Subprime not lone cause for swings: Damodaran

M Damodaran, chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today ruled out the US subprime crisis as the single cause for the swing in markets, and also ruled out any separate regulation for hedge funds.

Damodaran said the regulator would prefer hedge funds coming to the Indian markets directly than through offshore derivatives. He said registration of hedge funds with Sebi, as in the case of foreign institutional investors, would be enough.

He pointed out that Sebi was not worried about the large number of players coming to India because their entry pre-supposes the constant returns being offered by the Indian markets besides a sound market regulatory mechanism.

He said Sebi would soon issue guidelines for setting up a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) for investment advisors including brokers and the print and the electronic media.

"A single organisation covering all sets of investment advisors is going to be effective," he said while ruling out multiplicity of self-regulatory organisations.

The purpose of self-regulation is to see that the advises on investments are given professionally and in a transparent way, Damodaran added.

DLF pays Rs 1,675cr for DCM Silk Mills land

In the country’s most expensive land deal, DLF has paid a whopping Rs 1,675 crore for acquiring 38 acres of land in west Delhi from DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL) and the Lohia Group. The deal surpassed arch rival Unitech's Rs 1,582 crore purchase of 300 acres in Noida last year.

DLF shelled out Rs 44 crore per acre for the land parcel, located around 5 km away from New Delhi's central business district of Connaught Place. The property - better known as Swatantra Bharat Mills and DCM Silk Mills - was owned by SBM Land Redevelopment Project. DSCL and the Lohia's held an equal 50% right each to the land.

While DSCL said that it has received its share of Rs 837.50 crore on signing the agreement with DLF today, the Lohias did not offer any official comment. A family source said S P Lohia of Indonesia-based P T Indo Rama was the owner of the land.

DLF, the country's largest real estate developer, is looking to realise around Rs 12,000 crore from its future development at this site. A senior executive from DLF chose to describe the sale as "not a land deal, but a project deal on perpetual lease basis". The company said it funded the deal through internal accruals.

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Sensex ends down 643pts; Tata Steel drops 10%

The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 416 points at 14,585 on the back of a sell-off in the global markets triggered by the subprime crisis in the US.

The Sensex, after languishing over 500pts lower for most of the trading session, slipped again towards the close to a low of 14,345. The index finally ended with a hefty loss of 643 points at 14,358 - the second biggest loss in absolute terms in history.

HEFTY LOSSES...
Date	Close	Prv Cls	Chg	% Chg
18-May-06	11391.43	12217.81	-826.38	-6.76
16-Aug-07	14358.21	15000.91	-642.70	-4.28
02-Apr-06	12455.37	13072.10	-616.73	-4.72
01-Aug-07	14935.77	15550.99	-615.22	-3.96
17-May-04	4505.16	5069.87	-564.71	-11.14
27-Jul-07	15776.31	15234.57	-541.74	-3.43
28-Feb-07	12938.09	13478.83	-540.74	-4.01
05-Mar-07	12415.04	12886.13	-471.09	-3.66
15-May-06	11822.20	12285.11	-462.91	-3.77
08-Jun-06	9295.81	9756.76	-460.95	-4.72

The BSE Metal index slumped 6.5% to 10,300. The Bankex and Realty index plunged 5.5% each to 7421 and 6980, respectively. The Oil & Gas index hsed 4.5% at 7505. The Auto and FMCG indices dropped over 3% each to 4662 and 1855, respectively.

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