The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday conducted the first round of mock electronic bidding process for implementing application supported by blocked amount (ASBA), an alternative mode of payment for initial public offerings (IPOs), proposed by capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is likely to clear the long pending application of Taurus Parsoli Ethical Fund to launch a Shariah fund by the end of this month. A go-ahead to Taurus would pave the way for other mutual fund houses to launch similar funds.
Benchmark AMC's scheme is called silver BeES and each unit issued under the scheme will be equal to price of 100 grams of silver. The entry load for the fund will be 2.25 per cent during the new fund offering (NFO).
A depreciating dollar and the uncertainty in the equity markets globally are adding to the sheen of the yellow metal. With gold prices surging 20 per cent in the last two months, Gold ETFs are back in focus.
Sharjah-based marketing executive Vijay Raghavan has sent the 264 bonds he got in lieu of the Unit Scheme 64 certificates he held since 1990 to the Special Undertaking of UTI. Though he has not firmed up his investment plan, Raghavan is expecting a refund soon.
Bonds worth about Rs 3,300 crore (Rs 33 billion) are held by institutions and retail investors in dematerialised form or demat, which will be redeemed automatically. In fact, the redemption process, which is the biggest ever in India, has already begun for bonds worth Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) that are held in demat form by institutions.
Foreign investors sold $2.8 bn stocks in the past quarter alone. FIIs trimmed their holding in the BSE 500 companies by nearly two percentage points to 17.8 per cent, bringing it back to June 2005 levels, according to a Citigroup report. FIIs pulled out shares worth $2.8 billion over the past quarter.
Industry observers said that direct investment has increased from 2 per cent to 6-7 per cent, which is a marginal rise of 5 percentage points. Many investors still prefer to invest through distributors in spite of a 2.25 per cent entry load. Inconveniences in the online process and asset management companies' (AMC) offices have kept investors from taking the direct option.
In fact, the current market scenario provides more value investment opportunities. So, it is positive for mutual funds.
The Sensex futures, which began trading on the Chicago-based US Futures Exchange on April 4, are off to a slow start. The subdued beginning is partly due to a market slowdown and also because of the nature of the product, said market experts. Since it began trading last month, it has registered a daily average of 84.3 contracts, with a total of 1,686 contracts having been traded so far.
The key team members are in place. Prateek Agrawal, the equity head is from ABN AMRO AMC, Sujay Das, the fixed income head came from DSP Merrill Lynch AMC and Nanda Kishore S, the marketing head is from Sundaram BNP Paribas AMC. Dasgupta himself is from Deutsche AMC. Bharti-AXA has a 35-member strong team, which would be expanded to 70 by June.
Experts see company-specific transactions rather than sector-specific ones in the private equity dealings. More transactions & buyouts will result in PE firms acquiring controlling stakes in firms in 08. The PE activity will be tougher this year as it will be company-driven rather than sector-driven investing. Real estate will continue to be a focus sector followed by infrastructure. Analysts say that PE players bring a lot of value to a firm that is planning to go public.
Primary markets may see banks using electronic clearance systems (ECS) to clear cheques in order to reduce the gap between the time an issue closes and its listing on the bourses.The primary market advisory committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) met on Friday to iron out some of the logistical difficulties involved in making the IPO process faster.
MFs are planning schemes that will give fund managers the leeway to adopt strategies in line with the market conditions. Fund houses want to ensure they are not restricted by the fund's investment mandate about having to invest in certain sectors even in case of change in sentiment. According to the offer document, if the fund manager expects the markets to head downwards, the scheme can hedge exposure to equity either fully or partially by initiating short futures positions.
JPMorgan Chase is planning to invest $100-150 mn a year in India. This fund will be looking at a range of sectors and would not be focused on one particular sector. It can bring in sector expertise, investment banking expertise and the other broader resources of a full-service financial institution. The new fund, Private Capital Asia, will take non-controlling stakes in mid-cap companies, exclusively in Asia. JPMorgan regards India as a supportive market for private equity.
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.
Corporate earnings in this quarter may take a hit on account of the equity exposure that companies may have taken following a bad quarter for the Indian markets, say market analysts.
FIIs were net buyers of Rs 513.04 crore (Rs 5.13 billion) in the cash segment, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth Rs 66.79 crore (Rs 667.9 million), the data from the Bombay Stock Exchange website indicated.Of the 48 trading sessions since the beginning of 2008, Friday's trading session was the only time when FIIs were net buyers in the cash market though the day witnessed Sensex posting its steepest weekly decline since May 15, 2006.
If you watch television, you just cannot miss the colourful, new fund offering advertisements by mutual funds talking about India's growing economy and how investing in them is likely to fetch great returns
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