New IPO regime cuts complaints: SEBI

Enthused by a renewed optimism among the corporate and individual investors in the capital market, SEBI chief UK Sinha has said that complaints of manipulations in IPOs have dried up after the recent corrective steps. "We are noticing that there is a renewed optimism about the economy and about the market. 

Corporates who were not making investments, my impression is that they have started looking at making investments once again," Sinha said.

"The IPO market has been very sluggish this year, but in the last four weeks we are noticing a renewed interest and this gives us an impression that people are optimistic and they are going to make investments," he said.

Asked about the various reform measures undertaken by the government and SEBI itself in past couple of months, Sinha said that all these initiatives have certainly helped boost the investor sentiment and the impact is quite visible.

Listing out various steps taken for giving a boost to the IPO (initial public offer) market without compromising on the retail investors' interest, Sinha said that measures have been put in place to check issues like over-pricing of shares and listing day manipulation, and to ensure confirmed allotment to small investors. Sinha said all these measures have helped develop the market, while safeguarding the investors' interest.

About the call-auction system that has been put in place to check listing day price manipulation, Sinha said: "You will be happy to know that since we started this system about six months ago, there have been about five or six issues in the market then and in none of these issues we have received any complaint of  manipulation.

"This is another step we have taken to safeguard the interest of retail investors," he said. (PTI)