Leading brokerage house Reliance Money, which has around 650,000 customers, is aiming to cross the 1-million mark amidst the enthusiasm in the market. Vikrant Gugnani, executive director, Reliance Money spoke about his bullishness on 3G and his plans to offer a buyback option to his gold buyers. Excerpts:
While markets have risen sharply, are the retail customers back?
The volume in cash and delivery and the futures and options markets has been largely retail driven and we too have witnessed a significant resurgence. Our trading volume has gone up from a daily average of R1,650 crore to R2,300 crore now. I expect a good growth for us.
What makes you so optimistic?
We are bullish on 3G and believe it will change the way people trade. We are working on a new trading platform that will offer faster speed and better trading experience on mobile through 3G. We are migrating our customers on to the new platform, which will be completed by October-end. Combined with 3G, my new platform will offer the same experience of an Internet terminal on a mobile phone.
What has gone into it?
We have invested over R150 crore over the past nine months and would spend around R300 crore in the back-end over the next three years. Slow Internet has been the biggest challenge in the existing network. We have bought a 100 MBPS dedicated line from various telecom operators and this will change customers’ experience significantly because it has a dedicated bandwidth.
What has gone into it?
We have invested over R150 crore over the past nine months and would spend around R300 crore in the back-end over the next three years. Slow Internet has been the biggest challenge in the existing network. We have bought a 100 MBPS dedicated line from various telecom operators and this will change customers’ experience significantly because it has a dedicated bandwidth.
Don’t the other players have it?
To my knowledge, nobody has got dedicated bandwidth.
You also sell gold, is there a demand in the market?
Gold as a product is selling a lot as we sell in very small denominations too and its consumption is boosted by the financial crisis in 2008. As of now, we are working to see if we can create a buyback facility for the gold we sell.
When will it happen?
It will take some time to do that. We can’t do a buyback under current regulation.