Sebi unit to launch database on markets
Sebi unit to launch database on markets
Mumbai: The National Institute of Securities Markets, or Nism, is working on the country’s first comprehensive corporate and financial database going back 50 years, which will be available in December to paid subscribers.
“The existing data has different levels of validation and is in different formats; we are trying to create a single interface and provide a common platform for users," Nism director G. Sethu said.
Nism is promoted by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi.
Nism will launch the service with stock movement data sourced from stock exchanges and financial data that listed firms submit with Sebi.
Sethu declined to reveal the pricing for the service.
To create the database, Nism is working with Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business, stock exchanges and data vendors such as Prime Database, a New Delhi-based supplier of information on primary markets, and Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd, or Cmie, which supplies company, trade and macroeconomic data.
Unlike macroeconomic data, historical data for the corporate sector going back 50 years is unavailable, say researchers.
“Most of us use Cmie’s Prowess which goes back 10-15 years," said Jayanth R. Varma, who teaches finance and accounting at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, one of the oldest business schools in the country. “For example, if I want to do a study about the 1991 reforms and the impact they have had on the corporate sector, I don’t have data that is usable."
Commercial databases in India are now provided by companies such as Cmie, rating agency Crisil Ltd and financial information providers such as Bloomberg Llc. and Thomson Reuters Plc.
Nism plans to model its database on the Wharton Research Data Services, a project started by Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 that has information about 30,000 companies including security prices and trading volume, income and balance sheet items.
“We have data from the mid-1980s, but most of our users are interested in current information," said Mahesh Vyas, managing director of Cmie.
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