Sharjah-based marketing executive Vijay Raghavan has sent the 264 bonds he got in lieu of the Unit Scheme 64 certificates he held since 1990 to the Special Undertaking of UTI. Though he has not firmed up his investment plan, Raghavan is expecting a refund soon.
Bonds worth about Rs 3,300 crore (Rs 33 billion) are held by institutions and retail investors in dematerialised form or demat, which will be redeemed automatically. In fact, the redemption process, which is the biggest ever in India, has already begun for bonds worth Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) that are held in demat form by institutions.
US-based buyout fund Carlyle, Providence Equity Partners, Warburg Pincus and Blackstone are understood to be exploring a buyout of Temasek's holding in Mumbai-based pure-play business process outsourcing firm Firstsource. The news triggered the company's share price to rise 6.76 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to close at Rs 43.45 on Tuesday. Warburg Pincus has a stake in WNS, a BPO company, while Blackstone has a majority stake in Intelenet.
When markets are topsy-turvy, everyone -- including the companies' management, merchant bankers, retail and institutional investors -- chickens out.
"We are looking into the issue because we have received many requests. We will permit NRI fund managers who have at least a year's experience in managing FII funds as long as they do not put their proprietary funds into it," confirmed a senior Sebi official.
The Sensex futures, which began trading on the Chicago-based US Futures Exchange on April 4, are off to a slow start. The subdued beginning is partly due to a market slowdown and also because of the nature of the product, said market experts. Since it began trading last month, it has registered a daily average of 84.3 contracts, with a total of 1,686 contracts having been traded so far.
Earlier norms on para-banking activities stated that investment by a bank in a subsidiary company, financial services company, financial institutions and stock and other exchanges could not exceed 10 per cent of its paid-up share capital and reserves. On a cumulative basis, the limit was fixed at 20 per cent of the bank's paid-up capital and reserves.
The key team members are in place. Prateek Agrawal, the equity head is from ABN AMRO AMC, Sujay Das, the fixed income head came from DSP Merrill Lynch AMC and Nanda Kishore S, the marketing head is from Sundaram BNP Paribas AMC. Dasgupta himself is from Deutsche AMC. Bharti-AXA has a 35-member strong team, which would be expanded to 70 by June.
Primary markets may see banks using electronic clearance systems (ECS) to clear cheques in order to reduce the gap between the time an issue closes and its listing on the bourses.The primary market advisory committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) met on Friday to iron out some of the logistical difficulties involved in making the IPO process faster.
MFs are planning schemes that will give fund managers the leeway to adopt strategies in line with the market conditions. Fund houses want to ensure they are not restricted by the fund's investment mandate about having to invest in certain sectors even in case of change in sentiment. According to the offer document, if the fund manager expects the markets to head downwards, the scheme can hedge exposure to equity either fully or partially by initiating short futures positions.
JPMorgan Chase is planning to invest $100-150 mn a year in India. This fund will be looking at a range of sectors and would not be focused on one particular sector. It can bring in sector expertise, investment banking expertise and the other broader resources of a full-service financial institution. The new fund, Private Capital Asia, will take non-controlling stakes in mid-cap companies, exclusively in Asia. JPMorgan regards India as a supportive market for private equity.
Richard Heald, Vice-Chairman and Amitabh Malhotra, Director of Rothschild spoke about the volatile market, its implications and how this is an opportunity for Rothschild in India. Heald said that rising commodity prices are worrisome. The inflationary pressures are a concern. He advised that corporates should be open to all financing options. Investors in general want to invest in cash generating assets and commodities. With no decoupling other markets will impact India too.
A majority of brokerages expect the bellwether Sensex to hover at 19,000 by the end of this calendar year, according to a poll conducted by Business Standard among top local brokerage houses. The figure is significantly lower than last December when most brokerages had expected a 15 to 20 per cent return from 20,000 levels at the end of 2007. The Sensex has dropped over 25 per cent from its January peak of 20,800.
Corporate earnings in this quarter may take a hit on account of the equity exposure that companies may have taken following a bad quarter for the Indian markets, say market analysts.
Dubai-headquartered Baer Capital Partners is planning to launch 2 India-centric hedge funds this year. The two funds - Beacon India Opportunities Fund with a corpus of $400 million and the $100 million Beacon India Growth Fund - will invest in listed companies. It is also planning an exclusive $100 million FMCG fund. These funds will invest across sectors including IT, pharma, FMCG, banks and auto. It has got approval from Sebi. These funds will not involve momentum trading.
FIIs were net buyers of Rs 513.04 crore (Rs 5.13 billion) in the cash segment, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth Rs 66.79 crore (Rs 667.9 million), the data from the Bombay Stock Exchange website indicated.Of the 48 trading sessions since the beginning of 2008, Friday's trading session was the only time when FIIs were net buyers in the cash market though the day witnessed Sensex posting its steepest weekly decline since May 15, 2006.
L&T is planning a foray in PE fund in the real estate market with a Rs 4500 crore fund.
If you watch television, you just cannot miss the colourful, new fund offering advertisements by mutual funds talking about India's growing economy and how investing in them is likely to fetch great returns
Atherstone Capital Markets has come up with India IPO Index, which is an index of companies listed on the stock exchanges.
While the Sensex fell by as much as 19 per cent from the recent peak, a host of fund houses were fully invested. A majority of the fund houses were sitting on cash amounting to 1 to 4 per cent of their portfolios against an average of 5 to 7 per cent, data from Value Research, a fund tracking company suggested.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances