Radhakishan S Damani, investor and promoter of the D-Mart supermarket chain, has broken into the elite club of the top 100 global billionaires. Damani, who grew up in a single-room apartment in Mumbai, is now ranked 98th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with $19.2 billion as his net worth. The index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people. The other Indians on the top 100 rich list ahead of Damani are Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, and Lakshmi Mittal.
On February 19, India's largest private low-fare airline IndiGo announced the resignation of one of the two founders, Rakesh Gangwal, from the airline's board and his intentions of offloading his stake in the airline over the next five years. The announcement came on a Friday, giving the stock markets the weekend to absorb the news but the markets registered a tepid response on Monday's opening. In contrast, in July 2019, when the fight between the two founders and erstwhile friends first became public, the markets reacted savagely. The IndiGo scrip at the time fell 19 per cent, wiping out millions of rupees of shareholder wealth before bouncing back. For readers who may be hazy on the details of the dispute, here is the context.
Markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday ordered attachment of bank accounts as well as share and mutual fund holdings of Rana Kapoor, former MD and CEO of Yes Bank, to recover dues of over Rs 1 crore. The decision has been taken after Kapoor failed to pay the fine imposed on him. Sebi, in September 2020, had levied a fine of Rs 1 crore on Kapoor for not making disclosures regarding a transaction of Morgan Credit, which was an unlisted promoter entity of Yes Bank.
The rally in the broader markets, a spate of new listings, and the influx of retail investors have resulted in a boom for research and this has spurred a surge in the number of entities providing such services. From 467 entities that provided research services as of March 2018, the number jumped 57 per cent to 733 as of March 2021. And, another 46 entities have been added to the list in the six months since, to take the total number of registered research analysts to 779 as on September 13. However, the total number of analysts could be a multiple of this number.
Sebi also plans to examine if any comments made by company officials or the bankers could have misled investors.
A global association for regulated funds that is leading efforts to shorten the settlement cycle for US equities has reached out to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) with a plea to extend the T+1 implementation timeline by 18 months. The short transition period of four months does not provide foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), their services providers, and broker dealers sufficient time to make the necessary operational and compliance changes to accommodate a shorter settlement cycle, ICI Global said in its letter addressed to Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi written a few days back. ICI Global carries out the international work of the Investment Company Institute (ICI), a global association for regulated funds, whose members manage assets of more than $42 trillion.
Digital payments and financial services firm Paytm has filed a draft red herring prospectus for its proposed Rs 16,600-crore initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
'The markets haven't corrected, that doesn't mean that they will only go up and up.'
Future Retail's (FRL's) independent directors have written a second letter to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stating American e-commerce major Amazon never intended to invest in Future Coupons (FCPL) and the representations made by the US e-commerce player were completely opposite and contradictory to their own internal correspondences as submitted before courts. The directors also wrote to CCI that Amazon has obtained approval by making deliberate misrepresentations. By actively misleading the CCI and the regulator, it has to revoke the approval granted for Amazon's investment in FCPL.
Domestic mutual funds (MFs) and foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been net buyers of stocks in August. Domestic fund houses have continued to invest in stocks, propelled by the success of various new fund offers (NFOs) and strong flows into equity funds. MFs had purchased stocks worth more than Rs 8,300 crore until August 23, according to the data provided on the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) website. Jimmy Patel, MD and CEO at Quantum AMC, says: "The surge in equity investments by MFs is because of two key reasons. One, equity NFOs are getting a strong response from investors, and fund houses need to deploy that money in the markets.
Under the new guidelines, the top 10 active equity schemes in terms of assets would collectively require investments of around Rs 365 crore -- up from mandated Rs 50 lakh at present -- in their own schemes.
At least five companies looking to raise a cumulative Rs 6,595 crore could launch their initial public offerings (IPOs) next month after a busy August that saw eight IPOs. On Thursday, south-based diagnostic chain Vijaya Diagnostics announced its plans for a Rs 1,895-crore IPO. Ami Organics will announce its plans for a Rs 600-crore issue on Friday.
