Take steps to eliminate insider trading: PM to Sebi

Committing to strengthen the Securities and Exchange Board of India Sebi,Prime Minister Manamohan Singh today asked the market regulator to eliminate insider trading and take steps to encourage small investors to invest in equities.

8230; regulation should be guided by the need to increase transparency and lead to higher investments being channelised into productive endeavours,which strengthen our economy, he said at the silver jubilee celebration of Sebi here. Our government remains committed to doing everything that is needed to strengthen Sebi so that it can deliver even more effective enforcement, he said. Calling upon Sebi to upgrade and improve itself,Singh said,A key indicator of Sebis future effectiveness will be its ability to root out the hard-to-define but extremely pernicious disease of insider trading. Singh said,Mobilisation of household savings into productive investment in the capital market must be a key goal for everyone in the financial sector.

Meanwhile,finance minister P Chidambaram asked Sebi to regulate the market fearlessly to protect small investors interests,and not to bow or bend before anyone. He also asked Sebi to scale up its human resource.