Speaking at the Euromoney Conference, Sebi chief CB Bhave said that all investors should pay up the entire money if the time duration between an IPO and its listing is reduced. “FIIs have to put up margins, retail investors have to pay 100%, this is related to a time gap between the last day of subscription and the day the securities get listed. If the time is crunched then there’s no reason why everyone cannot pay all upfront,” Bhave explained.

On the P-note registration issue, Bhave said, “Since October end, when this policy was announced, 190 FIIs and 470 sub accounts have registered with us, this is good progress. We take 15 days to three weeks to register FIIs unless the applications are incomplete where some correspondence is needed.”

On private equity funding, he said, “We don’t, in our FII regulations, have any category like private equity funds. There are different entities entitled for registration as FIIs in the Indian market, as long as they fall in one of those categories. We don’t even recognise hedge funds as a separate category.”

On the primary market, Bhave said, “The present process which requires three or four weeks is not acceptable in today's state of modern infra in the country, we want to reduce this. In a few months we will tell the markets what our road map is and how we plan to crunch this time lag between the last date of subscription and listing date. We should be able to achieve this in lesser period of time.”

Source : MoneyControl

Bear Stearns has sold stocks in India portfolio worth Rs 265 crore, which includes stocks like Dabur Pharma, Sonata Software, Rain Commodities, HEG, Taj GVK (31 midcap stocks).

Bear Stearns holds total investment worth Rs 2734 crore in India. Top holding is Jaiprakash Associates worth Rs 651 crore.

Following table includes holding of 1% and above in each stock. There could be some holdings with less than 1% holdings, which also might add a couple of hundred crore.

Source : MoneyControl

JPMorgan Chase has announced it is acquiring Bear Stearns for about USD 2 a share in stock.

JPMorgan has said that they will ensure that the stock trades till the deal is completed.

On Friday Bear Stearns had received emergency funding from JPMorgan Chase to stave off liquidity problems arising from the credit crisis.

JPMorgan Chase, in association with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will provide a secured loan facility for an initial period of up to 28 days, allowing Bear Stearns to access liquidity as needed.

Bear Stearns also said it is talking with JPMorgan Chase regarding permanent financing or other alternatives. The Board of the Federal Reserve has approved the proposal for such a bailout.

The Bear Stearns stock plunged almost 50 percent after the news of the financing came in.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with James Glassman, Senior Economist at JP Morgan Chase Bank:

Q: What do you see happening on March 18 from the Fed?

A: That is the key question here. The Fed has created a new facility to make temporary funding available for certain class of primary dealers that did not have access before and they lowered the discount rate. The primary dealers are not really using the discount window. So that is why I think the discount rate reduction could be part of a bigger package that they do on Tuesday.

The question for us is are they only going to lower the funds rate by half a point which will mean that the discount rate will have come down by 75 bps and the Fed funds rate by 50 bps. It may be a way of trying to find a compromise between doing something larger and something more moderate.

The market in the wake of all the problems with Bear Stearns last week was thinking that the Fed might have to cut rate 75 bps. So it is very conceivable, we don’t really know the share, but it is very conceivable that tonight’s action could mean that the Fed would like to only cut rates half a point.

The argument for going something smaller rather than bigger is that there is no point in unnerving foreign exchange markets and the problem with being too hasty is it undermines confidence in the dollar which is causing problems of its own and it wasn’t clear that an aggressive Fed rate cut would do a whole lot to restore liquidity in the market anyway.

So that is the key question – what does this mean for Tuesday? Personally I think a half a point rate cut is possible, is likely, even though the market was looking for something bigger and it maybe that obviously for the next day or so will see more commentary coming from the Fed that would give some clarity about this.

Q: Do you see the lending facility being extended beyond the warranted six months?

A: It all depends on the nature, the problem. What they are doing is that there is a small group of banks, dealers that work with the Fed and a third of them cannot get reserves, they are not depository institutions. So this facility they created was really meant to create a way for these non-depository institutions to get reserves from the Fed.

So if it goes beyond six months, it will depend on the situation. If the Fed cannot figure out a way to get liquidity moving and things turnaround in the next six months, they will have to come out with many more things to try and get liquidity moving.

Q: We were talking about how this emergency move is to bolster the liquidity situation. Do you see any impact coming in on the liquidity front?

A: I think it is more of a psychological move, because the truth is that these facilities that they have created, many people may be reluctant to use it if it is seen as a signal that somebody else is having the same problem, Bear Stearns is having because these are the same kinds of facilities that Bear Stearns got, these are the same kinds of loans that Bear Stearns got.

