Indian Capital Market Recent Developments and Policy Issues

There are 22 stock exchanges in India, the first being the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which began formal trading in 1875, making it one of the oldest in Asia. Over the last few years, there has been a rapid change in the Indian securities market, especially in the secondary market. Advanced technology and online-based transactions have modernized the stock exchanges. In terms of the number of companies listed and total market capitalization, the In-dian equity market is considered large relative to the country's stage of economic development. The number of listed companies increased from 5,968 in March 1990 to about 10,000 by May 1998 and market capitalization has grown almost 11 times during the same period. The debt market, however, is almost nonexistent in India even though there has been a large volume of Government bonds traded. Banks and financial institutions have been holding a substantial part of these bonds as statutory liquidity requirement. The portfolio restrictions on financial institutions' statutory liquidity requirement are still in place. A primary auction market for Government securities has been created and a primary dealer system was introduced in 1995. There are six authorized primary dealers. Currently, there are 31 mutual funds, out of which 21 are in the private sector. Mutual funds were opened to the private sector in 1992. Earlier, in 1987, banks were allowed to enter this business, breaking the monopoly of the Unit Trust of India (UTI), which maintains a dominant position. Before 1992, many factors obstructed the expansion of equity trading. Fresh capital issues were controlled through the Capital Issues Control Act. Trading practices were not transparent, and there was a large amount of insider trading. Recognizing the importance of increasing investor protection, several measures were enacted to improve the fairness of the capital market. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established in 1988. Despite the rules it set, problems continued to exist, including those relating to disclosure criteria, lack of broker capital adequacy, and poor regulation of merchant bankers and underwriters. There have been significant reforms in the regulation of the securities market since 1992 in conjunction with overall economic and financial reforms. In 1992, the SEBI Act was enacted giving SEBI statutory status as an apex regulatory body. And a series of reforms was introduced to improve investor protection, automation of stock trading, integration of national markets, and efficiency of market operations. India has …