NEWARKED

Obama visit has triggered off the fall in the markets as expected. If India is to create jobs for Americans we can now coin a word called "newarked".

Newarked: means you just lost your job to a Newyorker/ American. you can also say that your job was newarked, meaning it was given off to an American.

Antonym of Newarked: Bangalored.

Anyway, now that Obama has come and gone, let's get back to business and see where we are headed. The market tried to touch the all time high during diwali and then has been flaundering post diwali. i think the market will correct by another 20% before it begins its northward journey.

Some of the stocks that can be bought now are RCOM, Bhartiairtel and IDEA. Stocks to exit are all Banks and auto stocks. This is exactly opposite of what experts are talking about on TV.

Economy is fine says the Economic Advisor.. As usual I beg to disagree..

The Economic advisor to the prime minister says the economy is doing fine and we can expect a growth rate of 8.5% this year. Good News.

As always I am a naysayer and my only grouse is that we have inflation running at an average of 10% for the last four quarters and with nominal interest rates lower than the inflation rates we have already run into negative real interest rate territory for the last three quarters. This does not bode well for the foreign exchange rate front. As long as the real interest rate remains negative, Rupee will keep being under stress, new symbol not withstanding. May be, this is good for the software companies and other export led businesses, but since we are an oil importing economy with a trade deficit of close to a billion dollars and heavy reliance on "invisibles" to Balance our BOP, we need more to be done on the trade deficit side.

All through the blog you will find mention of this inflation in India being more due to non availability of supply than the over supply of money. Managing this inflation by using monetary policy is like managing hypertension by asking the heart to pump less blood rather than by exercising more. Ask any doctor for a remedy he will certainly say that your body needs exercise to counter high BP and not drugs to slow your heart down. But our regulators are not "doctors" they have their monetary policy blinkers on all the time.

what next? INR (sorry I still do not have the font to write the symbol of the Rupee) will weaken to offset for the negative real interest rate for another six months and then if we see some inflation management (monetary or otherwise) we may see a stop to the rupee losing value.

This, along with the money due to be pulled out from emerging markets, thanks to the new act signed by Obama will lead to depressed markets for the next six months. a recovery for the markets is seen only later.

A review of the economy is expected on the 26th evening. The shape of things to come will be decided later. But, since it is an RBI event and therefore a monetary event, it may not give any medicine for the disease of low investment and low supply kind of situation we are in.

Till then short a few August futures and make money.

"If it isn't broken dont fix it" says RBI

That seems to be the mantra from our venerable Governor of the RBI. this credit policy is just a tweak with respect to raising the SLR to 25%. All the other rates have been maintained at the same level. RBI's review has pared down the GDP growth outlook of 6%.
The stimulation of the economy on the back of the financial crisis in the form of eased liquidity remains nearly constant. The powers that be, have been crying hoarse that it is still not time to repeal the stimulus given during the crisis. One fails to understand, why should the government not stimulate the economy constructively on a continuous basis? Why should the government only think of monetary measures when fundamental shift in stimulating the economies are needed?
The best form of stimulus would be to encourage individual savings and collective investments.
Now, what does one make of this credit policy? The policy may have said many things in words but as far as deeds are concerned, it is very clear. The Governor does not think anything is wrong and he does not want to rock the boat when everything is to the Government's satisfaction.
What do we expect in the market? The markets are more concerned with the slow growth expectations. We have already witnessed sluggish growth in corporate sales, this may start affecting the margins and profits in the next quarter. That is the fear in the minds of the players in the market now. The markets have also gone up on one way street for most part of the last year and the time for profit booking is ripe now.
So BOOK PROFITS AND DON'T WAIT TILL THE MARKETS TOP OUT.

Annual Credit Policy and its effects.

The Reserve Bank of India has come out with its annual policy document which we popularly refer to as the credit policy. This time theRBI has maintained the bank rate at 6.0% repo at 4.75% and reverse repo at 3.25%. It has also maintained the CRR at 5% of the net time deposits. The GDP forecast has been pegged at 6% and inflation is being expected to hover at 5%. RBI also expects that the gross fiscal deficit to be at 6.8% up from 2.7% in 2007-08 and 6.2% in 2008-09.
What does all this mean to the common man and to the person who would like to invest his money in his own business or the business managed by somebody through the stock exchange? let's take a hard look at this issue.

