Is this just the beginning of tough times? For the corporate sector, yes. The excesses of a bull market take a long time to be purged. Correction of stock prices is just one kind of rectification. Indeed, it brings in its wake other problems. For instance, according to some estimates, Indian companies have foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) of $25 billion outstanding. FCCBs are debt which gets converted into equity if the share prices go above a certain level. Those levels are distant now – given the condition of the market and the global economy, 2008 looks like a washout. This means that FCCBs will start becoming actual debt. Companies that have unconverted FCCBs issued from early 2007 onwards are in danger of having to start paying interest on them. The silver lining is that they would not be tempted to borrow more and, indeed, would want to cut down on debt. We are just at the beginning of a process of adjustment.
We may get a brief bounce that may not last
After a huge decline since the middle of May, it is time for the market to make a small rally. That is the good part of the short-term scenario. The bad part is that this coming bounce, like the previous ones, will not last. The back of the market has been broken. The tide against the market advance is huge and it...
Tarika Vaswani describes how Ashadeep is instilling hope in the mentally challenged
Like many girls in India, Mitali was married as soon as she reached the legal age. But in a matter of six months, her marriage fell apart and she was divorced. With neither a roof over her head nor anyone to turn to for support, she lost all hope and attempted suicide - not once, but thrice. Soon after her...
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