home Life in financial markets: Seeing and hearing
January-March 2007
india's budget 2007 - pulling wool over our eyes
budget 2007 - impact on markets
global equity investors investing in indian equity & debt markets
March 29 2007 (Thursday)
Stock markets, world over, are getting jittery. Here is something I wrote for Outlook last week:
Mounting uncertainties have started plaguing the stock markets
in India and world over since the last few weeks. Our stock market did not begin
its slide on the budget day. It began three weeks before – from an all-time
closing high of 14652 on February 8 the Sensex had roller-coasted its way down
by eight per cent to close at 13478 on February 27, the day before the budget.
Then what followed is well-known – four per cent fall on budget
day and the roller-coaster ride continuing for next two weeks with Sensex
peeling off another 3.9% to a 12430 close on March 16. But then last week (week
beginning March 19) again saw the roller-coaster take a sharp turn upwards as
Sensex recovered by 6.9% to close at 13292 on March 22.
Other world indices – that of Hong Kong, Brazil, South Korea,
China, Malaysia and even the US – also saw a similar story being played out in
varying intensities although they didn't encounter a country budget being
presented. China's Shanghai Index had in a short span of time propelled itself
its all-time high of 3039 on February 26 only to crash by 8.8% the very next
day. And that day—February 27—was set apart from other days in recent times as
the US equity indices also took a tumble of sorts – with S&P 500 sliding by
3.5%, the largest one-day loss since the post-September 11 2001 fall.
Investors in India and globally have been undoubtedly left
wondering whether the renewed choppiness in stock markets worldwide is
different this time and whether a bear phase is dawning on the markets. There
is no unanimity among market men and women on the factors behind the renewed market
volatility but a couple of common factors stand out among their assessments.
Its summarised well by Sharat Shroff, portfolio manager at
US-based Matthews International Capital Management and a Securities and
Exchange Board of India-registered foreign institutional investor who thinks, "its more a question of diminishing risk appetite on the part of
investors, and it could be caused by unwinding of Yen carry trade, fallout of
the non-prime mortgage market in the US, or rising inflation/interest rates.
The swings can be exaggerated by the fact that many of the emerging economies
in Asia are at or above their average historical valuation ranges."
Yen-dollar-liquidity connection. Leveraging
on the cheapest source of funds is the name of the game for investors in all
asset classes. In the last six years the Bank of Japan (BoJ) had kept its
benchmark interest rate pegged at 0.25 per cent or lower attracting global
interest-rate arbitrageurs and a surge in global liquidity. Says Deepak Jasani,
head of retail research at HDFC Securities: "Investors borrowed in Yen,
converted into dollars and invested all over the world."
Even a basic fixed-income US Treasury
yielded around 4-5 per cent and returns from investment in emerging market
equities were much higher and almost assured for last 3-4 years and until now. At
the forefront of such arbitrage were Japanese investors themselves. Two years
ago, in our equity market, there was a buzz of Japan-based FIIs buying solidly
into Indian equities.
Bowing to pressure from US and Europe
the BoJ on February 21 doubled its bank rate to 0.5 per cent. This had the
effect of forcing investors long on Yen to reverse their trades and cut short
their losses. To repay their Yen-based loans global investors had to sell off
their investments elsewhere. Its repercussions started being felt in Indian
market too as FIIs took out a net amount of $ 850 million (Rs 3,878 crore) from
February 27 to March 21.
Chinese and US slowdown. The steep
fall in Shanghai Index and US indices had also unnerved global investors. The
Chinese market meltdown brought back fears of a contagion effect that was seen
from crashes in Thailand in 1997 and in Russia in 1998.
Writes Orie L. Dudley Jr., chief investment officer at Northern
Trust (whose few global funds are registered as FIIs with Sebi) in a
'Perspective on the Market's Volatility in Late February' report: "The
Shanghai stock exchange had climbed about 130% over the previous 14 months, so
the Chinese government had good reason to fear that a speculative bubble was
forming. The Shanghai market, which was already vulnerable to manipulation was
literally being used as slot machine by inexperienced Chinese investors."
Says Dean Baker, co-director of a US-based independent
think-tank 'Center for Economic and Policy Research': "The markets had
been acting as though the US and other economies would continue to grow at the
same pace as they have been growing the
last three years."
