'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.' 'So, when the Opposition sweepingly says there are no jobs, I'm sorry... I'm not saying it's raining jobs, but there are jobs. The (skill) gap has to be bridged.'
The gains will provide a much-needed reprieve after the rupee fell for a fifth week and hit an over two-month low last week in trade.
Those who consider the rupee as a proxy for virility have started thumping their chests and dreaming of dethroning the dollar from its coveted position, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Despite markets turning volatile, share sale activity at India Inc has surged to its highest level in five months. So far in March, promoters, strategic investors and other large shareholders have been able to offload shares worth more than Rs 33,000 crore-the most since November-defying uncertain market conditions. Both the Sensex and the Nifty are on course to post their fourth straight monthly loss amid headwinds, such as interest rate tightening by the US Federal Reserve and the global banking crisis.
Undeterred by the stock market volatility, uncertainty due to the Ukraine-Russia war and high inflation, equity mutual funds continue to remain attractive choice for investors for the 15th straight month, registering a net inflow of Rs 18,529 crore in May on robust SIP numbers. This was higher than Rs 15,890 crore net inflow in April, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Thursday. Equity schemes have been witnessing net inflow since March 2021, highlighting the positive sentiment among investors.
Jammu and Kashmir government is contemplating to put in place a more concrete mechanism to check inflow of foreign funds to protestors in the state, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Saturday as he met Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi.
'A key reason for the strong interest in IPOs has been an increased focus on profitability and reasonable pricing of deals.'
After three consecutive years of infusing huge funds, foreign portfolio investors retreated from the Indian equity markets in a big way in 2022 with the highest-ever yearly net outflow of nearly Rs 1.21 lakh crore. The huge outflow, which surpasses by a big margin the previous record of Rs 53,000 crore net withdrawal in 2008, came amid aggressive rate hikes by central banks globally but 2023 is expected to be better on positivity about overall macroeconomic trends in India, experts said. Apart from global monetary tightening, volatile crude, rising commodity prices along with Russia and Ukraine conflict led to an exodus of foreign money in 2022.
In New York, the dollar turned broadly higher on last Friday after data showed the US economy in February added far more jobs than expected, providing a more upbeat read on economic growth this year.
Retail investors seem to have dipped into their mutual fund savings to meet pre-festival spending. According to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), investors pulled out Rs 6,578 crore from their systematic investment plan (SIP) accounts in September, the highest in the last 11 months. The redemptions were on the higher side during the previous festive season as well.
Listed companies have seen equity deals worth Rs 23,500 crore in March.
'If individual stocks start falling 25% to 30% or more, then I doubt how many of them will be able to withstand that (kind of selloff). That is when you'll see panic coming in.'
CBDT circular issued last month had raised multiple taxation concerns.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned net buyers in October after being net sellers in the previous month. In October, FPIs bought shares worth nearly Rs 8,430 crore ($1 billion) against net selling of Rs 13,405 crore ($1.6 billion) in September. Positive flows during three of the previous four months have pushed the domestic markets towards fresh all-time highs. At present, the Sensex and Nifty are less than 2 per cent shy of breaching record highs logged in October 2021. A rally in equity markets in the US and Europe is in hopes that the Federal Reserve may go soft on rate hikes after its November meeting.
The facility will be open till November 30.
Companies, which missed out on listing earlier, are giving it another shot but with significantly-reduced issue sizes. In the recent past, companies such as TVS Supply Chain Solutions, Suraj Estate Developers, and ESAF Small Finance Bank have re-filed their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). This came after they slashed their issue sizes by 20-60 per cent.
The inflow of cheap capital has also kept the rupee at a high level, making exports uncompetitive and broadening the current account deficit despite falling oil prices.
The rupee closed at 59.90 in Wednesday's trade, gaining just one paisa from its previous close.
Equity mutual funds attracted an all-time high net inflow of Rs 28,463 crore in March, on continued interest by retail and HNI investors, who used market correction as a good buying opportunity.
Portfolio investors based out of the US and other countries with which India does not have favourable tax treaties will have to pay a 15 per cent tax on their derivative transactions, after the Budget decided to classify income from all foreign portfolio investment as capital gains.
Equity benchmark Sensex rallied 487 points on Monday to close at a fresh lifetime peak, tracking gains in Infosys, HDFC twins and HCL Tech amid massive foreign fund inflows.
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.
'Investors need to expect steady returns over the next one to two years with bouts of high volatility.'
The rupee had gained 10 paise to close at 60.11 against the dollar in Tuesday's trade on fag-end selling of the US currency by banks and exporters.
Share rises further to 73 per cent from 66 per cent last year; Some overseas i-banks seen scaling down operations
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.
Government sources say India could consider raising the policy repo rate if the rupee falls towards 61-62 to the dollar.
'The deal pipeline across products is robust for 2024.'
'The outcome of next year's assembly elections, macroeconomic indicators/corporate earnings growth and global events could keep the markets choppy.'
He is the man behind Blackstone's India strategy
The RBI governor is focused on growth, and keeping rupee slightly depreciated is part of that 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' strategy.
The brokerage said it has high hopes for recovery and reforms following the general elections.
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.
According to experts, this will have major impact on new investments by Chinese players in companies, such as Paytm, Ola, BigBasket, Byju's, Dream11, MakeMyTrip, and Swiggy, when they go for follow-up funding. Chinese investors, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, are active in the Indian start-up space, and have collectively invested billions of dollars.
The market price action seems to point in this direction. Let's hope we finally break out. It is about time! asserts Akash Prakash.
Airline told to transfer non-core assets, subsidiaries to special purpose vehicle
Equity markets rallied after softer-than-expected inflation data in the US and UK rekindled hopes of the end of the rate-hiking cycle by major central banks. The soft inflation reading drove down bond yields and the US dollar, whetting the appetite for risky assets. The 10-year US bond yield fell below 4.5 per cent after topping 5 per cent less than a month ago.
In the midst of the move to check flow of anonymous foreign funds in the bourses, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India said on Thursday there was no evidence of terror money coming into capital markets.
