Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Currency Corner

  • EU crisis will linger till Euro exists

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    When the idea of a common currency was floated, it was politically impossible to reject. Principles of Economics 101 were abandoned and the Euro was introduced in 1999. This was of course an economic policy blunder …writes Vatsal Srivastava A great economic experiment began in 1951 with the formation of the European Coal and Steel…

  • Europe’s crisis will linger till Euro exists

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    By Vatsal Srivastava A great economic experiment began in 1951 with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community. It was an attempt to make war within Europe impossible by establishing free trade in coal and steel, eliminating all tariffs and restrictions on cross border economic shipments. Ideally, it would ensure that French steel…

  • Takeaways from US Fed projections

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    By Vatsal Srivastava   US Fed chief Janet Yellen was presented with yet another opportunity to prepare financial markets for a September interest rate hike. But Yellen sang in the same old dovish tune, repeatedly emphasising on the fact that market participants should not worry too much about when the monetary tightening will begin but…

  • US Fed Reserve signals rate hike

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    By Arun Kumar   The Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, has decided not to raise interest rates in June, but signalled that the long-awaited rate hike could come in September as the economic activity picks up. “The committee expects that, with appropriate policy accommodation, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace,” the bank known as…

  • India Amends Investment Policy

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    Modi cabinet amends investment policy for overseas Indians   The Indian cabinet approved certain amendments to the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to make investments by overseas Indians in the country easier and simpler. Overseas Indians comprise Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs). According to a cabinet communique,…

  • K.V Kamath to head BRICS bank

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    Banker K.V. Kamath is appointed head of the BRICS New Development Bank being set up by the group of emerging economies formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Kamath, currently the non-executive chairman of ICICI bank, will have a five-year term at the BRICS bank, which is likely to be operationalised within one year,…

  • RBI leaves policy rates unchanged

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      India’s central bank  kept its key policy rates and the reserve ratios unchanged in line with the predictions, while awaiting more robust data on inflation and action from commercial banks to soften their cost of credit to alter its stance. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who conducted the first bi-monthly review of…

  • Black Money Laws to get more teeth

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    Black money bill proposes 10 years jail, 300 percent penalty Giving concrete shape to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s budget announcement last month on recovering black money stashed away abroad, the cabinet-approved anti-black money law provides a short window to income tax assessees to declare assets, pay tax and penalty and avoid imprisonment. The Foreign Income…

  • The Indian economy needs a dovish Rajan

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    By Vatsal Srivastava The global economy is still very much in the zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) era with the exception of the US Federal Reserve which is widely expected to raise rates this year. Sixteen of 18 industrialized nations have seen their inflation reading run below expectations as deflationary forces continue to exert pressure on the…

  • What influenced Rajan’s rate cuts?

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    By Biswajit Choudhury  The second unscheduled cut  – within two months – in the repo rate at which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lends to commercial banks was not as unexpected as the first in January. Indeed, it could even be called expected after the weekend’s historic announcement by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in…

  • Opportunity awaits in gold in 2015

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    By Vatsal Srivastava Market participants are yet again headed into a New Year with a bearish outlook on gold. This reflects the ongoing adjustments in the US interest rate cycle. It is the consensus view that the US Federal Reserve will start tightening monetary policy by June, which will push real interest rates higher and…

  • Xpress Money unveils new services

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    Xpress Money launches Direct Account Credit services to India. This will enable customers can now transfer money directly into any bank account in India  Xpress Money, one of the world’s most dependable money transfer brands, added a new mode of money transfer for its customers sending money to India. The brand has introduced the ‘Direct…

  • CURRENCY CORNER- Indian Equity Bulls

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    Indian equity bulls shouldn’t anticipate further crude price decline … reports Vatsal Srivastava  Oil is in a bear market. Over the past few months, both major crude benchmarks – Brent and Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) – have corrected by over 25-30 percent from their 2014 peak. Interestingly, and as it often happens in the financial markets,…

  • Japan in bubble territory again?

