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.
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
Atherstone Capital Markets has come up with India IPO Index, which is an index of companies listed on the stock exchanges.
While the Sensex fell by as much as 19 per cent from the recent peak, a host of fund houses were fully invested. A majority of the fund houses were sitting on cash amounting to 1 to 4 per cent of their portfolios against an average of 5 to 7 per cent, data from Value Research, a fund tracking company suggested.
Half of the 10 IPOs to have hit the market since the beginning of this year have been from the real estate space. J Kumar Infra Projects, KNR Constructions, SVEC Constructions and the now withdrawn Emaar MGF are the worst hit, according to analysts.
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.
If good stocks were available at throwaway prices, penny stocks found no takers. For instance, Hari Gundecha faced a strange dilemma. He had made profits, buying into Harig Crankshafts when the stock was quoting at Rs 1.30 a share but he could not exit the stock on Tuesday. The stock had run up to Rs 7.61 a share and was quoting at Rs 4.48 a share on Tuesday.
"With all kinds of stocks flying around, investing can't be a part-time job," says Bruce Greenwald, professor of finance at the Columbia Business School.
On December 17, Sebi put out a note on the introduction of new products in the futures and options segment. That was followed by permission for short-selling by institutional investors on December 20, stating that the securities lending and borrowing mechanism would be put in place along with short-selling, which will begin from February.
Sebi is planning to fast track mutual fund products. This move will speed up the approval process and help fund houses to cater to investor demands.
Technology, auto, FMCG and pharmaceutical stocks may be the most battered sectors of the Indian stock market this year. But select mutual fund schemes were able to notch up good returns despite being in these sectors by tweaking the investment mandate and smart stock-picking within the mid- and small-cap segments.
Indian asset management companies (AMCs) are likely to see a hefty spike in their valuations, after the last week's 5 per cent equity stake sale by Reliance Mutual Fund to US-based hedge fund Eton Park.
With the listing of Reliance gold ETF on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, four fund houses (Benchmark, UTI Mutual Fund and Kotak Mutual Fund being the other three) currently offer gold ETFs to Indian investors.
Domestic fund houses forge pacts with foreign peers to mop up $7 billion.
Spectacular returns by the recent initial public offerings on listing day are prompting a growing number of retail investors and even high net worth investors to borrow funds at a costly 16 to 17 per cent (for two or three weeks) to bid for IPO shares.
Mutual funds are all set to capture the buoyancy in the energy sector. The latest to join the bandwagon is Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, which is coming out with a three-year, closed-ended new fund offering 'The Energy Opportunities Fund'. The fund will invest in equity and equity-related instruments of companies focussed on the energy space or those directly or indirectly benefiting from it.
Shares list at 21% premium over offer price of Rs 825.
Market experts see interest in Indian equities given the strong economic growth, robust earnings and rising domestic consumption.
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