Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plans to impose a limit on the minimum market capitalization for companies to remain listed in an effort to weed out so-called penny stocks, said two people aware of the development, including an official with the regulator.

Sebi is considering a free-float market capitalization of Rs10 crore for companies to remain listed, these people said. Free-float market cap is the value of publicly traded shares.

Domestic and newer credit-rating agencies (CRAs) have said certain practices in the industry need to be addressed even as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought to streamline the processes and create a level playing field.

On December 28 last year, after its final board meeting for 2017, Sebi amended the regulations related to CRAs in the country.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi's) renewed push to split the role of an investment advisor and distributor is causing a lot of heartburn among mutual fund honchos. “If Sebi’s proposal is implemented, the mutual fund industry is likely to lose 40 per cent of its business,” says the CEO of a fund house.

Currently, the mutual fund industry’s inflows come from three sources – 40 per cent from banks and 30 per cent each from independent financial advisors and distributors. Industry players said that collection from branches of leading players like ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund would be much more.

Though it was during the UPA tenure—early 2011—that the government got into a spat with UTI’s board over trying to appoint its nominee as the head despite him having no financial background, the BJP government has not made any major headway in resolving the tangle. While the government had brought in US investor T Rowe Price—when US-64 had collapsed—in an attempt to professionalise it, that didn’t really happen and the government remained in control of the fund with SBI, Punjab National Bank, LIC and Bank of Baroda holding an 18.5% stake each in it.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday said exchanges would be allowed to deal in both equities and commodities from October 2018, a move that would benefit the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the BSE, and the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), which currently trade in either of the two categories.

The capital markets regulator also announced easier access norms for foreign investors and capped cross-holdings in credit rating agencies (CRAs) as well as mutual funds (MFs) to safeguard investors’ interest.

In its first order in the WhatsApp leak case, regulator Sebi today ordered Axis Bank to strengthen its systems and conduct an internal probe to fix responsibility as the initial investigation showed the leakage due to "inadequacy" of processes at the bank.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will consider a raft of proposals to ease various compliance procedures for listed insolvent companies—especially with regard to trading, listing and de-listing norms, and declaration of financial results—at its board meeting on Thursday, official sources told FE. The proposals include relaxing the requirement of a minimum 25% public shareholding and the stringent procedures to de-list a stressed company, if that is part of the resolution plan.

Mumbai: Market regulator Sebi is set to revisit its earlier directive that made it mandatory for listed companies to inform stock exchanges in the event of loan default.

This will be one of the items that will be looked into by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) at its agenda-heavy board meeting on December 28.

Dozens of Indian securities officials descended on the homes of brokers and others on Friday in a widespread early morning raid in Mumbai, and possibly other cities, a regulatory source said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) raids are a sign that a probe by the regulator is gathering steam. The investigation is looking into who was responsible for circulating prescient messages about major Indian companies' corporate announcements in social media chatrooms, according to the regulator.

In a major crackdown against leak of price sensitive information about listed firms, market watchdog Sebi today conducted searches at premises of more than 30 market analysts and dealers and seized documents, computers, mobiles and laptops. The searches follow a probe into circulation of unpublished price sensitive information about various listed companies, including some blue chips, through WhatsApp messages and social media chatrooms.

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