‘We have to make some corrections on the fiscal side. If we don’t do it now, it will be too late’

In this Walk the Talk on NDTV 24x7 with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, SEBI chairman UK Sinha says that despite the gloom, there is still a lot of hope in the market

I am at the SEBI headquarters in Mumbai's new financial district. My guest this week is somebody who has the onerous task of bringing some cheer back to our financial and stock markets which have lately begun to look like a sad Meena Kumari movie. Mr UK Sinha, Chairman of SEBI, welcome to Walk the Talk.

There is not only gloom, there is a lot of hope in the market.

Tell us the bad news first.

The bad news is that people generally do not have a good perception about how things are going to evolve. I recently had an interaction with a group of around 30 investors in Singapore and when I gave them some figures about how the fundamentals of this country are still very, very attractive for them, they were quite surprised. For example, look at the price to earning (PE) ratio of our main index. Whenever our PE index has gone below 14 in the past, people have made lots of money in a span of six to eight months. It has happened thrice in the past. Look at the price to book ratio. It is less than 2.8. At that level, our market is a very good market to buy. So for foreigners having a view about our market, it is very important to realise that India today is providing a good opportunity. Our market may not have done very well in the last one year or two years...

But why has the mood dived?

We can't ignore what is happening outside India...the global situation. In spite of that, if you look at the last six months, our market has given a positive return of 10 per cent. But, of course, on a one-year period or a three-year period, people are having problems. But it's the same case with other markets. Look at any other BRICS market, their performance is no way better than the Indian market.

... contd.

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