NEW DELHI, JULY 28: Guess which is the safest investment avenue for investors. Yes, it's the traditional bank deposits and gold, as per a survey conducted by NCAER and SEBI. US-64 of the UTI, the largest mutual fund scheme in the country, has been ranked third safest investment option.The survey among three lakh households has estimated that India has over three crore investors, who have directly or indirectly invested in capital markets, making it the second largest investor population after the US.NCAER director general, Rakesh Mohan said the very low rating of bonds and debentures has highlighted the fact there was much more to do for the development of the debt market in the country. The survey has found bank deposits and gold as the safest with no chances of losing money."We are very pleased to find that the US-64 has been ranked third in terms of safest instrument," finance minister Yashwant Sinha said while releasing the Sebi-NCAER survey on Friday."We had some problems with the UTI's US-64 sometime back. The joint efforts taken by government and UTI has made it possible to come out of the problem," he said.Meanwhile, Sebi has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of YH Malegam for determining a system for valuation of dotcom companies. The Sebi committee on dotcom valuations, constituted a fortnight ago, comprises of JR Verma from Sebi, MD Pai, vice president (finance) Infosys, and representatives from the NSE and BSE."We have appointed a small group to determine the modalities. It is difficult to determine the value of a dot com as we are not sure of the revenue secured and the value of intangible assets. The committee will decide as to what kind of disclosures can be made," Sebi chairman DR Mehta told reporters.Sebi has also initiated discussions with market analysts and editors of leading publications to put in place norms regarding `motivated market analysis'.Sebi has also extended the margins imposed under carry forward system to Alternate Lending and Borrowing Mechanism (ALBM). Under ALBM, the regulator has fixed a limit of Rs five crore per broker, while the total borrowing has been capped at Rs 40 crore.Regarding the issue of market analysis and insider trading, Mehta said a round table meeting will be held with the editors of leading publications in the first fortnight of August to assess whether framing of norms in this regard would infringe the freedom of press.There have been complaints that these analysis are motivated. So we have to see what is the international practice and act accordingly. But we also do not want to step on the freedom of press. We are examining this issue, he said.
