MUMBAI - India's markets regulator on Wednesday asked that the top 100 companies listed on its stock exchanges confirm or deny market rumors that impact share prices, in a bid to bring more transparency and ensure timely disclosure of "material events".

The requirement will kick in from Oct.1, 2023 for top 100 companies by market capitalization, and from April 1, 2024 for the top 250, SEBI said in a press release following a board meeting.

The regulator said that it intends to put in place quantitative benchmarks to determine whether an event is material but did not immediately say what those metrics would be.

The SEBI also said that material events or disclosures emerging from a board of directors meeting must be disclosed to exchanges within 30 minutes.

(Reporting by Jayshree P. Upadhyay; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)