Indian capital markets scaled rapidly over last decade; Rs 1.7 lakh crore raised via 311 IPOs this fiscal: SEBI chief

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on Saturday highlighted that the Indian capital markets have shown significant growth over the last decade in segments across equity, derivatives, Mutual Funds, REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), InvITs (Infrastructure Investment Trusts), and corporate bonds.

Speaking on the performance in the current financial year, he said, "The number of unique investors has surged from 4.3 crore in FY20 to 13.7 crore, as of today. The first nine months of this financial year have seen 1.7 lakh crore raised through 311 IPOs (Initial Public Offerings), with total equity mobilisation already crossing 3.8 lakh crore."

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At the 15th International Capital Market Convention 2026 hosted by the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) in Chennai, Pandey also commented about the regulatory framework, saying, "We are building a smarter regulatory architecture, one that streamlines compliance and removes duplication while safeguarding investor protection and market integrity. Recently, we notified the SEBI stockbrokers regulations 2026. We have permitted diversification into activities overseen by other financial sector regulators, subject to prescribed safeguards."

"A revised framework to address technical glitches in the stockbrokers' trading system was issued yesterday. The new framework will ease compliance for small stockbrokers, as it is applicable only to stockbrokers with a sizable clientele and technology dominance," he said.

In a significant development, SEBI, on Friday, unveiled its new technical glitch resolution mechanism for stock brokers' electronic trading systems, which would be less stringent and more conducive for market intermediaries.

The new system is now in effect for stock brokers with a client base exceeding 10,000. The eligibility criteria have thus resulted in approximately 60 per cent of the brokers being taken out of this framework, and, thus, their total compliance cost has been reduced, as stated by SEBI.

Under the new system, the reporting requirements have been made easier by means of a longer time allowed for reporting technical issues (from one hour to two hours), taking into account the trading holidays while submitting reports and making the reporting requirement less complicated (i.e. from reporting to all exchanges to one reporting platform).

As per the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) annual summary for Calendar Year (CY) 2025, Rs 1.72 lakh crore was raised through mainboard IPOs, an increase of 8 per cent compared to the previous year. The states of Maharashtra, Delhi-NCR, and Karnataka were the top contributors in terms of both the number and total value of IPOs.

With ANI inputs