Sebi official asks investors not to carry away by unrealistic gains stories

Investors should observe maximum due diligence while investing in stock market and should not be carried away by stories of unrealistic gains, Sebi Whole Time Member G Mahalingam said

Investors should observe maximum due diligence while investing in stock market and should not be carried away by the stories of unrealistic gains being made by others, Sebi Whole Time Member G Mahalingam said on Monday.

He, further, said that an investor should invest by taking into consideration his/her own risk appetite and should invest time in studying the fundamentals.

"A rule of thumb for having exposure in the equity market is to subtract one's age from 100 and invest that percentage amount in the equity market and balance in diversified asset classes," he was quoted in statement issued by BSE.

He was speaking at physical seminar on investor's awareness conducted in Chennai by BSE Investors Protection Fund (BSE IPF) in co-ordination with markets regulator Sebi, depository CDSL and ministry of finance.

The programme was conducted under the "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" series. This was the first of 100 programmes planned to celebrate 75 years of India's independence and promote investor awareness and education to achieve financial independence.

"Sebi has in recent times introduced various measures such as e-KYC for opening of trading and demat accounts, pledge mechanism of securities for margin, interoperability amongst Clearing Corporations, shortening the period for blocking of investors funds from 6 to 4 days in IPOs etc," Khushro Bulsara, Head- BSE IPF said.

According to Bulsara, these measures have resulted in large number of investors entering the capital market and taking India's market capitalisation to the fifth largest in the world.

At the event, Mahalingam also launched a special initiative by BSE IPF and Priya Agarwal of Vibgyor Education on pledgecertificate.com where investors in India and all over the world, can create personalised Certificate of Pledge by adopting qualities of a prudent investor and pledge to achieve financial independence.

Already, over 11,000 investors have created their own Pledge Certificates and are sharing on various social media, the exchange said.