Uproar in Parliament over the Women’s Reservation Bill pulled the highly volatile Indian markets downwards

Indian markets remained highly volatile following an uproar over the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. At the end of the day, the Sensex declined 50 points from the previous day’s close to 17,053 while the Nifty declined 23 points to close at 5,102. From here on, we expect the market to move sideways.

At the end of the day, Morarjee Textiles zoomed 20%. The board of the company is considering the merger of its subsidiary Integra Apparels and Textiles Ltd with the company.

Wipro remained flat after the company secured an order from Financial Intelligence Unit, a unit of the ministry of finance, to develop an information technology network to track all irregular financial transactions.

Kale Consultants jumped 8% after the company secured an order for one of its airline software products for an undisclosed sum.

Nissan Copper fell 1% after Danial Investment, a promoter group company, pledged seven lakh shares representing 4.81% stake of the firm.

Man Industries (India) surged by 4% after the company secured an order worth Rs950 core from Kuwait for supply of 1,70,000 tonnes of large diameter pipes in both LSAW as well as HSAW segments.

Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd has taken delivery of a new Aframax Tanker, ‘Ratna Shalini’ (DWT 105,000MT), from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, South Korea. The stock remained flat.

ABB Ltd has won orders worth $22 million from Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd to provide four turnkey substations for the regional grid. However, the stock was down 1%.

Patel Engineering has received approval from the government for coal linkage for its thermal projects, to be implemented by its wholly-owned subsidiaries.
Coal deliveries are expected in 24 months from now. The stock remained flat.

During the day, minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena said that the government will continue with economic reforms to strengthen the economy. Vice president Hamid Ansari suspended seven MPs for disrupting proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over the Women's Reservation Bill. The seven members belong to the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and LJP.

RBI governor D Subbarao said that inflation should moderate in the coming months. He said that the central bank will ensure that interest rate levels do not have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the economy. He added that should India need to manage inflationary expectations, the central bank could turn to its traditional mix of policy tools including use of both liquidity and cash reserve requirements. Mr Subbarao said that the government’s plans to reduce the fiscal deficit this year and in 2011 would help to manage inflationary expectations and facilitate demand for private credit. The government’s borrowing programme is likely to proceed smoothly over the next financial year, he said. India has set its gross market borrowing target for 2010-11 at a record Rs4.57 lakh crore, up by 1.3% from the previous year, a move that has pushed bond prices lower as investors have anticipated a flood of fresh debt supply. When asked if he anticipated a sharp rise in levels of yields in 10-year government bonds, Mr Subbarao said that yields had risen slightly this year but would be managed over the coming 12 months.

During the day, Asia’s key benchmark indices in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia were up by between 0.05%- 0.52%. However, Japan’s index ended 0.17% lower.

On Monday, 8 March 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 12 points while the S&P 500 remained flat. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5 points.

As per media reports, the Portugal government launched its own budget cuts to shore up its public finances. The plan includes slashing the budget shortfall to 2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 from 9.3% of GDP last year.

In premarket trading, the Dow was trading 38 points lower.

The oldest Asian bourse saw its market capitalisation surge 102% to $1.31 trillion in 2009 compared to 2008, pushing the country's premier exchange into the league of the top ten bourses across the world

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has emerged as one of the top ten bourses globally in terms of valuation of shares traded, with its market valuation nearly doubling to Rs60,79,892 crore ($1.31 trillion) last year, reports PTI.

The oldest Asian bourse saw its market capitalisation surge 93.3% in 2009 compared to 2008, in turn pushing the country's premier exchange into the league of the top ten global bourses, says a report by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).

The Paris-based WFE is a trade association of 52 publicly-regulated stocks, futures and options exchanges.

Reflecting the bullish investor sentiment despite the adverse global financial situation, the market capitalisation of the BSE surged to Rs60,79,892 crore ($1.31 trillion) last year from the paltry $647 billion in 2008. In dollar terms, the BSE valuation skyrocketed nearly 102% in 2009, while the rise was a tad less at 93.3% in rupee terms, according to WFE data.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index, the Sensex, rallied over 80% last year and closed at 17,464.81 points on December 2009. The key index had ended at a low of 9,647.31 points on December 2008.

Among the top ten bourses with the largest domestic equity market capitalisations at the end of 2009, the BSE is placed at the tenth spot, according to the WFE.

The league is topped by the NYSE Euronext of the US with a market capitalisation of $11.84 trillion and the Tokyo Stock Exchange Group ($3.31 trillion) at the second place.

The Nasdaq OMX ($3.24 trillion) and NYSE Euronext (Europe) with a market valuation of $2.87 trillion are at third and fourth spots, respectively. The London Stock Exchange ($2.79 trillion) is placed at the fifth slot.

Others in the top ten list are the Shanghai Stock Exchange ($2.71 trillion), Hong Kong Exchange ($2.31 trillion), TMX Group of Canada ($1.61 trillion) and the Brazilian BM&F BOVESPA with a market valuation of $1.34 trillion.

