|
|
|
||
| HOME | NEWS | REPORT | |||
|
July 9, 2000
NEWSLINKS
|
Spread equity culture across India: PM
Our Correspondent in Bombay Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today urged India's capital market to spread the equity culture across India, even to remote village, to ensure that savings are channeled for productive purposes. This, he said, will also ensure that the benefits of trading in stocks are reaped by everyone as against a select few amassing huge amounts of money.
Sidelights of an Indian PM's first-ever visit to a stock exchange. Vajpayee made these remarks after inaugurating the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Stock Exchange, Mumbai, aka the Bombay Stock Exchange or BSE. Incidentally, Vajpayee is the first ever Indian prime minister to visit a stock exchange in India. Vajpayee said all measures should be taken to ensure that fraudulent companies are kept at bay. He was referring to the recent scandals of "vanishing companies" that disappeared from the corporate arena after raising huge finances from the public through equity issues. He also spoke disapprovingly of the trend of Indian stock markets sneezing when foreign markets catch a cold. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said the bourses must evolve mechanisms to safeguard the interests of the small investors who are ''the bedrock of the capital market". He complimented the BSE for being second to none in the world. "We have reached a stage where we can teach others about transparent and responsible stock market operations," he said.
Maharashtra Governor Dr P C Alexander said the government, the capital market, trade and industry should collaborate to explain to the common masses the true objectives of economic liberalisation. "Let us remove the misconceived notions and misunderstandings on this," he said. Alexander also stressed that the authorities should concentrate as much on transition management as they do on crisis management. "The Indian economy is undergoing a transition. We need to explain the benefits of this transition in a proper perspective," he said. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the state government would extend its cooperation in strengthening leading stock markets like the BSE. Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman D R Mehta said Indian stock markets have matured very fast in recent times. "In the last five years, there was not a single trading day when the stock markets were closed for wrong reasons," he said. Mehta sought more powers for SEBI in order to ensure fool-proof checks on the volatile markets BSE President Anand Rathi said the BSE has made rapid strides in market capitalisation in recent times (Rs 50 billion in 1980, Rs 8 trillion in 2000 -- up 160 per cent). The BSE, he said, has helped create wealth for more than 40 million investors in this country. He said the BSE would be promoted as an International Institute of Finance and Capital Markets. Rathi also made a few suggestions for strengthening the financial system in India. Finance Minister Sinha and Rathi would confabulate in New Delhi next week to discuss the suggestions including the setting up of a separate task force for capital markets. The taskforce should formulate comprehensive suggestions for faster and structured development of the country's capital markets in the next five years, Rathi said. 'India must aim at 10 pc growth rate' India needs to speed up and widen its economic reforms and aim for a growth rate over 10 per cent in the long-term, Vajpayee said. He said the seven per cent gross domestic product or GDP growth rate expected for 2000-01 was not enough. Yashwant Sinha had said earlier that the GDP growth would cross seven per cent in 2000/01. The growth rate target for the coming years was 8-10 per cent, he said. Vajpayee said India's strengths in manufacturing core industries, financial and other services and also agriculture should not be grossly undervalued. He said well-managed firms of the Old Economy should be able to access adequate funds from the markets. (The New Economy stocks have a weightage of around 32 per cent on the BSE's 30-share Sensitive Index or Sensex. The primary market is dominated by initial public offerings of New Economy companies, accounting for 98 per cent of the new issues in the first quarter of 2000/01.) Investors should realise the stock market is not a place for pursuing short-term gains, the PM said. Sinha disapproved the small investors' penchant to make a "quick buck".
|
||
|
HOME |
NEWS |
MONEY |
SPORTS |
MOVIES |
CHAT |
INFOTECH |
TRAVEL SINGLES | NEWSLINKS | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | GIFT SHOP | HOTEL BOOKINGS AIR/RAIL | WEATHER | MILLENNIUM | BROADBAND | E-CARDS | EDUCATION HOMEPAGES | FREE EMAIL | CONTESTS | FEEDBACK |
|||
