Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) whole time member Ananth Narayan G on Monday said Indian equities have consistently delivered handsome returns over the last few years.
Terming the Indian markets “sone pe suhaga” for delivering higher returns for lower risks, Narayan also flagged a few areas of caution for investors and asked them to be conscious of the risks.
Speaking at an event at the National Stock Exchange, Narayan said FY24 was a remarkable year, with the benchmark indices returning 28% and the volatility being just 10%.
He said it will not be the same going forward and investors should not assume it to be a one-way street, as such handsome returns can lead to complacency.
“There has to be a light push on the accelerator to get more investors to provide risk capital for the economic growth. But, we also need to be aware of risks and use the brakes if need be,” Narayan said, highlighting the importance of educating investors.
He said Indian equities have outperformed China over the last five years, with India delivering consistent returns of 15% while China has been zero or even negative in the same time period.
“There’s been a lot of talks about China markets over the last few days. But, over the last five years, while Indian markets have consistently given around 15% compounded annual growth rate, Chinese markets were nowhere close to that. It’s almost zero,” Narayan said. “In fact, in some cases, like in Hong Kong, it’s actually negative.”
Piyush Chourasia, NSE’s chief regulatory officer, said the stock exchange has been helping the regulator to talk to social media platforms directly to take down messages regarding stock times and unregistered advices.
“SEBI is talking proactively with the government and social media agencies on how we can stop these messages from being published, rather than finding them out and taking them down,” Chourasia said.