The decision was taken at the inter-surveillance group of exchanges held here at Sebi today. Speaking to mediapersons shortly after the meeting, Sebi chairman D R Mehta explained that this measure has been resorted to curb companies from merely changing their names to suit their purpose.

A host of companies had recently changed their names (by bringing the software tag) to take advantage of the software boom on the stock exchanges. With investors lapping up software shares, several shady companies recently changed their names to push up their market prices.

The meeting had been called by Sebi to study the various risk containment measures implemented by the exchanges especially during the post budget scenario. While BSE had collected a settlementmargin of over Rs 550 margins (Rs 330 carry forward and Rs 90 crore of daily margins), Delhi Stock Exchange has collected Rs 120 crore in the form of margins, Mehta said.

"There is no problem in terms of market safety, risk containment measures are in place. But besides market safety, the integrity of the markets is also very important," said the senior executive director, incharge of investigation, L K Singhvi.

The group has also decided to set up a committee comprising of representatives of stock exchanges of Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore, Kanpur, Ahmedabad and the National Stock Exchange. The committee has been appointed to suggest measures for streamlining of the margins implemented across the exchanges. "Margins have evolved over a period of time. Some sort of rationalisation is required," explained Singhvi, in the light of various margins which are already in place at the exchanges and which have also ensured the market safety.

"The various margins need to be streamlined. There are situationswhere margins are collected like the additional volatility margins, without adequate set offs. Without weakening the system, we need to refine the whole system," he added.

Further, in order to strengthen the surveillance departments of the exchanges, Sebi has decided to introduce a training module and a certification programme which would be conducted by leading bourses like BSE and NSE.

Also on the issue of sharing sensitive information between exchanges the group decided to form a committee of four exchanges and Sebi, to work out the modalities for sharing of information.