Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman addressed the 150th Celebration of Bombay Stock Exchange 

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman hailed the glory and history of the Bombay Stock Exchange that marked its 150th Year Anniversary. Renowned for being Asia’s Oldest Stock Exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s memorable day was honored by FM Nirmala Seethraman who was the chief guest. 

Along with addressing the gathering, Minister Nirmala Seetharaman lauded how the BSE’s cutting edge technology and seamless efforts and planning makes up for around 1,500 crore transactions daily. She also mentioned the nation’s capital market scope stating, “we are building markets that are inclusive, accessible, and resilient. As we look ahead, we envision Indian capital markets that are – Deep and Diverse; With a broad range of innovative instruments and a wide variety of participants – investors and those who mobilise capital.”

The Minister also pointed out how the market capitalization of BSE reached a monumental 400 Lakh Crore, making BSE a global level stock exchange. Nirmala Seetharaman also stated that, “We all stand committed to the goal of financial empowerment of our citizens, regardless of geography, gender, or income class, by providing the opportunity to participate in and benefit from the growth of our financial ecosystem. For this, we have carried out manifold reforms in the financial sector and innovatively used technology to achieve financial inclusion at scale, better and faster service delivery and promote ease of participation in financial markets. This is reflected in the strong Retail investor participation in capital markets. Our markets added a record 4.1 crore Demat accounts on Feb 25, bringing the total number of Demat accounts to 19.2 crores.”

Minister Nirmala Seetharaman also launched the BSE 150 Index, a new benchmark index to track the performance of the top 150 companies based on the liquidity and capitalization.