Cost is in favour of exchange traded funds: SEBI

One of the positive points in favour of exchange traded funds (ETF) is their low cost of trading and time has come when along with Employee Provident Funds, other funds can look at ETFs, SEBI chairman U.K. Sinha said on Monday.

"An ETF is almost like a mutual fund with a secondary market. The markets have grown 12 times in last 12 years in India. A stage has come when along with Employee Provident Funds other funds can look at ETF too. The big plus for ETF is the cost of trading," the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman said.

Sinha was speaking at 'India ETF Conference 2015' conference organised by National Stock Exchange (NSE) here On Monday, the NSE said in a statement issued here.

The objective of the conference is to bring in different stakeholders and to hear some of the international ETF experts. The conference is expected to take Indian ETF market to the next level, the statement added.

"NSE has taken several initiatives to launch ETF products in India and abroad. From here on we expect Interests and Inflows in India to grow manifolds," Chitra Ramakrishna, managing director and CEO of the NSE, was quoted as saying.

"Soon, we expect ETF sector too have Rs.100,000 crore AUM (assets under management)," she said.