Dalal Street

Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee did a complete “U” turn on the Direct Tax Code Bill. The first draft released in August-2009 [See here] had proposed some very drastic changes raise the individual income tax limits in 3 big slabs of 1.6 Lakhs to 10 Lakhs, 10 Lahks to 25 Lakhs and 25 Lakhs & above. Get rid of all exemptions as well as total savings was encouraged to take it upto Rs 3 lakhs.

The Second draft [See here]had also proposed to tax capital gains from stock markets currently 100% exempt. However, the (more…)

Even as foreign flows have remained buoyant, foreign ownership has actually dipped…unusual and mathematically challenging, but likely a combination of flow timing (buying at the top, selling low and possibly buying back – it’s called underperformance), capital raising – including large secondary market sales, and insurance company buying…over the year though, within the now fairly stable 16-18% range.

But let there be no two views on this – foreign flows have had a consistently huge impact on the market…the market has tended to (more…)