Saturday 30 December 2017

Monitoring the NaMo Bull Market in Stocks: Update as of December 2017








Please see my blog of July 9, 2014 for the original note on using TMV/GNP ratio to gauge whether the market is cheap or expensive, and my nonthly blogs on this subject.

India Market Map: December 2017

A monthly bird’s eye view of the performance of India’s financial markets.


Foreign Exchange 


 Stocks


 Government Bonds





 Gold


 Money Market


 Policy Rates


 Bank Deposits


 Public Provident Fund and Post Office


  Home Loans


 Real Estate

Friday 15 December 2017

Fourth and Fifth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statements

Monetary Policy                                                                                                              2017-18

In the last two statements - October 4 and December 6 - RBI has continued with the repo rate at 6%. This is not surprising given RBI's thinking on the subject.

Let's look at the two key macro variables - growth and inflation.

RBI marked down the growth rate for the year, 2017-18, from 7.3% to 6.7% in the October statement, and has retained this number in last week's statement. RBI's inflation projection was raised in the second half of the year from 4-4.5% to 4.2-4.6% in October; this has been marginally raised last week to 4.3-4.7%.

RBI's 2017-18 growth forecast is based on 7% in Q3 and 7.8% in Q4.

Inflation has trended higher since June in line with the RBI's expectations. After the statement on Dec 6, November CPI number came in at 4.88%. This is slightly outside the range set out by the RBI. 




Please see my earlier bogs on the subject.

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Sunday 3 December 2017

Monitoring the NaMo Bull Market in Stocks: Update as of November 2017

According to our estimate, market cap. to GNP ratio has reached the highest level since the Modi government came to power.








Please see my blog of July 9, 2014 for the original note on using TMV/GNP ratio to gauge whether the market is cheap or expensive.





Saturday 2 December 2017

India Market Map: November 2017

A monthly bird’s eye view of the performance of India’s financial markets.



Foreign Exchange


Stock Market


Government Bond Market





 Gold

Money Market


Policy Rates


 Bank Deposit Rates


  Public Provident Fund and Post Office


 Lending Rate


   Real Estate Market


Tuesday 21 November 2017

Friday 3 November 2017

Monitoring the NaMo Bull Market in Stocks: Update as of October 2017

Indian Stock Market Watch

Our estimates show that market capitalisation to GNP is at highest level since Narendra Modi came to power as Prime Minister.





Please see my blog of July 9, 2014 for the original note on using TMV/GNP ratio to gauge whether the market is cheap or expensive.



India Market Map: A year (well, almost) after demonetisation



Foreign Exchange

The confidence in the rupee remains strong: stronger against the U.S. dollar and Japanese Yen but weaker against the Euro and Pound Sterling. Against a basket of 36 currencies, as of end September (data as of end October is not still available), the rupee was stronger by 2.5% over the preceding eleven months.



Stocks


Indian equities have put in a super performance – the benchmark Sensex is up by more than 20%! Although corporate earnings have been weak on the back of a significant slowdown in the economy, equities have been the best performing asset class. Equities generally factor in expectations of the future, so it seems that the equities market is projecting that demonetisation, GST, and various other measures of the government are going to be net positive for the long term growth of the economy. Or is it just that during this same period U.S. equities have also appreciated by the same magnitude?



Government Bonds

The picture on bonds is interesting. Bond yields have fallen up to 3 years, but risen slightly from 5 to 10 years – so that the yield curve has steepened. This seems to support the view from the equities market that the long term growth of the economy has not been jeopardised by demonetisation and GST. On balance, the bond market has returned a positive return over the last year.



Gold


Gold has generated a negative return as a result of the stronger Rupee (against the U.S. dollar).



  Money Market


 Policy Rates


RBI continued with its accommodative monetary policy post-demonetisation but then shifted gear to a neutral stance in Fenruary this year. 



Bank Deposits 


SBI and ICICI Bank – the largest in the public and private sectors – reduced deposit rates, but unlike the government bond market, more in long term deposits than in short term deposits. Significantly, both banks reduced their S.B. account rate by 0.5%, the first such change since deregulation in 2011.




  Public Provident Fund


 Post Office Deposits


Home Loans
There has been a significant reduction in SBI's rate.



Real Estate