"There is an urgent need to clean up and unless this is boldly achieved, much of the feel good factor generated by the Budget will go awry," Assocham said in a release.

"We appreciate Sebi's new set of guidelines which are aimed at ensuring a smooth settlement and to arrest volatility in the market," it said, adding, "unless deterrent punishment is enforced on the guilty who seem to manipulate stock prices, it will expose Sebi's lack of supervisory and regulatory mechanism and the sentiment in the market will continue to be low".