The two most respected names of corporate India, Tata and Birla, failed to raise money from the stockmarket through their respective rights issues (a rights issue is when a listed company offers shares to existing shareholders at a price, which is usually less than the market price of the listed stock).
Eventually, underwriters had to buy the majority of shares. Hindalco Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, saw just half its Rs 5,000-crore rights issue subscribed to. Tata Motors of Tata Group, too, had the same fate.
The reason? Market prices of these stocks fell much below their offer price in the rights issue, removing the investor incentive of buying. Tata Motors and Hindalco are not the only companies to have seen such a battering.
As we go to press, about 380 out of 600 companies with a market cap of over Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion), have lost more than 50 per cent of their value since January. The Sensex and the Nifty have also lost close to 60 per cent. It is carnage on markets. But, in the rubble, you will find some gleaming diamonds, available at a quarter of what they were worth until a few months ago.
The Indian market has become a victim of a global meltdown. What started as credit crisis in the US has spilled over to the global financial market. Bears are out in full force, with their usual weapon of panic and fear, and have virtually captured every market--from Wall Street to Dalal Street.
If all you saw over the last four years was unbridled enthusiasm, now all you can hear is negativity. The Indian market started witnessing selling pressure from January this year. As the credit crisis started deepening in the West and liquidity became scarce, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) started selling stocks in all the markets, including India.
Anticipation of heavy selling from the FIIs prompted domestic investors to get out. FIIs continue to dump Indian stocks--they have sold stocks worth Rs 52,000 crore, or $12.90 billion, in our markets since January. Apart from the FII play, expectation of slower growth of the economy and corporate earnings, due to deteriorating global outlook and high domestic interest rates, contributed to the market's downfall. Read on. . .
Text: Rajesh Kumar and Kumar Gautam, Outlook Money
Image: The digital stock ticker is pictured outside The Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai. | Photograph: Pal Pillai/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: How America can return to prosperity
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