IDR, convertibles for Indian markets by year end: Damodaran

Kolkata, May 09 (UNI) Market Regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) today said it would introduce products like India Depository Receipts (IDR) and convertibles by the year end to make the Indian capital market the most preferred destination for investments.

''We have to make the Indian capital market, the market of choice for the investors. We should not lack in the number of products offered in comparison to the other stock exchanges in the world,'' SEBI Chairman M.Damodaran told reporters here.

Apart from ensuring informed investment decisions, the regulator would clean up the Mutual Fund industry and regulate distribution of mutual funds so that the investors interest is taken care of while retailing products, Mr Damodaran told reporters here.

Talks are on with the industry players and Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to bring in more transperancy in the mutual fund industry, he said.

He said in future the market regulator would also regulate the investment advisors to enable transperancy, liquidity and returns from the market.

SEBI, he said is not bent upon maximising the number of listed companies and only wants fundamentally strong companies to come in the market.

Corporate governance stipulations would be visited time and again to enable transperancy of the companies, he said.

As part of its efforts to offer more products, SEBI yesterday introduced the qualified institutional placement regime to stop companies from flocking to London and Luxemburg Stock Exchanges for raising funds through ADRs and GDRs.

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