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India’s Union Budget 2008-09 has been greeted by three successive days of stock market declines, including the day it was announced. Some of the negative sentiment is more global in nature. But the Budget proposals do not seem to have gladdened investors. It tries to give a boost to demand by giving more cash for people to spend, taking a leaf from George Bush’s largesse, including farmers whose debt has been waived.
Here’s a look at what the Budget has really done.
Reliance Power is attempting to win over dejected investors, who suffered losses after investing in the company’s public offer IPO, one which attracted unprecedented subscriptions. The company’s Board will meet next Sunday to decide on a proposal to issue bonus shares or otherwise compensate shareholders who applied in the IPO.
Sebi too has pitched in to try and revive the corporate debt market. The lack of a vibrant secondary debt market has been one of the biggest cribs of the financial services industry. The primary market is not rocking, either. So, everyone from the finance ministry, the stock exchanges, RBI and Sebi have been putting on their thinking caps, trying to change things, over many years.
Short selling is allowed again in the Indian stock markets. Sebi today issued a circular allowing short selling, with a securities lending and borrowing mechanism to be put in place. The stock exchanges and depositories will be the implementing agencies, they have been asked to make the necessary amendments in their own statutes, develop and test software for the same. Sebi will notify the date from which short selling is allowed after the agencies confirm their preparedness for the same.
What is proposed?
Sebi issued this clarification today. "Clarifications have been sought on para 1 of the Proposed Measures in the draft discussion paper on Overseas Derivatives Instruments (ODIs), with Indian Exchange Traded Derivatives as underlying. With regard to the above, it is made clear that there is no proposed bar on ODI contracts, expiring this month or in the following months, being renewed, provided the renewal does not go beyond 18 months.
Indian ADRs dipped as global investors tried to assess the implications of Sebi’s draft proposals to restrict the participatory note (PN) factor in the stock market. On the NYSE, the HDFC Bank ADR was down 10.2%, Infosys was down 5.7%, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories was down 3.1%, Wipro was down 3.4%, and ICICI Bank was down 6.5%.
The tobacco industry lobby won a significant victory recently when it succeeded in getting the government to amend the Tobacco Act 2003. The act had a provision for pictures displayed on products, warning about the harmful effects of smoking or consuming tobacco. These were to be displayed on all tobacco products like cigarettes, bidis and even gutkha.