If the Government thinks that inflation is to hover around 5% and the popular discounting rate is 4.75% then it is committing itself to a regime of negative real interest rates. This is bound to result in capital flight, capital flight means that FIIs (the temporary or the hedge fund type) are bound to pull out part of their money weakening the Rupee and strenghtening the Dollar. A weaker rupee will mean fuel prices will go up in India and bring down the profitability of oil companies. Exporters like software companies and other export oriented companies will do well due to the competitive pricing available to them.

Capital flight could also result in sudden contraction of the money market making liquity remote and thus pushing down inflation. But, that is just a pipe dream given the way the Indian economy operates. Indian economy has more resilience and is bigger in the unorganized sector than the organized sector, that will increase the woes of the government by supplying more and more of M3 for the government to keep absorbing if the government wants to keep a check on liquidity.

Another pertinent point that has been brought out time and again by various experts is about the inflation based on WPI and CPI. This time the RBI document itself has thrown its hands up in despair and is wondering why WPI and CPI are not showing positive correlation as they were earlier. The answer is simple! people have changed their consumption habit and manufacturers have changed their consumption habits too, but the RBI has not changed its basket of commodities for a long time. Times are changing but the measures are not changing with the times and thats the trouble!!

Stock markets have been having a great time for the time being. Technically speaking, the nifty has to cross and close above 4640 to signal a distinct break out. If the NIFTY breaks out then we can look forward to going back to the old highs of 6000 on the NIFTY. Fundamentally, things are not so rosy, with negative real interest rates, weakening Rupee, a large fiscal deficit and a ruling PE of 20, its going to be hard for the markets to put up a brave face and trudge the bull mountain.

From here the view is more pessimistic than optimistic.

India Budget 2009

If there can be a perfect example for a damp squib, this is it! my earlier post I had opened a discussion on the role of media in creating a hype about the union budget and had also mentioned what can be realistic expectation of the new regime.

I was spot-on, in saying that no fireworks could be expected.

Now let see some of the important budget provisions and find out what they mean for you, me and the financial markets.

1. India Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited (IIFCL) has been granted flexibility in raising finances and lending to infrastructure projects, meaning that it has been left to fend for itself.

2. The allocation for NHAI has been increased by 23%. Good move this would help in the development of national highways.

3. Farmers, the darlings of the politicians (that's not because they are voters but because most of the parliamentarians and politicians are farmers themselves!) have been offered an interest subvention @ 7% and a 1% subsidy for prompt payment (this means the effective borrowing rate fr farmers is 6% and they are not required to pay income tax too). It pays to be a farmer in India.

4. The Market development assistance for exporters in the form of interest subvention on pre-shipment credit extended up to 31st March 2010. Our finance ministry expects the global crisis to blow over by then and then we will be charging the same interest rate for our exporters as other manufacturers.

5. SARAL-2 will be introduced this year. Have you ever heard of a simplified simple tax form. here it is!

6. NREGA the wonder child of Congress (How come the name does not start with Nehru-Gandhi name?) has been allocated Rs.39100 crores (Rs. 391,000,000,000) this year. Lets do a small analysis. NREGA guarantees 100 days of gainful employment for one individual in every household in rural areas and pays Rs. 100 per day per head. This amounts to wages of Rs. 10000 per household for a year. So if Rs.391 billion have to be spent then this money is expected to cater to 39.1 million households, out of approx 197 million households as per the official census of 2001. The corollary of this is that 20% of our population is in abject poverty and is not capable of raising Rs.10000 per household in rural areas. If this is true then Shame on us. If this is not true then, there seems to be a problem with the way our government works.

7. A national mission on women's literacy is being set up and it will help in reducing illiteracy amongst women in the next three years. WOW a commendable job.

8. Students who take loans for education will enjoy a moratorium on interest payments till they finish their course. That is a great thing and it will go a long way in helping poor students to educate themselves.

9. A public Private Partnership is being envisaged in managing the good old employment exchange. That is a great idea, all you private placement consultants and naukri.com better watch out big brother has just entered the fray and he will gobble you up.

10. The Unique Identity Number project has been allotted Rs. 1.2 billion to start its operations. That will kick start the operations but we need more money to count the number of people in this country and provide smart cards for each of them.