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    By Vatsal Srivastava  With another round of a massive bond buying program unleashed by the Bank of Japan (BoJ), Nikkei bulls are most likely having the best time of their lives since the late 1980s. It is easy to ride in a sea of liquidity. Although, Currency Corner fears that the BoJ exit from its…

  • Xendpay offers ‘Pay what you want’

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    WORLD’S FIRST ‘PAY WHAT YOU WANT’ MONEY TRANSFER BUSINESS LAUNCHED IN LONDON Rajesh Agrawal, an Indian-origin entrepreneur, has set down a challenge to the multi-billion pound global remittance industry after launching the world’s first money transfer service to rely on voluntary customer tips. Xendpay aims to save developing nations’ customers £60m over next five years.…

  • NRIs sue ICICI Venture

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    Dubai-based Indian businessman Gulab Patil among scores of investors sue ICIC Venture over alleged losses on their investments in a property fund run by the private equity firm. Gulab Patil, who has been authorised by around 500 investors with a power of attorney, told PTI that he has filed the complaint with Sebi on October…

  • India to grow at 5.5% this year: Rajan

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    India is hoping to achieve 5.5 percent, or little more, growth rate this year, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan. “Next year we will go into sixes and hopefully sevens the year after,” he said while addressing students of Indian Business School (ISB) here Thursday. Rajan said that without thinking of major…

  • Global stock market faces correction

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    Central banks will not be able to avert next global crash…says Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner Last week marked the inflection point many market pundits have been waiting for. The stage is set for the deepest global stock market correction since the rally began in March, 2009. As can be seen in the price action,…

  • Gold prices will go southwards

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    International gold price should bottom around $,1050-$1,100/ounce writes Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner Gold has lost its year to date gains post Friday’s blockbuster US jobs data. The headline US unemployment rate came in at 5.9 percent—the last time the unemployment rate was below 6 percent was in July 2008. The US economy added…

  • Hawkish Yellen is what the Indian equity market needs

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    Vatsal Srivatava in his weekly Currency Corner analyses Indian equity market On equity strategy, Currency Corner has maintained that we have reached a point where the risk-off move of the previous years (a slightly upbeat hawkish Fed leading to a fall in stock prices) is now working in just the opposite manner. As of today, the…

  • Currency Corner – Vatsal Srivastava on US Fed Reserve

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    Vatsal Srivastava says US Federal Reserve finally sounds hawkish; rate hike in March/June 2015  The path to US monetary policy normalization is becoming clearer. Comments by Fed reserve chief Janet Yellen Sep 17 were arguably the most hawkish in recent times. To begin with, a story written by Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal…

  • Currency Corner by Vatsal

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner says ECB has gone all out to fight Europe’s economic woes  It’s official – the zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) era is here to stay. After the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, ECB president Mario Draghi made it clear that it too would undertake…

  • Can you ignore Rajan’s call?

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    Vatsal Srivastava looks into Indian Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan’s call for coordinated global monetary policy a distant dream . Rajan earlier predicted the meltdown in the US banking sector which triggered the global recession  RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has been constantly urging major central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve, to keep in mind…

  • Special Report: Chinese Economy

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly Column – Currency Corner turns focus on Chinese economy. Does China really need to rebalance its economy?  Over the past few months, China has been under the economic spotlight over the People’s Bank of China’s intervention in the foreign exchange markets, the first ever corporate bond default, and Beijing’s mini stimulus package in response to…

  • Rupee drops to five-month low

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    Indian rupee was trading at a five-month low Friday, dropping to 61.70 to a dollar, as foreign funds continued to sell their stocks and fresh concerns emerged over the situation in Iraq. After plunging to its lowest level since March 5 with a drop of as much as 38 paise over the previous close, the…

  • Currency Corner by Vatsal Srivastava

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    Deep global stock market sell-off is coming Indian benchmark equity indices ended sharply lower with a cut of more than 1.5 percent Friday (Aug 1) afternoon. The sell-off was on the back on solely global cues, particularly the confusion over the US Federal Reserve’s QE exit strategy, the strength in the US Dollar Index and…

  • Currency Corner – Price of Gold

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner says taking directional call on gold risky over next six months  Gold has been in a narrow trading range of $1,200/ounce-$1,400/ounce so far this year. The yellow metal has managed to trade above the key support of $1,200/ounce mainly because US 10 year yields and the US…

