You need to hold shares in your demat account on or before the ex-date or record date to be eligible for corporate action benefits. Shares that have not been credited to your demat account by the record date or ex-date will not qualify for corporate action benefits.
Shares bought prior to the day before the ex-date/record date will always be credited, except in the following circumstances:
Settlement holiday
When a settlement holiday falls on the ex-date/record date, your shares will be credited to your demat account on the next working settlement day. For instance, if you buy shares on Monday, but Tuesday (the record date) is a settlement holiday, your shares will only be delivered by Wednesday, which means they will not be eligible for any corporate action benefits. Therefore, you must purchase shares at least one trading day before Monday to ensure that they are available in your demat account on the ex-date/record date.
Short delivery
When the seller fails to deliver the shares, it is classified as short delivery. In such situations, the exchange carries out an auction and delivers the shares to your demat account in T+2 days. Therefore, if you purchase shares on Monday but they are credited to your demat account on Wednesday or later due to short delivery, they will not be eligible for corporate action benefits since they were not present in your demat account on the ex-date/record date.
Stock price adjustment
When you purchase shares on the ex-date/record date, the stock price will have already decreased to account for the corporate action. This indicates that in nearly all instances, you would face no financial loss for failing to participate in the corporate action.