The biggest surprise has been the enthusiastic response from small investors. With the Sebi order making it mandatory for trading in 10 shares in demat form, most of the investors have already opened depository accounts, they add.

According to Karthikeyan, manager of the Chennai-based Integrated Advisory Services in Bangalore, on an average, around 200-250 small investors have opened accounts through them with the NSDL. ``The number used to be around 300-400 earlier when we started the campaign on April 14. The fall has beenlargely due to the fact that initially, we offered the services free. Now that we have fixed some charges, there has been a fall. However, we are confident that by the year-end, we will have around 35,000 accounts,'' he said. The Chennai-based company which will be later rechristened as Integrated Enterprises has been the most successful of the DP participants in Bangalore.

IL&FS is another prominent player in Bangalore. Shashi Bhushan, branch manager (trading & depositories), IL&FS, Bangalore says that the demat form will see a boom as the investors do not have to incur costs like stamp duty etc. Another reason is that the scrips are easy to sell even after book closure becuase of its electronic nature. IL&FS has a targeted around 500-600 accounts by year-end and has already signed up 150 accounts. Bhushan is pinning his hopes on the depository mela that is slated to be held later this month at the BgSE. ``We hope to sign up 200-300 investors then,'' he adds.

While expressing happiness ovet the boom ,Nagesh, manager (operations), IDBI Bank feels that a major hurdle that is standing in the way is NSDL's restrictions on use of software. ``In our case, since we are a networked bank we receive queries from all centres. Even if we sign up somebody, we have to open accounts for them from Mumbai. NSDL should not take such a rigid stance on software and should relax it. Secondly, the BgSE should start official trading as early as possible,'' he said. Stock Holding Corporation of India, however, is keeping its fingers crossed. SHCIL does not want to reveal the number of clients signed up, but admits that there has been teremendous response. Similar sentiments are echoed by Raghu Prakash, branch head, Times Bank. He opines that on an average, 5-10 queries come in every day.

While most of the sign-ups have been inidvidual investors there have only been few cases of stock brokers signing up. As far of companies are concerned, none of the players have been able to bag even one deal. Harish, secondary market dealerof Action Financial Services feels that the situtaion will change once it becomes mandatory for all scrips to be in demat form. ``The real boom will be then as companies, brokers and invstors will rush to open accounts,'' he said. BgSE officials are hopeful that demat would make its debut on the bourse soon. ``We are busy giving the final touches and hope to complete them soon,'' said a senior BgSE official.