The stock-selling spree unleashed by foreign institutional investors over the past one month from November has turned them net sellers in the cash market this calendar year. But the markets have shown resilience mainly due to big buying by insurance companies, say experts.
The continued selling in frontline stocks by foreign investors over the past one month, which also coincided with curbs on participatory notes (P-notes), delayed the Sensex and the Nifty from closing above the crucial milestone of 20,000 and 6,000 respectively.
Suzlon Energy, one of the top five wind energy manufacturers in the world, plans to raise $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route to fund its expansion plans.
Infrastructure, realty are the current favourites.
Standard Chartered Bank, which bought a 49 per cent stake in UTI Securities from Securities Trading Corporation of India early this year, is likely to hive off the commodities broking business into a separate company and put this division for sale.
San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS), Brown University and Texas Investment Management have joined the list of global pension, endowment and universities' funds attracted by the Indian stock markets.
With the stock markets growing in size, this rule, which was framed eight years back, needs revision to allow such nominal dilution only if the IPOs are worth Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) or above, according to experts. The rules require promoters to shed at least 25 per cent if the IPOs are less than Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion). The promoter holding in 500 listed companies has gone up to 58 per cent during the July-September quarter from 54 per cent in the April-June quarter.
While Geojit Financial Services and Kotak Securities are already managing large NRI portfolios in West Asian countries, Sharekhan, yet another local brokerage outfit, recently launched a broking platform called India First in Bangkok for NRI clients.
Less than three weeks after the curbs on participatory notes, overseas investors are rushing to invest in the booming Indian stock markets directly by applying for Foreign Institutional Investor licences.
Credit Agricol (CA), the second-largest French bank, is all set to enter the Indian insurance and asset management business.US-based middle market focused investment bank Jefferies Group, which opened its representative office in New Delhi last month, plans to enter the institutional brokerage and asset management business in India.
With the rupee going from strength to strength and attrition a continuing concern for Indian business process outsourcing companies, the new poster child of private equity investors is witnessing adjustments in valuations in the changed scenario.
Over 270 applications from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are awaiting the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) clearance as the debate on the speedy clearance of registrations by the capital market regulator rages on. In fact, during the last one year, the Sebi has cleared a total of 141 applications, an average of about 12 registrations a month.
High net-worth individuals, or the rich investors with investment portfolios of Rs 25 lakh and above, who totted up huge losses in this year's price corrections in February and August, are booking profits following the nearly 4,000-point surge in the Sensex since late August.
The capital market regulator would soon write to the Reserve Bank of India to allow repos in corporate bonds, which were expected to boost the liquidity in the corporate debt market, said sources. In a repo trade, a market participant pledges a corporate paper in exchange for funds for a specific period and at a rate determined by the market.
The NSE, along with financial institutions like IL&FS and IDBI, has proposed to set up a special exchange.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is looking at reducing the fees of all mutual fund schemes - equity funds (open- and close-ended), debt funds, index funds and even funds of funds (or FoFs, mutual funds that invest in mutual funds).
A day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the rate cut, FIIs bought shares worth over Rs 2,400 crore (Rs 24 billion), lifting the index up by 650 points, one of its biggest intra-day gains.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which were the major sellers last month, are on a buying spree.
An interview with Sebi chief M Damodaran.
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