Recently, ITC has slapped a defamation case to the tune of Rs.1000 crore against IIAS, a proxy advisory service based out of India. The reasons, to begin with, are quite frivolous. Ahead of the AGM last month, IIAS had urged the shareholders of ITC to vote against a particular resolution. While majority shareholders eventually voted in favor of the resolution, the company has still sought defamation charges from the proxy advisory… Continue reading →

Will the Total Returns Index really be a better measure?

Recently, SEBI has been calling upon Indian mutual funds to shift their method of benchmarking mutual fund performance. The regulator has been asking mutual funds to benchmark their fund performance based on the Total Returns Index (TRI) as against the Absolute Returns Index (ARI) that is being followed right now. Let us first understand this difference a little better in the current context… Continue reading →

As some of the most influential central bankers in the world meet at Jackson Hole in Wyoming, the markets are awaiting the outcome with bated breath. We have some early indications from Janet Yellen while Mario Draghi is yet to outline his views at the meet. While Yellen, Draghi and Kuroda will be closely watched, the markets will also be looking at other views from Asia and Latin America. There will be basically 3 key agenda items at Jackson Hole for global markets to watch out for.… Continue reading →

The topic of longer trading hours first came up a few months back when the MSEI had mooted the idea. However, with the limited clout of MSEI it did not make any headway with both the BSE and NSE ignoring the idea. However, this time the suggestion has come from SEBI and the exchanges may look at it more keenly. The idea is to extend the trading hours by another 2 hours till 5.30 pm to avoid the cannibalization of domestic exchange volumes to other exchanges like Singapore and Dubai… Continue reading →

Don’t read too much into the sharp fall in GDP…

The Q1 GDP number announced on August 31^st came in sharply lower than the Reuters estimates of 6.6%. The GDP growth at 5.7% and the GVA growth at 5.6% for Q1 represented nearly a 200 bps fall from the corresponding quarter last year. This raises serious questions over the ability of the Indian economy to sustain its growth edge over China. It was only last year that India had overtaken China in terms of GDP growth. At 5.7%, the GDP growth appears to trail Chinese quarterly GDP growth by nearly 120 basis points. Let us understand this in greater detail… Continue reading →