The "markets being overheated" logic is being
increasingly propagated. Says Shroff: " Investors may be concerned about
an overheating Chinese economy, and the inability of the government to contain
lending and investment growth." Adds Jasani: "At higher and higher
levels, less and less money is put on the table."
But not everyone accepts that US and Chinese correction impacts
other markets negatively. Says Shroff: "Generally, we don’t believe fears
of a Chinese slowdown are creating an overhang on the markets." Dudley Jr.
agrees in his report stating "the premise that a correction or bear market
in Shanghai will somehow unhinge the global economy is not valid, in our
opinion."
The US markets were hit by former US Fed chairman Alan Greenspan's
statement at a conference in Hong Kong on February 26 that a recession in US
was possible this year. Says Andrew Holland, MD of DSP Merrill Lynch: "Most
analysts in US are not used to such statements and combined with Chinese market
fall things became very volatile in the market." States Dudley Jr.:
"Mr. Greenspan simply noted that as business cycles age recessions become
more likely...but he also said he did not expect the US economy to slip into
recession this year. Recessions don't just materialise out of thin air, they
are usually the result of a meaningful and quantifiable drop in global
liquidity."
Rising inflation and interest rates. Mis-handling of
inflationary pressures in the economy by the government has added fuel to the
fire. In the budget the finance minister raised the excise duty on cement from
Rs 400 per tonne to Rs 600 per tonne on all sales above Rs 190 per 50 kg of
bag, and reduced it to Rs 350 per tonne for sales at lower than Rs 190 rates.
But when the cement companies immediately jacked up the prices the government
tried to pressurise them to roll back the hikes but without success. The steel
industry was also pressurised and successfully.
Cement and real-estate stocks slid in the meanwhile. Says Aunali
Rupani, a sub-broker with Motilal Oswal Securities: "In a free market its
a fundamental mistake to have price caps."
Notwithstanding the blunders in government policies the market
had already started softening due to companies-related fundamental factors due
to the impact of increased interest rates on companies' debt cost. Says I.V.
Subramaniam, CEO at Quantum Advisory Services: "Corporate earnings growth
in 2008-09 will not be a lot slower than in 2007-08 and it looks like the
market was not willing to price these expectations."
A look at the aggregate profit and income figures of the top 100
stocks in the last three quarters of 2006 does point in this direction. The
total income and profit after tax of 50 NSE-Nifty stocks which had collectively
risen by 13.4% and 32.4% respectively from the second to third quarter of 2006
saw the growth rate crashing to just 1.8% and 2.9% from third to fourth.
Similarly, the next 50 top stocks from Nifty Junior index which witnessed a
10.4% and 43.3% rise in income and profits from second to third quarters saw it
slowing down to a rate of just 2.3% and 19.5% from the third to fourth
quarters.
Inflationary pressures and rising interest rates are something
that is on the minds of every global investor with regard to every global
market. Says Baker: "Rising commodity prices add to the risk of a
downturn, since they make it less likely that inflation fighting central
banks will lower interest rates to sustain growth."
Risk-return equations against equities. Not many investors are
foreseeing the same kind of growth rates in the market and rising interest
rates have meant that bank deposits are looking attractive. Says Mrugank
Sanghvi, a sub-broker with a NSE broker: "The risk-reward ratio in 2003
was the most favourable when select large stocks were giving 5-6% by way of
dividend yield (compared to bank FD rates of also 5-6% at that time) many
investors went into equities to tap into the looming bull run."
But bank FD rates today are 8-10% and risk of low growth in
equities is being taken seriously. Says Subramaniam: "Earlier global money
was cheap and risk low but with money becoming costlier now people are
factoring in risk " Adds Sanghvi: "I have seen many high-networth
investors calculating the risk-return ratio before investing and clearly there
is a thinking among them that equities won't give more than 12-15% returns and
since you are getting 8-10% from bank FDs why take a risk with going long on
equities?"
Price manipulation in newly listed stocks. Sebi came out with an
interim order February 22 in the price manipulation case of Atlanta whose price
had went up wildly from Rs 192 on listing in September last year to Rs 1,259 by
mid-December. Sebi found out two market operators Manish Marwah and Dilip
Nabera through their associate companies were responsible for price
manipulation in Atlanta.
Marketmen say that Marwah's operation was not limited to one
stock but extended to 30-40 stocks. So when the Sebi order came in mid-February
all those operators and traders with positions in these stocks started getting
out fearing a Sebi investigation in all the stocks which though has not taken
place so far. This is also being attributed as a reason behind the softness in
the market.
