Market wants new Sebi chief to keep it simple

After an action-packed three years of regulations, market participants are hoping for a steady hand when new Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey takes charge. 

The longest-serving secretary of the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM), who was also responsible for Air India’s divestment to Tata Group, Pandey will take over the reins from Madhabi Puri Buch at a time when the market conditions aren’t really investor-friendly. After four-and-a-half years of bull run, the Indian stock markets seem to be in bear grip.  

UR Bhatt, director at Alphaniti Fintech, said that too many regulations make things difficult, and there should be simplification of rules, especially for margins in the futures and options market. “On risk management, while the regulator has done good, there is room for more,” he added.

According to Vinod Kothari, consultant at Vinod Kothari & Company, the unfinished agenda of ease of doing business needs to be taken forward. Regulations are often laced with compliance burden. It needs to be addressed as well.

He added that there has been a lot of action by way of consultation, proactive rule-making, bringing several stakeholders in the capital markets within the fold of regulation, creating new instruments such as small and medium REITs, etc. “The pace of such developments need to be continued,” he added.  

While tighter norms for primary markets were a positive in Buch’s tenure, a market participant said they need to be stricter. He believes that the Indian markets should follow a US-market like approach for deeper analytics and data. “24-hour trading of index futures should be allowed,” he added. 

Mahavir Lunawat, chairman of Association of Investment Bankers in India (AIBI), believes that Pandey’s tenure begins at a critical juncture when the market conditions are turbulent, and yet there are a huge number of companies waiting to tap the market. 

“In the past six years, 851 initial public offerings (IPOs) hit the market. As per the recent outlook, the next two fiscals could even exceed these numbers, making India a global IPO hub,” he said.  

Lunawat believes that as the Indian economy continues to get stronger, capital formation remains a pressing need. And Pandey’s leadership is expected to play a pivotal role in further enhancing the regulatory environment to channelise liquidity,

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