| Broking firms on hiring spree to strengthen With institutional activity on the rise, many broking houses are strengthening their teams in the hope of getting a share of the pie. Networth Stock Broking is one such firm. The broking firm has hired two dozen professionals in sales, dealing and research over the past month. Buzz is that 10-12 more people are set to join over the next few weeks. Apart from Prakash Divan, who has joined as sales head, others have been hired from Centrum, Quantum, Merrill Lynch, Reliance Securities and Asit C Mehta, among others. Talk is that the boutique broking house is trying to create a presence in the derivative and quantitative space, in addition to fundamental research. HNIs lap up RCom shares despite weak sentiment Even as the wider section of the market paints a gloomy picture for telecom companies over the year or so, a few contrarians are seeing value in them. But they are avoiding the stock considered the best in the pack — Bharti Airtel. Instead, they are going for Reliance Communications despite all the controversy surrounding it, of late. It is rumoured that some leading HNIs have aggressively bought RCom in the Rs 160-175 range. The thinking in the contrarian camp is that Bharti is ‘overowned’, as many institutions have been mopping up its shares amid its sharp decline over the past few month. Contributed by Apurv Gupta & Nishanth Vasudevan |
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Is China's economy headed for a crash?
SHANGHAI: James Chanos built one of the largest fortunes on Wall Street by foreseeing the collapse of Enron and other highflying companies whose Now Chanos, a wealthy hedge fund investor, is working to bust the myth of the biggest conglomerate of all: China Inc. As most of the world bets on China to help lift the global economy out of recession, Chanos is warning that China's hyperstimulated economy is headed for a crash, rather than the sustained boom that most economists predict. Its surging real estate sector, buoyed by a flood of speculative capital, looks like "Dubai times 1,000 — or worse", he frets. He even suspects that Beijing is cooking its books, faking, among other things, its eye-popping growth rates of more than 8%. "Bubbles are best identified by credit excesses, not valuation excesses," he said in a recent appearance on CNBC. "And there's no bigger credit excess than in China." He is planning a speech later this month at the University of Oxford to drive home his point. As America's pre-eminent short-seller — he bets big money that companies' strategies will fail — Chanos's narrative runs counter to the prevailing wisdom on China. Economists and governments expect Chinese growth momentum to continue this year, buoyed by what remains of a $586 billion government stimulus program that began last year, meant to lift exports and consumption among Chinese consumers. Still, betting against China will not be easy. Because foreigners are restricted from investing in stocks listed inside China, Chanos has said he is searching for other ways to make his bets, including focusing on construction- and infrastructure-related companies that sell cement, coal and steel. Chanos, whose hedge fund, Kynikos Associates, has $6 billion under management, is hardly the only skeptic on China. But he is certainly the most prominent and vocal. He has been spreading the view that the China miracle is blinding investors to the risk that the country is producing far too much. | |
India sets new lot sizes for stocks derivatives
MUMBAI: Indian markets regulator said on Friday it would standardize lot size for stock derivatives based on their value from March
Under the new guideline, stock derivatives priced above 1,600 rupees ($35) will have a lot size of 125 units, while those priced above 800 rupees but below 1,600 would be tradeable in lots of 250 and for above 400 rupees in 500 units.
Share derivatives priced between 201 to 400 rupees would have a lot of 1,000 units; between 101 and 200 rupees in lots of 2,000 units; 51 to 100 rupees at 4,000 units and 25 to 50 rupees in lots of 8,000.
All derivatives priced below 25 rupees will be tradeable in multiples of 1,000, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in a statement.
The regulator said stock exchanges would review lot sizes every six months, based on the average closing price of the underlying for the last one month. Any revision in lots would be done after at least a two-week notice and any higher lot would be applicable only to new contracts.
Src: ET