Samvat 2074 fails to light up Calcutta Stock Exchange

Kolkata: Samvat 2074, the year that begins on Thursday and ends next Diwali, will not bring any light to one of the country's oldest bourse -- The Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE).

The trading on the bourse's own trading platform C-Star has remained suspended since April 2013 after market regulator Sebi's directive over shortcomings in clearing corporation.

"There is no change in fortunes. Things stay in standstill," a former stock exchange director said.

Another former broker director, preferring to remain anonymous, alleged that the new management in connivance with the defaulters are preventing any strong attempt of turnaround.

"Sebi doesn't want the exchange to continue. The defaulters also want to close it so the action for recovery dies. The management, who are at the helm of affairs, has partnered with the major defaulters," he alleged.

The exchange faced a scam worth Rs 120 crore during Ketan Parekh regime. CSE managing director & CEO Subrato Das could not be contacted for comments.

In January this year, the then Sebi chairman U K Sinha had said regional stock exchanges as a business model is obsolete and bound to fail.

CSE officials in the past said they require some support to help the only surviving regional bourse to revive.

Currently, BSE listed scrips are allowed to be traded on CSE as permitted stocks and some brokers are carrying out their business under this model.