Muharat trading brings back cheers: Capoor

Mumbai, Oct 28 (UNI) The sentiment among brokers was upbeat on the recovery trend on the bourses during the special mahurat trading and in the coming days the prospects for equities would brighten up, Jagdish Capoor, Chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) said tonight.

Mr Capoor told mediapersons here that ''it has been a terrible year and hoped the worst is over. We are at the 9K level and it is an extremely attractive level from valuation point of view. Our view is that next 2-3 years would be very good if we have a bottom in place.'' He said ''there is a need for reduction in interest rates...

once we see stability, we will see FIIs coming in. Even technical analysts are shocked... such things happen once in a lifetime. We have seen this situation all over the world. support levels are not relevant today. '' Meanwhile, Ramesh Damani, member, BSE, said in times of crisis, the challenge is to identify companies that do not need capital and have pricing power. ''Look at companies that have lots of cash and have a deleveraged balance sheet,'' Damani added.

Speaking on the markets, Damani said: ''I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I hope it sustains. In January, there will be change in the financial industry as there are going to be political changes in Washington. I think, in terms of new high, it will take lot of time. We are going to move between 8,500 to 12,500 on the Sensex''.

''It is hard to be optimistic right now... it is a technical bounce. I think these things happen once in hundered years. FIIs would be reluctant to come back to India. What can happen is domestic institutions can step in... local investors can buy.... but the kind of market cap at its highs to happen will take years and years'', he said.

Damani said ''The markets are not really reacting to earnings.

The next two quarters would be slow....profits would be under pressure.'' ''I am shell shocked by what has happened. The sheer depth of destruction has haunted us. This is an interruption, and we have rethink our strategy. This too shall pass. I am attending this muhurat trading for the last 20 years. It is a big occasion.

Earnings growth is also an issue for the Indian economy. The uncertainty in the global economy is likely to settle down in the next one and half year and we might see our markets going in the positive direction much earlier than that. We might also see good FII inflows,'' said Damani.

''Volatility is still going to be there in Indian markets. Markets are also becoming apprehensive about Indian growth. In the last five years, we haven't seen such a huge redemption in the FII's and the biggest issue is the liquidity crunch in the global market,'' Ved Prakash Chaturvedi, CEO of Tata Mutual Fund said.

M L Soneji, chief operating officer of the BSE said,'' Most of the Asian markets were up today. it is very likely that the markets will end on a psitive note. We have seen a lot of hammering in the last one week and I think that markets are near the bottom. It is an auspicious day for the broking industry and we hope that it is a turning point for the markets''.

Vinod Sharma, head of research, Anagram Securities, said the year gone by has eroded investor wealth by 59.9 percent-- the worst performance by the index in any previous bear phase. Not even the bear attacks fuelled by Harshad Mehta or Ketan Parekh had mauled the investors so badly, compared to the crashing world economy in October 2008, which has shaved off market capitalisation of Bombay Stock Exchange by Rs 15 lakh crore.

''We seem to be close to the bottom and the next year can only be better,'' said Dinesh Thakkar, head of Angel Broking.

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