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India Election Winners By ETF & Shares (PIN, EPI, IIF, IFN, INP, INFY, IBN, REDF, SAY, SLT, TTM, WIT)

247wallst — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:19:05 +0000

It is rare that you see an election have this large of an impact, but the Indian stock market surged on the new election results. The Congress Party won a decisive victory in India and this sent Indian stocks up 17% on average. The move was so large that the Bombay Stock Exchange had to close after already seeing one halt. This had a huge impact on stocks, which you can see reflected in the share prices in the high pre-market indications of the major ETF’s, closed-end funds, and active ADR’s listed below.

ETF’s and closed end fund gainers representing India are as follows:

PowerShares India (NYSE: PIN) up 15% at $17.00 at 9:07
WisdomTree India Earnings (NYSE: EPI) up 23% at $17.20 at 9:07
Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IIF) up 17% at $18.85 at 9:07
India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN) up 20% at $25.93 at 9:07
iPath MSCI India Index ETN (NYSE: INP) up 23% at $48.75 at 9:08

The key Indian ADR shares are as follows:

Infosys Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) up 13% at $36.35 at 9:09
ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN) up 31% at $23.39 at 9:09
Rediff.com India Ltd. (NASDAQ: REDF) up 32% at $3.30 at 9:09
Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) up 13% at $2.05 at 9:09
Sterlite Industries (NYSE: SLT) up 19% at $10.98 at 9:10
Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) up 13% at $8.59 at 9:10
Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) up 9% at $11.65 at 9:10

This election is expected to allow the government to have a greater degree of flexibility to boost economic reform and growth. The prior communist parties had not been favorable for issues such as insurance, privatizations, and pensions.

JON C. OGG

Posted in ADR, Emerging Markets, ETF, Index, Mutual Funds, Politics, Trading Alert Tagged: EPI, IBN, IFN, IIF, INFY, INP, PIN, REDF, SAY SLT, TTM, WIT

Satyam Turns Out to be a House of Cards (SAY, INFY, WIT, PIN, EPI, IFN)

247wallst — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:38:53 +0000

If you are one of those who cannot stand Indian IT-outsourcing firms, you probably just got another feather in your cap. India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (NYSE: SAY) is turning out to be a house of cards. Shares closed at $9.35 yesterday after many recent troubles, and that was already down two-thirds from their highs. Things are worse this morning. Much, much worse.

The company’s Chairman Raju admitted to cooking the books for the lastfew years. It seems the company had phony profits and a highly inflated balancesheet. He resigned and another director resigned. Indian officials areexamining the role of auditors and the role of directors. This is allon the heels of what was going to be one horrible mismatched merger inrecent weeks.

DSP Merrill Lynch has also withdrawn as the company’s advisor. Aboutall that can be said on the decency side here is that the company’sboard of directors is still meeting this Saturday.

The last trades early this morning are under $3.00 pershare. MarketWatch even put out a headline with the reference of theIndian-Enron.

Interestingly enough, this killed India’s overall stock market morethan it hurt IT-outsourcing competitors. Infosys Technologies Ltd.(NASDAQ: INFY) is hardly down this morning. Same goes for Wipro Ltd.(NYSE: WIT).

The Bombay SENSEX fell by 7%. You might as well expect weakness to be seen in the Powershares India (NYSE: PIN), WisdomTree India Earnings (NYSE: EPI), and the India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN) for additional fallout.

Jon C. Ogg
January 7, 2009

Posted in Accounting, ADR, Earnings Warning, Emerging Markets, Law, Shareholder Issues Tagged: EPI, IFN, INFY, PIN, SAY, WIT

India ETF’s & Funds Hold Up After Terror Attacks in Mumbai (PIN, EPI, IIF, IFN, INP)

247wallst — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:26:37 +0000

Fresh terrorist attacks targeted against foreigners in Mumbai, India have failed to thwart a market rally today. Reports have foreigners being taken hostage at premiere hotels frequented by the wealthy and by business travelers. Some 60 deaths have been reported. Interestingly enough, this has also failed to take the wind out of the Indian ETF’s and Indian ADR’s which are actively traded in the US. ETF and fund price moves are as follows:

PowerShares India (NYSE: PIN) up 4.5% at $11.31
WisdomTree India Earnings (NYSE: EPI) up 4.1% at $10.37
Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IIF) up 1.4% at $12.39
India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN) up 4.1% at $17.47
iPath MSCI India Index ETN (NYSE: INP) up 4% at $28.72

We also added in an after-report list to the ADR’s and active stocks we track that trade in the U.S. to show a broad interest as well.

