A majority of brokerages expect the bellwether Sensex to hover at 19,000 by the end of this calendar year, according to a poll conducted by Business Standard among top local brokerage houses. The figure is significantly lower than last December when most brokerages had expected a 15 to 20 per cent return from 20,000 levels at the end of 2007. The Sensex has dropped over 25 per cent from its January peak of 20,800.
Dollar fell below 100 yen for the first time in more than 12 years forcing investors to shift money out of dollar assets. Current estimates of money in asset-tracking commodities are about $110-130 billion globally and this is expected to grow by about 30 per cent over the next year.
Budget proposal has put an end to the flourishing trade in STT, as STT is likely to be treated as any other deductible expenditure against business income.
Equity stake, flexible terms attract talent from Wall Street firms to local peers.
According to data from AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India), Rs 12,079 crore (Rs 120.79 billion) came into the new schemes in January alone. In December 2007, inflows were to the tune of Rs 10,273 crore (Rs 102.73 billion).
Most investors have become wary of placing fresh bets after the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex lost more than 3924.19 points, or 19 per cent, this year. The Sensex meltdown has also impacted the number of investments in the growth mode because earnings growth in several sectors has been affected indicating a cooling off effect on the economy.
Corporates are foraying into portfolio management services, with biggies like Reliance Money, Bharti Axa, Tata Capital and others taking the plunge.
One of the main factors that created a big hype for the R-Power initial public offer, said experts, was its grey market premium of over Rs 400 on January 18 -- the day the issue closed. R-Power collected a record $180 billion (Rs 710,000 crore or Rs 7,100 billion) as the issue was subscribed 72 times.
Although West Asian investors have been active in India for long using private banks such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley that invested across emerging markets, post-9/11, the US has been falling out of favour as investors count the risk that assets in the country could be targeted over security concerns.
Volatility in the secondary markets has forced some initial public offers to revise their price bands as markets continue to be plagued by liquidity problems.
According to stock brokers, the real pain in markets started with the over-zealousness on the part of stock exchanges in collecting margin money after the 700 points fall on January 18 and another 14,00 points fall on January 21. The trading terminals of nearly 90 per cent stock brokers were shut on Tuesday when the markets hit the lower circuit of 10 per cent within a few minutes of opening bell, as the National Stock Exchange doubled the margin money overnight.
Overall market open interest on NSE down 15 per cent to Rs 89,307 crore (Rs 893.07 billion). A majority of stock brokers have unwound their leveraged positions in the futures and options segment. The total leveraged position (in excess of Rs 1 lakh crore or Rs 1 trillion) contributed heavily to the stock market crash.
A severe squeeze in liquidity in the domestic and the global markets over the last one week helped bears to make a killing on Monday, as they anticipated little buying support even at lower levels, said dealers.
The deal, sources say, is that the retail investor, subscribing on broker's behalf, would have to make an application for 225 shares, the entire cost of which -- considering the discount of Rs 20 a share that RPL has offered -- would come to Rs 96,750.
In anticipation of the IPOs of FCH and RPL, investors were seen off loading small and mid-cap stocks heavily.
Fund houses ape peers' products to lure investors. Popular themes are banked on to attract investors' attention.
VCFs plan to disinvest their IT holdings to ITeS firms and gain from local markets
Close on the heels of the alleged money laundering by farm owner Hasan Ali Khan through Switzerland-based bank UBS, Europe's biggest bank by assets, another Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, has come under scrutiny of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates foreign exchange violations.
In the first-ever auction of 'enemy property' that the Indian government has held since the 1971 Indo-Pak war, rights shares of Tata Steel were sold to an Indian investment firm for Rs 485 per share against the rights issue price of Rs 300 per share.
While the benchmark Sensex recorded 38 per cent gains during 2007, shares of most brokerage houses more than doubled (Geojit Financial increased by 130.68 per cent, while Almondz Global Securities rose 113 per cent) this year.
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