Wobbly Wednesday - Sensex,Nifty in Turmoil - October 17 2007

The last few weeks have seen what the experienced hands had not seen in their lifetime - Equity markets at all time high, Gold at 28 year high and Oil at unprecendented heights. This is an anomaly in the flow of money from one markets and other. Traditionally money moves from one market to another with the results visible from gaining and losing markets. However this time the markets had behaved as if there was no logic and only exuberance had a say on sentiments.

Time to be cautious is old gents say when such times are prevalent. Market were trading at P/E of 26 which rose from P/E of 22-23 just a few weeks back. Do fundmentals change so quickly? This creates doubts and rightly so our FM said which was taken lightly by the bulls. The bulls didn't notice that the bubble which arose from the easy liquidity comng from the Fed cut since September 18 was as hot as water on a hot pan. It can vanish as quickly as it appears on the scene.

The other side of the story was that the friendly FII's were not sentimentally attached with the stock markets and they were simply minting money where it is possible. Recent Fed cut coupled with strong rupee transaled into a money spinner for the FII's who cannot manage such returns in the recessionary US and European markets. This resulted into a slosh of hot liquidity which chases strong returns. The concerns on such liquidity was evident when all concerned with the Indian economy viz SEBI,RBI and Finance Ministry collabrated to come out with a way to control such liquidity. Todays clamp on the Participatory notes was just the kind of trigger which can prick buubles and take air out of them.

Talking about PN's or P notes action taken by SEBI is not unwarranted as some would say. SEBI has actually tried to control the quality of funds and not the inflow of funds. FII's who are still bullish on the India Story will still be interested. It's just that the regulator initated at the wrong time for the raging bulls.

However things should not be gloomy and markets are still fundamentally strong when you compare with other bubbles in the past. Japan stocks traded at an unrealistic P/E of 100
at the high of the Japanese bubble. So, we are still miles away from that kind of bubble but it is good be cautious because Precaution is better than cure.

A word of advise for the retails investors. When your doodhwala and panwalla starts investing in stock markets, its time that you make exit.