Savage garden…Truly, Madly, Deeply!

The rational mind of man is a shallow thing…wherein thin colonies of reason have settled amid a savage world. - Wilford O. Cross.

If you thought the Monday mayhem was something, wait, there is yet another bloodbath waiting to happen at start today. The tremors of the S&P’s bold but debatable US downgrade continue to deeply cut world markets. Predicting when the current tsunami will subside is like catching a falling knife. Avoid needless bravado and wait for the financial storm to pass.



Amid the gloom and doom scenario, there are some bright spots for emerging nations like India. For instance, crude has taken a big pounding and so have other commodities (except gold of course). This is likely to have a sobering effect on inflation. Also, the RBI may just refrain from rubbing salt in the markets’ wounds by maintaining status quo on rates. The Centre may announce a few big-bang policy moves as well, hopefully.

When the dust settles on the global turmoil, India is likely to come out relatively stronger and attract offshore capital. Still, there will be lots of volatility and uncertainty in the short-term. Remain vigilant and cautious. You will come across plenty of opportunities in the coming days. It doesn’t matter if you have to pay some premium for stocks later; that’s better than wiping out your capital now.

The outcome of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting later today and Ben S. Bernanke's press conference will be critical to say the least. The world markets is gasping for breath. It needs more than just platitudes and usual reassurances from the so-called leaders and policymakers. It needs decisive and sharp leadership, which unfortunately is in short supply.

Meanwhile, Chinese data released a while back is also not encouraging with its main inflation gauge spiking more than forecast, sparking fears of another round of monetary tightening.

FIIs were net sellers of Rs 13.85bn in the cash segment on Monday, according to the provisional NSE data. The domestic institutional institutions (DIIs) were net buyers at Rs 13.20bn on the same day. FIIs were net buyers at Rs 12.03bn (provisional) in the F&O segment.

The foreign funds were net sellers of Rs 16.09bn in the cash segment on Friday, according to the final SEBI data. Mutual Funds were net buyers of Rs 3.56bn on the same day.

Results Today: ABB, Bombay Rayon, Essar Ports, GMR Infra, Gujarat Industries Power Co., GSPL, J Kumar Infra, Jubilant Foodworks, Madras Cements, Mawana Sugars, Mandhana Industries, Orbit Corp., Piramal Lifesciences, Mahindra Satyam, Sobha Developers, Tata Communications, United Breweries and Wockhardt.