India's stock exchanges have decided to jointly introduce the T+1 settlement cycle in phases from February 25, beginning with the bottom 100 stocks by market capitalisation. From March 2022, on the last Friday (or the immediate next trading day) of every month, the next 500 stocks from the bottom will be subject to T+1 settlement. The phase-wise implementation is expected to give all market participants, including foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), ample time to shift to the shorter cycle. The settlement cycle represents the time period within which the stock exchanges have to settle security transactions.
The recently-created flexi-cap fund category is emerging as the hottest segment in the Rs 11-trillion equity mutual funds (MFs) space. Buoyed by the success of ICICI Prudential Flexicap Fund, other MFs are lining up new fund offerings (NFO) in this segment. Industry players say the flexi-cap category could emerge as the biggest segment in the equity MF space. Recently, ICICI Pru Flexicap's NFO collected a record Rs 10,200 crore.
About 7 per cent was priced between Rs 3 crore and Rs 5 crore, 22 per cent priced between Rs 5 crore and Rs 8 crore, and 15 per cent above Rs 8 crore.
Private lender Tamilnad Mercantile Bank's (TMB) is planning an Initial Public Offering ( IPO) of about Rs 1,000 crore by November-December 2021. The IPO will involve combination of fresh capital plus sale of existing shares. The shareholders of the unlisted South-based private bank have already given nod for IPO.
Last October's circular meant that downstream investment by such funds by way of subscription or acquisition of shares would have been considered "indirect foreign investment" if their investment manager or sponsor is owned or controlled by a non-resident. The finance ministry has now said that mutual funds that invest more than 50 per cent in equity shall be omitted from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996.
COVID-19 forced people to work from home turned into the fuel for new demat accounts, observes Debashis Basu.
Chartered accountants are readying themselves for a higher onus on individuals to report violations that they come across as part of their work. There has been a scramble to understand the implications as the non-compliance with laws and regulations (NOCLAR) comes into effect in less than six months. It is applicable from April 1, 2022 after being deferred earlier because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Amazon has filed a legal challenge at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) suspension of the US e-commerce giant's 2019 deal with Future Retail (FRL). Amazon has challenged the CCI order on at least five grounds, and the matter is likely to be listed this week, according to the sources. Parallelly, Amazon's Indian unit has approached the Supreme Court against a halt on an arbitration case against Future Retail's (FRL) asset sale to Reliance Industries (RIL).
Adversarial Harmful Networks -- India Case Study, cited in Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's SEC complaints, revealed, among other things, that Facebook was a preferred platform for 'fear-mongering anti-Muslim narratives' in India, observes Devangshu Datta.
Sebi orders attachment of bank, demat accounts of Mehul Choksi and Gitanjali Gems after they failed to pay fine imposed on them.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Ajay Tyagi on Thursday defended the recent reforms announced by the regulator, such as peak margin norms and shortening of the trade settlement cycle, saying they were in the interest of investors. The moves were criticised by the broking community and the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Speaking to the media after his inaugural address at the CII Financial Markets Summit, Tyagi said: "The new peak margin norms are in everyone's interest.
The Supreme Court Tuesday set aside three Delhi high court orders including the refusal to grant a stay on the final arbitral award which had restrained Future Retail Ltd from going ahead with its Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail and ordered fresh adjudication. In a major relief to Future group, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana also set aside the high court's order of February 2 last year, by which it had directed Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to maintain status quo in relation to the merger deal. The March 18 order of the high court, upholding the EA's award and imposing a cost of Rs 20 lakh on it as well as its directors, has also been set aside.
The clarification by the National Securities Depository (NSDL) - which is tasked with monitoring foreign portfolio investor (FPI) investment in domestic stocks - that the accounts of top investors in Adani group stocks remain 'active' has helped prevent a $500-million selloff of shares. Analysts said a freeze of the FPI accounts, as reported by some media outlets, could have prompted global index providers to cut weighting of four Adani group companies from their global indices. Brian Freitas, an analyst at independent research provider Smartkarma, said if the FPI accounts were indeed frozen, FTSE and MSCI would have reduced weighting of Adani group companies at the next rebalance, since it would have meant that the large part of the free float was not tradeable.
