How to open a Demat account?

You have to approach a DP to open a Demat account.
Most banks are DP participants so you may approach them or else you can contact us.
To have latest list of registered DP please visit websites www.nsdl.co.in and www.cdslindia.com.
A broker and a DP are two different people. A broker is a member of the stock exchange, who buys and sells shares on his behalf and also on behalf of his customers.

Following are the documents required to open Demat account.
When you approach any DP, you will be guided through the formalities of opening an account.
The DP will ask to provide some documents as proof of your identity and address.
Below is a list but you may not require all of them.
PAN card, Voter's ID, Passport, Ration card, Driver's license, Photo credit card Employee ID card, IT returns, Electricity/ Landline phone bill etc.

Do you need any shares to open a Demat account?
No. You need not need any shares to open a demat account. A demat account can be opened with no balance of shares. And there is no minimum balance to be maintained either. You can have a zero balance in your account.

How much it cost to open a Demat account?
The charges for account opening, annual account maintenance fees and transaction charges vary between various DP’s. To have latest charges please visit websites of www.nsdl.co.in and www.cdslindia.com

What is Demat account and why it is required?

¨ Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is a board (corporate body) appointed by the Government of India in
1992 with its head office at Mumbai. Its one of the function is helping the business in stock exchanges and any other
securities markets.
¨ Demat (short form of Dematerialization) is the process by which an investor can get shares (also called as physical
certificates) converted into electronic form maintained in an account with the Depository Participant (DP).
¨ DP could be organizations involved in the business of providing financial services like banks, brokers, financial
institutions etc. DP’s are like agents of Depository.
¨ Depository is an organization responsible to maintain investor's securities (securities can be shares or any other
form of investments) in the electronic form. In India there are two such organizations called NSDL
(National Securities Depository Ltd.) and CDSL (Central Depository Services India Ltd.)
¨ Investor’s wishing to open Demat account has to go DP and open the account.
¨ Opening the Demat account is as simple as opening the bank account with any bank. As you need bank account to
save your money, make cheque payments etc, likewise you need to open a demat account if you want to buy or sell
stocks.
¨ All shares what you possess will show in your demat account, so you don't have to possess any physical
certificates. They are all held electronically in your demat account. As you buy and sell the shares, accordingly your
shares will get adjusted in your account.

Oil Steadies above $95 after One-Month High

Oil steadied above $95 a barrel on Friday, taking a breather after surging to a one-month high the previous session, as worries about supply from Venezuela and Mexico eased.U.S. light, sweet crude for March was flat, following a gain of $2.19 in New York on Thursday.London Brent crude for the new front-month April contract was down slightly.

U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Thursday he did not expect Exxon Mobil to have trouble replacing oil supplies from Venezuela, but added that the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be available if needed.The South American country, one of the largest crude exporters to the United States, cut shipments to the U.S. company earlier this week in retaliation over a legal dispute.

"Venezuela will not affect the crude supply fundamentally. There will be some risk premium but there will not be any natural shortfall in crude," said Gerard Burg of National Australia Bank in Sydney.

Major oil producers in the Middle East have already assured the United States they could compensate for a supply disruption if Venezuela slows exports.Supply worries also eased as Mexico re-opened all three of its main oil exporting ports on Thursday, a day after they were closed because of bad weather in the Gulf of Mexico.

The market continued to fret over slowing U.S. oil demand as economic woes lingered.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday painted a gloomy picture of a U.S. economy facing risks of both slow growth and inflation, and held open the option of more interest rate cuts.

Separately, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy was "clearly on the edge" of a recession, and was being burdened by high oil prices.

Market Insider/Friday Look Ahead

Friday's markets will likely continue to be vulnerable to credit worries. There are a few economic data points including import prices and the Empire State survey, both at 8:30 a.m. TIC data from the Treasury is released at 9 a.m. and industrial production comes out at 8:15 a.m. Consumer sentiment is due at 10 a.m.

Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin speaks at Dartmouth College at 1:15 p.m. He speaks on what tools the Fed has for responding to financial disruptions and there is a question and answer period.

Markets Climb a Wall of Worry

The Sensex has returned about 18.62 % compounded annual return over the past 27 years in spite of:

• 1 War (With Pakistan – Kargil 1999).
  
  
• Increasing Terrorism and threats to Internal Security (Punjab, J&K, Assam , Naxalite problem in Bihar & other parts of India).
  
  
• 2 Major financial scandals and a number of minor ones (Harshad Mehta, Ketan Pareikh, C.R. Bhansali,Sanjay Agarwal etc).
  
  
• 2 assassinations of Prime ministers (Indira Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi).
  
  
• Number of communal riots (Ayodhya, Godhra - They keep happening with immaculate consistency).
  
  
• More then 11 different Governments perusing different manifestos and putting all of them under a common banner titled Common Minimum Program..
  
  
• Poor Monsoons on more then 3 to 4 occasions.Each year the market speculates as to how the Monsoons have hit the coast of Kerala but over alonger period of time they do not matter. More so with increasing irrigation systems and development our dependence on monsons will come down further.
  
  
• Mortgage of Gold to tide over the foreign exchange crisis (In 1991 the Indian Govt. mortgaged Gold to the Bank of England).
  
  
• Coalition governments have governed major portion of the last 25 years.
  
  
• Numerous number of natural calamities and disasters (Tsunami 2004, Gujarat Earthquake 2001, Surat Plague 1995).