Sources in the know said the new rules would be far more stringent than the regulations currently in place but not as strict as those mentioned in the draft document circulated in December last year.

As the government is planning to tap the markets through the auction route, retail investors might not find it easy to bid. The finance ministry has told Sebi it should try to spread awareness through tickers on TV channels, websites and bulk messages.

The move will give a huge fillip to the SME trading platform introduced by Sebi in 2012, to ease the financing needs of smaller companies.

At 13:00hrs, the 30-share Sensex was down 21 points at 27,845 and the 50-share Nifty was trading 8 points lower at 8,314.

The real estate giant has investments worth Rs 2,500 crore in mutual funds. It has appealed to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against a order of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) banning it from accessing the capital market for three years.

The market regulator, also entrusted with the responsibility of cracking down on illicit money collection schemes, plans to issue an advisory, cautioning investors against investing in schemes offered by the Delhi-based company.

After hearing the petition, filed by the country's largest real estate developer last week, the Tribunal adjourned the matter till October 30 next week, as it sought a response from capital markets regulator Sebi on DLF's plea.

In August 2010, it had taken a view that the merger would not affect the ban on the promoter group entities from the securities market. Nearly two years later, it said as the merger had been approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the promoters could be allowed to sell these shares.

On Thursday, the stock closed at Rs 110.35 on the BSE, up 5.2 per cent, after falling to Rs 100.1 in intra-day trade, down 4.6 per cent from its previous close. The BSE Sensex and the National Stock Exchange Nifty benchmarks closed down 1.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively.

Early last year, DLF had said it would reduce debt, which at that time stood at Rs 21,000 crore, to Rs 10,000-11,000 crore. In May this year, the company said its plans to cut debt would be delayed by two years, owing to subdued market conditions.