India Inc's order book has more than doubled to an all-time high of Rs 73,320 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year, compared to the first quarter.
It's actually a problem of plenty for investors now. Buoyed by the success of the three companies that sold their QIP issues within a day of opening, as many as 32 companies have joined the queue, hoping to raise a combined Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion).
Prospects of a stable government at the Centre have prompted at least six economic forecasters to raise their growth estimates for the current fiscal, citing lower-than-expected political risk after the recent general elections.
In rupee terms, market capitalisation inches closer to GDP.
Besides coming back to power in the recent elections, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has more reasons to smile.
Out of 150 India equity funds, 89 have outperformed Sensex.
Number of people with net worth of at least Rs 100 crore at 475 now.
Taking advantage of attractive valuations, life insurers bought equities in the bulk deal segment during the last six months against selling by them during June-November 2008.
Ripples of Indias largest corporate scam along with poor quarterly performance have made more than half of the actively traded companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opt not to disclose their fourth quarter un-audited results this month. Instead, they would announce only their annual audited results, before the end of June.
The slump in corporate earnings has affected interim payouts, with only 95 firms declaring interim dividends in the first nine months of this financial year compared with 144 in the corresponding period last year.
What's worrying for the public sector banks is the rise in delinquency in the housing portfolio, which does not include real estate. But a bank chief said that with low exposure to the real estate sector, the state-run banks have fewer worries. The other area of concern is credit cards but the operations of public sector banks in this segment are small compared with the likes of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Citibank, the largest players in the business.
The Oct-Dec show is the worst in the last eight quarters. On sequential basis, orders have declined by a record 36 per cent.
Block deal transactions by foreign institutional investors registered a significant fall in October and November. The decline was mainly because of major deal makers cashing out of the equity market to make good their mark-to-market losses and meet redemption pressure.
Eighteen companies, collectively planning to raise Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) through initial public offers, will benefit from the Securities and Exchange Board of India's new norms to extend the IPO validity period from three months to a year.
At a time when corporate India has seen its net profits shrink, banks, whose share prices have been hammered in recent weeks, have sprung a surprise of sorts reporting a 26 per cent growth in their bottom lines in the second quarter of 2008-09.
The global credit crisis has slowed order growth of Indian construction and engineering companies, indicating that several big projects, planned earlier, are being pushed back either for lack of capital, or because they have become unviable now.
On January 8, there were 252 firms as against 122 now.
India Inc's creamy layer - executive directors and above - rewarded themselves handsomely with a 36 per cent pay rise in 2007-08.
Foreign institutional investors were the major sellers on the Indian bourses in the last six months, accounting for total outflows of Rs 62,000 crore (Rs 620 billion).
More than 42 per cent of the funds mobilised through initial public offers in the last one year are idling away either in banks or debt schemes.
