Market

Investment through participatory notes (P-notes) in the domestic capital market rose to a 31-month high of Rs 87,132 crore at December-end, reflecting the bullish stance of FPIs.

P-notes are issued by registered foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to overseas investors who wish to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly. They, however, need to go through a due diligence process.

According to Sebi data, the value of P-note investments in Indian markets — equity, debt, and hybrid securities — increased to Rs 87,132 crore till December-end from Rs 83,114 crore at the November-end.

This is the highest level of investment since May 2018, when the fund inflow through this route stood at Rs 93,497 crore.

P-notes investment was Rs 78,686 crore at the end of October 2020, although it had declined to Rs 69,82 crore in September

By Dhara Ranasinghe

LONDON (Reuters) – More governments are selling bonds that mature in 30, 50 and even 100 years’ time, capitalising on rock-bottom borrowing costs and a willingness among investors to look past risks for the sake of slightly higher yields.

After Germany’s state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) raised 2 billion euros on Jan. 5 via a 100-year issue, France said on Monday it would soon sell a 50-year bond, its first new debt at that maturity since 2016.

A brisk start that has also seen Mexico and Indonesia sell 50-year bonds could mean issuance volumes approach levels seen in 2016, when euro zone governments sold a record 19 billion euros of bonds with maturities of 30 years and over.

“It feels more like 2016,” said Lee Cumbes, head of public sector debt, EMEA at

Investor wealth on Friday declined over Rs 2.23 trillion as markets cracked.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 549.49 points or 1.11 per cent to close at 49,034.67. During the day, it plunged 788.37 points to 48,795.79.

Following the bearish trend, the market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies dived Rs 2,23,012.44 crore to Rs 1,95,43,560.22 crore.

Religare Broking Vice-President (Research) Ajit Mishra said, “Markets traded volatile and settled with a cut of over a per cent. Participants were in the profit-taking mood from the beginning citing overbought market conditions.”

He added that the global cues also remained unsupportive in Friday’s session.

Tech Mahindra was the top loser in the Sensex pack, falling 4.35 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Asian Paints.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap

The government is expected to garner Rs 2,664 crore from offloading 10 per stake sale in India’s largest steelmaker SAIL through an offer for sale (OFS) which was subscribed over five times on Friday.

The shares sought were 522.89 per cent of the overall issue size on the final day of bidding, as per provisional data available on bourses.

Earlier this week, the government had proposed OFS of 20.6 crore shares of face value of Rs 10 each (base offer size), with an option to additionally sell up to 20.6 crore equity shares.

With this, the total OFS size goes up to 41.3 crore shares and government is expected to mobilise Rs 2,664 crore at a floor price of Rs 64 per share.

The indicative price of bids that came in on Friday was Rs 65.75, exchange

Benchmark indices posted their biggest drop in nearly a month, amid a decline in global markets, after US President-elect Joe Biden’s $1.9-trillion Covid-19 relief plan sparked concerns over an increase in corporate taxes.

The dollar rose, while oil prices came off their 10-month highs as investors mounted risk-off bets.

The Sensex fell 550 points, or 1.1 per cent to end at 49,035, while the Nifty declined 162 points, or 1.1 per cent to close at 14,434. This was the biggest single-day decline for both indices since December 21. The Sensex had managed to post its 11th straight weekly gain.

However, Friday’s correction pruned weekly gains to 1.4 per cent. The India VIX index soared 4.3 per cent to 24, sparking concerns that the market could have got overheated. Mid- and small-cap indices fell in line with the benchmark indices.

The market capitalisation (m-cap) of TCS on Thursday topped the Rs 12-trillion-mark for the first time.

Shares of the Tata group flagship closed at a record high of Rs 3,250.15, up 2.9 per cent, valuing the company at Rs 12.02 trillion.

TCS is India’s second-most valuable firm after Reliance Industries (RIL), which has an m-cap of nearly Rs 12.9 trillion (including m-cap of partly-paid up shares).

The IT services firm staged a solid comeback in Q2, and growth momentum continued in Q3 as the firm beat Street estimates on all key parameters such as revenue, margin and profits.

Investors are cheering the stock after it signalled a return to the double-digit growth trajectory in the next financial year, on the back of a ramp-up in large contracts and a strong order pipeline. It had last achieved double-digit growth on a