SEBI regulations for appointment of ombudsmen
New Delhi: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has framed a set of regulations to pave the way for appointment of ombudsmen to redress the grievances of investors in the securities market. The regulations have held that a three-member Selection Committee will be appointed to recommend the prospective candidates to the SEBI board, which may appoint one or more Ombudsmen for such territorial jurisdiction as may be specified.

The cEBI Chairman will nominate all the members of the three-member selection committee. The committee will comprise a retired judge of a high court, an expert in the area of financial market operations and a representative of SEBI board not below the rank of an executive director. The SEBI regulations have also spelt out the grounds (totally 13) on which an investor may make a complaint to an Ombudsman. This includes non-receipt of dividend, allotment letters, refund orders, rights and bonus entitlements etc.
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Sensex opened higher in last 18 trading days
Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex has opened higher from the previous day's close on each of the last 18 trading days, equalling an earlier record. Between 12 August and 5 September, the Sensex yesterday equalled its earlier record of successive higher openings in February 2000. The Sensex had opened higher for 18 straight trading sessions between 17 February and 3 March 2000.

Curiously, in the current rally, which can be dated to 29 April 29 (the day after the index hit a six-month low) the Sensex managed to do a 14-day sprint of higher openings between 25 June and 11 July. On 12 August, for instance, the Sensex opened higher with a gap of 13.62 points. On some days — as on 22 August, the index opened more than 51 points higher.
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Around 575 companies ready to enter the market
Kolkata: The primary market is all set to witness a boom time. About 579 companies are ready to enter the capital market. The combined capital mobilisation is estimated to be Rs 50,000 crore, Prithvi Haldea, managing director, Prime Database, was quoted as saying. Haldea said his company, which has been tracking the primary market for the past 15 years, collected the data from as many as 1,200 sources comprising 70 newspapers, CEOs of a whole range of manufacturing firms, merchant bankers and bankers. But he expected that only 100 companies will enter the market this year to raise Rs 8,500 crore if the buoyant market conditions continued.

"Although 579 companies I mentioned are ready to enter the market, all of them will not come out with public issues in a year.
I expect the new entrants will be 100 or so," he explained.
Activity in the primary market has plunged in the last two years. The last two financial years witnessed introduction of six public issues in each year, compared with as much as 1,423 issues launched in 1995-96 alone.
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