The interplay between domestic and foreign capital will shape India's equity markets.
NSE chief says they're ready; positive feedback to Sebi draft.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn Rs 25,305 crore from domestic markets since September. FPIs were net sellers in the first two months of 2023, but from March to August, they purchased equities worth Rs 1.7 trillion. This selling trend has caused the National Stock Exchange Nifty Index to decline by 3.2 per cent from its September highs. FPI selling initially began in September as profit-taking but intensified due to rising US bond yields and uncertainty regarding the rate hike trajectory.
In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) implemented significant reforms, focusing on cooling down the derivatives segment, enhancing transparency and accountability in small and midsised enterprise (SME) listings, and deepening the fund management ecosystem.
The decline in these was mostly due to company or sector-specific issues, say experts.
Shares of real estate firms have been outperforming over the past year. The rally, analysts say, may hit roadblocks in the near term amid stretched valuations, even as the long-term prospects for the sector remain ebullient. "Most of the positive news flow is already in the price. Hence, investors sitting on hefty profits may partially cash out at current levels," suggests V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday granted bail to former National Stock Exchange (NSE) head Chitra Ramkrishna and ex group operating officer Anand Subramanian in the co-location scam case being probed by the CBI. Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said he was granting "statutory bail" to the two former officials of the NSE. A detailed copy of the order is awaited.
The funding environment in India for startups is improving this year if one were to go by Bain & Company estimates. Five private equity (PE) investors that come on top on the criterion of deal size collectively put in $9 billion in the first half of 2024, surpassing their outlay for last calendar year, when it was $8 billion. At the top of the list is Swedish firm EQT, which acquired US-based and listed Perficient at an enterprise value of $3 billion, the deal being done by the Indian wing of the company. It has also added to its list by putting in $500 million in WSO2, a "software as a service" company, increasing its tally to $3.5 billion.
During the quarter ended December, foreign investors aggressively raised their shareholding in Indian information technology (IT) companies, especially mid- and small-sized ones, according to shareholding data.
National Stock Exchange (NSE) chief Ashishkumar Chauhan on Friday cautioned retail investors against trading in derivatives and suggested them to invest in equities through mutual fund route. He emphasized that trading in Futures & Options (F&O) derivatives should be limited to informed investors who can manage risk and comprehend the market. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran flagged the growing risk of F&O trading for retail investors.
Among the Sensex firms, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Finserv were the biggest gainers. State Bank of India, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors and Titan were the laggards.
Widening the ambit of its probe, the police has sought information from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) about investments made by the alleged mastermind of the Citibank fraud, Shivraj Puri, even as it tried to locate his iPad, which may contain crucial data.
Investors should view any bounce-back in bank stocks as an opportunity to exit the pack, analysts suggested, as the worst may not be over yet. The recent quarterly results of HDFC Bank and Axis Bank disappointed the Street, triggering a marketwide selloff by foreign institutional investors, especially in banking counters. While HDFC Bank, which was the anchor for the market correction during the past week, ended 2 per cent higher amid short covering on Wednesday, Axis Bank's shares settled 3 per cent lower.
The market share of discount brokers - such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angel One - has grown fivefold in five financial years, with more than half of the National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) active client trading coming through them, reveals a report by CLSA. For the first 11 months of 2022-23, discount brokers held sway over 57 per cent of active clients, up from 11 per cent in 2017-18. Moreover, the number of active clients on the NSE with discount brokers has grown from just 1 million to 19 million during this period. Active traders are those who have traded at least once in 12 months.
The index could be vulnerable to a bigger fall given the present market dynamics.
The MF investor count, which stood at around 38 million in April 2023, has surged by 19 per cent in the past year.
Hyderabad police on Thursday arrested two senior executives of scam-hit Karvy Stock Broking Pvt Ltd for allegedly involving in diverting funds raised from banks by pledging clients' securities as collaterals. According to a police press release, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, chief executive officer and G. Krishna Hari chief financial officer of Karvy were arrested basing on a complaint by IndusInd bank.
Leading stock exchange NSE has tweaked the constituents of its major indices with Adani Group's two companies -- Adani Wilmar and Adani Power -- all set to make their way into some of the Nifty indices from March 31, 2023. Adani Wilmar will be part of Nifty Next 50 and Nifty 100 indices, while Adani Power will be included in Nifty 500, Nifty 200, Nifty Midcap 100, Nifty Midcap 150, Nifty LargeMidcap 250, and Nifty Midsmallcap 400 indices. All the changes in the indices will be effective from March 31 this year, the exchange said in a late night statement on Friday.
Stocks of public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been on fire in the past year as investors cheered an improvement in key operating metrics and embraced counters of these state-owned enterprises, analysts suggest. The S&P BSE PSU Index has gained over 90 per cent in the past year, rising much higher than the S&P BSE Sensex, which has rose nearly 19 per cent during this period, according to ACE Equity data. The BSE PSU Index, reports show, has delivered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28 per cent (including dividends reinvestments) over five years and risen by almost 60 per cent in the past year.
