The Indian capital market is the market for long-term loanable funds as distinct from the money market which deals in short-term funds. It refers to the facilities and institutional arrangements for borrowing and lending ‘term funds’, medium-term and long term funds.

Capital markets commonly referred to as the stock markets have been in existence for centuries. The British East India Company was the first company to invite the public to buy shares in the company. Since then, over the years, markets have gone through tremendous changes. The way the market works, the asset classes, the framework of the exchanges, and everything has been evolving over time. The changes have been brought in gradually according to the convenience of the investors and market participants. Also in order to prevent market participants to take undue advantage of the information in order to gain monetary benefits, the Securities Regulatory bodies over the world have surveillance methods for mitigation of such acts.