On Wednesday, 12 December 2007, we saw something truly remarkable. The Asian markets were all sharply down due to a 290-point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Index the previous night. Before the Indian market opened, I got a call from one of my friends, asking me where I saw the market headed. Before I said anything, he said, “It looks grim, isn’t it?” he asked. I said that the market would...

Shorter-term trends of the Indian market (the scope of this column) are being determined significantly by trends in the US market. It would be a mistake to have a blind belief in the growth story of India. The US economy has hit a soft spot. While commentators like Stephen Roach and Marc Faber have been pessimistic about the US economy and the market for four years now, the economy has...

If FII money is not the fuel that is driving the market, what is?

From a high of 20,238 on 30th October, the Sensex fell all the way down to 18,333 on 12th November, a fall of 1,905 points. FII investment has slowed down. Some days have seen large negative outflows. November has been a net negative month so far. And yet, the market is up. Have hedge funds and speculators found a new way to...