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Sebi ensuring safe markets: Sinha

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said on Tuesday the nation's stock market watchdog Sebi has taken steps to boost investor confidence following a crash in domestic stock prices.

But Sinha made no comment about the findings of a keenly awaited report by the Securities and Exchange Board of India investigating the cause of the slide in share prices.

"The objective of the government and Sebi is to ensure capital markets operate in an orderly, transparent, safe and fair manner," Sinha said in a written statement to parliament.

The Sebi report was submitted on Sunday to the finance ministry. Media reports said it accused short sellers of helping grease the slide in domestic share prices.

Indian shares fell sharply in early March, sparking allegations of insider trading and price rigging.

Sinha said "certain broking entities were identified in initial investigations (by Sebi) with the help of stock exchanges" for immediate enquiries and the investigation was later extended to embrace Bombay broker Ketan Parekh.

Parekh, known as the Bombay Bull, was arrested late last month on fraud allegations.

Sinha said the government has already announced plans to improve trading practices in wake of the stocks crash. These measures included corporatisation of stock exchanges under which ownership, management and trading membership would be separate.

Before the slide, the regulator had also already introduced an investor protection fund, surveillance systems in stock exchanges and risk management measures such as market circuit breakers to curb exaggerated share price movements, Sinha added.

He added the government planned to propose changes to the Sebi Act 1992 to strengthen investor protection but gave no details.

Bombay's benchmark index has lost more than 23 per cent from a peak hit on March 1, a day after the presentation of a market-friendly budget.

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