As on December 31, 4.3 million demat accounts, almost 43 per cent of the total 9.9 million with the two depositories NSDL and CDSL, got suspended because account holders did not furnish their PAN details. If we go one step ahead to figure out the impact these suspended accounts have had on trading volumes in NSE then to our surprise we find there is hardly any.The average trading volume at NSE in equity segment for the month of December stood at Rs 8,505 crore whereas for the nine trading days for January it stood at Rs 8,476 crore, even crossing the volume of Rs 10,000 crore on Friday to record a trading volume of Rs 10,015 crore. If we do not take into account January 2 as a trading day, which recorded the least volume till now (in January) of Rs 5,938 crore (probably because of holidays), the January average jumps to Rs 8,793 crore better than the December average.This figure in itself tells the story that these suspended accounts have had no impact on the trading volumes. Also, since delivery based trading holds low volume, the major volume comes from the intraday trading and hence passive traders even if their accounts remain active do not impact the trading volumes, says, Nirdosh Gaud of Indiabulls: “Out of a daily trade of almost Rs 50,000 hardly 10 per cent is delivery based, the rest belongs to F&O segment and intra-day trading.” Half the accounts that have been suspended have zero shares in them and even those that have shares in them are relatively less active, says, Sandeep Nanda, research head, Sharekhan: “Even earlier, individual cash trades beyond Rs 1 lakh and derivative trades needed PAN numbers and hence most active traders have furnished their details and they are accountable for volumes.”Adds D.D. Sharma, senior vice president, Anand Rathi: “Most of the accounts that have been suspended are of passive traders and long term investors who buy stocks and forget and hence they do not hold an impact.”