11. GROSS FISCAL DEFICIT is expected to be 6.8% of GDP and the Gross State Domestic Product limit has been raised to 4%. Mr. Finance Minister Sir, your targeted Fiscal deficit was 3% and you went on to stretch it to 6.8%. How can you expect your counterparts in the State Governments who take pride in profligacy to contain themselves to 4%?

12. Direct Taxes: Individual Income tax slab at the lowest level has been raised by Rs.10000 for male individuals and women. The lowest slab for senior citizens has been raised to Rs. 240,000, a raise of Rs. 15,000. For the HNIs the surcharge of 10% is abolished. Here the people in the middle tax bracket seem to have got the wrong end of the stick.

13. Fringe Benefit Tax has been abolished. Now your company will allow you to go on tour and spend money and not worry about paying FBT on part of the amount you spent on that junket.

14. Commodities Transaction Tax is abolished. I don't know what to say. the government keeps banning commodities trading whenever it sees a flare-up in commodities prices. So the right question would be which commodity is being allowed to trade right now to understand the impact of abolishing CTT. Any way removing CTT will help commodity exchanges and help stock brokers to start commodity terminals as a hedge against the failing fortunes in the stock broking industry.

15. Minimum Alternative Tax: the MAT under which corporate growth has been swept under by the previous finance minister has just got bigger. MAT has been increased to 15%. There is no incentive for tax management using the growth=depreciation route now. THE SINGLE LARGEST REASON FOR THE STOCK MARKETS TO REACT THE WAY THEY DID IN RESPONSE TO THE BUDGET.

16. Thankfully there have been no major changes in indirect taxes.

17. GST to be operational from 1st April 2010. Good move. GST to be bifurcated to central GST and State GST. BAD MOVE. This means we are going back to the good old days when we had central sales tax and state sales tax. so in Karnataka instead of CST and KST we will have CGST and KGST. (How to share the spoils of the tax revenue amongst the centre and the state could have been kept in wraps and a common GST would have been better)


That's about it. As far as disinvestment is concerned, no specific announcement was made.

Moral of the story: More the things change, more they remain the same. The 1991 wave of reforms was not of Congress manufacturing, but out of compulsion of the IMF. Now that the economy is strong enough to withstand the perils of global financial meltdown we can do it our way, the NEHRUVIAN WAY. In fact, at one time the Finance Minister was singing paeans to Mrs. Indira Gandhi, for having the grand vision of financial crisis 40 years back and resorting to nationalisation of banks.

WOW I am very happy that we had such visionary leaders who could predict turmoils four decades ahead. Our FM needs to read a little of modern economics and find out that this financial crisis happened to US because the Glass Steagall Act was repealed in 1999. There was no way how our Prime Minister could envision that this would happen in 1979.

Now for the markets, the immediate support for the markets is 3800 on the NIFTY. Nifty has to fill the gap it created on that euphoric morning after the budget first. Then lets see if a plunge protection team is formed and whether it works else we will see the October 2008 bottoms again.

Will the FM deliver?

If you happen to watch the business channels these days, all of them want to sensationalise and make news of something there is no news about. these news channels survive on sensationalising the banal. That's exactly the thing they are doing with the upcoming budget. they have already labeled it as the "Big B" (The original Big B must be squirming at the thought of this unlikely and banal competition).

What can be reasonably expected by the budget?

1. Income tax slabs will be raised to make way for the 6th pay commission. may be the lowest slab will be up from Rs.150000 to 200000.

2. A broad and vague statement about GST to be introduced will be spoken of with a deadline of three to four years so that the listeners will feel good about some progress in the administration and the practitioners will also feel good that it is not coming soon yet.

3. A proposal for disinvestment to bridge the gap in the fiscal deficit will also be talked of and an arrangement of selling equity in PSUs to other PSUs will be taken up to satiate the views of people hankering for fiscal prudence. Whether it is fiscal prudence to disinvest by transferring the money from one pocket of the government to the other pocket is a debatable point.

4. The recent success of farm loan waiver in the electoral hustings is bound to cast its shadow (or should I call it lustre) on the budget and there will be a constituency which would hanker for more of the same. This constituency will surely be catered to, and an announcement in some form or the other can be expected out of this budget too.

