BSE : Declared dividend of Rs 4 a share (or 400%).

A higher income from investments helped the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) post a rise in net profit, even though the Asia’s oldest bourse recorded a flat growth in revenue due to lower transaction charges and a drop in income from penalties, fees and other charges in the year ended March 31, 2009.

The BSE board has declared a dividend of Rs 4 a share (or 400%) on the post-bonus equity of Rs 10.2 crore, resulting in a dividend outgo of Rs 42 crore. The dividend will go to a string of local and foreign shareholders, with the top 20 receiving 48% of the payout.

Deutsche Boerse, Singapore Exchange, SBI, LIC, Dubai Financial Group, Atticus Mauritius, Acacia Banyan Partners, Caldwell Asset Management and Bajaj Holdings are among the top BSE shareholders. The exchange posted a total income of Rs 421 crore against Rs 420 crore in the previous year.

Brokers attributed the flat growth to a sharp fall in cash and derivatives turnover which affected the exchange’s income from securities trading.

Despite a fall in turnover-linked income, the BSE saw its net profit rise 18% to Rs 212 crore, thanks to a rise in income from investment and deposits — from Rs 175 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 222 crore last fiscal.

Last year’s stock market turmoil caused a significant fall in trading volumes on bourses, with the BSE recording a 30% decline in turnover to Rs 11 lakh crore in 2008-09 compared with Rs 15.8 lakh crore in 2007-08.

The BSE recorded a 30% drop in transaction charges to Rs 77 crore, while income from other charges amounted to Rs 40 crore compared with Rs 48 crore in the previous year. A higher net profit has boosted BSE’s net worth from Rs 1,559 crore to Rs 1,728 crore.

-- an article by ET dt:14th July 2009

(Also read a post on BSE dated: Nov 13 2008 & Nov 20 2008)

INDIA GDP GROWTH : A PREDICTION

Predictions about India GDP growth
Allianz, a major financial and insurance services provider has estimated that in 2009-10 fiscal gross domestic product of India would be growing at 6.5 percent. It says that even though economic recession has hit almost every financial market in world, emerging Asian economies like India would be growing, all be it at a slow pace.

Allianz says that growth of gross domestic product of India would be decidedly slow at first two quarters of financial year 2009-10 but would pick up in last two quarters. They have expressed that since there are sufficient and efficient capital and foreign exchange controls in place in India, it would be able to tide past difficulties like capital movements that can be extremely volatile.

Economic surveys conducted in India during February of 2008 fiscal had reported that gross domestic product of India would be growing at a rate of 8.7 percent. This was supposed to follow up impressive statistics of 2006-07 fiscal, when rate of growth of gross domestic product was 8.7 percent.

Much of this optimism was based on increase of rates of savings and investments in domestic financial circuit. It was predicted that aggregate gross domestic product of India in 2007-08 financial year would be approximately $10,00,82,03,62,968.85. It was expected that this growth would enable Indian economy to grow to one trillion dollar mark in near future.

In terms of nominal exchange rate, gross domestic product of India was supposed to be $1.16 trillion dollars in 2007-08 financial year. Per capita income in terms of nominal exchange rate was around $1,021.

Actual situation of India GDP growth
Actual picture is pretty different from what has been predicted. It is being assumed that in present scenario of economic recession, growth rate of India GDP would slip, if India's national government does not introduce economic stimulus packages.

NSE : Market methodology changes to FREE FLOAT METHOD

The National Stock Exchange’s index NIFTY will shift to free float capitalisation from market capitalization method from June 26th 2009. Under this method, the weightage of each of the 50 component stocks in the index will be proportionate to the amount of free float.

Free float is the number of shares of company in public hands- stocks that is “floating free”, that which is not with promoters.

Share holdings held by investors that would not, in the normal course come into the open market for trading are treated as 'Controlling/ Strategic Holdings' and hence not included in free-float.

In specific, the following categories of holding are generally excluded from the definition of Free-float:

Holdings by founders/directors/ acquirers which has control element

Holdings by persons/ bodies with "Controlling Interest"

Government holding as promoter/acquirer

Holdings through the FDI Route

Strategic stakes by private corporate bodies/ individuals

Equity held by associate/group companies (cross-holdings)

Equity held by Employee Welfare Trusts

Locked-in shares and shares which would not be sold in the open market in normal course.

The remaining shareholders would fall under the Free-float category.

Free-float factor is a multiple with which the total market capitalization of a company is adjusted to arrive at the Free-float market capitalization. Once the Free-float of a company is determined, it is rounded-off to the higher multiple of 5 and each company is categorized into one of the 20 bands given below. A Free-float factor of say 0.55 means that only 55% of the market capitalization of the company will be considered for index calculation.

Globally, most indices are moving to this system as it is perceived to be more representative of market action. Reliance Industries retained its position as the top weighted stock due to its high free float component (50%), ONGC 3.5% from 8%, NTPC to 1.9% from 6%, Infosys 7% from 3.77%, ICICI Bank 6.45% from 2.96%, Larsen & Toubro 6.41% from 3.27%, SAIL 0.77% from 2.34%. All the fund managers tracking the NIFTY made changes accordingly.