Investor wealth grows 10 times in a decade

Market capitalisation of all listed companies on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Asia first stock exchange, reached historic milestone of Rs. 100 lakh crore-mark on Friday for the first time.

The landmark level was reached in early morning trades when the market capitalisation (m-cap) touched Rs.100.01 lakh crore. However it slipped marginally below that level to close at Rs. 99,81,572 crore.

The benchmark 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) closed at 28693.99 with a gain of 255.08 points or 0.90 per cent. It touched an intra-day high of 28822.37, a record high surpassing the previous high of 28541.96 on November 24.

This achievement is a reflection of India's growth potential as seen from the foreign investor’s perspective as well as the competitiveness of Indian entrepreneurs to manage world class organisations, said Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, BSE.

“How do we use stock market as a tool for catalysing industrial activity and create 30 crore new jobs over the next 20 years. Job creation is the most pressing issue India needs to resolve in the next 20 years. Stock markets can play a huge role in job creation”, said Mr. Chauhan, while talking to The Hindu.

“It has taken India and BSE 140 years to reach this milestone of Rs.100 lakh crore market capitalisation. However, given India's potential, the country should be able to achieve multiple times Rs. 100 lakh crore market capitalisation in time to come. In that sense, India has a long way to go on the path of job creation and wealth creation” Mr. Chauhan added. BSE has also increased its market share due to its faster technology which it introduced in April 2014. BSE launched its equity trading platform software ‘BOLT Plus’. This trading system is based on T7, the global trading architecture of Deutsche Bourse AG. One of the key features of the system is its response time of approximately 200 micro seconds, making it the fastest trading platform in the country. BSE's new technology, which is open source and low cost, can handle five lakh orders per second.

This cements India's place further as a growing world economic power. I believe this gets India to roughly 2.5 per cent of the world market cap and the ninth largest equity market globally. And if the new Government delivers on the economic front then one can see India rise further, given not too many countries are showing the growth/investment potential,” said Aashish Kamat, CEO of UBS.