A full-blown panic in the real estate and financial services sectors led to the withdrawal of nearly Rs30,000 crore from fixed maturity plans (FMPs) of mutual funds in the first week of October alone. These fund houses met redemption demands by borrowing money at high rates of 20% to 24%. Many were reluctant to utilise the bank credit lines for this emergency believing that when the...

ML: How did you come into this field?
SN: I started my career with Standard Chartered Bank, after passing out from IIM Ahmedabad. Then I was with Citibank for a few years. Till then, I was more like an interested onlooker in the stock market. I was not a regular investor. But in 1993, a head-hunter called and I got an opportunity to move to Hong Kong as an investment advisor for a fund...

As many as 16 stocks have been downgraded to B

Gainers
A range of decisions helped public sector banks face the tornado that hit Indian equity markets last fortnight. The cut of CRR by 250 basis points, raising interest on several categories of foreign deposits to attract foreign money and the positive outlook given by rating agencies helped Bank of India and Punjab National Bank rise 4%...