Capital Market

The capital market plays an important role in mobilising the savings and diverting them in productive investment. It is a medium of transferring the financial resources from surplus and wasteful areas to deficit and productive areas meaning transfer of money or capital from those who have surplus money to those who are in need of investment thus increasing the productivity and prosperity of the country.

It deals in long-term loans. It supplies industry with fixed and working capital and finances medium-term and long-term borrowings of the central, state and local governments. The common instruments used in capital market are shares, debentures, bonds, mutual funds, public deposits etc. The funds which flow into the capital market come from individuals who have savings to invest, the merchant banks, the commercial banks and non-bank financial intermediaries, such as insurance companies, finance houses, unit trusts, investment trusts, venture capital, leasing finance, mutual funds, building societies, etc.

The capital market functions through the stock exchange. A stock exchange is a market which facilitates buying and selling of shares, stocks, bonds, securities and debentures. It is not only a market for old securities and shares but also for new issues of shares and securities. In fact, the capital market is related to the supply and demand for new capital, and the stock exchange facilitates such transactions.

Funds flow into the capital market from individuals and financial intermediaries which are absorbed by commerce, industry and government. It thus facilitates the movement of stream of capital to be used more productively and profitability to increases the national income. It prides incentives to savers in the form of interest, dividend or bonus and transfers funds to investors, thus leading to capital formation.

The capital market encourages economic growth by leading to the development of commerce and industry through the private and public sector. In an underdeveloped country where capital is scarce, the absence of a developed capital market is a greater hindrance to capital formation and economic growth.

Indian Business News