Stock market volatility may continue for some time: SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi

Amid rising volatility in the domestic stock markets, as gauged by the 30-share barometer Sensex and Nifty, which have shown wild swings over the last week, if response to bouts of global stock sell-off, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi says that the stock market will continue to remain volatile for some more time. India’s stock market opened higher on Monday following a sharp recovery on Wall Street on Friday last week with Dow Industrials rising 330-points and better Q3 earnings by some of the blue-chip companies back home. The Sensex gained 272.48 points to hit the day’s high of 34,278.24 whereas NSE Nifty marked the day’s peak of 10,538.1, up by 83.15 points.

However, the current recovery has come after a heavy turmoil witnessed last week, and during the three-day sell-off, up until 6 February, the Sensex washed away 1,710 points which included a massive intraday slump of 1,274 points on Tuesday (6 February 2018). In fact, in its recent bi-monthly policy, RBI noted that the financial markets have become volatile due to concerns surrounding the pace of normalisation of the US Fed monetary policy especially after a report released by the US Labor Department said that wages shot up in recent times, adding to the fear of rising inflation. “Financial markets have become volatile in recent days due to uncertainty over the pace of normalisation of the US Fed monetary policy in view of January payrolls data showing rapidly accelerating wage growth and better than expected employment,” RBI said in its Sixth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement released on February 7th.

In his address to the press, RBI Governor Urjit Patel on Saturday said the stock market bubble should not lead to a very major problem and said that regulators must be cognizant of the risks going forward. “There has already been a correction not only globally but in India and therefore in a way it underscores how capital markets can change direction,” RBI Governor Urjit Patel said. “So far neither globally nor in India have we felt that this bubble could lead to a very major problem. However, as financial market regulators both RBI and Sebi need to be cognisant of the risk going forward,” Urjit Patel added.

Securities and Exchange Board of India ( SEBI )