



Mint Explainer: How Sebi’s ETF proposals aim to tackle pricing lags and protect investors
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday proposed sweeping changes to exchange traded funds (ETFs), aimed at eliminating a critical "pricing lag" that currently leaves investors exposed during volatile markets. In a consultation paper that’s open for comments until 6 March, the regulator suggested shifting the base price calculation for ETFs from a two-day-old value to the previous day’s data.
Mint explains the proposed changes and what they mean for investors. Sebi suggested that instead of using the net asset value (NAV) from two days earlier (T-2) to set price bands for ETFs, exchanges should use data from the previous trading day (T-1). To decide the base price for the next trading day, it has proposed three options—the ETF’s closing market price on T-1 (based on the average traded price in the last 30 minutes), the average indicative NAV (iNAV) during the last 30 minutes of T-1, or the closing NAV of T-1, if available.
NAV is the per-unit value of a mutual fund or ETF, calculated by dividing the total value of its underlying assets, after expenses, by the number of units outstanding. For stocks, the base price for applying price bands is generally the T-1 close. Sebi also suggested reviewing the current price bands for ETFs.
At present, most ETFs are allowed to rise or fall by up to 20% in a day, while overnight ETFs have a tighter limit of 5%. These price bands restrict how much a security’s price can move in a single trading session and are meant to prevent extreme volatility. The NAV change is necessary because the current practice of using T-2 closing NAV for ETFs creates a one-day lag in the base or reference value used for applying price bands.
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