A regional capital market brings greater portfolio and risk diversification by providing domestic individual and institutional investors and savers a wider range of investment opportunities. As savers can diversify risk by choosing varied instruments, investors can have an optional mix of debt and equity. Besides, retail investors will benefit as costs are reduced and innovative providers compete for their business.
The recent stabilization of rig counts in the United States suggests that this source of restraint on business investment may be coming to an end. That said, business investment outside of the energy sector has been unusually soft for the past three quarters, and this weakness will bear close watching.