USD 105 trillion raised through equity and debt issuances in 10 years: SEBI Chief

NEW DELHI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said between the Financial Year 2016 (FY16) and Financial Year 2026 (FY26) (till January), around $105 trillion has been raised through equity and debt issuances in the Indian market.

He also highlighted the resilient IPO market, saying it has been “particularly vibrant”. “In FY26 (April-Jan), companies raised about $1.8 trillion through 329 IPOs as compared to around $1.7 trillion raised through 320 IPOs in FY25. This reflects not just market appetite, but issuer confidence in public markets as a platform for long-term capital”, he added.

“We have taken steps to strengthen anchor investor participation in IPOs. The anchor portion has been increased to 40%, with a defined allocation for mutual funds, life insurers, and pension funds. This encourages structured participation by long-term domestic institutions and improves the quality and stability of the anchor book,” he said.

Further, he said the corporate bond market has also expanded steadily. “It has grown at a CAGR of about 12 per cent since FY15, reaching Rs 58.2 trillion as of end of Jan-2026. The asset management industry has seen a structural expansion. Mutual Fund AUM has grown from about Rs 12 trillion in FY16 to nearly Rs 81 trillion now”, he said.

On the foreign portfolio investors, he said they continue to be an important part of this ecosystem as the equity assets under custody of FPIs have grown more than three-fold to about Rs 71 trillion by end of Jan-2026, as compared to about Rs 19 trillion at the end of FY16. Including debt and other instruments, total FPI assets under custody stand at about Rs 78 trillion.

“FPI flows are inherently cyclical. They respond to global liquidity conditions, currency movements, relative valuations, and policy stances of major central banks. What adds strength to India’s market structure today is the growing counterbalance from domestic institutional investors. This makes our markets more resilient during global risk-off phases”, he added.

Pandey further mentioned that India’s performance in global indices also reflects this evolving maturity. “Over the last six years, MSCI India (USD) Index has delivered a CAGR of around 9 per cent, compared to about 6 per cent for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Performance, of course, may vary across market phases. But consistency over time shapes long-term allocation decisions”, he said.

On the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF), Pandey said that to expand the investor pool in high-value AIF strategies, we have reduced the minimum investment threshold for Large Value Funds from Rs 70 crore to Rs 25 crore for accredited investors. “The AIF ecosystem has grown from Rs 0.1 trillion in FY15 to about Rs 6.5 trillion by end of Dec-2025, channelling risk capital into startups, private credit, and emerging sectors.”

“From Jan 1, 2026, investments by mutual funds and SIFs in REITs are treated as equity-related investments, encouraging broader participation. We have also expanded the scope of strategic investors in REITs and InvITs to include a wider set of Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), including pension funds and provident funds with adequate corpus”, he added. (ANI)