Jon C. Ogg
November 26, 2008

Posted in Emerging Markets, ETF Tagged: EPI, IFN, IIF, INP, PIN

New ETF To Track India (WSDT, IIF, IFN, INP, EPI)

247wallst — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:55:22 +0000

WisdomTree Investments (WSDT-OTC) made a fairly significant announcement yesterday for those who trade ETF’s. The ETF manager is going to launch an ETF in the latter part of February that tracks the Indian stock market, one of the larger emerging markets that is not exactly the easiest for Americans and non-Indians to invest in.

This will have the proposed tick of "EPI" on the NYSE. What is most interesting is that it is said to be an "earnings weighted ETF" and it will offer pure exposure to local Indian securities rather than just the US-listed ADR securities. This will also be more of an open-ended fund so that its assets will actually fluctuate more in-line with the underlying securities as opposed to swinging at wider premiums or discounts to the net asset values that closed-end funds and some ETF’s encounter.

EPI will select from a broad universe of approximately 150 profitable companies included in the WisdomTree India Earnings Index on the annual index screening date. EPI will be listed on the NYSE Arca. You can access the full release here.

The current major ETF that traders use is the iPath MSCI India Index ETN (NYSE: INP) or traders go to the closed end fund called the India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN) or the Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IIF).

This may offer investors a chance to invest in a broader basket of Indian shares without the added volatility that can be caused from the premium and discount to net asset values. Now we just have to wait about 5 or 6 weeks to see how well it works and how active the trading is.

Jon C. Ogg
January 24, 2008

Financial Market Reactions On Bhutto Assassination (INP, IFN, IIF, MINDX, IBN, TTM)

247wallst — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:08:50 +0000

It is unfortunate to have to analyze tragic international or domestic terrorism news from a financial angle on horrible news such as the murder of a foreign leader or a challenger for that leadership ahead of an election. Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack at a campaign rally that also killed killed more 20 others (reports still vary). The news of her death was reported after the Pakistan markets were closed.

Investors are looking to see how far down the Karachi Stock Exchange will drop and one of the best proxies as to see how this will affect the Pakistani stocks is to look at the closest markets. India is the closest and most tied (good and bad) to Pakistan, and the worries that this could create additional instability in the region has the ETF and the Indian funds that trade in the U.S. down considerably:

The major ETF that tracks India is the iPath MSCI India Index ETN (NYSE: INP), and it is trading down some 5% at $96.10 today. Its 52-week trading range is $46.13 to $110.09.
There are two closed-end funds that track the performance of Indian stocks. India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN) is also down some 5.1% at $59.40 today, and its 52-week trading range is $35.51 to $71.54. The second is less actively traded, but the Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IIF) is down some 6% at $50.75, and its 52-week trading range is $38.29 to $66.56.
One open-ended mutual fund that we will not know how that trades really until tomorrow after we have a chance to see how those trade is the Matthews India Fund (MINDX). These only trade at N.A.V. at the end of each day and these traded at $24.29 yesterday. This fund started out 2007 at $15.62, so it is also up considerably.
A couple of the more liquid stocks that trade as ADR’s in the U.S. are ICICI Bank Ltd. (NYSE: IBN) and Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE: TTM), and both are down close to 5% today.

This is potentially a very large political and geopolitical event that could end up with much greater repercussions than a mere 3%or 5% move. The hardest part of interpreting these price reactions is that Wall Street is staffed with a skeleton crew this week and part of next week. These are the go to stock and fund names to track the financial market reactions to the situation.

Jon C. Ogg
December 27, 2007