Easier dilution norms for mega initial public offerings (IPOs) have come into effect. Companies with post-listing market capitalisation (m-cap) of more than Rs 1 trillion will not be required to dilute a minimum of 10 per cent. The move to relax dilution norms is seen as a precursor to Life Insurance Corporation's IPO. The central government has said companies with an m-cap exceeding Rs 1 trillion will have to dilute Rs 5,000 crore and at least 5 per cent of their m-cap. Experts said the earlier framework discouraged large companies from listing since they were forced to offload a large volume of shares during the time of their IPO.
As the industrial era wanes, the network era looms, notes Ajit Balakrishnan.
Private equity (PE) is set to play a bigger role in banks. Of 21 recommendations accepted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) out of 31 made by its Internal Working Group (IWG), its stance on non-promoter holdings in private banks is seen with excitement, though it doesn't refer to PEs explicitly. On non-promoter holdings in these banks, the RBI said this will be capped at 10 per cent of the paid-up voting equity share capital in the case "of natural persons and non-financial institutions and entities"; and "at 15 per cent for all categories of financial institutions, entities, supranational institutions, public sector undertaking, or the government." While this is a modification of the IWG's stance for the non-promoter holding in banks at up to 15 per cent, it does open up a huge window for PEs, all the same. This is because, while the RBI has remained silent on the eligibility of industrial houses for bank licences, fresh high-quality capital in large amounts can only come from PEs.
Discussion has started between blank check companies in the US and Indian PEs on possible deals in certain key sectors.
Industry players say improving the penetration beyond the top centres will require setting up more branch networks and empanelment of distributors.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has introduced an optional T+1 settlement cycle for the markets. T+1 means that settlements will have to be cleared within one day of the actual transactions taking place. The regulator has put the onus on the stock exchanges to decide whether they want to opt for the shorter settlement cycle for any of the listed scrips. This can be done after giving a one-month prior notice to all stakeholders.
MMFs are a good option for the current environment, observes Sarbajeet K Sen.
In stock market parlance, "meme stock" was certainly the word of the year. Coined to mean those stocks that gain sudden popularity on the internet with resultant high prices, it was used to derisively describe the behaviour of retail traders globally who entered the market in huge numbers in the two Covid-19 years. A recent study, "Market Concentration and Retail Participation in India", by the National Stock Exchange economics team led by their chief economist Tirthankar Patnaik shows unlike these impressions, the retail investors, at least in India, have not performed inconsistently.
The revised date for phase I and phase II examination for the recruitment of officers in Grade A will be informed in due course.
In a first for India, bullion derivatives contracts will be settled on a blockchain platform. This will help in global acceptance of gold refined by Indian bullion refineries, giving a fillip to the local industry, exports, as well as investments. From November 1, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will accept gold delivery only on the blockchain platform.
While the recent volatility in the secondary markets is a concern, experts believe the sentiment towards IPOs is still buoyant.
Independent directors
The SME segment has been grappling with lack of liquidity and lacklustre institutional participation.
Yes Bank said it has received approval from the Capital Raising Committee of the Board of Directors of the Bank for raising funds by a way of FPO.
As a multi-agency probe into the NSE case gathers pace, the grant of preferential server and data access to select brokers and their suspected misuse are being investigated threadbare to unveil all quid pro quo arrangements in a highly-sophisticated scheme that worked like a cricket betting scandal, officials said on Monday. While the bourse has said it has taken several steps over the years to strengthen its technology infrastructure, including as per regulatory orders, the officials said certain fresh disclosures call for a detailed probe into whether a select group of individuals in high positions had banded together to make illicit gains by facilitating the preferential trading slots, beginning over a decade ago. Even a split-second faster access is said to result in huge gains for a trader.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances