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.
Suzlon Energy, one of the top five wind energy manufacturers in the world, plans to raise $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route to fund its expansion plans.
Standard Chartered Bank, which bought a 49 per cent stake in UTI Securities from Securities Trading Corporation of India early this year, is likely to hive off the commodities broking business into a separate company and put this division for sale.
San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS), Brown University and Texas Investment Management have joined the list of global pension, endowment and universities' funds attracted by the Indian stock markets.
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.
Less than three weeks after the curbs on participatory notes, overseas investors are rushing to invest in the booming Indian stock markets directly by applying for Foreign Institutional Investor licences.
Credit Agricol (CA), the second-largest French bank, is all set to enter the Indian insurance and asset management business.US-based middle market focused investment bank Jefferies Group, which opened its representative office in New Delhi last month, plans to enter the institutional brokerage and asset management business in India.
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.
With the rupee going from strength to strength and attrition a continuing concern for Indian business process outsourcing companies, the new poster child of private equity investors is witnessing adjustments in valuations in the changed scenario.
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.
Over 270 applications from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are awaiting the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) clearance as the debate on the speedy clearance of registrations by the capital market regulator rages on. In fact, during the last one year, the Sebi has cleared a total of 141 applications, an average of about 12 registrations a month.
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.