India Insight

The BSE Sensex ended above the 20,000 mark on Friday after gaining 2.6 percent in the last five trading sessions. The index has now risen for four straight weeks. Here are the top five Sensex gainers and losers of the week:

GAINERS

Tata Motors: The automaker’s stock surged 8.15 percent in the week ending May 10, making it the best Sensex performer. Though the stock is still flat in 2013, it has gained nearly 15 percent since April. However, Ambareesh Baliga of Edelweiss Financial Services advises caution: “Tata Motors’ overdependence on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to negate the Indian underperformance makes it a risky investment at this juncture especially in view of lower margins at JLR”

Hindalco: Shares of India’s largest aluminium producer surged 8 percent this week. The stock extended gains throughout the week after rising 3.5 percent on Monday, on expectations of better realizations after copper prices rose more than 6 percent last Friday.

ITC: Shares in India’s biggest cigarette maker ended the week with gains of 6.7 percent, after touching an all-time high on Friday. Investors have placed long positions in ITC futures, indicating they expect gains to continue.

Hero MotoCorp: This was another auto stock which was among the top five performers, gaining 5.9 percent for the week to end at 1705 rupees. The stock had fallen to 1434 rupees on April 15, but has gained nearly 19 percent since then. The company reported better-than-expected results in the last week of April, but sales growth has slowed amid rising competition, denting its market share.

Can central bankers play god to the markets? India’s central bank chief Duvvuri Subbarao does not believe so. In doing so, the Reserve Bank of India governor, a physics student, has taken refuge in quantum mechanics.

Subbarao takes the example of Einstein, who could not reconcile to the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics all through his life.

Einstein famously said – “God does not play dice”. Less known perhaps is the retort of his friend and mentor Niels Bohr who said – “Albert, stop telling God what he can or cannot do”.

It’s widely acknowledged that cricket is something of a religion in India but could it be a market-mover too?

According to research by two Australian economists, India’s performance in one-day cricket matches can have a significant impact on the fortunes of the country’s stock market, the Indian Express reports.

Moreover, the researchers concluded that a win — expected by the millions of die-hard fans — has no impact on market returns but a loss “generates a significant downward movement in the stock market.”

As I stood waiting for an auto rickshaw near India Gate in New Delhi last December, three big cars slowed down within a quarter of an hour to check me out. They waited for a few minutes and then drove away without anyone getting out.Many of my friends have experienced much the same thing — especially in India’s capital, a woman walking in the street is too often seen as fair game if a man isn’t with her.When I came home, I checked myself in the mirror to see what it was about my appearance that caught their eye.Bespectacled, with no make-up, dressed in loose fitting jeans and a baggy sweater, I could not figure out why. I asked my husband, “Who do I look like?”He laughed and said, “In Delhi you just have to be a woman, how you look doesn’t matter”.I have been traveling by myself on Delhi’s public transport since my college days. Bus conductors have tried to brush against my fingers while giving me a ticket, and well-dressed, middle-aged men have whispered in my ear to ask for my phone number.These experiences have changed the way I behave on the streets of a city I otherwise love. I avoid looking auto rickshaw drivers in the eye just in case they get the wrong idea and I’m always on my guard against gropers while walking, especially in markets.I avoid driving alone after eight-thirty to avoid male drivers following me, or worse. A media colleague working at one of India’s national TV channels was killed last year while driving by herself late at night. At the time, the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, said the girl should not have been so adventurous as to travel at three in the morning. She later said her remark had been blown out of proportion.A friend told me she complained to police when someone tried to snatch her bag in the market. Instead of investigating the case, the duty officer started questioning her about just what exactly she thought she was doing out at eight-thirty in the evening.When I look back at the families I knew growing up, I can begin to see why some men seem to think the way they do. As an only child, I had a pampered upbringing. But when I was invited to other families for lunch or dinner, if the dining room was too small to fit all the guests, the men would always be served first and given the best portion of the food.If a family could not afford to send all their children to private schools, it was invariably the girls who gave way and went to a government school instead. One of my friends, when he was a teenage boy, could go on dates without having to explain himself. But all hell would break loose if his sister had a similar adventure.When the friend of mine was looking for a suitable husband, her parents introduced her to a lot of people. She told me about one conversation she remembers: the first thing the man asked her was, “do you smoke, do you drink?”When she asked why, he said “you can’t take such girls to your mother.” He himself did enjoy a tipple, and needless to say she didn’t marry him.ALSO READ: Domestic abuse plagues India’s upper crust

The times they are a changin’, and indeed they have. For better or for worse, I am not sure, but what has changed is the way we look at making money from money.

Call it what you may — credit crisis, crisis of confidence, financial tsunami, meltdown — erosion of wealth is never good news. And rattled markets often lead to political turmoil and even shift in power.

So what is happening in the markets, economy, and banks; well, with anything to do with the art and science of making money?

The world of equities seems to have opted for a bargain-basement sale. The BSE Sensex which scaled the dizzy heights of 21,000 points in January 2008 is today testing 10,000 and nobody is sure if the bottom has been found.

“Nowhere in the world are we close to a bottom. Put your money in a safe bank at 9 pct and forget about the stock market for the next two years,” Shankar Sharma, Joint Managing Director of First Global, told Reuters.

If that’s the case, one wonders if the response pattern will change to the Reuters Money question – Where do you see the Sensex by Diwali??