The National Stock Exchange on Wednesday said it has started collecting information about the 48 firms, that are listed on its platform, out of the 331 suspected shell companies referred by markets regulator Sebi.

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The leading bourse would report to the Sebi about the 48 companies after collecting the information. Out of the 48 firms, ten entities had already been suspended before the Sebi's directive.

On August 7, the regulator had directed the stock exchanges to take action against 331 suspected shell companies that were referred to it by the corporate affairs ministry.

The exchanges were asked to move these shares to stage VI of the Graded Surveillance Measure with immediate effect.

"Of these 331 companies, only 48 are listed on NSE. Of these 48 companies, 10 companies were suspended prior to this directive of Sebi," the NSE said in a statement.

The regulator has asked the exchange to "seek documents from these 48 companies and verify the credentials and fundamentals of these companies".

The exchange has already commenced the process of collecting information, as advised by Sebi and would be reporting to the regulator after completing the exercise, the statement said.

Under stage VI of the GSM, trading is permitted only once a month with no upward movement in price of the security with Additional Surveillance Deposit (ASD) of 200 per cent of trade value to be deposited by the buyer.

The list of 331 suspected shell companies was referred to the watchdog by the government and many have come under the scanner of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Income Tax Department.