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IPE at UNC submits: by Kindred WinecoffMatthew Continetti asks a good question:Why do Americans spend so much time analyzing China's growth, but not India's? Yes, the growth of Chinese economic and military power since Deng Xiaoping proclaimed "to get rich is glorious" has been nothing short of extraordinary. But India has also embraced markets over the years, and the results have been equally amazing. We tend to think of India in terms of its relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in terms of its cultural power, rather than in terms of the economic and geopolitical benefits of a prosperous South Asian democracy. But that should end. We have a lot to gain by befriending India, and a whole lot to lose.Complete Story »

Equitymaster submits: Keen buying interest in bluechips across sectors kept the benchmark Indian indices well above the dotted line for the entire session today. Banking, software and commodity stocks led the pack of gainers. Selective profit booking was however seen in pharma, FMCG and cement stocks. The Chinese market was the only one to close in the red in the Asian region. European markets have also opened in the positive. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty closed with gains of around 180 points (1.0%) and 55 points (1.0%) respectively. Mid and small cap stocks also followed suit. The BSE Midcap index closed higher by 0.9%, while the BSE Smallcap index closed with gains of around 0.6%. Complete Story »

Equitymaster submits: Indian markets languished in the red for the entire trading session today on the back of sustained selling activity across index heavyweights. While the BSE Sensex closed lower by around 143 points (down 1%), the NSE Nifty lost around 48 points (down 1%). Midcap and smallcap stocks were also at the receiving end as both the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap closed marginally lower. Losses were largely seen in metals and oil & gas stocks. As regards global markets, Asian indices closed mixed today while the European indices have opened in the red. The rupee was trading at Rs 47.11 to the dollar at the time of writing. Complete Story »

Gary Gordon submits: At the halfway mark of Tuesday’s trading (7/6/2010), the S&P 500 SPDR Trust (SPY) was down -7.5% over the last 6 months. This is, in and of itself, hardly surprising. After all, the majority of country ETFs are down sharply over the same time frame. That said, for those who have disowned any financial ties to Europe, one country ETF in the region has defied the skeptics. Was it the industrious nation of Germany? Nope. The iShares MSCI Germany Fund (EWG) lost -13.9%. Perhaps the Swiss dodged the currency bullet with its “franc” faring better than the “euro?” That helped… yet iShares MSCI Switzerland (EWL) still dropped -8.7%.Complete Story »

Equitymaster submits: Indian markets opened on a strong note today and stayed well above the dotted line on the back of sustained buying activity across index heavyweights. While the BSE Sensex closed higher by around 292 points (up 2%), the NSE Nifty gained around 91 points (up 2%). Midcap and smallcap stocks also did well as the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap notched gains of 1% each. Gains were largely seen in metals and banking stocks. As regards global markets, Asian indices closed firm today while the European indices have also opened on a positive note. The rupee was trading at Rs 45.76 to the dollar at the time of writing. Complete Story »

Equitymaster submits: Weakness in the global markets impacted the Indian indices as well as the latter languished deep into the red throughout the trading session today. While the BSE Sensex closed lower by around 337 points (down 2%), the NSE Nifty lost around 102 points (down 2%). Midcap and smallcap stocks were also at the receiving end as the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap closed lower by 1% each. Losses were largely seen in metals and oil & gas stocks. As regards global markets, most Asian indices closed in the red today while the European indices have also opened on a weak note. The rupee was trading at Rs 47.07 to the dollar at the time of writing. Complete Story »

Econ Grapher submits:India released its GDP result the other day showing a surge in economic growth as Industrial activity and strong services growth helped the Indian economy recover from it's "recession". First quarter GDP came in up 8.6% year on year (slightly below consensus 8.8%), building on the 6.5% rise in Q4 2009. The figure puts India on a similar path to its neighbour and fellow economy, China, and places it in a similar predicament on the monetary policy front, with India having already increased its interest rate 25bps in April. click to enlargeComplete Story »

Equitymaster submits: The week ended largely positive for most of the world’s indices. The US was the worst performing market of the week (down 0.6%) as news of Spanish debt downgrade came in late Friday. Other than the US, the only market to close in the red was Japan (down 0.2%). Among the other world markets, China (up 2.8%) was the top performer followed closely by Brazil (up 2.8%). Up by 2.5%, India’s benchmark Index BSE-Sensex was also among the top performers of this week on the back of an increase in FII inflows. In Europe, UK (up 2.5%) was the best performer with France (up 2.5%) and Germany (up 2%) following close behind. Singapore and Hong Kong were up by 1.4% and 1.1% respectively.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon submits:

Last year, leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) floated the idea of conducting trade without relying on the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency. At the group’s second summit in Brazil last month, BRIC countries voiced the need for big changes that could add to the strength of their economies and related ETFs.For now, the United States still reigns supreme, with the largest economy of any other single country and a strengthening dollar in the face of an unraveling euro, writes Ivan Martchev for Yahoo! Finance. The BRIC economies combined are larger than that of the States’ on a PPP basis, but using current exchange rates instead of PPP, the four nations are actually smaller because they don’t have free-floating currencies.Complete Story »

Equitymaster submits: Although the markets did recover some lost ground and came off the day's lows during the final hours of closing, they still ended the day significantly in the red. While the BSE Sensex lost in the region of around 170 points (down 1%), Nifty edged lower by around 55 points (down 1%). BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were also not spared as both of them declined by around 0.5% each. On the Sensex, six stocks declined for every one that ended in the green today. Weakness was also seen amongst most Asian stocks today whereas Europe is also trading in the red currently. The rupee was seen trading at Rs 44.6 to the dollar at the time of writing. Complete Story »