Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is likely to make grading mandatory for initial public offers (IPOs), M Damodaran, chief of Sebi, said today.The primary market advisory committee, headed by Deepak Parekh, would soon give recommendations on these lines, Damodaran said here at a Sebi workshop on the capital market for journalists. He said Sebi would take a final decision after the panel submitted its report.Grading would be in the range from one to five, and would be done by the credit rating agencies.Damodaran said the expenses for the exercise would be either borne by Sebi or the stock exchanges and not by the company coming out with the IPO.He said the basic idea for making grading mandatory would to help investors in getting information about the quality of the IPO.At present, grading of IPOs is not mandatory.Meanwhile, Sebi is close to taking a call on the issue of allowing stocklending and short-selling by institutions."We are at the penalty box, and we will have to just take a shot," Damodaran said.