With all negatives happening in February it is no wonder then
the stock markets have been jittery.
india's budget 2007 - pulling wool over our eyes
March 9 2007 (Friday)
This is what I, as an Indian citizen, think of our country's budget 2007 and the media's coverage of it:
This year's budget is more
or less a continuing deception from previous ones. The media is portraying
it as Chidambaram's succumbing to Sonia Gandhi's or Left parties' diktats.
Notwithstanding the fact that those diktats were unwarranted and
unnecessary, it is my sense that those diktats were anyway not anti-rich
or anti-development as many in the media tend to portray. Last three years
has seen the economy grow at a fast pace but the same steep rate of growth
is not reflected in the revenue collection figures disclosed in the
budget.
Many commentators in the
media crib about subsidies to rural sector without highlighting the fact
most of these subsidies end up accruing to chemical-based fertiliser and
pesticide companies whose products have significantly polluted the fertile
lands of rural India, or end up being eaten by government IAS-ICS agents.
The media also chooses to
suppress the fact that vast subsidies are given to the affluent or already
better-off sections in the form of: tax exemptions to large-sized IT
(technology) companies making superlative profits (the 12% minimum
alternate tax on IT companies introduced in this budget is a welcome
measure but not enough as it is still a lot lower than the 33% tax paid by
other companies); tax exemptions to SEZs; heavily-subsidised diesel that
today is consumed more by private SUVs and swanky cars running on diesel
engines than transportation of goods by trucks across the country; heavy
slashing of customs-&-excise duty rates on non-essential products like
jewellery, plastics, processed food, aerated beverage drinks like colas;
and so on.
Huge and unprecedented
increase of Rs 40,000 crore for defense expenditure outlay (taking the
total to Rs 96,000 crore) without transparently laying down before the
nation a detailed rationale behind it, is another glaring point that the
media has chosen not to question adequately. The Tehelka expose of
corruption among our defence forces and the ministry of defence is not
forgotten by some of us.
I pray that it is not too late before our country, its ecology and its majority non-affluent population get completely devastated by corporate entities and their sophisticated political goons like Chidambarams, Montek Singh Ahluwalias, Manmohan Singhs, Mulayam Yadavs, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjees, Bal Thackerays and Arun Jaitleys, aided and abetted by a 'deliberately-looking-the-other-way' media and a 'consumption-obsessed' urban citizenry.
budget 2007 - impact on markets
March 2 2007 (Friday)
Here is an analysis of India's budget 2007 on the stock markets that I contributed to Outlook:
Just
two days before the Indian budget, market men and women were getting ominous
signs. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, stated at a
conference in Hong Kong on Monday, February 26, that a recession in US was
likely this year. On that very day, the Chinese equity market which was opening
after a week's off on account of Chinese new year holidays, saw its benchmark
Shanghai Composite Index reach its all-time high of 3039.
This
was not ominous though. But the next day turned out to be one as the same
Chinese market index registered its biggest fall in a decade to close 268
points, or 8.8 per cent, lower at 2771. This, along with the earlier Greenspan
comment, triggered off a fall in the US markets the same day, with Dow Jones Industrial
declining 3.3 per cent (416 points) to 12216, S&P 500 falling 3.5 per cent
and Nasdaq Composite Index shedding 3.9 per cent. This were their largest
one-day point loss since the day their markets resumed trading following the
September 11 2001 attacks on US sites.
US
analysts got busy scrambling for explanations. Says Doug Henwood, a US-based
economist and author of book 'Wall Street: How it Works and for Whom': "There's
the possibility of a meaningful slowdown in both the US and Chinese economies,
which have become so tied together that trouble in one means trouble in the
other; the bursting of a speculative bubble in Chinese stocks; and the chance
that troubles in the US housing market, which Wall Street has declared to be
largely over, are actually getting seriously worse."
Not
that our stock market was peaking the two days before budget. On Monday the
50-stock Nifty was down four per cent from its level a week earlier and it shed
another one per cent on Tuesday to close at 3893.
And
then came Chidambaran on Wednesday with his various budget proposals some of
which the market found unfavourable. So, with the Asian and US markets
declining steeply, our stock markets too tumbled along on the budget fall.
Nifty closed the day at 3745, down 3.8 per cent from the previous day.
