Know the Nifty sentiment via ‘tweets’

Sagar Bhadra

Tania Kishore Jaleel

Mumbai, Nov,20

Film stars have taken to it, so have politicians. Now it is the turn of the National Stock Exchange to log in to “tweet”.

India’s largest stock exchange is now on Twitter, the popular social networking and micro-blogging  Website. Account-holders can post tweets, or messages, that are text-based and not more than 140 characters.

The exchange started posting messages-or tweeting, in Twitter lingo-on its account from last Friday when it tweeted Nifty level for the first time (at 5003), followed by an update of the market levels every 5 or 10 minutes.

A week later, and by the end of this Friday, NSE  has tweeted its market levels 352 times and already garnered 778 followers, or people on Twitter who regularly track posts from an account.

“NSE coming on Twitter will help retail investors keep in touch with the markets on a regular basis,” said   Mr.  Aditya   Mehta, Business Head-Online Trading , Asit C. Mehta Investment, a domestic brokerage Firm.

Using Twitter, the NSE is bridging the gap in the technology divide and ensuring information reaches the investors directly, as opposed to doing so through a broker, the avid Twitter-user Added.

By being on the Micro-blogging Web site, NSE is looking to differentiate itself as a modern brand and become popular among the tech-savvy, said Mr Atul Hegde, CEO of Ignitee India, a digital marketing firm. Followers  of the NSE account can get regular updates through SMS-an invaluable service to many who do not have regular access to Internet to check market levels.This could perhaps explain why the NSE managed to garner a massive following on Twitter in just a week. 

The NSE is certainly not the first stock exchange to get on to the Twitter bandwagon. London’s FTSE, Japan’s Nikkeri, and America’s Nasdaq are already on the Website. These stock exchange tweet more than just market levels and include posts on market updates and relevant news items that add value for readers.

“ Right now NSE’s Twitter account is just a live ticker and could lose its appeal if it remains unchanged,” Mr Hegfe added.

Market players said that the NSE cold move on to providing more information on Twitter, similar to the way its global counterparts have. Now what remains to be seen is whether the BSE will be the next tweeting exchange.