Same-day trade settlement for top 500 stocks from Jan 31: Sebi

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday announced that the top 500 stocks would be eligible for the same-day settlement cycle (T 0) in a phased manner.

At present, only 25 stocks are available for the T 0 settlement. The move will speed up the settlement cycle, which currently stands at T 1, which means if shares are purchased on Monday, they will be added to the client’s demat account by Tuesday evening.

The wider eligibility will become effective on January 31, 2025. Besides, the same-day settlement cycle will continue to be optional, according to the Sebi circular.

In March 21, 2024, Sebi introduced the beta version of T 0 rolling settlement cycle on optional basis in addition to the existing T 1 settlement cycle in equity cash markets, for a limited set of 25 scrips and with a limited number of brokers.

“Based on the feedback received from various stakeholders and approval of the Board, it has been decided to enhance the scope of optional T 0 settlement cycle with the following measures,” said Sebi.

“The scrips shall be made available for trading and settlement, starting with scrips at bottom 100 companies and gradually include the next bottom 100 companies every month till top 500 companies are available for trading in optional T 0 settlement cycle,” added Sebi.

The market capitalisation of the companies will be computed as of December 31. Further, all stock brokers are allowed to participate in the optional T 0 settlement cycle. However, stock brokers are permitted to charge differential brokerage for T 0 and T 1 settlement cycles.

Regulator mulls DigiLocker integration with demat

• Sebi has proposed leveraging DigiLocker, government-backed digital document storage platform, to streamline processes and minimise unclaimed assets in the securities market
• In its consultation paper, the regulator has proposed that depositories and mutual funds should provide demat and mutual fund holding statements on DigiLocker
• It has also been suggested that KYC registration agencies should share information on an investor’s death with the DigiLocker authority