Political instability always bad for stock markets: FM

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday that stock markets could not be insulated from external developments but ruled out any role for the government and the regulator as long as the price movement was orderly.

At the same time, he dubbed as "very good" the returns for investors since the UPA government came to power. "This market is still giving good returns for anyone who invested in July 2004. The market is still giving very good returns," he said.

Stating that political instability is always bad for the stock market, Chidambaram said that bourses cannot be insulated from the developments in other markets either, as is the case with the trends being witnessed in current scenario.

Commenting on the recent trends on Indian bourses that has seen the benchmark Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange falling from 21,000 level in January this year to near 13,000-point level now, the Finance Minister said, "Everything has to be looked at in the context. Terms of trade, thanks to oil and commodity, have worsened in India.

He said, "The regulator and government is concerned about the orderly movement only. If it (market) moves up or down why should the government take a view on that?" On complaints of price rigging by certain corporate and if SEBI has informed the government about it, Chidambaram said, "SEBI will not and should not talk to me. If there is any complaint on market rigging, SEBI will inquire into it."

Recently, Anil Ambani group had written to SEBI that corporate rivals were pulling down prices of Reliance Communication and other group companies.

thanks to :- economictimes.indiatimes.com