With an influx of retail investors in equity markets, trading in stocks through mobile phones and electronic systems has ramped up during the coronavirus period, Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi said on Friday.
He highlighted several changes that happened in the securities markets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tyagi was speaking on the occasion of an inaugural programme -- L.L.M in Investment and Securities Law -- which was jointly introduced by the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) and Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU).
"The electronic trading replaced physical trading, new products and services emerged, strategies using artificial intelligence and machine learning came into play, the types of companies coming into the public markets kept varying, and so on so forth," Tyagi said.
"With COVID, we saw even more changes. We are witnessing an influx of retail investors into the market, mobile and electronic trading has ramped up and interactions have gone practically virtual almost everywhere," he added.
According to him, these changes over the years have ensured that securities market laws are one of the most dynamic set of laws that exist in India.
The Sebi chief said that securities market has not only transformed over time but also has expanded and branched out into different areas like alternative investment funds (AIFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and accredited investors, laws on which did not exist a decade ago in India.
Now, companies across the world are now relying more and more on securities markets to fund their corporate needs instead of bank finance.
Addressing students, Tyagi said that securities laws provide a different kind of diversity and dynamism.
On the one hand, the students may learn through various corporate laws and securities market regulations and on the other hand students may also learn the research related to dynamic process of law making related to a market, where market is changing consistently, he said.
He also spoke about need of more legal professionals in the field of the securities market. Also, he underlined the importance of research in securities law.