According to the WFE, the member-bourses in the Asia-Pacific region had a combined market capitalisation of $14.09 trillion in January this year. The figure is higher than the combined market valuation of the exchanges in Europe, Middle East and Africa regions which stood at $13.55 trillion in January.

At the end of 2009, the market capitalisation of all the companies listed on the WFE member-exchanges stood at $46.50 trillion.
 

The former deputy governor of the RBI says that if a bank offers you a higher rate of interest than its peers, you should be a little careful

The questions and answers (Q&As) below are part of a discussion that took place on International Women’s Day at a financial literacy workshop organised by Moneylife Foundation. Kishori J Udeshi, Chairperson of the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) answered the questions asked by the audience. Earlier, the Moneylife Foundation felicitated three women activists who have a made a difference to society, fighting for various causes and standing up for the middle class. Ms Udeshi, the former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, felicitated Ms Indrani Malkani of the Malabar Hill Residents Association, Ms Anandini Thakoor of the Khar Residents Association and Ms Sumaira Abdulali of the Awaaz Foundation. Here is the first part of the Q&A.

Audience (ML): What do you mean by ‘know your bank’?
Kishori J Udeshi (KJU): What I meant by ‘know your bank’ is, you should know about your bank’s financials. Whatever is published, whatever is on their websites, if you even know that much, it is more than enough because the amount of disclosures, half of us don’t even read it, the rest of us don’t even understand it. However, there are a lot of disclosures now, so it is good to know who your bankers are. As rightly pointed out by Sucheta (Dalal), there is something called as greed. When someone offers you a rate of interest that is higher than what the rest are offering I would say avoid. It’s greed that drives them and greed has no limits. But as a basic rule, I would say, that if a bank offers you a higher rate of interest than others, you should be a little careful and if it is not a bank then don’t even go near.

ML: What do we do when banks demand unnecessary information that is unrelated to the loan or investment?
KJU: You need not give any information which is not needed. They are not supposed to (ask for it) and you can complain (about it) and be assured you can be heard and they will take action, but if you have given it (the information) on your own, violating your rights, nothing will be done. I know these instances. Why don’t you bring it to our notice? It seems that people are very afraid of speaking against teachers, doctors and bankers.

ML: Can you explain the minimum balance that banks require on savings accounts?
KJU: The minimum balance can be any amount except for a no-frills account. But any bank is free to fix any amount as minimum balance, that is because neither the Reserve Bank of India nor BCSBI would like to interfere with commercial considerations. As long as they are transparent about it, as long as the bank tells you about it, this is our minimum balance and would you like to open an account, then you open it, then it is your option and we would not consider it as a grievance. Having said that, we do feel that this is not correct. Some banks have minimum balance requirements of Rs25,000-Rs50,000, and these are mostly foreign banks. We haven’t taken up these cases yet. First, these are commercial considerations beyond our scope and secondly if customers want to open accounts with such banks that stipulate such high minimum balance, then why get into it?

The no-frills account is for the urban poor who don’t have banking services available to them. Now RBI has said that banks should not turn away any customer who comes to open a no-frills account for which the balance cannot go beyond Rs50,000 in a year. Yet, no bank has cared to open any account. Here we are talking about the urban poor. There are about 80 million urban poor, as per the National Sample Survey. All over the country, we have politicians and bankers using the buzzword of financial inclusion. But everywhere they talk about only villages. Yes, we do need to, but who is taking care of our domestic servants, drivers, house cleaners and so many? Why should a vegetable seller or hawker be denied a banking service in Mumbai just because he is poor?

ML: Banks are asked to give 3.5% interest per annum on savings accounts on a daily basis. Is it really beneficial for a common account holder?
KJU: Let me tell you something about your savings account. You think that your savings account is earning 3.5%, but the reality is that you are getting only 2.8%. We fought for it and the RBI had agreed and now from 1st April you’re likely to get 3.5%. I say 3.5% because who knows they may even postpone it. Banks will have to give interest on a daily basis and not the old system. Do you think banks have taken this quietly? Banks are running on the basis of your deposits. You put your money there not realising that inflation is more than 10%, and banks are saying that if you are saying that banks should pay on a daily basis and therefore it should be 3.5%, then you should lower the rate of interest and the interest should be 2.5%. Why should it be reduced? Depositors are always at the receiving end. It is only the elite, the corporates who are heard. They get what they want and nobody writes about the depositors. And it is our savings and we never say a word.

ML: How do we deal with the inoperative account rules of banks?
KJU: It is sad that even if there are credits to an account—say your interest, but you don’t withdraw, it (the account) is considered as inoperative. If for two years you don’t use your account then they would start putting charges or say it is inoperative and then put a penalty afterwards and then you would have to close that account and again start and open a new account. But if you read the banking code, now they (banks) have to write to you three months in advance and inform you that your account is inoperative. Therefore, they have to write and notify you of the ramifications, as a right. Even if you put Rs20 it becomes operational. And the RBI has also said that in order to make it operative, banks shall not charge.

End of Part I