Foreign investors have raised their shareholding in BSE 500 stocks to the highest level in the last five years during the quarter ended March 31.

Foreign institutional investors, or FIIs, have raised their shareholding in the BSE 500 companies that make up nearly 93% of the total market capitalisation on BSE and all 20 major industries of the economy

According to the quarterly analysis on BSE 500 companies shareholdings for the quarter ended March – 2013 by Emkay Research, FIIs holding in BSE500 companies rose to 22.2%, the highest in at least 21 quarters during quarter ended March 13.

FIIs bought shares worth $10.2 billion whereas mutual fund and bank finance and insurance (BFI) were sellers to the tune of $1.4 billion and $5 billion respectively during the quarter ended March 2013. >> Read More

India Inc will soon have greater flexibility in structuring deals through use of options, with Law Minister Kapil Sibal clearing a put & call option regulation framed by the Securities & Exchange Board of India. This means, for mergers & acquisitions, listed firms could use such options that create a right to buy/sell more shares in the future. The issue was stuck with the ministry for nine months.

Sebi was earlier opposed to put & call options on the ground these encouraged speculation. It had rejected the use of these in two deals, including one between Cairn and Vedanta in August 2010. Sebi also felt the arrangement did not conform with the requirements of spot-delivery contract or a derivative contract under Section 18A of the Securities & Contract Regulation Act. A similar arrangement between two investors in case of a firm, Vulcan Engineering, was also rejected by Sebi as the contracts were to be exercised at a future date, and so did not qualify as spot-delivery contracts. >> Read More

In an over six-year old insider trading case involving shares of Reliance Industries’ erstwhile subsidiary IPCL, market regulator Sebi today imposed a penalty of Rs 11 crore on Reliance Petroinvestments Ltd. 

Pronouncing Reliance Petroinvestments Ltd (RPIL) guilty of violating the insider trading regulations with regard to its dealings in shares of Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd (IPCL) in early 2007, Sebi said that RPIL made profits of over Rs 3.82 crore through these trades.  >> Read More

The stake of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in 18 of the Nifty-50 companies has touched historic highs, according to the latest quarterly shareholding information filed by these companies.

This is as compared to a total of six companies where the stake was at a record high in the year-ago period. Besides, their stake in seven other companies was nearing record highs in the March quarter, the data suggest.

Their holdings in six companies – HDFC Bank, Lupin, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), NTPC, Axis Bank and DLF – rose between one and six percentage points during the quarter. In the private sector Axis Bank, state-owned power company NTPC and real estate major DLF, FIIs raised their holding by subscribing to shares via private placements and offer-for-sale and used the open market purchase route to raise stake in HDFC Bank, Lupin and M&M.

Record flows
A record net inflow in Indian equities in the financial year ending March 2013 helped foreign investors widen their grip on Indian equity. FIIs pumped in more money in FY13 than in any year since they were permitted to invest in these 21 years ago. They were net buyers by $25.8 billion or Rs 1.4 lakh crore during the financial year, according to data from the stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). >> Read More

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) raised their exposure in eight companies of the salt-to -software Tata group that included TCS and Tata Communications during the quarter ended March 31, 2013.

At the same time, they trimmed holdings in five other companies of the group such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Power.

An analysis of 13 listed firms of the Tata conglomerate which declared their shareholding pattern during January-March shows that FIIs have increased stakes in eight entities.

The $100-billion Tata group garners over 58% of its revenue from overseas operations. >> Read More

A total of 190 companies, including 14 PSUs, are yet to meet Sebi-prescribed minimum public shareholding norms, for which they need to sell shares worth an estimated Rs 30,000 crore.

Sebi has also initiated consultations with non-compliant companies to resolve all outstanding issues for ensuring adherence to this requirement, which entails achieving a minimum 10 % public holding in PSUs by August 31 and at least 25 % in non-PSUs by June 30, 2013.

 Providing compliance status of listed firms to the Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirement, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot today informed Lok Sabha in a written reply that shares worth about Rs 29,650 crore, as per valuation on December 31, 2012, need to be divested to meet these norms.

“In order to bring out a plan of action and to resolve all outstanding issues for ensuring adherence to MPS requirement for non-PSU companies, Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has initiated consultation process with the representatives of companies that are not meeting the MPS requirement,” Pilot said. >> Read More

The Reserve Bank of India today released on its website, the Guidelines for “Licensing of New Banks in the Private Sector”.

Key features of the guidelines are:

(i) Eligible Promoters: Entities / groups in the private sector, entities in public sector and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) shall be eligible to set up a bank through a wholly-owned Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC).

(ii) ‘Fit and Proper’ criteria: Entities / groups should have a past record of sound credentials and integrity, be financially sound with a successful track record of 10 years. For this purpose, RBI may seek feedback from other regulators and enforcement and investigative agencies.

(iii) Corporate structure of the NOFHC: The NOFHC shall be wholly owned by the Promoter / Promoter Group. The NOFHC shall hold the bank as well as all the other financial services entities of the group.

(iv) Minimum voting equity capital requirements for banks and shareholding by NOFHC: The initial minimum paid-up voting equity capital for a bank shall be `5 billion. The NOFHC shall initially hold a minimum of 40 per cent of the paid-up voting equity capital of the bank which shall be locked in for a period of five years and which shall be brought down to 15 per cent within 12 years. The bank shall get its shares listed on the stock exchanges within three years of the commencement of business by the bank.

(v) Regulatory framework: The bank will be governed by the provisions of the relevant Acts, relevant Statutes and the Directives, Prudential regulations and other Guidelines/Instructions issued by RBI and other regulators. The NOFHC shall be registered as a non-banking finance company (NBFC) with the RBI and will be governed by a separate set of directions issued by RBI. >> Read More

Signalling their positive outlook on Indian stocks, foreign funds increased their exposure to 29 Sensex firms, including HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki India, in the third quarter ended December, 2012.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FII), a major participant in Indian stock markets, have increased their shareholding in 29 companies of the 30-constituent Sensex in the October- December quarter.

Foreign funds, however, reduced their stake in Hero MotoCorp during December quarter of the current fiscal in comparison to the preceding (July-September) quarter.

Market analysts said the recent reforms initiatives undertaken by the government to boost economic growth and investor sentiment have infused much-need confidence in FIIs.

>> Read More

The government will not sell its stake in Tata Communications Ltd to help the telecom company comply with the capital markets regulator’s minimum public shareholding norm for listed companies before a June deadline.

Foreign institutional investors have pared their stake to a three-year low in UB Group firm United Spirits, which is currently awaiting regulatory nod for sale of a majority stake to global liquor giant Diageo.

As per the latest shareholding pattern data of the company, FIIs held 45.81 per cent stake in Vijay Mallya-led UB group firm United Spirits Ltd (USL) as on December 31, 2012.

This is the lowest FII holding in the company since 34.99 per cent over three years ago on September 30, 2009.

Besides, the FIIs’ ownership in the company has been on a declining trend for four consecutive quarters now – falling from a high of about 53 per cent at the end of 2011.

On the other hand, the domestic institutions have upped their stake considerably in the past one year from 2.51 per cent at the end of 2011. In the past quarter alone, domestic institutional investors raised their stake from 4.94 per cent to 6.21 per cent. >> Read More