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Monday, September 12, 2011

Immersed in global trouble!


If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. ~Calvin Coolidge

The spectacular Ganesh immersions are over. Markets world over remain immersed in the red as the European-driven volatility has led to investors fleeing equities for perceived safer havens. One can only hope that at least some of the troubles do a vanishing act before hitting our shores.



Asian stocks are trading much lower today. The Nikkei is down around 2%. South Korean, Taiwanese and mainland Chinese markets are shut for the day.

The start will expectedly be deep in the red. We have a important events lined up, including IIP data, August inflation and Advance Tax numbers. Critical among them will be the RBI policy meet. The RBI has hiked benchmark rates 11 times since March 2010 and expectations are of another increase.

On Friday the Dow shed almost 3% as rumors of a possible Greek default was doing the rounds. The resignation of European Central Bank board member Juergen Stark has not been taken well by the market. He was a proponent of higher interest rates and his exit is seen as a possible sign of policy dispute at the ECB.

The US Treasury yields have crashed to record lows. The dollar has risen to a six-month high against the euro.

China’s trade surplus stood at $17.8bn in August, as against $31.5 billion in July.

This week will see more views expressed on President Barack Obama’s proposal of $447 billion jobs plan.

FIIs have put in $588mn in Indian equities markets in the previous week. On Friday they were net sellers.