5. NREGS will also become a mainstream project of the government, given the keen interest of the family in the project. An announcement of extension and raised "deficit funded" programme can be expected on this subject.

6. Securities Transaction Tax, the slow poison affecting the stock markets and the Commodities Transaction Tax the poor cousin of the STT will remain the same and no reprieve on these items can be expected.

7. Some superficial and cosmetic changes can be expected in the indirect taxes system to make it look market friendly. Here the phrase "look market friendly" is important.

8. Education seems to be the new frontier where the government will show its keen interest. especially Higher education, rightly so when we have a former UGC chairman as the Head of the cabinet. More central universities, IITs, NITs, can be expected to be announced in this budget. We can also expect at least 5 universities to get a substantial largess to augment their resources.

9. Defence expenditure would go up by 20%, this has become an annual feature now with the prevailing Geo-political situation.

10. Setting up of a new force of the type of NSG/RAF may be announced to combat internal insurgents.

11. Some politicians are vying for a special status for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Bihar, etc., these may see the light of the day and some package can be expected for Hyderabad-Karnataka region and Bihar in an attempt to woo non-congress voters there.

On the topic of special status, one thought crosses the mind, Article 370 gives a special status to J&K and politicians from congress have been talking about a similar status to Telangana, Goa north-east, etc. Does this mean that we are heading towards a decentralised system of governance? Are we heading towards a federal system with a weak centre and strong regional states? only time will tell.

So, if this is reasonably expected of the budget in general, one has to stop and think whether it is really the "BIG B " as our media wants us to believe. I remember economic times portraying a caricature of honourable Shri. P Chidambaram as the superman during the 1997 budget. Ten years ago it was for the print media to raise the hype, now its the turn of the electronic media to do the same. The reach and impact of electronic media is deeper and broader. If the media starts encouraging false hopes and sensationalising no news as BIG NEWS then the nation will be in for a big surprise. It seems that the present electronic media has taken upon itself the mantle of changing the opinions in the country. This type of sensationalism in the electronic media and instant justice meted out to people via the media will not get them anywhere. People are bound to realise sooner or later that the "BIG B" is also same as the case of "prince stuck in the bore well" or "A man who prophesied his death" or "leopard in somebody's house" or "injured tigress on the road". All these media stories took up nearly 48 hours of national TV space at one time or the other leaving aside grave issues like hoisting of the Pakistan flag at Srinagar.

Any way This budget as I see it is going to be a non-event and I pray that I will be proved wrong. Over to Honourable Shri Pranab Mukherjee to to the Honours.

New Government Old Politics

I am writing this after a long time. In the meanwhile as the powers that be changed and exchanged their jobs, me too changed the job (you can find out about it on my profile). The last month has proved it again that as more things change, they remain the same. The Loksabha saw the first skirmish of what was to come in the next five years. DMK and UPA do not seem to see eye to eye on the disinvestment issue. That caused the stock markets to lose 500 point on the sensex and gain 450 points in a matter of two days. Now, was this a predetermined trading strategy is any body's guess.

The Nifty has relentlessly gone up from 2550 pre-elections to 4500 post elections and has made a lot of investors richer. What should one make of this near doubling of the nifty? May I remind you of the October lows (i.e. 2008 October). In the last eight months majority of the front line stocks have posted phenomenal returns, Reliance, SBI, RCOM, Reliance Capital, Reliance Infra, Reliance Industrial Infra, Suzlon, the list goes on...

Has the economic outlook changed so drastically that the despair of the markets has gone and the economic boom is right round the corner? Has the global financial crisis blown over? Does a change in the leadership in Government (in this case no change) make such a difference that people will throng to the stock markets and buy whatever comes their way at whatever the price? We have heard that markets are irrational but are they so irrational that they DOUBLE IN EIGHT MONTHS?

Given these circumstances, we can reach to two conclusions.
1. The markets were artificially brought down and a panic situation was artificially created so that gullible people sold out at lower prices. The economic situation had not worsened at all and everybody was crying WOLF.
2. The economic situation has really worsened and there seems to be hope that things will turn around. This hope has made the markets rebound and get ready for scaling new heights. The worst is over and out and things will be great once again. Our PM also corroborates this statement that India has the capacity to grow at 9% p.a. despite the slowing growth world over.

I would like to leave these question open for discussion...

