Enthused by a renewed optimism among the corporate and individual investors in the capital market, SEBI chief U.K. 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 the past couple of months, Sinha told PTI in an interview here 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.

Talking about the steps taken by the government to boost investment, Sinha said: “So far as the public sector units are concerned, you are seeing that the government is creating National Investment Board and the idea is to accelerate the approval process and the investment process for the PSUs.

“Of course, the government policies have helped and the factors outside India have also helped, because this year, we have seen record volume of FII inflows. If you look at the market, I think that for the calendar year, starting January, our market has given more than 20 per cent return, which is a very-very healthy return.”

Sinha added: “So, the market has given a very good return and even the rupee is stabilising, the FII inflows are good and on the policy front also, positive developments are happening. So, may be all these factors combined together, have led to people looking to start making investments and coming to the primary market.”

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