Capital market grown significantly in India: UK Sinha, SEBI Chief

The capital market in India has grown significantly but there are areas of weaknesses, including the issues of governance, that needed to be addressed, the head of the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said today.

"We have grown quite a bit in the Capital market and its penetration, but there are areas of weakness," SEBI Chairman U K Sinha said in his address to the day-long conference on the "US-India Economic and Financial Partnership" organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

"These areas of weakness become very stark if we discover that there are segments of the geography where lot of activities are taking place both by way of surplus money which can be invested and also by way of need for raising money," he said.

"The approach of the regulator is to provide more and more products. The approach is to provide simplification and convenience to the investors going forward. Approach is also to encourage corporate to raise money domestically," Sinha said in his key note address to the panel discussion on 'Increasing Access to Capital to Stimulate Sustainable Economic Growth: The Road to Deepening India's Capital Markets'.

Observing that a "very very large" portion of the Capital market is concentrated in the large eight to ten cities of India, Sinha said there will be need to deepen the access of Capital market to small markets and rural areas. "I believe Mutual Fund can play a very important role in that," he said.

Sinha said the Indian Capital Market is facing two problems these days. While a large number of companies have raised money, there is no trading by them. He said, of late, private equity and venture capital has started gaining some ground.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/capital-market-grown-significantly-in-india-uk-sinha-sebi-chief/articleshow/9021743.cms