Please feel free to leave your comments at the end of the blog.

TWO CIRCUITS AND A SCAM

The Indian stock markets hit two circuits and were closed for the day. It was an unprecedented thing that happened.

A decisive win for the UPA has brought back the bulls in the market with a long list of wishes.

1. Easing of FDI norms for Insurance sector.
2. Reform in the banking sector (especially on the labour laws side)
3. Disinvestment from public sector undertakings to make up for the deficit brought about from last year's doles.
4. Dismantling of the Administered Pricing mechanism for petroleum products.
5. Easing of interest rates and making credit available to the industry.
6. Boosting exports by implementing a new export promotion policy.
7. Spending more money on health, infrastructure and education.
8. FDI in the aviation sector.

I HAVE ONLY ONE COMMENT TO MAKE FOR ALL THIS WISH LIST. THIS LIST WILL REMAIN A LIST AND YOU WILL PROBABLY BE ABLE TO SEE ONLY 40% OF THIS LIST COMING TRUE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.

AS FAR AS THE MARKETS ARE CONCERNED THE REGULATORS ARE NOT IN SYNCH WITH THE MARKETS AND THEY NEED TO REFORM THE MARKET FIRST. A TRADING OF 300 ODD CRORES CAN STOP THE MARKETS FROM TRADING AND CAUSE A UPPER CIRCUIT. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCAM OF ALL TIMES AND NEEDS TO BE PROBED.

Additional reading http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/market-outlook/nothing-to-be-proud-of-vk-sharma/398047/1

If the market can be easily manipulated with 300 crores then it is a very shallow market. We first need stock market reforms and we need a regulator not an opinion maker in the regulators seat.

All the best.

Foot in the mouth disease affects me

The UPA has won. It just needs either SP or BSP to lend a hand to the HAND. Dr. Singh will be KING again and keep the seat warm for the heir apparent. Now the question shifts to who will handle which portfolio? PC will have to reboot through the Rajya Sabha. Laluji has a strength of TWO so he has no hopes of making it to the cabinet.

What about the markets? Nifty will be on a new Government honeymoon from Monday and will surely scale up to 3950. It faces a technical resistance there (may be the market may not like the new cabinet or the new FM). If this resistance is breached then we can safely assume (FII Gods and world markets willing) to go up to 4250 in this pre-budget rally. By the way, we are in for a fresh budget from the new Government, the February charade was just a vote-on-account. A vote-on-account is just a permission from the outgoing parliament to splurge for three more months.

With fiscal deficit going out of the hands of the government and no new investment forthcoming the new government will have an up hill task of keeping the economy on the growth track. Our banks may not need a stress test but they sure will need some prodding and some loosening of norms for doing their regular job of credit disbursement. Of course they will have to be assured by the new government that the loans they give will not be waived off again and even if they are waived off, they will be compensated fast.

Now you will also see some more woe stories coming from foreign and not so foreign investors about the state of the economy not being conducive for fresh investment. Things like the limits on foreign investment in retail, insurance and MEDIA will be tossed around. These will be bandied around as reasons for the stock markets not performing well.

The MEDIA moguls need a pat on the back with loosening investment norms for all the PR that they have handled splendidly for the first family of India.

This will be the term when Dr. Singh will have to actually demonstrate that the nuke deal will actually fructify into a win-win formula for our country.

If you happen to read my earlier blogs you will notice a sea change in the style of writing. You will find this more blunt and more prophetic (to say the least). That is because, now that I have bungled once on the predictions of the elections results, I have developed a common disease prevalent in the political arena of our country "The Foot in the Mouth disease". Now it doesn't matter if my predictions are right or wrong I was wrong once anyway!

The NEMESIS of Technical analysts!

Technical analysts in the stock markets and other financial markets rely on past data and charts made out of past data. They find patterns in these charts and follow them to such an extent that they believe that these patterns are gospel truth. Actually these charts are a reflection of the "mass psychology" or the collective mind of the players in the stock markets. There is a proliferation of technical analysts in the markets these days because market men have started to increasingly believe that with the advent of the Internet and the real time television media there is no incentive for any kind of fundamental analysis.

Fundamental analysis is akin to finding value hidden from the average investor. A Fundamental also depends on the past financial data and past experiences with the management of the companies, apart from his / her prognosis about the state of the economy, sector, industry and the company.

