Kotak Securities launches 'Kotak Flat'

Mumbai, Aug 7: With a promise of freeing the investors from fixed percentage system of charging brokerages, Kotak Securities -- a fully-owned subsidiery of Kotak Mahindra Bank -- today launched a new product 'Kotak Flat', offering a flat rate of Rs nine for either buying or selling shares through its website 'kotaksecurities.com'.

Talking to the reporters here today, Kotak Securities Managing Director Narayan S A said: ''Our product is designed for investors with a monthly surplus greater than Rs 5,000 who actively invest through internet.'' Referring to a recent survey conducted by Starcomm, he said that nearly half of the investors are against the fixed percentage of charging brokerage. And it was why we have launched the product, he added.

The company's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director (Retail equities) D Kannan said, ''Right now 12 per cent of the country's population is involved in the internet trading on stock exchange which was likely to go up to 50 per cent within the next 4-5 years.'' ''Hence we think there lies tremendous growth opportunity in the sector,'' he added.

Apart from Kotak Securities, there are four large players in the field including ICICI, India Bulls, Sharekhan and Indiainfo. The company, which is six years old in the field of brokerage through internet, has a total of 83,000 customers at present and is hopeful of increasing the figure to two lakh by the year-end, said E Prasanth Prabhakaran, senior vice president and head of kotaksecurities.com.

He made it clear that the new product was meant for retail investors.

UNI