So I think it is more an attempt by the Fed to show that it is thinking outside of the box, it is trying many different things. Last week’s announcements earlier in the week was the first really innovative initiative. So it is telling us that they are trying many different ways.

Source : MoneyControl

The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut the discount rate by 25 basis points from 3.5 percent to 3.25 percent effective immediately.

The Central Bank also extended the maximum term of discount-window loans to 90 days from 30 days. The Fed, in a statement said that the moves were designed to bolster market liquidity and promote orderly market functioning.

US stock Index Futures rose after the unexpected rate cut, on the back of the news the US dollar edged higher against the Yen.

Source : MoneyControl

Block deal in Madhucon Projects, stock down
At 10 am, Madhucon Projects was quoting at Rs 446, down Rs 25.4, or 5.39%. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 446 and an intraday low of Rs 446.

There was a block deal of 12 Lakh Madhucon Projects shares on NSE at Rs 450 per share, reports CNBC-TV18.

It was trading with volumes of 50 shares. On Friday the share closed down 5.43% or Rs 27.05 at Rs 471.40.

Source : MoneyControl

At 10:16 am, SpiceJet was quoting at Rs 53.55, up Rs 2.50, or 4.90%. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 54.50 and an intraday low of Rs 47.

There was a block deal of 97 lakh SpiceJet shares on BSE at Rs 49.25 per share, reports CNBC-TV18.

It was trading with volumes of 9,813,359 shares, compared to its five-day average of 527,212 shares, an increase of 1,761.37%.

On Friday the share closed down 3.04% or Rs 1.60 at Rs 51.05.

Source : MoneyControl

HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices closed down 5.2 per cent on Monday, pushed down by troubles on the US markets, the slide of the dollar and record high oil prices, dealers said.

The benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 1,152.5 points or 5.18 per cent at 21,084.61.

Sharp falls on the mainland Chinese market in Shanghai also helped drive shares down, dealers said.

A move by the US Federal Reserve to cut the interest rate charged on its direct loans to banks on Sunday failed to calm investor jitters, as it only underscored the crisis enveloping the financial sector, they said.

"The market's obsession with a few weak financial institutions like Bear Stearns outweighs many factors in the US economy which remain intrinsically sound," said Howard Gorges, vice chairman at South China Securities.

"There is a lot of negativity out there and we are in a situation in which a spate of bad news has rattled markets all around the world," he said.

"Many investors have taken two main lines of defense -- sell down stocks or stay on the sidelines."

Among large caps, HSBC bank was down 4.80 Hong Kong dollars or 3.9 per cent at 118.10 and the Hong Kong stock exchange, HKEx, was off $7.90 or 5.9 per cent at 125.60.

China financials were also sharply lower on worries of new credit-tightening measures in China.

Source : TET

Fresh Buying made the market to show strength.

Fresh buying towards the close saw the Sensex end firm at 10879, up 77 points, while the Nifty advanced 31 points to close at 3227.

VIEW FOR 17TH MARCH 2006

The support for the Sensex is at 10806 and the resistance to the up move at 10924

NSE Nifty :(3227) the support for the Nifty is at 3185 and resistance to the up move at 3251

Intraday levels for Day traders...

HLL :(258.45) the support is at 250.90 and resistance to the up move at 263.70
Buy if Breaks 259.50

TNPL :(116.80) the support is at 113.30 and resistance to the up move at 121.45
Hold with a stop loss of 108

Source : createweatlh.blogspot.com

Free Intraday Tips for 17th March 08
POWERGRID ( Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd)

Action	Trigger Price	Stop Loss	Target 1	Target 2
BUY ABOVE	95.5	94	97.5	100
S.SELL BELOW	93	95	92	88

JPASSOCIAT ( Jaiprakash Associates Limited)

Action	Trigger Price	Stop Loss	Target 1	Target 2
BUY ABOVE	237	231	242	248
S.SELL BELOW	229	233	225	216

RPL ( Reliance Petroleum Limited)

Action	Trigger Price	Stop Loss	Target 1	Target 2
BUY ABOVE	163	160	166	170
S.SELL BELOW	159	161	157	151

"Don't focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have."

Source : http://hotstockindia.com

Market Review for 17th March 2008

Sensex :(15761) well the market survived the onslaught near our supports and closed positive for the day…now not much activity expected in this short 3 day week

The support for the Sensex is at 15480-15003-14942 and the resistance to the up move at 16422-15775

NSE Nifty: (4746) the support for the Nifty is at 4722-4700 and resistance to the up move at 4820-4885

Source : PrakashGaba.com