Chidambaram's
budget was considered by many in the market to market neutral with a mix of
positive and negative impact. Says Ashu Suyash, MD, Fidelity Fund Management: "There
were a few surprise announcements which are sector specific, especially on IT
and construction, but overall it is a neutral Budget." Adds C.J. George,
MD, Geojit Financial, NSE member: "The budget is neither here or there
except for some innovative proposals like reverse mortgage loans for senior
citizens, allowing local bodies to issue bonds for infrastructure development,
and partial use of forex reserves for infrastructure financing."
Dividend distribution tax. The budget proposal that
stood to immediately impact the stock market the most was one concerning the
raising of dividend distribution tax (DDT) from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent
for companies and of DDT for individual investors' investments in money market
and liquid funds (issued by domestic mutual funds) from 12.5 per cent to 25 per
cent. The first one, says Mukesh Dedhia, director, Ghalla Bhansali Securities,
NSE member: "is negative for all dividend-paying companies and there was
no need for the FM to do it as it won't raise much revenues for him."
The
second one—on liquid funds—was somewhat expected. Says Suyash: "it is not an entirely unexpected development." Thats so
because the FM, after ignoring bank deposits and even removing tax-exemption on
bank interest two years ago, wants the deposit growth of banks to be
sustainable to drive the credit offtake of the industry. But since interest on
bank fixed deposits (FDs) is taxable upto 30 per cent many investors had
preferred to get better post-tax returns from money market and liquid funds of
the domestic MFs.
But now, says Anita Gandhi, head-institutional
business, Aryan Capital, NSE member: "At present, liquid and money market
funds are attractive short-term investments because pay 20 per cent DDT and
individuals pay 12.5 per cent and this is much lower compared to 30 per cent on
short-term bank FDs." Since these moneys could potentially go to the
banking system, feels Gandhi, "the FM is trying to take care of bank FDs by
reducing the tax incentive on their competitor products."
Adds Dedhia: "With only a five per
cent difference in tax now, investors will now factor in seriously the credit
risk inherent in the portfolios of liquid funds vis-a-vie the assured returns
from bank FDs." Agrees Geojit's George: "As a corporate investing ourselves
in liquid funds till now, we will, with the tax differential coming down to
just five per cent, now not ignore the bank FDs due to its assured returns
aspect."
Short selling. Although this comes under
the jurisdiction of the capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board
of India, the FM in his budget speech talked about allowing institutional
investors to short sell in the market. Presently, any short selling during a
day has to be squared off otherwise the delivery has to be effected on T+2.
A
Sebi paper on short selling, and FM's statement, recommends that securities
lending and borrowing (SLB) be permitted so that investors going short can
borrow shares from lenders and deliver on T+2. Says Ravi Narain, MD, National
Stock Exchange: "Because of lack of SLB and since all open sales have to
result in deliveries, institutional investors couldn't resort to short selling
and exercise a two-sided view depending on their assessment of the
market."
With
SLB that will become possible. However, the Sebi paper on short selling
excludes individual investors from short selling or even lending shares to
institutional borrowers. Says George: "The SLB mechanism should also be
made available to individual investors so that they can earn some interest on
their share portfolios by lending to the institutions."
The
stock futures segment of derivatives today permit strategies that involve both
short selling and securities lending. But the latter is risky due to the fact
that futures contracts are settled on cash difference and not through delivery
of shares.
PAN-based UIN. The FM cleared the air
with regard to the need to have a unique identification number (UIN) for market
participants and investors with an objective to monitor and deter manipulators
and fraudsters. Two years ago Sebi had discontinued biometrics-based UIN
system. As per FMs budget statement, the market will have now have a UIN system
that will use income tax department-issued permanent account numbers (PANs) as
the basis of UIN. Sebi is likely to issue circulars soon formalising the use of
PAN in a Sebi-mandated UIN system.
Commodities derivatives
blamed for inflation.
The evening before budget Forward Markets Commission (FMC), regulator for
commodities derivatives market, banned futures contract in wheat and rice. A
month earlier, FMC had banned futures trading in urad and tur. The FM, in his
budget speech, outlined these being among the measures to control inflation.
But
investors and market participants in commodities exchanges are flabbergasted at
the move. Says Susan Thomas, professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development
Research: "Its a hogwash and political posturing." Adds Geojit's
George: "There is no empirical evidence to suggest that futures trading in
commodities leads to inflation." Says Thomas: "Global commodity
markets are seeing volatility and ad hoc banning of futures contracts on select
commodities is not the right attitude to take."
