SEBI on Thursday advised stock exchanges to communicate with investors through local languages to help spread an equity culture among people and the stock market gain depth.

"Help in growing the equity culture in the area in people's language. Most of our communication tends to be English. We need to get all of this communication done in the local languages without which we are losing huge audience", SEBI chairman C B Bhave said in Chennai.

He said the stock exchanges' should focus on investors' education and the spread of financial literacy in their respective regions.

Notably, only two per cent of Indians invest in stock markets. Analysts attribute the increased volatility in the Indian stock market to the insiginificant participation of countrymen.

"We need to educate our investors and we need to tell them really what the risks are in the business. We should also educate them what risks they are protected against and what risks they take themselves," Bhave said.

"It is very important they get this communication across so that we get an informed investor into the market," he said, inaugurating a strategic partnership between Madras Stock Exchange (MSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) to facilitate members of the former to trade on both cash and derivatives segments on the NSE platform.

Bhave also said SEBI would be happy to extend any help to the stock exchanges in their efforts to educate investors.