Investments

Indian shares and stocks extended losses to more than four per cent yesterday, tracking sharply weaker global markets and weighed down by expectation that domestic inflation would remain in double digits for some time.

India's annual inflation rate has risen further to 11.42 percent in mid-June tumbling Indian share markets. Investors feel that the recession in America and inflation could be the factors for today's fall.

Market rumors indicate that DLF Assets may soon float a Real Estate Investment Trust in Singapore packaging its IT and SEZ space to raise upto USD 2 billion. Indian market news leader CNBC-TV18 indicates that the REIT may be launched in June, and that DLF Assets had delayed earlier plans to list the same due to Volatile Asian Markets.

Fidelity Fund Management has entered into an agreement with Federal Bank, one of India's premier private sector banks, for the distribution of its products.

Indian stock market volumes continue to be moderate in derivatives despite steady gains in the market in the past few weeks. Nifty continues to trade at a premium to spot, reflecting the bullish trend and the open interest has improved in the market. Traders are expecting Nifty to move all the way upto 5800 incase it makes a move above the 5300 mark.

It was celebrated as the biggest land deal in India and was worth The Rs 5,000-crore land deal, when a small time realestate developer BPTP outbid its competition including DLF and Omaxe to win the 5006 crore land deal in Noida.

Edelweiss Capital today announced that it has been granted the required registration by SEBI to start its mutual fund business. In a filing with the Bombay stock exchange, the company revealed that registration was granted to Edelweiss Mutual Fund with Edelweiss Asset Management acting as the investment manager .

Indian government cleared a proposal of NYSE Euronext to pick up 5% stake in a commodity exchange through an investment of 218 crores. NYSE will infuse capital of Rs 281 crores in India to acquire 5 percent equity in Indian Multi Commodity Exchange [ MCX ].

Adani Power Ltd, an Adani Enterprises company, filed a draft prospectus with SEBI to raise 5600+ crores through an IPO. This money will be utilized to funds its thermal power projects in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. This IPO will dilute the controlling stake of Adani enterprises to 74 percent. A proposal to issue 29.69 crore shares of Rs 10 each was made in the Draft Red Herring Prospectus ( DHRP ).

Indian stock market closed today with good gains particularly in the banking space. The market did not show any sign of weakness inspite of it being a friday and it also shrugged off the higher inflation number reported today.

Deccan today reported about a possible stinted growth of It sector in India. .. The IT applecart will continue to roll for Indian service providers in the coming years, but ‘Growth 2.0’ may be harder to achieve than ‘Growth 1.0’. While the IT/ITeS industry jumped at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27 per cent between 2002 and 2007, that rate may dip to 18 per cent between 2007 and 2012, country manager with market research firm IDC India, Mr Kapil Dev Singh, projected.

UTI Dividend Yield Fund, with an NAV of 13.05 declared a dividend of 7% with a record date of May 9, 2008 clocking an annual divident of 24% for the fiscal year 2007-2008. All unit holders registered with the dividend option or investors making fresh investments before May 9th will be eligible for this dividend.

Milestone capital advisors limited has announced a new development fund named Milestone Domestic Scheme II in response to the huge market demand for such products. Prospectus indicates that the investment focus will be on Tier II and Tier III cities which are relatively untapped markets and hence have good potential for professional investing

To invest in a decent sized real estate venture in India today, you either have to be ultra rich and even if you are, you have to plunk down a ton of money and wait for a long term to see the returns trickle in. Things are about to change in the Indian Real Estate Investment Trusts / Funds space with a number of funds dropping the minimum investment required to take advantage of these options.

Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund today announced tax-free dividend of Rs4.00 per unit (on a face value of Rs10/- per unit) in Kotak Balance. The dividend record date is March 25, 2008.

Sharekhan, a domestic brokerage reported today that Indian Mutual funds are sitting on 23,545 crores of cash to be deployed in the market. With uncertainty being the key characteristic of stock markets at present, mutual funds are playing it safe and have accumulated a cash pile of over Rs 20,000 crore, which is awaiting deployment after conditions become stable. Rs 19,214 crore lies with existing MFs, while the remaining Rs 4,331 crore has been mobilised through the NFOs.

Unit Trust of India, the country's largest mutual fund group, said today that it would partly lift the freeze on the sale and purchase of units of its flagship fund, US-64, on Aug. 1, permitting almost half of the plan's investors an exit.

Indian investors faced the wrath of the global market challenges this week with sensex falling more than 1800 points to 19,013.70. This was the largest ever weekly loss with sensex falling by 8.71 percent. This was led by a fear of the impending US economic slowdown, huge sales by foreign investors and an expected but heavier than normal unwinding of leveraged positions in the derivatives market. Market leaders in real-estate, metals, banking and energy saw their values plummet by nearly 8 to 11 percent.

India's second large mutual fund which manages 8.34 million accounts worth 500+ billion rupees company is going public. UTI Asset Management, has filed a draft prospectus for an initial public offering to raise about US$500 million

Reliance Power IPO is likely to list in February 2008, Anil Ambani Chairman and CEO of Reliance ADAG said at a press conference today. Reliance power IPO received more than 100 billion USD bids from FII's and it turned out to be the largest IPO in the power sector across ASIA.

Indian Government could divest its stake in national carrier Air India through a public issue in the second half of 2008, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said Friday. “We may consider issuing an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the second half of this year,” he said after announcing the launch of the first-ever civil aviation airshow , India Aviation 2008, being planned in Hyderabad in October.