At the start of April, State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank, the country's two largest banks, reviewed the situation. They felt the resource-raising madness was over and that interest rates on bulk deposits would drop automatically with credit growth expected to temper between June and September.
After the third consecutive year of spectacular gains by the Indian stock markets, which saw the bellwether Sensex climbing nearly 39 per cent, investors can still expect returns of 15 to 20 per cent in 2008, according to a poll among top local and foreign brokerage houses.
Recent days have seen a clutch of local brokerage houses, including Way2Wealth, Fortune Financial Services, Antique Stock Broking, Centrum Capital, Avendus Capital and Ambit Capital, luring analysts and senior executives from foreign brokerage houses and leading local equity broking firms by offering meaningful equity stakes.
If Apple inspired the name selection, the culture within Edelweiss, which has grown from three members to a 1,200-plus organisation in a span of 12 years, is modelled on Infosys.
The booming stock broking industry is being hit by rising attrition as the entry of big Indian business houses and expansion of existing players spawns opportunities for senior and middle-level executives. Surprisingly, multi-national players are at the receiving end as their executives are being lured by leading Indian corporate houses, which are entering into this space.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is considering a proposal to allow funds, which are not managed by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to get themselves registered as FIIs' sub-accounts with the Indian regulator.
We are hoping to have an exposure of over $300 million over the next two years. We would also evaluate opportunities to invest in other asset classes including equity and structured products.
With the market capitalisation crossing $1.6 trillion within a couple of months after piercing the magical $1 trillion mark, and a vibrant equity derivatives segment to boast, the Indian stock markets look much attractive in terms of depth as well, they add. The equity derivatives market in China is only a recent start and is yet to catch momentum.
NSE launched trading in individual stock futures in November 2001.
Kotak Mahindra Bank is raising a total of $300 million through three separate offshore funds - an infrastructure fund, a Shari'ah fund for Muslim investors and a multi-cap fund for European investors - to tap the growing appetite of global investors.
ICICI Bank, the country's second-largest bank, has stopped lending to borrowers from the sub-prime segment, while the biggest player in small loans, Citigroup, has made its processes more stringent.
ICICI Bank, the country's second largest bank, has sold roughly 45 per cent of its sticky home loans to the Asset Reconstruction Company India Ltd (Arcil) in a first step towards creating a market for retail loans that have turned bad.ICICI Bank sold Rs 360 crore of non-performing home loans at a price around the book cost, confirmed Rajiv Sabharwal, senior general manager, ICICI Bank.
Some of the world's biggest foundations, including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pension funds such as CalPERS, university funds and endowments are registered as foreign institutional investors with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for several years now.
The three corrections in stock markets this year - February, August and now in October - has one common thread, which is the dominance of foreign investors/hedge funds in the equity markets.
After nearly three quarters of generosity , banks are now facing pressure to reduce deposit rates.
Most of the PN money is coming into stocks that are not in the blue-chip category. This means the source of the money is questionable and the investments are not driven by fundamentals.
Historically, Indian stocks trade at earnings multiple of 17-18 times. At current prices, the earnings multiple for the Sensex is 26 times.
Interested parties are concerned about the possibility of 24 domestic banks and six financial institutions converting to equity Rs 1,480 crore worth of zero-coupon debentures to which they subscribed in 2002-03.
We are focusing on how to make banking affordable for the customer. The bank is bullish on retail business, says Suresh Gurumani.
Global liquidity, which dried up after the turbulence in the US credit markets, has returned big time following the Fed rate cut of 50 basis points on September 18. In the secondary markets alone, FIIs have pumped in over $4.5 billion in about 11 trading sessions, data from the BSE show.