Disclosure of face value must alongside share price: Sebi

To help small investors understand the true value of shares, markets regulator Sebi has made it mandatory to disclose the face value of a stock along with the share price, Chairman U K Sinha said today.

The direction applies to the share prices displayed through tickers on media platforms like TV channels.

"Now on news channels, when you have a ticker of the share prices, there has to be a mention of the face value, whether it is Re 1, Rs 2 or Rs 10. There used to be lot of confusion and people were misled whether one share is of one rupee or whether it is of Rs 10 face value.

"Now every share price which is displayed in the media, there has to be a mention in the top about its face value," Sinha said here at a Tamil Nadu Investors Association (TIA) event.

The Sebi chief was listing out the measures taken by the capital markets regulator to improve information flow to the investors.

Among other steps, Sinha said, Sebi's computerised grievance redressal mechanism has helped improve the time taken for resolving a compliant in a big way.

"More than 50 per cent complaints are now being resolved in 30 days," he said.

Sinha said Sebi used to get a large number of complaints in the past where investor was not aware whether trading was done on his or her account and one fine day the investor would fund that something has happened without his permission.

"He might have signed some paper, which he did not know but could be a power of attorney. So his damage was limitless. Steps have been taken to check this problem.

"We have also provided that there should be a sweeping of accounts every month or every quarter, so that the broker has to return back all the securities and all the money back to client. The investor can apply his mind afresh for further trading or investments," Sinha said.

"In many other matters, for example if there is a dispute between a client and a broker, the arbitration mechanism used to be very difficult earlier.

"The investor would need to travel to Mumbai or Chennai. But Sebi has now provided that such dispute redressal mechanism can happen at 16 places, from just four places earlier," he added.

Sinha said Sebi is opening local offices and it has now got 16 offices, from just four three years ago.

"In Southern region, we have now offices in Cochin, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, besides regional office in Chennai. These are some of the measures we have taken."

The Sebi chief said that the expectations have also gone up from Sebi as the participation in securities markets has increased. He urged TIA and other investor associations to spread the word about investor protection mechanism provided by Sebi and to collaborate with the regulator for the betterment of the investors.