BUSINESS

Sebi report on May 17 crash soon

August 21, 2004 13:40 IST

Securities & Exchange Board of India would shortly submit to the government its report on the May 17 stock market crash that wiped off Rs 1,24,000 crore (Rs 1240 billion) of market capitalisation.

Chairman of Sebi G N Bajpai told PTI on Friday that "the report would be submitted to the government soon". He did not give a time-frame.

565 pts! 2nd largest Sensex fall

Asked if Sebi would fix responsibility on market intermediaries, which had caused the crash, Bajpai said, "Of course we would do that".

Earlier speaking at 'CNBC TV-18 Investor Camp' in Kolkata, Bajpai said that barring the stock market crash on May 17, Indian indices had shown much lesser volatility in recent times than they did in previous years.

Bajpai said that statistical research had shown that the correlation between Nifty and S&P was as low as 0.29, which showed that foreign investors were placing greater reliance on Indian equity portfolio.

He also said that risks in the Indian securities market had also been minimised to a great extent.

Bajpai said foreign investors like CalPERs of the US had also shown keen interest in the Indian securities market, which had become a more attractive place for overseas funds to invest in.

He said investors currently had the option to hedge risks, which was why futures and options were gaining popularity.

Introduction of shorter settlement cycle of T+2 was also minimising risks in trading in securities, he said.

The Sebi chairman said introduction of better corporate governance was also a major reason for making the securities market more risk-free.

Asked if there was overlapping between the jurisdictions of the Sebi and Department of Company Affairs, Bajpai said there were some issues relating to listed companies, but the matter would be amicably sorted out between the two agencies.

The investor camp was also addressed by experts like Nilesh Shah, CIO of ICICI AMC, and Gul Tekchandani, CIO of SUN F&C AMC.

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