Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS) India’s market regulator is set to clear a major regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed initial public offering (IPO) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) by the month-end, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference in Chennai, he said that the regulator is likely to issue a no-objection certificate to NSE soon.

“The approval could come before the end of the month, after which it would be up to NSE to take the listing process forward,” Pandey stated.

“SEBI’s no-objection certificate will be issued soon, possibly before the end of this month. It is then up to NSE to take the process forward,” he mentioned.

NSE’s IPO plans have been stuck for several years due to the so-called dark fibre case.

The case involved allegations that some high-frequency traders were given preferential access to NSE’s co-location servers between 2010 and 2014 through faster private communication lines.

This allegedly allowed them to execute trades more quickly than other market participants.

In April 2019, Securities and Exchange Board of India directed NSE to disgorge Rs 62.58 crore in alleged unlawful gains and barred some senior officials from holding market-related positions.

In 2022, SEBI also imposed a penalty of Rs 7 crore on the exchange, but this was later set aside by the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

Meanwhile, earlier in July this year, the exchange informed that nearly 1.46 lakh retail investors hold National Stock Exchange (NSE) shares in the grey (unlisted) market.

Interestingly, retail investors’ appetite remains strong despite a significant increase in share prices.

As many as 1.46 lakh investors hold positions in NSE shares, worth less than Rs 2 lakh.

According to NSE website, this number surged four-fold from 33,896 investors in the previous quarter. Conversely, 343 investors hold shares worth more than Rs 2 lakh, which is down from 354 in the previous quarter.

–IANS

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