Finance Ministry on Thursday discussed with various stock exchanges ways to increase participation of retail investors in the market, with the bourses suggesting steps like lowering of costs and simplification of procedures.
The other issues that came up for discussion include the proposed platform for SME companies, growth of various market segments, declining turnover and listing of new products such as third-party warrants and foreign indices on the bourses.
The meeting was attended by top officials of the four stock exchanges — the BSE, NSE, MCX-SX and USE — and SEBI.
Sources said the officials of stock exchanges raised the issue of Securities Transactions Tax (STT) in the stock market transactions, saying the levy was leading to investors shifting to commodity markets where no such tax was levied.
Also, the bourses sought lowering of compliance procedure and costs on the brokers to facilitate greater retail participation in the market.
“We looked at how to deepen the market to extend the product range...we looked at how to re-energise the cash segment and how to increase retail participation,” BSE CEO Madhu Kannan told reporters after the meeting, which was also attended by SEBI officials.
The recent volatility in the stock markets worldwide too came up for discussion, sources added.
The meeting is seen as part of an ongoing exercise at the Finance Ministry to reach out to various segments of the economy through separate meetings to allay any fears over policy framework concerns.
“We have decided that once in two months at least we will meet to look at ways and means to achieve more synergy,” Joint Secretary (Capital Markets) Thomas Matthew said.
He also said that a separate platform for small and medium enterprises (SME) is likely to be launched by different stock exchanges in this financial year.
The BSE intends to start a SME exchange by September.