February 28 2007 (Wednesday)
The finance minister of India, P. Chidambaram, presented India's Budget 2007-08 before the Parliament today. It occurred on a day when the world markets had taken a beating too. Chinese stock market had registered a 7-8% fall yesterday, the highest in a decade. Even the US market fell yesterday and it was the higest fall since September 11 2001.
The budget is as usual obsessed with so-called 'growth' in services and manufacturing sectors and completely ignores the devastating effects of forced "development" on the ecology of the country and the tribals and villagers of India. Growth and development are welcome per se but we have hardly seen any growth in the happiness of majority of India's population nor have we seen any worthwhile development of democratic principles by the polity, judiciary, bureaucracy, police, corporates and society in general.
Anyway, have a look at the intra-day movement of Nifty index (National Stock Exchange's 50-stock index) today, yesterday and day-before:
Here is also a look at the movement of Nifty a week before today's budget and a week before last year's budget:
February 26 2007 (Monday)
Early this month, I contributed an input to a news article on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Outlook. It follows below.
Along with the write-up are four important data tables that one needs to look at to get a better understanding of the location, nature and size of the SEZs:
-- Statewise: SEZs notified as of December 2006 (after SEZ Act came into force in 2006),
-- Statewise: SEZs that have received formal approval as of October 2006,
-- Statewise: SEZs that have received in-principle approval as of October 2006, and
-- 10 largest SEZs in all three categories (as of October 2006).
SEZs first receive an in-principle approval, then a formal approval and then a final notification.
The SEZ Act 2005 came into force after the SEZ Rules 2006 were notified in February 2006.
Here is the write-up:
It all began in 1965 with the setting up of Asia's first export processing zone in 1965 in India in Kandla, Gujarat. It was followed by about five-six others. Then in 2000 the Export and Import (Exim) Policy allowed for a Special Economic Zone policy with an ostensible intention to speed up the growth in exports. Two years following this, a few states notified their independent SEZ policies which led to the creation of a handful of SEZs.
Legislating SEZ Act 2005. The whole thing got formalised when the Special Economic Zones Act 2005 was passed by both houses of the Parliament with just one day of debate. It became effective when the Special Economic Zones Rules 2006 were notified in February 2006. Prima facie the objectives were the same as previous SEZ notifications – promotion of clustered development (minimum 1000 hectares, i.e. 10 sq km of contigous uninterrupted area for multi-product units, minimum 100 hecatres i.e 1 sq km for one-product unit and minimum 10 hectares i.e. 100 square metre for certain specified categories of products) of export-oriented production of goods or provision of services.
Incentives provided. The carrot being dangled was the waiving of ALL taxes (excise, income, service, revenue, electricity etc etc) for a period of five years and 50% for the next five years. But it is not the only one. The enticements extend to independent control of the earmarked SEZ areas by the promoters and units operating in them. They are offered the right of independent generation of electricity, independent residential complexes for employees/workers and independent creation of infrastructure within the SEZ without having to comply with provisions of law that any industry or company outside SEZs would have to.
Concern on lack of regulatory oversight. One concern arising out of the whole SEZ Act and Rules is that while regulatory oversight is laid down under the Act and Rules is there is no move yet to bring confidence to the people that an enormous regulatory machinery is already in place which will implement effectively and without corruption the checks and balances in the SEZ legislations .
Empolyment generation claims. Employment is the biggest justification to grant such concession but no hard-hitting technical report is presented by the government that defines employment and the lack of it in the absence of such concessions like what the SEZ legislation aims to provide. Says an official of Pune-based National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS): "Around two years ago the Commerce Minister said that they had done a study on the employment benefits but so far we haven't seen it being made public."
Groups like NCAS point towards the abysmal track record of employment generation in majority cases of industrial or development projects. Says Surekha Dalvi, a Mumbai-based lawyer representing some SEZ-affected villages: "You can generate employment in agri-based activities at a far low cost compared with the huge capital required to set up industrial units."
Another school of thought says that the SEZ policy will only encourage existing industrial units to shift to SEZ areas and new ventures will not be much. International Monetary Fund's chief economist, Raghuram Rajan, recently expressed his reservations to this effect.
