After withdrawing record funds in 2021-22, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued their sell-off in the last fiscal too and pulled out Rs 37,631 crore from Indian equities amid aggressive rate hikes by central banks globally. The outflow trend is likely to reverse in the current financial year since India has the best growth potential in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said. Market analysts believe that FPI flows in the current financial year would be decided by a host of factors, such as the US Federal Reserve's policy stance, oil prices movement and development in the geopolitical situation.
Torrent Pharmaceuticals' Rs 3,000 crore proposal for increasing FII investment limit to 35 per cent was the biggest in terms of value
'If you look at where inflation (headline and core) is today in India and where the rates are, there's clearly room to cut rates.'
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
This could be attributed to the attractive valuation of the Indian equities after the sharp correction during the first quarter of calendar year 2020 and significant depreciation of the Indian rupee against USD, which provided them a rather good entry point.
The government has amended rules of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), paving the way for up to 20 per cent foreign direct investment in the insurance behemoth LIC. The government is planning to dilute its stake in LIC through the the Initial Public Offering (IPO). LIC in February had filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) before the markets regulator Sebi for the IPO.
Water projects firm Vishnu Prakash R Punglia, the 20th company to launch its IPO in the current year, saw its shares closing at a 47 per cent gain over its issue price on Tuesday. Such a huge one-day pop is considered rare; however, it has become the norm this year. The average listing-day gain for these 20 IPOs in 2023 is 34 per cent, and their average gain to date stands at 46 per cent.
The broader economy risks a potential flight of foreign portfolio capital, therefore pressure on the rupee and more bad news on the stock market, warns T N Ninan.
Bonuses are typically commensurate with deal activity in any given year. Investment banks, on average, pocket 2-3 per cent as fees for managing an IPO and 1.5-2 per cent for handling QIPs.
During Abe's tenure, Japan had announced support for a number of major projects. These included the bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, besides allocations for a freight corridor between Mumbai and New Delhi.
Have the markets already played out their dynamics before the economy has even properly taken off? Are we now destined for a period of mediocre returns despite a strong economy? asks Akash Prakash.
'For the same level of return, you can reduce portfolio volatility significantly with a 10% to 15% exposure to international funds.'
RBI Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath said India has been able to absorb capital inflows because it has a current account deficit.
Of the total investments made last month, P-note holdings in equities were at Rs 72,321 crore and the remaining in debt and derivatives markets.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulled out as much as Rs 17,537 crore from the Indian markets in just three trading sessions of March as investors' sentiment got dented by the uncertainty triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and rising crude oil prices. As per depositories data, they pulled out Rs 14,721 crore from equities, Rs 2,808 crore from debt segment and Rs 9 crore from hybrid instruments between March 2-4. This took the total net outflow to Rs 17,537 crore.
'We are going to need more technical people in government.' 'You can't expect a generalist to understand the complicated world of financial engineering.' 'I regret to say that most of our politicians have no competence to deal with these things. Nor is there a willingness to learn.'
Domestic mutual funds (MFs) have kept their faith in the Indian stock market despite multiple headwinds all through 2022-23 (FY23), with their net flows into equities crossing the Rs 1.5-trillion mark for the second consecutive financial year. MFs pumped a net Rs 1.53 trillion into equities till March 1, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data shows, as compared to Rs 1.72 trillion in FY22. Since FY15, MFs have been net buyers of equities, except in FY21, when they sold a net Rs 1.21 trillion.
Thus far in FY21, BSE, NSE have rallied 70 per cent and 71 per cent, respectively.
Of the total investments made last month, P-note holdings in equities were at Rs 61,786 crore and the remaining in debt and derivatives markets.
The biggest bounce is in the realty sector, where the industry index jumped 80%. There's been a turnaround also in automobiles and ancillaries (up 45%). The pharma and health care indices have a welcome return of roughly 35%.
"The 21,000 level is meaningless. In the past five years, earnings have grown 40 per cent. One should look at the P/E. We are very positive on the market despite elections being around the corner," says Milind Barve MD, HDFC AMC.
