India is set to attract huge amount of inflows from global pension and endowment funds as the World Bank's private equity arm International Finance Corporation on Tuesday appointed Mercer, the world's largest fund adviser, to conduct an in-depth study on the Indian corporate sector.
M Damodaran took a bow as Sebi chief after many bold initiatives during his 3-year tenure.
It works like this. There is a section in the US called 144A securities, which was launched in August 15, 2007. Trading in 144A securities takes place only among qualified brokers, dealers and QIBs. Retail investors cannot participate in this segment.
Sebi has proposed waiving off stamp duty on e-issuance of bond to the ministry of finance.
Half of the 10 IPOs to have hit the market since the beginning of this year have been from the real estate space. J Kumar Infra Projects, KNR Constructions, SVEC Constructions and the now withdrawn Emaar MGF are the worst hit, according to analysts.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) denial of permission to Swiss bank UBS to acquire Standard Chartered Asset Management Company has come as a blessing in disguise for Standard Chartered Bank.
Brokers did not allow retail investors to trade at lower levels, threatened them.
The stock market crash of January 21, when the benchmark indices dived to the maximum permissible limit of 10 per cent within minutes of opening, proved that it was not very difficult to manipulate the stock prices (however liquid they may be) and create a sense of panic among the stock investors.
Several smaller brokerages had no option but to sell their clients' shares to provide for margins. Marketmen said several bigger brokerage houses made stop-gap finance arrangement to pay the margins, in a move to retain the loyalty of high net worth clients when the market looks up.
The IPO by J Kumar Infra, which closed on Wednesday, managed to scrape through, with the issue getting bids for 2.7 times. This is in sharp contrast to the recent IPOs, which were getting subscribed many times over.
Following this order, Heidelberg Cement will need to pay only Rs 58 per share, instead of the earlier agreed Rs 72.50 apiece. This 25 per cent premium was agreed as a "non-compete fees" to the Indian promoters when the German major took majority control in Mysore Cements in 2006. Sebi said it did not find merit in the non-compete fees arrangement as the "sellers/promoters to whom non-compete consideration has been paid consist of trusts and charitable institutions."
The move follows the near Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) redemptions every month from the US-64 and ARS bonds in the last couple of years.
Some of the world's top hedge funds have been granted direct entry into the Indian stock markets, nearly three months after the Securities and Exchange Board of India imposed curbs on foreign investments through the participatory note (P-note) route.
In this financial year so far, insurance companies have invested around Rs 36,000 crore in the stock markets against around Rs 60,000 crore invested by the FIIs.
Citigroup Venture is planning to buy an equity stake in PINC for Rs.400 cr.
Tata Securities is all set to revive stock broking, given the current investor interest in equities.
Reliance Power, which is hitting the market next week with an offering of nearly Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion), will set the trend for a slew of power IPOs from other companies including Sterlite Energy (Rs 4,000-8,000 crore or Rs 40 to Rs 80 billion), JSW Energy (Rs 4,000 crore or Rs 40 billion), JP Associates (Rs 4,000 crore or Rs 40 billion) which have already announced big share offer plans.
Infrastructure, capital goods and agriculture-related stocks will continue their sizzling performance in 2008. Moreover, the financial services sector and selective real estate stocks are also expected to give handsome returns to investors in the new year, according to a Business Standard poll of leading brokerage houses.
This will allow investors the freedom of choice based on the services they get from a distributor.
After the third consecutive year of spectacular gains by the Indian stock markets, which saw the bellwether Sensex climbing nearly 39 per cent, investors can still expect returns of 15 to 20 per cent in 2008, according to a poll among top local and foreign brokerage houses.
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