Using the imperial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The SEZ Act and Rules conveniently ignores the reality that the minimum area requirment of 10 sq km for a multi-product SEZ can not be met by most companies and even state governmental enterprises just like that. Such a large area can only be acquired by buying existing land that already belongs to individuals/entities or a state government, including fertile agricultural lands. And it is here where the biggest perceived injustice starts.
At the time of application under the SEZ Act the corporate or state government applicant has to only name the area where it wants to set up the SEZ. Ownership proof is not required at this stage. Only when the Board of Approval (set up under SEZ Act) gives an in-priniciple approval does the applicant entity have to provide the ownership details of the land in the proposed SEZ.
State governments are actively helping applicants by using the 1894 legislation of Land Acquistion Act, 1894 to forcibly buy the lands in the proposed SEZs. And all of this is happening in fertile lands in rural India. Take, for instance, this notice by a Maharashtra governmental authority in Raigad district in June 2006 that stated that under Section 4 of Land Acquisition Act, 1894, it intends to buy lands in 2-3 talukas of Raigad for Maha Mumbai SEZ in which Mukesh Ambani's Reliance is a partner.
The Land Acquisition Act, 1894, was introduced by the imperial British empire to enable it to take over vast areas of India as and when it thought it fit to expedited its imperial goals and objectives.
Under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the government is the ultimate owner of all lands and properties and can choose to take over any of it for an undefined 'public purpose'. All it has to do is offer compensation that it deems is enough. The SEZ controversy is primarily around this forced acquistion.
Firstly, farmers and landowners are pissed off that their lands will be the first ones targeted for SEZs (unlike that of urban dwellers and corporate areas which will almost never be touched) and they will have no choice but to give away. The Land Acquisition Act, 1894, gives them right to appeal to the high court against the price but this too can be severely compromised if local goons or sophisticated politcal agents are involved in the acquistion process. Moreover, they find it hard to digest that for no fault of theirs they have to take time out (and bear expenses) towards fighting in the high court for getting fair price just because the government applies draconian laws like the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
Tax concession for exports. Existing exporters feel that it is not a level playing field in case they can not set up a unit in a SEZ and get the tax concession. Privately controlled SEZs will run without the Industrial Disputes Act being applicable to them so the claims of employment are being taken with huge doses of salt since the SEZ units can end up exploiting manpower to the hilt by paying them less wages.
Loss of revenue to exchequer. As per figures in commerce ministry's 2005-06 annual report, exports from SEZs, existing prior to SEZ Act 2005, were to the tune of Rs 18,309 crore. Compared to the total export turnover in the country of Rs 4,30,888 crore it works out to 4.2 per cent. The SEZ Act 2005 is likely to jack up this percentage in coming years. On a rough estimate of it touching 50-60 per cent the tax-exempt export turnover can touch around Rs 2,50,000 crore on which an estimated tax loss of 30-40 per cent would amount to aroun Rs 1,00,000 crore.
Other concerns. The land acquisition on a huge scale getting facilitated by the SEZ Act is also being looked upon a real estate scam. In an interview last year with Outlook Business (September 5, 2006), HDFC's chairman, Deepak Parekh, had wondered whether the SEZ policy was an economic policy or a real estate giveaway.
These concerns arise because some part of a SEZ area will be used for residential complexes, hotels, schools, shopping malls for the employees working in the productive areas of the SEZ area. These are a lucrative proposition for construction conglomerates like the DLFs, Ansals, Hiranandanis and Rahejas.
global equity investors investing in indian equity & debt markets
January 15 2007 (Monday)
For a story that that I recently wrote in the magazine (Outlook) I work for I collated data on global equity investors investing in Indian equity market. Global equity investors have to get themselves registered as foreign institutional investors (FIIs)--or sub-accounts of FIIs--with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) (the capital market regulator of India) before investing directly in the listed equity shares on National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange. Out of this collated data there are three bits that I share below:
1. List containing names, phone numbers and addresses of 1020 FIIs that were registered with Sebi between June 1993 and December 24 2006. This data was taken from Sebi's website www.sebi.gov.in and it does not include about 2000 FII sub-accounts about which Sebi provides no information (as at the time of writing this).
2. A geographical summation of the above list.
3. The shifting undercurrents (from March 2002 to November 2006) seen in the exposure to--and value of investments--in Indian equities and debt by FIIs, domestic (Indian) financial institutions (insurance companies, others), domestic (Indian) mutual funds, domestic (Indian) corporates and domestic (Indian) banks.