Some of the world's top hedge funds have been granted direct entry into the Indian stock markets, nearly three months after the Securities and Exchange Board of India imposed curbs on foreign investments through the participatory note (P-note) route.
In this financial year so far, insurance companies have invested around Rs 36,000 crore in the stock markets against around Rs 60,000 crore invested by the FIIs.
Tata Securities is all set to revive stock broking, given the current investor interest in equities.
Infrastructure, capital goods and agriculture-related stocks will continue their sizzling performance in 2008. Moreover, the financial services sector and selective real estate stocks are also expected to give handsome returns to investors in the new year, according to a Business Standard poll of leading brokerage houses.
After the third consecutive year of spectacular gains by the Indian stock markets, which saw the bellwether Sensex climbing nearly 39 per cent, investors can still expect returns of 15 to 20 per cent in 2008, according to a poll among top local and foreign brokerage houses.
Aviation stocks - Jet Airways, Deccan Aviation, SpiceJet and Jagson Airlines - closed at their 52-week highs on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday in falling market. All the four stocks gained between 5 per cent and 20 per cent on Tuesday.
The BSE Small-Cap Index (up 34 per cent) and the BSE Mid-Cap Index (up 28 per cent) have outperformed the Sensex (up 16 per cent) in the last two-and-a-half months, while the NSE Junior Nifty (up 25.4 per cent) and the NSE Mid-Cap Index (up 30.2 per cent) have beaten the S&P CNX Nifty (up 20.4 per cent) during the same period.
Recent days have seen a clutch of local brokerage houses, including Way2Wealth, Fortune Financial Services, Antique Stock Broking, Centrum Capital, Avendus Capital and Ambit Capital, luring analysts and senior executives from foreign brokerage houses and leading local equity broking firms by offering meaningful equity stakes.
If Apple inspired the name selection, the culture within Edelweiss, which has grown from three members to a 1,200-plus organisation in a span of 12 years, is modelled on Infosys.
The booming stock broking industry is being hit by rising attrition as the entry of big Indian business houses and expansion of existing players spawns opportunities for senior and middle-level executives. Surprisingly, multi-national players are at the receiving end as their executives are being lured by leading Indian corporate houses, which are entering into this space.
Forty six new FIIs opened their offices in India during November, which is the highest ever single month registration by foreign investors. The previous highest monthly registrations took place in September 2005, when twenty nine FIIs enrolled with Sebi. The total number of FIIs registered with the regulator has increased to 1,170 from 1,124 at the beginning of the month.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is considering a proposal to allow funds, which are not managed by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to get themselves registered as FIIs' sub-accounts with the Indian regulator.
We are hoping to have an exposure of over $300 million over the next two years. We would also evaluate opportunities to invest in other asset classes including equity and structured products.
With the market capitalisation crossing $1.6 trillion within a couple of months after piercing the magical $1 trillion mark, and a vibrant equity derivatives segment to boast, the Indian stock markets look much attractive in terms of depth as well, they add. The equity derivatives market in China is only a recent start and is yet to catch momentum.
NSE launched trading in individual stock futures in November 2001.
Kotak Mahindra Bank is raising a total of $300 million through three separate offshore funds - an infrastructure fund, a Shari'ah fund for Muslim investors and a multi-cap fund for European investors - to tap the growing appetite of global investors.
MMTC, the most valuable public sector undertaking (PSU), raced past oil exploration giant Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the market capitalisation (m-cap) ranking to occupy the number-two slot on Friday. MMTC, with an m-cap of Rs 2,71,103 crore (Rs 2711.03 billion), pushed ONGC (m-cap Rs 2,64,953 crore) down by a slot to the third position in the market cap chart on BSE.
In the first 10 months of CY07, Indian firms received orders worth Rs 128,147 crore.
Some of the world's biggest foundations, including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pension funds such as CalPERS, university funds and endowments are registered as foreign institutional investors with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for several years now.
Till 15 days ago, only two PSUs - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) - ranked amongst the five most valuable companies. But with two more PSUs, Mineral and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), seeing sustained rise in the last three months, the number has risen to four.