  • Currency Corner by V Srivastava

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    Vatsal Srivastava says Bank of Japan’s liquidity splurge will counter US Fed taper One might think that the Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) era is coming to an end. The US Federal Reserve will be concluding its Quantitative Easing (QE) program by year-end and we can expect the first interest rate hike in mid-2015. The Bank…

  • Asian exports and decoupling

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner looks in to the state of Asian exports. Will ‘decoupling’ theory work this time around? During the financial crisis of 2008, there was a prevailing view among asset managers that a sell-off in developed market (DM) equities would not lead to a downturn in emerging market (EM) equities, especially in…

  • External factors & Equity market

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner analysing the Indian equity market. Global cues to guide Indian equities over the next week  Prior to the finance minister’s budget speech, Currency Corner had argued that Indian equities are all set for a short-term correction irrespective of what Arun Jaitley delivers on the reform front. Markets…

  • Column- Currency Corner

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    Vatsal Srivastava says whatever the budget be, equities set for short-term breather  As one would expect, Indian equities have decided to take a breather before the big budget announcement day (July 10). It is a clear case of profit booking as the sharp sell-off in the small-cap and mid-cap space came on the back of…

  • The fate of rupee in limbo

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his column Currency Corner says Jaitley’s budget mustn’t sell rupee short  The Iraqi crisis and the possibility of an oil supply shock have shown how quickly things can change in the foreign exchange market. The global macro risks that have merged out of the Middle East in recent weeks have pushed crude prices…

  • Jaitley’s budget mustn’t sell rupee short

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     The Iraqi crisis and the possibility of an oil supply shock have shown how quickly things can change in the foreign exchange market. The global macro risks that have merged out of the Middle East in recent weeks have pushed crude prices higher by about five percent and this in turn has led to the…

  • Isis crisis affects Indian stocks

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his column Currency Corner says Indian equities should remain uptrend despite Iraq oil crisis Militant insurgency and violence in Iraq have put the brakes on the great Indian rally. Investors are weighing in the potential impact of higher energy prices as the possibility of a supply disruption from the world’s sixth biggest oil exporter is…

  • COLUMN – Taming Inflation

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     Vatsal Srivastava in his column Currency Corner for Asian Lite, the newspaper for International Indians, says a long run of history reveals that the majority of recessions and financial setbacks have had nothing to do with high inflation In 2003, economist Robert Lucas, in his presidential address to the American Economic Association, declared that the “central problem…

  • Fate of rupee under Modi

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his column Currency Corner says theme for rupee still remains gradual depreciation  It has nearly been a month since the historic BJP electoral sweep. We have seen equities climb to record highs on expectations that the Modi government led reforms will finally unlock India’s true economic potential. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks have outperformed blue chips…

  • US stocks to regain value

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his column Currency Corner says US stocks look set for short-term technical correction Last week saw immensely important announcements and data flow for the currency market. On Thursday, the ECB decided to cut interest rates to record low levels and hinted towards unleashing Quantitative Easing (QE) if inflation expectations do not remain…

  • RBI likely to hold interest rates

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    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to keep interest rates unchanged when it reviews its monetary policy Tuesday as its first major exercise after the installation of the new union government. Known for his anti-inflation stance, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had kept the policy rate unchanged at eight percent in its April 1…

  • Currency Corner – Chinese Realtors

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his Column: Currency Corner for Asian Lite, top Asian newspaper for the South Asian diapsora, says hard landing’ of China’s property market is not the base case scenario The first quarter of 2014 saw bearish news flow out of China on a regular basis. Out of all the disappointing economic releases –…

  • Gold has a bearish bias

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     Vatsal Srivastava in his column Currency Corner for Asian Lite, the best in the league of Asian newspapers in UK, says  Gold has a bearish bias The futures contracts for August delivery in the COMEX gold in the New York commodities exchange was trading at a 15-week low of $1,265 per ounce, down $25 from its open. There…

  • Ab ki baar… Nifty 8,000

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    Currency Corner column  by Vatsal Srivastava looks in to the Modi effect on markets Kudos to the markets for pricing in not just the direction but also the magnitude of the Modi led BJP sweep across the Indian electorate. The last time a single party won a majority was in 1984 with the Congress winning 414…