Mid Month Musings May 2008 …part 1.

WPI Inflation in India is knocking on the 8% door and showing no signs of going down , expect 8% mark to fall soon and no respite for the aam admi from the crushing weight of the CPI inflation which is in double digits. I dont see it reversing trend, or falling anytime soon, at least until the rains set in nice and proper , curtailing hoarding and improving overall farm produce. Worse news has come out stating that the Inflation data collected by the govt is advance data and the actual complete inflation may well be touching double digits.

Overall i see one more figurehead in this Govt loose credibility just like many of his peers as rightly pointed out by Ankur…

Chidambaram says inflation will be moderated

Chidambaram assures step to beat back inflation

Chidambaram calls rising inflation a global phenomenon

Chidambaram calls 7.61% inflation ‘big relief’

Inflation will be tamed: Chidambaram

FM urges patience as inflation soars to 7.83%

and yet again his prediction ‘Inflation to come down next week’

These are links since april/may 2007, and as things go on the inflation front, Bush sounds more credible than PC who has veered from confidence to helplessness just like his chief mentor and our PM. And BTW this is all about Wholesale not retail or real inflation which i repeat really affects us mere mortals.

We are heading to 10% fisc deficit and ban and diktat raj of the 70s and 80s

BS Primer: Why are commodity futures banned? Business Standard
FM worried about speculative money entering commodities Moneycontrol.com

The state of the debt mkts is also skewed , thanks to heavy regulation and taxes

Financial sector reforms

Tight liquidity, inflation hit govt bond market hard

and not only that he is also Investor unfriendly… read

Anti-investor Moves and FM cuts subsidy to oil firms

and since Damodaran had touted putting in place the Corporate Governance norms, enforcement of which he kept postponing, they seem to be openly mocked at as both the Pvt and PSUs are not taking them seriously…

Shareholder culture in India remains elusive

MTNL, Sail, NTPC flouting norms: CAG

Not only that The FM bats for the industry, and has accepted Damodaran’s watered down of delisting norms, after sidelining half a dozen small investor forums that opposed it for obvious reasons. read

New delisting norms soon

Thats not all PC has also taxpayer and senior citizen unfriendly read Sucheta’s article

Senior Citizen’s Fight against IT Department

In other financial news Sebi which had earning its tag as a small investor unfriendly institution., that from high handed policy and suspect decisions and from the way it had worked and handled many cases, is finally having the best Chairman it has had in its checkered History.

C D Bhave the erstwhile NSDL Chief and the current Chairman has finally announced a few good things for the benefit of the aam admi small investor. (time will tell at how succesful he will be at getting things implemented)

1. Simlifying the IPO process and freeing it up from rigging ….

We all know that The IPO market in India is rigged by the QIBS along with investment bankers and kerb traders or sattorias that put up unofficial rates to lure or entrap small investors. What happens thus is that all except the small investor are left unhappy. read

Performance Analysis of IPOs in 2007

Menace of `vanishing cos’ Brief summary of VANISHING COMPANIES in chronological order

The QIBs, some of who don’t pay money upfront (but are supposed to pay 10% )and help in showing over subscriptions for the said IPO generally get preferential treatment in allotments.

The investment bankers get interest on peoples moneys for the time delay in allotment , no wonder the bankers charged Mr ADA nothing for the RPower IPO, currently trading at a discount to IPO Price post the bonus announcement.

He has tried to address the rot by cutting down time taken for listing of shares post closure of issue to a week and by allowing lien on bank account of the small investor, without money leaving it thereby ridding him of the delay in getting refunds in case of non allotment, thus putting him at par with the qib.

2. Helped sort out other small investor issues such as the still unsolved refund puzzle of the ONGC ipo refund and tendency of brokers to pull investors into needless arbitration and waste time .

Read Suchetas post for more details.

3. Made cos like Mastek change their buyback norms.

also read Mid Month Musings May 2008 …part 2.