The Hindu Business Line : Nasdaq expects increased involvement of Indian cos

INVITING PARTICIPATION: Mr Ghanshyam Dass, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Nasdaq, at an interactive session organised by Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kolkata on Saturday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata April 7 A number of Indian institutions are following the likes of ICICI Securities and HDFC Securities, which have lately trooped to Nasdaq. Quite a few applications from home-grown securities broking companies have been recorded by the exchange.

The exchange, which claims to be a leader in terms of market making of listed stocks, expects a marked step-up in involvement of Indian players. This, it also feels, will help add an entirely new dimension to the relationship between Nasdaq and local outfits.

Mr Ghanshyam Dass, MD - Asia Pacific, Nasdaq, said more would be known on this front in due course. He, however, did not wish to reveal the names of the companies that are readying to sign up.

CREATING LIQUIDITY

Nasdaq is of the view that a good exchange will aim at providing liquidity for trading in a number of ways. It will help commit more capital to listed entities by market makers and other specialist participants. The latter will create greater liquidity.

"Most of our listed companies have 17 market makers on an average. In some cases, including those in the Nasdaq 100, there are 140 or even more," he said. For a quality market, liquidity forms the bedrock, he added.

Indian involvement is at any rate growing in scale, the exchange has pointed out with reference to the growing importance of companies such as Infosys and Cognizant. Both have made great strides in terms of corporate governance and best business practices.

Indian companies, Nasdaq feels, should know that the exchange is quite diversified in terms of listed stocks. These cover a range of sectors - not information technology alone. IT, incidentally, is commonly seen as too oriented towards the exchange.

The Nasdaq official has underlined the significance of securing more remittances by Indians living abroad - just like the Chinese who have lately stepped up their investment activity on home turf.

"For India too the pattern is changing. There is more involvement on this front," Mr Dass said, adding that countries would need to pursue productive policies in the matter of attracting capital.

Securing investments will be of prime significance in the days ahead, a goal that may be achieved by several means — strategic partnerships and joint ventures with foreign companies as well as direct investments by multinationals assume importance in this context.

Cairns, for instance, is a good example of such an MNC, it is pointed out.

The capital markets are the best way of distributing wealth, the Nasdaq official said.

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