Technical analysts tend to forecast the behaviour of the markets depending upon the patterns that these charts make and the levels of the prices. Most technical analysts read the same books and follow the same theories therefore they tend to conclude the same things. The only force that acts against them is the regulatory force like a government or the central bank which can change the course of the markets by setting a new agenda or by directing the economy in a new direction. When ever a market falls to a large extent and there is general despair in the markets, usually the government or one of its arms comes out to support the market. This team that starts working against a trend to stem out the despair is called "The Plunge Protection Team". All the technical analysts who are gloom and doom specialists are wary of this plunge protection team. Some times this team over reacts to the situations and gets into high gear at the fall of a hat. sometimes it takes its own time, not recognising impending dangers and acts too late and in too small measures (that's what happened last year and that's why the markets became bear friendly).

The moral of the story is that, the best type of analysis suited for the markets is something called techno-fundamental analysis which also keeps its eyes open for regulatory changes, world wide happenings and market movements. because in "mass psychology" the government is not part of the "mass". So, i think we can say that the regulator is the nemesis of the technical analyst.

Now for my take on the markets: NIFTY is expected to go forward in its bullish journey up to 3600 and then take a pause for the election results. The results of the General elections will then set the agenda further until then its wait and watch. A short straddle on the NIFTY at 3500 would be ideal for the time being up to April expiry.

Are we De-coupling?

The Days of looking towards the west for market cues in the morning are on the way out. we need to look inwards and evaluate our economic conditions to take investment decisions. the process of decoupling of our economies with the western world has started in right earnest. Once the bail-out of the auto majors happens and takes concrete shape, that will be the last nail in the coffin of the way in which the 20th century business was carried out. 21st century will be different, companies will be required to tighten their belts, give away their private jets and start traveling economy class, eat food not designs and so on and so forth.

This era is the point at which the world will formally move from the industrialised economy to the knowledge economy. Only India is in an unique position where all the three waves of civilization defined by Alvin Toffler co-exist at the same time. That is the order of the day. governments are going to be more involved in business and more businesses are going to be more involved in government along with the others. India needs to learn a few things from this, here government is in serious businesses like

Power - equipment, generation, transmission, distribution, Iron and Steel - mining, smelting and manufacturing, Insurance, Banking, Heavy Equipment, Oil Exploration, Petroleum Refining, Marketing, Petrochemicals, Fertilizers, Food Processing, Heavy Engineering, etc..

The same may happen to the US in the next three decades.

The point I was trying to make is that "Government" has found that it also needs to be in "Business" if it has to Govern! (which has been the case in India for the last five decades).

So we come back to the cycle of Nationalization-Liberalization-Privatization-Globalization cycle which keeps on repeating over the decades.

Now the Government of India needs to stop and take a re-look and not get into the cycle. Just like all the three waves that co-exist in India, The economy also needs to strike a balance between public and private ownership to keep the economy going, without the hiccups a la US of A.

Terror Strikes Mumbai

India was a witness to the worst terror strikes. the audacity of the terrorists to attack civilian soft spots and battle for long hours was shocking. All this while terrorists were supposed to strike from behind and run away or die in the process. But, this was exceptional that the terrorists attacked and tried the patience of the forces for a good 60 hours. What lessons do we learn from this? That India can no longer be casual about the threats of terrorists. India is viewed as a soft state as far as terrorists are concerned, as any terrorist is branded a religious one and the Government dithers on taking action against these elements, afraid of the wrath of the religious bodies. Terrorists have no religion, no Nationality and no Humanity, they need not be shown any pity while dealing with them. just branding them as people belonging to some nationality, region, religion or group will not suffice, this will lead to a lackadaisical attitude towards them and give them more strength to strike again. Our country need laws which are stringent enough to deter criminal activities, and a legal system which acts fast to book criminals and dispense with the justice.
After a crime is committed and the suspect is arrested, many time it so happens that it takes six months to an year until the charges are framed, then comes the trial where lawyers take advantage of the loopholes of the detective system or the investigations and are able to save the criminals from sentence. There are umpteen instances where criminals have gone Scot-free because of the delayed (and therefore shoddy) investigations. Justice delayed is justice denied and therefore we have to take steps to speed up the process of justice.
Stock Markets: Markets rallied in spite of the terror strikes in Mumbai. There is a lot bad news happening around the world about more an more banks wanting bail out packages. Worlds largest automakers also want bail outs, The American dream wants a bail out package and industry leaders are asking for virtual nationalization of their industries in US. These are bad times, if you have bought when the markets bottomed in October then SELL NOW only to buy when the markets retrace the bottoms again.

