By Jayshree P Upadhyay
MUMBAI (Reuters) -The board of India’s markets regulator on Saturday said it will regulate online platforms offering fractional ownership of real estate assets, and such platforms will be registered under a framework for small and medium real estate investment trusts.
In a statement after its quarterly board meeting, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also said that fresh investments by alternative investment funds would be stored electronically from Sept. 2024.
SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said investors were losing money in equity derivatives trading and it was the regulator’s duty to warn them of the risks.
But Buch said the rise in equity derivatives trading did not pose any systemic concerns.
The surge in trading of derivatives in an historically conservative market environment emerged after stock exchanges changed some options contracts to facilitate quicker and cheaper bets and as online retail trading platforms proliferated.
Buch said SEBI has told an exchange that feedback from brokers and investors was needed before allowing extension of market hours.
She didn’t mention the National Stock Exchange though, which had sent a proposal for evening trading sessions to SEBI.
Concerns regarding SEBI’s plan to allow same-day settlement of equity market trades to help retail investors were “exaggerated”, Buch said.
The regulator on Saturday also approved rules for index providers, and said some indices that are frequently used by market participants will come under SEBI rules.
(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay; writing by Krishn Kaushik, editing by Alexandra Hudson and Christina Fincher)