The Indian equity market valuation has been moving in tandem with the US 10-year treasury yield. While the benchmark US bond yield has witnessed a nearly 70 basis point decline since the end of October this year, dropping from 4.93 per cent to 4.23 per cent on Friday, the Sensex earnings yield has slipped by nearly 45 basis points - from 4.5 per cent to 4.05 per cent. Previously, Indian equities' earnings yields rose in sync with the US bond yields.
In 2014, FIIs have infused a net amount of Rs 1,59,157 crore ( 1.59 trillion) in the debt markets.
Brokerages believe that the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) stronger-than-expected showing in state elections reduces political risks for the domestic markets going into 2024. However, after the short-term excitement, the focus will soon shift to earnings, global liquidity conditions, and the interest rate trajectory. "BJP's win in the three state elections is much better than what exit polls suggested and reinforces the consensus expectations of a Modi win in the 2024 national elections with a greater likelihood of 300+ seats for the BJP.
After a technology upgrade, the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) appears poised for an improvement in volumes. The premier commodity and forex exchange reported a loss of Rs 19.1 crore in the July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24). This was attributed to higher software charges payable under an extended service agreement with 63 moons technologies and a one-off cost towards core guaranteed funds (CGF).
The government is also working on Euroclearing, the world's biggest bond settlement system, for Indian debt securities.
Experts hail Budget 2015 as a progressive, growth oriented one.
Investors in international funds should have a horizon of more than five years. Not only will this help them overcome equity and currency volatility, it will also help them enjoy better tax treatment, says Sanjay Kumar Singh.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
The government has hiked gold import duty to 15 per cent from 10.75 per cent to check the current account deficit (CAD) and rising import of the yellow metal. The duty changes came into effect on June 30. Earlier, the basic customs duty on gold was 7.5 per cent, now it will be 12.5 per cent.
The sharp rally in the midcap stocks has made valuations expensive, and there is room for a correction, wrote Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies in his latest note to investors, GREED & fear. The midcap index, Wood said, now trades at 24.1x 12-month forward earnings compared with 18.7x for the Nifty. Rising crude oil prices, he believes, are another worry for India, which imports nearly 80 per cent of its annual crude oil requirement.
So far, India has attracted over $20 billion in the debt segment, thanks to the rate differential.
Citi Bank on Wednesday joined the list of foreign banks that have exited the retail banking business in India as the US-based banking giant announced selling its consumer banking portfolio to Axis Bank for an estimated Rs 12,325 crore. Global banking majors such as ANZ Grindlays, RBS, Commonwealth Bank of Australia have scaled down their operations in India. In a mega-deal announcement on Wednesday, Axis Bank and Citibank said their boards have approved acquisition of Citibank's consumer businesses in India by Axis Bank.
Defending the new foreign investment guidelines released this week, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said on Friday the norms would not distinguish between different forms of foreign capital.
Sebi is learnt to have written to several regulators including those in Bermuda, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, seeking detailed information on some FPIs.
Shares of the six listed Adani group stocks tumbled for the fourth day on Thursday, resulting in Rs 1.59 trillion market cap loss this week. Adani Power, Adani Total Gas and Adani Transmission hit their 5 per cent lower trading limit for a fourth straight day.
The beleaguered Deutsche Bank announced major overhaul of its business, which included discontinuing loss-making equities trading business, creating a new 'bad bank', and cutting 18,000 jobs. Deutsche Equities India employs 35 people, all of whom could face the job axe.
'The idea is to invest where there is opportunity.'
Smaller stocks have emerged as Dalal Street's favourites in 2023 that has turned out to be a "great year" for equities, rewarding investors with big gains, driven by optimism over the country's macroeconomic fundamentals and heavy retail investors participation. Experts said equity markets are experiencing a prolonged bull run and it is during this time that the midcap and smallcap segments tend to outshine their larger counterparts. Till December 22 this year, the BSE smallcap gauge has jumped 13,074.96 points or 45.20 per cent while the midcap index has surged 10,568.18 points or 41.74 per cent.