Global funds' assets under custody (AUC) in India have been flat this year, with a Rs 2 trillion drop in information technology (IT) holdings offset by gains in financial stocks. AUC is the total market value of equities held by FPIs.
Global fund managers witnessed one of their largest-ever declines in assets under custody (AUC) during the ongoing correction in the Indian markets, as stocks came under pressure from foreign outflows and the weakening rupee.
Under its new chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has gravitated towards greater transparency and ease of doing business, setting an objective of "effective and optimum" regulation. On Monday, during its first board meeting under Pandey, the regulator has decided to constitute a high-level committee (HLC) to review conflicts of interest and unveiled initiatives to simplify regulatory processes.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from Mauritius may face higher scrutiny after the amendment in the India-Mauritius tax treaty introduced a principle purpose test (PPT) to prevent treaty abuse by taxpayers. The Mauritius government had in February decided to amend the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with India to align with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's proposal on base erosion and profit shifting. Although the agreement between India and Mauritius was signed on March 7, the protocol of the amendment was made public for the first time on Wednesday, said legal experts.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed stricter disclosure norms for certain foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to bring in more transparency and trust against the backdrop of the Adani-Hindenburg Research saga. Under the new norms, FPIs with an exposure of more than 50 per cent to a single group or with assets of over Rs 25,000 crore will be tagged as 'high risk' and will be required to provide additional information such as full identification of their ownership, economic interests, and control rights. A failure to provide these disclosures will lead to invalidation of the FPI registration.
Deteriorating ties between India and Canada could have a bearing on flows into the domestic capital markets. At present, Canada is the seventh largest country for foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows into India. According to the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), the assets under custody (AUC) of FPIs domiciled in Canada stood at nearly Rs 1.8 trillion ($21 billion) at the end of August. Almost 85 per cent of these investments are in listed equity, while the remaining in debt and hybrid instruments.
Stepping up its offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the government on Saturday said the opposition party should ask its chief ministers to resign in connection to the coal-gate row since the state governments decide who gets the mining lease. "The basic question is that who executes the lease," Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court in a ruling allowed auction of 1.5 million tonne of iron ore a month.
The Reserve Bank of India on Saturday decided to reduce the one-day and 14-day repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility by 0.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent with effect from Monday.
According to the latest data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the total assets under custody of foreign institutional investors in Indian equities declined by about Rs 44,000 crore (Rs 440 billion) to Rs 12.93 lakh crore as on July 31, 2013.