Among the Sensex firms, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle, HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank and Maruti were the major laggards. IndusInd Bank, ITC, Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India were among the winners.
It was a black Friday for NDTV's stocks. The company's scrip dropped by 11 per cent on the bourses reacting to the news of its managing editor Rajdeep Sardesai and chief financial officer Sameer Manchanda quitting the company.
Capital markets regulator Sebi on Thursday sent a notice to NSE's former chief Ravi Narain, asking him to pay Rs 2.06 crore in a case related to governance lapses at the stock exchange, and warned of arrest and attachment of assets and bank accounts if he fails to make the payment within 15 days. The notice came after Narain failed to pay the fine imposed on him by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). The regulator, through an order passed on February 11, levied a fine of Rs 2 crore on Narain in the matter of governance issues over the appointment of the chief strategic officer at the stock exchange in 2013.
In total, BSE would shift as many as 40 securities to the trade-for-trade category or 'T' Group while NSE would transfer 18 scrips to the segment on its platform, as per separate notices issued by both the bourses.
Notwithstanding the ongoing decline in equity markets week after week, August has proven to be the most successful since December for initial public offerings (IPOs). In August of this year, six companies have collectively raised approximately Rs 4,269 crore through IPOs.
Morgan Stanley has increased the target prices of certain information technology (IT) stocks by as much as 29 per cent, anticipating an improvement in earnings in the near future. Within the IT and engineering research and development (ER&D) services sector, it is now more optimistic about growth and margin estimates for 2024-25 (FY25).
Sebi has asked stock exchanges and other market participants to remain watchful of funds and entities with Iranian links, as the global inter-governmental agency FATF continues to classify Iran as one of the 'high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions' with respect to money laundering and terror financing activities.
Defying the bearish sentiment in the markets on Monday, ICICI Bank's share price rose by 2 per cent, reaching an intraday high of Rs 1,234.4 per share on the BSE. With a 1.5 per cent gain at the close, the stock emerged as the top performer on both the BSE Sensex and the National Stock Exchange Nifty 50 indices.
The BSE faces a larger outgo after regulatory clarity on the fee to be paid to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as a turnover charge on options volume. The market regulator on Friday directed the exchange to pay a regulatory fee on the 'notional value' of annual turnover.
BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) has seen its market share go past the critical 20 per cent mark in the derivatives segment, intensifying its battle with bigger rival - the National Stock Exchange (NSE) - which, less than a year ago, had a monopoly in this space. In April, the average daily trading volume (ADTV) for BSE stood at Rs 89 trillion, accounting for 20.6 per cent of the overall ADTV of Rs 432 trillion (based on notional volumes for options).
Over 60 companies are ready to launch IPOs in the coming months.
The CBI has arrested Sanjay Gupta, owner and promoter of Delhi based OPG Securities Pvt. Ltd, in connection with the NSE co-location scam in which brokers allegedly abused the facility to make gains by getting early access to the stock market, officials said on Wednesday. The agency has already arrested Chitra Ramkrishna, former CEO and managing director of NSE and Anand Subramanian, former group operating officer of the market, they said. Gupta was arrested on Tuesday night, four years after the agency had registered the FIR in the Co-location scam case against him and his company.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has received Rs 300 crore from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) following relief from the Supreme Court (SC), which is hearing an appeal by the market regulator in the colocation case. The court on March 20 asked Sebi to return Rs 300 crore to the NSE from the Rs 1,107 crore the exchange had deposited as part of the disgorgement in the case. The NSE had given an undertaking that it will return the entire amount to Sebi if the latter wins its appeal before the SC.
'Over the next 12 months, it will be difficult to make 15 to 20 per cent return in the markets as the valuations appear stretched.'
The biggest gainer, Lupin, saw its market value appreciate nearly seven-fold.
At least six major UK universities have announced plans to set up campuses or liaison offices in India.
While a little more than 140 penny stocks have doubled in value, 555 have given negative returns in the past year. Of these, 84 shed more than half their value.
However, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever and ICICI Bank were the gainers.
This is the case even though the benchmark index is only 5 per cent below its all-time high. The list of stocks trading at a discount primarily consists companies in the automotive, banking, oil and gas, insurance, healthcare, and metal sectors.
New-age tech tools and 'mystery shoppers' are helping the country's top bourse stay ahead of the curve against dabba trading platforms and entities dolling out unsolicited investment tips. In the past one month, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has issued close to two dozen warnings and advisories against such activities. "We saw a rise of dabba trading or illegal trading platforms after the pandemic.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has made a fresh attempt at settling a regulatory investigation into the misuse of Trading Access Point (TAP) software at the bourse. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rejected a similar application in 2022. "NSE and its employees have filed a consolidated settlement application dated May 4, 2023, with Sebi.