FIIs sell, insurers buy

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have been selling aggressively in the past couple of weeks for several reasons, including oil bounce-back and the coming $170-billion initial public offerings by Chinese companies. But Indian investors, particularly insurance companies, have kept faith. Market players say insurers are buying consistently and have been nimble in decision making as well. For example, LIC sold Axis Bank only a month ago, within the price range of Rs 575-600. When the stock fell to Rs 525, it bought back the shares from FIIs. Market players say since LIC uses over 50 brokers, this data do not show up in bulk trades.

New insider trading rules this week

The Securities and Exchange Board of India's new insider trading regulations take effect from Friday. Among other things, the new regulations also apply insider trading rules to securities about to be listed. This is likely to add to the compliance burden companies already face with initial public offerings.

MF commission caps: Diluted version coming

Some of the smaller fund houses, unhappy with the cap on commissions, might have something to look forward to. Sectoral players say the Association of Mutual Funds in India is working on a diluted version, in consultation with distributors and companies, to be implemented in a couple of months. The move comes as distributors and mutual fund CEOs believe the existing model is a good start but difficult to continue. Last month, Amfi had said fund houses should pay only up to 100 basis points as upfront commission to distributors. This led to a lot of discontent amid distributors and mid- and small-fund houses, with some in the latter faction saying the 'big boys' were trying to curtail their growth.