of its collaborating banks. Typically, broking firms have fewer collaborations with public sector banks. Almondz scores above others here since it has tie-ups with numerous private sector banks and 19 public sector ones.

Apart from the charges mentioned above, an investor is required to pay the security transaction tax and service tax (including education cess of 3 per cent), which amount, respectively, to 0.125 per cent of the transaction value and 12.36 per cent of the brokerage amount. These also raise the cost of the trade.

-Rediff

-business standard