Be aggressive on secondary mkt

It's good to note that the retail participation has shot up in the IPO to a great extent. Still, I want them to participate aggressively in the secondary market, rather than in the primary market - Ajay Tyagi, Sebi chairman

Mumbai: Capital markets regulator Sebi has advised retail investors to aggressively participate in the secondary market for investing their hard-earned money instead of IPOs. This advice comes at a time when the retail participation in the IPO has gone up like anything.

Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi, while talking to the media on the sideline of a CII event here on Thursday, said that "it's good to note that the retail participation has shot up in IPOs to a great extent. Still, I want them to participate aggressively in the secondary market, rather than in the primary market."

Citing the reason behind it, Sebi chief said that the information booklet released by the IPO bound companies are normally bulky one and hence it's difficult for the retail investors to understand the market. Whereas in the secondary market, it becomes easier for them to understand the market and invest as per their wish.

Sebi chairman's advice to retail investors assumes significance in the wake of the fact that funds raised via IPOs in FY22 till-date are almost equal to what was raised in the entire fiscal year 2020-21 amounting to Rs46,000 crore. During the last 18 months alone, technology companies have raised 15,000 crore through IPOs.

Replying to a query, he said that Sebi doesn't fix any price for brokerage. Rather it was decided by the market competition.

Capital market regulator Sebi will carve out a separate category in alternative investment funds (AIF) to buy bad debt of banks and release capital for lending.