Mumbai, Apr 5 (IANS): The Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI), the pan-India organisation comprising of over 900 stock brokers, has approached the Maharashtra government seeking relief from the fresh curfew and lockdown measures.

To contain the spread of Covid-19 infections in the state, the Maharashtra government on Sunday imposed partial lockdown as a precautionary measure from April 5 to 30.

However, only leading exchanges NSE and BSE and banks, etc, have been exempted from the partial lockdown.

Contending that stock broking is a systematically important part of financial services industry and crucial for exchange operations, ANMI, in its submission to the Maharashtra government, has urged it to include financial market intermediaries -- stock brokers -- as essential service providers.

ANMI has also sought to allow broking staff to travel by local transport and to exempt them from partial lockdown or curfew.

An ANMI official said: "Since NSE and BSE are permitted to work, the intermediaries are also required to keep their offices open and hence we request the government to add stock brokers in the category of essential services to ensure they can provide services to their clients. Further, apart from NSE and BSE, other exchanges like NCDEX, MCX, MSE and Depositories CDSL, NSDL should also exempted from restrictions."

Stock broker offices are mostly located in Mumbai and the staff is required to commute between office to home till late in the night.

"Further, trading hours of commodity brokers is permitted by SEBI upto 11 p.m. and the office is required to be kept open till the market is open and by the time the staff leaves the office after completing his work it is 12 midnight," it said.