Huge untapped, under-penetrated housing market presents large growth opportunities to providers of housing finance.

Default rates of Indian mortgages have been at very low levels. This is owing to the fact that most mortgage loan borrowers are ‘first time’ borrowers who borrow money for their basic dwelling units. Low default rates drew competition from banks. Banks also have the advantage of low-cost deposits.

Gruh Finance is a 61% subsidiary of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) the largest Housing Finance Companies operating in India.

After a 40 per cent rise in the Sensex since March 2009, the cassandras of doom are out again predicting a global collapse. With $ 11 trillion to be spent globally on creation of power generating capacities by 2030, the only problem ABB will have will be to grow fast enough to meet rising demand. A nice problem to have. What say?

Sustaining a 7 to 8 % GDP growth over the next decade will call for a build-up in Power Equipment capacity of 30 GW per annum. The key players in this growth would be Bhel, Bharat Bijlee and MNC equipment players ABB, Areva and Siemens.

A year ago, Tata Steel came out with an issue of 547, 251, 605 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares of Rs 100 each, with a coupon of 2 per cent. The ratio of exchange decided in advance equals 6 CCPS into 1 Tisco share. This implies a conversion price of Rs 600 per share for each Tisco share, or a premium of Rs 590 per share.

NYMEX June 2010 Crude Oil Futures now quote at $ 64 per barrel, a one year forward contango of 20%. This is one of the highest spreads available on crude for nearly 6 months and comes on the back of a possible cut of another 1 mn bpd of Crude production by Saudi Arabia in the coming summer. It is widely known in Western circles that a lot of excess crude is now being stored on the high seas in leased out Super Tankers. The increasing rates of contango highlight the confidence of the bulls in carrying forward unhedged physical oil inventories with a year’s view.

A drought in India's major tea growing region has led to a dramatic fall in production during the first quarter of the year. While distressing as the event might be, it brings a positive outlook for Tea price as Kenya and Sri Lanka-two competing nations for Indian CTC and Orthodox tea also report lower production. The price gains will mean higher profits for all the Sterling Tea companies of Assam and also the Khaitan group's Mcleod Russell-the largest producer of Tea in India.

The Macro Impact Of KG D-6 Fields

The Oil discoveries of Cairn in the Barmer centred Aishwarya and Mangalya fields of 200,000 bpd, and the commissioning of the KG6 Natural Gas production alongside the commissioning of the Jamnagar refinery of RPL are events that are as massive in scale and possibly as significant for the Economy as the discovery of Crude Oil reserves in the Bombay High.

The initial response for Nano in different cities is giving hopes that it will do its bit to jazz up sluggish auto market. The small car has managed to attract good number of prospective customers on the first day itself. Many have already paid Rs. 300 for the booking forms which are available at all Tata dealerships and retail outlets like Croma and Westside. Soon, forms will be made available at Tata Indicom and Titan outlets too. The witnessed demand gave hopes that the car will do its bit to pep up the market which has been not doing well since last one year.

The Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) space is once again in the thick of action, with the launch of four new channels, namely ‘9X’, ‘NDTV Imagine’, ‘Zee Next’ and ‘Colors’. The entry of new channels in the GEC space, which are being adequately funded, has not only led to an increase in the genre’s viewership as a whole, but has also resulted in intensifying competition within the genre.

Sharp Decline in Occupancy and ARRs Poses Earnings Risk; Capacity addition in all metros by large global hotel chains will make over-supply evident. Sector entering a multi-year bear phase characterised by empty rooms, plunging room rentals and high operating costs. Hold Indian Hotels, Sell EIH and EIH Associated Hotels, Hotel LeelaVenture and stand-alone properties

Average occupancies down to 58 per cent, Average Room Rentals down 14 per cent