The first preliminary details of the Draft E-commerce Policy have been announced today. The Draft e-commerce policy will, most likely, tighten the screws on e-commerce portals, The Draft e-commerce policy is expected to contain a series of conditions for operating the market place model in India. For example, mention of seller details will be mandatory and there will be financial disincentives for selling counterfeit products. FDI in e-commerce will also be encouraged only in the non-inventory model. Seller guarantee of product quality are also under consideration and could make e-commerce challenging.
US and China met on Sunday to close trade deal before March 01st deadline but it looks like the trade talks could be extended further to help arrive at a workable solution. The enhanced tariffs of 25% on Chinese imports kicks in on March 01st and both countries met on Sunday to thrash out an early solution. However, in the past, both the countries have been extremely cagey of divulging any details of the deal. The agreement as of now is for China to buy $1.2 trillion of US products in the next 3 years and for the US to underplay on structural and IP issues. China may not really mind that concession.
If oil is higher in this week, then just blame it on the Venezuelan President Maduro. Oil moved above $67/bbl in the Brent market after Maduro blocked aid to Venezuela. Even as the oil prices were on a boil due to OPEC cuts, the real pressure came from Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro has driven back US-based aid providers from the borders, forcing the opposition to invite Washington to take appropriate action. The US and EU have backed opposition leader Guaido while Russia and China are in favor of letting Maduro continue as president of Venezuela. India has been non-committal on this front!
Sensex and Nifty were shaky last week as buying emerged in mid-cap stocks. The Sensex and the Nifty have had a volatile last 2 weeks. After losing nearly 1620 points over 9 trading sessions, the Sensex has bounced around 550 points in the last 3 days of trading. The bounce was more visible in mid-cap stocks which is also evident in the positive A/D ratio of the market overall. However, concerns like trade war and oil remain as per an ET report. Indian markets have also been driven by global and domestic uncertainty over the last few weeks, which explain its shaky performance.
Nearly 6 years after the NSEL scam shook the financial markets, SEBI barred two commodity brokers for their role in the NSEL case, paired contract trades. SEBI has declared two leading commodity market brokers in India, IIFL Commodities and Motilal Oswal Commodities, as “not fit and proper” to run the commodity broking business in India. All existing clients have been asked to shift their commodity broking accounts with these brokers to other platforms within 45 days. SEBI passed the order for their alleged role in paired contracts. The NSEL being a spot market, no futures trade were permissible. However, NSEL played on a technical point and enjoyed broker connivance in that.
Two years back, Warren Buffett praised John Templeton profusely for his contribution to index funds and the concomitant wealth accretion to shareholders. Now, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Newsletter hints at a possible buyback of shares. In the latest annual newsletter, Buffett appears to have veered round to the view that Berkshire may have to do a buyback of shares so as to give support to the price. This is the first time the Annual Newsletter has shifted from discussion on book value to stock price For now, it looks like the. Buffett has been the foremost value investor over the last 50 years.
