Capital market meet to focus on improving Indian bourses

Tuesday, 05 August 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: A two-day convention will be held in India's financial capital of Mumbai from Wednesday to explore ways to improve the functioning of domestic stock exchanges, organisers said Tuesday. The convention will be organised jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country's capital market watchdog. CAPAM '03 will chart a roadmap to improve the capital market's depth, reach and efficiency and analyse the current state of the Indian capital market in the global context. "The Indian capital market has witnessed some significant reforms on the structural, operational and regulatory front over a period of time," said Naina Lal Kidwai, chairperson of FICCI's capital market committee. "While on one hand these changes have made the Indian market comparable to many developed markets, on the other hand our markets still face some inherent problems such as lack of depth, liquidity and investor confidence," she noted. According to the organisers, key issues that will be debated at the conference will include the outlook for India's equity markets and what India should do to improve its capital markets. Issues like corporate governance, pension sector reforms, enhancing liquidity in the stock market, the derivatives market's future prospects and debt market will also be discussed at the two-day meet. SEBI chairman G.N. Bajpai will deliver the keynote address while Alain Morvan, senior vice president (international relations) of the New York Stock Exchange, will deliver a special address. FICCI said that the meet would also deliberate on privatisation of India's state-owned firms through the public offering route that, the lobby group says, could act as a major positive trigger for the stock market. "This has in fact been proved by the recent Maruti IPO that clearly indicates that there is genuine appetite for stocks of successful public sector companies among the common investors," it said. "Forthcoming disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and other public sector undertakings are likely to receive good response from the public." The huge success of the public offering launched by Maruti Udyog Ltd., India's largest carmaker, in June has fuelled hopes of fast sales of government stakes in other state-run firms such as BPCL and National Aluminium Company (NALCO). The Indian government divested 25 percent of its 45.8 percent stake through public offering in Maruti, a unit of Japanese automobile major Suzuki Motor Corporation. Maruti's offering is the first issue to hit the Indian market this fiscal.
Source: IANS
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