CAPITAL MARKETS are financial markets for the buying and selling of long-term debt or equity-backed securities. These markets channel the wealth of savers to those who can put it to long-term productive use, such as companies or governments making long-term investments
Importance or Functions of Capital Market:
1. Link between Savers and Investors:
The capital market functions as a link between savers and investors. It plays an important role in mobilising the savings and diverting them in productive investment. In this way, capital market plays a vital role in transferring the financial resources from surplus and wasteful areas to deficit and productive areas, thus increasing the productivity and prosperity of the country.
2. Encouragement to Saving:
With the development of capital, market, the banking and non-banking institutions provide facilities, which encourage people to save more. In the less- developed countries, in the absence of a capital market, there are very little savings and those who save often invest their savings in unproductive and wasteful directions, i.e., in real estate (like land, gold, and jewellery) and conspicuous consumption.
3. Encouragement to Investment:
The capital market facilitates lending to the businessmen and the government and thus encourages investment. It provides facilities through banks and nonbank financial institutions. Various financial assets, e.g., shares, securities, bonds, etc., induce savers to lend to the govern¬ment or invest in industry. With the development of financial institutions, capital becomes more mobile, interest rate falls and investment increases.
4. Promotes Economic Growth:
The capital market not only reflects the general condition of the economy, but also smoothens and accelerates the process of economic growth. Various institutions of the capital market, like nonbank financial intermediaries, allocate the resources rationally in accordance with the development needs of the country....