In my last piece, I had warned that severe volatility was round the corner. While we were witnessing huge intraday volatility last month, the market was not really going anywhere on a daily-closing basis. Even on a weekly basis, it had hardly budged till the day the Budget was presented. By the end of the Budget week, the Sensex was up by 230 points and Nifty by 113 points. However, the market...

On 4th March, the share price of ICICI Bank tanked by 9% on reports that it had lost a whopping $264 million due to the US subprime crisis. The market was rife with rumours that other Indian banks would report similar losses on their overseas exposure. Later, one learnt that the news originated from a finance ministry reply to a question in Parliament. But that afternoon, panicky investors...

We don’t hear much of mid-caps these days but until a few months ago, for most market players, mid-caps held great attraction. Such is the market interest in these would-be blue-chips in a ferocious bull market that not just retail investors but even funds chase them by launching dedicated schemes to invest in them. But it is one thing to chase a hot theme when the market is running away and...