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Indian markets outperform global peers in first half of FY15 Indian markets rose nearly 19% in the first half of the current financial year (H1FY15) and were the best performing markets globally during this period. The rise comes on the back of strong flows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who invested in a hope that the new government at the Centre will revive key policy reforms that would help kick-start economic growth. Since April, FIIs have invested nearly Rs 61,024 crores ($10.2 billion) till 26th September, while the Mutual Funds have put in Rs 15,298 crores during the same period, Sebi data shows. The market rally, which was commonly-referred to as Modi-rally on Dalal Street, had coincided with crowning of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister in May and saw the benchmark indices - the S&P BSE Sensex and the CNX Nifty hit record high levels of 27,355 and 8,180, respectively post the outcome of the general election. "Since the formation of the governme...

Kotak AMC buys PineBridge Mutual Fund PineBridge MF had assets under management (AUM) of just Rs 660 crore. The deal marks third exit of a foreign fund houses in less than a year and underscores challenging conditions for smaller players. In previous nine months, Morgan Stanley has sold off domestic mutual fund business to HDFC AMC and ING MF was acquired by Birla Sun Life AMC. In a statement, Kotak AMC said it has executed definitive agreement to acquire the domestic schemes of PineBridge MF. The exact deal size could not be ascertained, but industry players pegged the transaction value to be lower than recent acquisitions, which were struck between 4% and 6% of total asset size of the fund house. "We have agreed to acquire the schemes of PineBridge MF. The assets included are equity-oriented which provides a further enrichment to our equity base. We have an appetite for further acquisitions which can create value for us and we would be keen to consider such opport...

A fourth of the assets under management (AUM) of equity mutual funds (MFs) are concentrated in only 10 top stocks such as those of ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. As on July, equity MF assets were Rs 2.6 lakh crore, of which Rs 65,200 crore or 25% were invested in 10 frontline blue-chip stocks. ICICI Bank was the most preferred bet with MF investment of Rs 12,500 crore, followed by another private sector lender, HDFC Bank, with investment of about Rs 8,000 crore from fund houses. The other top bets of equity MFs include technology firm Infosys, State Bank of India (SBI), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Maruti Suzuki, ITC and Axis Bank. "These are the top market-cap companies and most equity schemes have to necessarily invest in these," said Raghavendra Nath, managing director of Ladderup Wealth Management. Sector officials said given the size of these companies, it is natural that a large part of MF investments would be mad...

ICICI Bank says board approves five-for-one stock split ICICI Bank Ltd, India's top private sector lender by assets, said on Tuesday its board had approved a five-for-one stock split. Each American Depositary Share (ADS) of ICICI Bank will continue to represent two underlying equity shares, the lender, which is also traded in New York, said in a statement. The number of ADSs will increase in proportion to the increase in equity shares, it said. The split is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, the bank said, adding it would set the record date for the split later. Ahead of the news, ICICI Bank shares closed 1.4% lower at Rs 1,545.75 in a Mumbai market that fell 0.26%. ICICI did not give a reason for the stock split, but companies typically split their stocks to keep prices attractive for retail investors. Thanking you Regards, Rajesh Kumar Kathpalia ¤ SMC Global 17,Netaji Subhash Marg,Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002 Mobile No 9891645052 Emai...

Bourses' foreign investor cap easing likely In a move that could increase the stake of foreign investors in Indian stock exchanges, the government is considering a three-fold increase in the single-investor investment ceiling. Currently,a foreign portfolio investor (FPI) investment in an exchange is capped at 5%. The finance ministry has written to the regulatory authorities to increase the ceiling to 15%, said sources. The proposal is said to have in-principle approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The move would bring the FPI investment limit in line with those for financial institutions such as insurance companies and banks. The government allowed the foreign investors to invest in stock exchanges in 2006, with an overall cap of 49%. This latter cap is likely to be unchanged. BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the two large nationwide bourses, are likely to benefit from the increase in limits...

India's Q1 CAD sharply dips to 1.7 % of GDP India's current account deficit (CAD) for the first quarter ended June 2014 narrowed sharply to 1.7% for gross domestic product ($ 7.8 billion) from 4.8% of GDP ($21.8 billion) in Q1 ended June 2013. The fall in CAD was aided by contraction in trade deficit on rise in exports and dip in imports. The CAD for fourth quarter (March 2014) of 2013-14 was 0.2% of GDP Along with improvement on current account front, the balance of payments (BoP) situation for Q1 was also on healthy wicket. There was accretion of $11.2 billion to foreign exchange reserves in Q1 of 2014-15 as against drawdown of $300 million in the same quarter of 2013-14, RBI said in statement today. RBI released CAD and BOP data ahead of usual publication of information. Under normal schedule, RBI releases information for first quarter (June quarter) at the end of September. http://wap.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-s-q1-cad-sharply-dip...