Mumbai: Indian Minister for Finance and Company Affairs Jaswant Singh has launched the screen-based retail trading in government securities on the stock exchanges.

The Bombay Stock Exchange is pleased to announce that retail trading in government securities will be available on the BOLT system (BSE Online trading) in the same manner in which trading takes place in equities through the BSE’s extensive network covering over 7,000 trading terminals across 400 cities.

With a view to encourage wider participation of all classes of investors, including retail investors, across India in government securities, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has notified schemes and guidelines permitting stock exchanges to allow trading in central government securities.

In accordance with this scheme, the exchange will permit trading in retail debt segment through members of the exchange fulfilling the eligibility criteria set out by Sebi.

The BSE is now also providing facility for retail trading in government securities through its portal www.bsewebx.com towards its efforts to bring such trading within the direct reach of investors.

This system offers several content-rich trading and information features for retail trading in government securities to investors and broker members that include real-time yield calculators, issue and maturity dates, prices, volume among others. With this facility, investors and members located in any part of the country will be in a position to use this facility.

As available in case of the equities market, the BSE website (www.bseindia.com) will also cover retail government securities trading and live market analysis including live technical charting on prices and yields.