India ahead

Indian's rejoice! the world "leaders" have finally realised that the it is not G-5, oops G-6, oh no! G-7, Oh My God G-8, but the G-20 which will decide the fate of the world's economy. So, finally Indian's can rejoice on being included in the hallowed club of decision makers for the world.

Come 2010, India will be a show case of withering financial crises and the financial storms. Then we will witness the world giving India its due as the thought leader of the world.

It was India which invented the ZERO to teach the world to count beyond 9, It was India which helped the world adapt to the understanding that years should be counted in four digits and not in 2 digits (remember Y2K?). Now It will be India again which will show the world that the middle path or the mixed economy is the correct way of managing ones economy, that is the way to absorb the shocks.

My definition of mixed economy is a little different from that of the popular one!

Here we have an organised industry, American Style with 12000 listed companies on the stock exchanges, investment banks, commercial banks, mutual funds, and all the trappings of the so called developed world.

Then an unorganised industry of big and small businessmen who have never been part of the organised world. people who have bought plots, built homes and managed families oblivious to home loans, income taxes and PAN cards.

Another part of the economy is the co-operative one, we have borrowers co-operatives running finance operations, cane suppliers co-operatives running sugar factories, consumers running consumer co-operatives, farmers running Agriculture produce marketing co-operatives... i.e. generally all those who have no bargaining power ganging up and setting up down stream co-operatives to manage their own interests. This also meant that depositors or capital providers of finance co-operatives are at the mercy of the borrowers who are also the owners of the finance co-operatives, Sugar consumers and sugar factories at the mercy of sugar cane suppliers (raw material suppliers), etc.

Prima facie, doesn't it seem like we have segregated the problem areas and kept them at arms length distance from each other?

So, In India we not only have a mixed economy, but also a segregated economy and thus "bad" credit, "bad" customers, "bad" suppliers and "bad" consumers are segregated in the economy and do not have anything to do with the "organized" sector.

That's the Indian Economy, cheers!

Wrong Prescription Again

Injecting liquidity is a very short term measure for the markets and the economy. The patient wants vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates so that he can get up and start walking again. I am talking about the Indian Economy. But, our doctor has given him a pain killer and a bottle of glucose. I met a friend here, who said this liquidity injection is like a ritual we have in our homes during January (Sankranti) : we pour sweets, chocolates, puffed rice, sugar cane pieces and coins on the small kids in the house. We call the neighbouring kids who will sit around the kid and collect all the sweets, etc. and then go away. The same thing is going to happen here, injected liquidity will find its way to the stock markets and other markets to buy puffed up stocks which will be downloaded by the FII's.

Expect the markets to come down after the initial euphoria of the liquidity injection and the US Presidential Election. This bearish phase in the Indian stock markets will last till the middle of next year (of course, I am repeating this line again!). So, if you have bought when I wrote BUY you could offload the stocks now and make a neat 10% gain. the Regulators, Government, Politicians and FIIs will give enough opportunities to re-enter the markets at better prices.

Dollar Shortage? and Mergers

A shortage of Dollars in India is a comical thing happening around here. The government in US is busy printing dollar bills and handing them out to all and sundry who have CDOs and other dirty liabilities (oops! Assets). I would advise people wanting the dollars to stand back, wait and watch. you'll find dollars strewn allover your backyard in the next nine months. Another tsunami of credit card defaults is on the way in US, which will require more doles from the US Govt and will help large banks gobble up more smaller banks.

When these large banks gobble up smaller banks they are getting a large customer base, acquiring which would have cost them a bomb. Many times this comes gratis and that's the great thing about crisis and acquisitions during crisis. (Remember Bear Sterns was bought over for a song, lock stock, barrel and clients included!)

The Indian markets will rally another 5 - 10% in the next week and then we should expect another bout of selling from FIIs and a correction.

Look forward to a hard take on the state of Indian markets in the next post.
Till then, have a nice weekend.