Former economic affairs secretary E A S Sarma has written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India questioning the delay in investigating Satyam Computer even after he had alerted the regulator 'well in advance' about certain irregularities in the company's books of accounts after the Maytas deal was called off last month.
"I wrote nearly eight letters to Sebi alerting them about Satyam's fraudulent practices and the company's connivance with local politicians but none of the letters elicited any response from the regulator. Sebi remained silent about the issue even while I mentioned to them that MCA launched a fact-finding probe. But the fact is that the MCA probe too was very slow and only on paper," Sarma said.
When it comes to the average assets under management among the top five mutual funds, there has been a shuffle in positions. While Reliance Mutual Fund has been able to maintain the number one position at Rs 700 billion, ICICI Prudential has been pushed to number four from second spot by HDFC Mutual Fund. ICICI Prudential was above HDFC by Rs 73 billion in January-end 2008. But at the end of December, HDFC's assets were up by Rs 48.79 billion over that of ICICI Prudential.
The October 2008 landslide in stock prices, which caused a nearly 90 per cent drop in India's equity derivatives business, has dealt a severe blow to Asia's oldest bourse, the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is conducting inspection of stockbrokers, who act as depository participants (DPs) and are also into margin-funding business, as there have been instances of client-account mismanagement.
People are also spending more on travels and education. Compared to $160 million spent on travel and education last year, $207 million has already flown out of the country from April to August, 2008.
However, the regulator dealt with the FIIs on expected lines and the meeting was over without Sebi spelling out any action against 'dubious' short sellers. Earlier on October 17, Sebi had written to all the PN-issuing FIIs to submit the data for stocks lent overseas in 2008 so far by October 23.
Collateral stocks sold at huge losses as defaults mount.
Share of SGX Nifty in total Nifty futures surges to 40% from 8% a year ago.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is watching trends in the domestic stock market, after the capital market regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia imposed a temporary ban on short-selling of financial stocks.
Share prices of the two top stock exchanges - the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange - are expected to rise after the Securities and Exchange Board of India proposed to allow domestic institutional investors, insurance firms and banks to hold up to 15 per cent stake in these exchanges as against the current limit of 5 per cent.
Over 100 chemical storage tanks built at the Pirpav jetty near Chembur have been operating without approvals from the ministry of environment and forests for over 18 years. Each of these tanks has an average capacity of 200,000 kilolitres of oil.
According to the scheme, the deposit of Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) for trading and up to Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) for clearing members would be waived for already-registered members of the MCX, BSE, Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and NSE, who choose to enroll before September 6.
Foreign pension funds are making a beeline for India despite the turmoil in global markets.
Both equity benchmarks--the Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Nifty of the National Stock Exchange-- have gained 14 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, as the USDX rose by a quick 7.83 per cent in over a month. It touched a high of 77.50 on August 26.
On August 7, the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India cleared the guidelines for currency futures trading. Exactly six days later, the National Stock Exchange got the market regulator's approval to start such trading and is scheduled to kick off currency futures this Friday.
One of the biggest defaulters of Ahmedabad-based Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank, stock broker Ketan Vinaychandra Parekh has settled his dues with the bank by paying Rs 26 crore a fortnight ago, revealed informed sources. The so called 'big-bull' of the stock market has paid a whopping Rs 396 crore in less than two years to MMCB.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India, after receiving comments from various parties, said QIPs should be based on the average price of the shares two weeks prior to the issue.
Distressed by the falling spree of Indian equities, fund managers are looking at various avenues of diversification. At a time when emerging markets, including India, are vulnerable to global cues and are more coupled, frontier markets showless or almost no correlation. Franklin Templeton was the first to spot an opportunity and has already filed for a MENA fund (Middle East North Africa Fund), which will invest in some of the frontier markets.
Uncertainty in equity markets and a waning investor response have led to a slowdown in new demat accounts, a key gauge of retail investors' sentiment towards the market. Sluggishness in the primary market has added to the woes as a large number of investors generally tap equity markets through IPOs.