Do it yourself

The legendary Warren Buffet has been on an equity portfolio selling spree in recent weeks. His fund, Berkshire Hathaway, has reportedly raised over US$275bn in cash; which is over 20% of total assets under management. His selling in the stocks of Apple Inc and Bank of America have been reported the most. Apparently, either his team is not comfortable with the present market conditions (valuation, growth, macro, geopolitics etc.) or believes that they can get much better buying opportunities in near to short term, or both. They may be looking for better buying opportunities in terms of better stocks or better price points in the same stocks. It may be pertinent to note that it is not Berkshire Hathaway alone. A number of reputable investors have taken note of the conspicuous warning signs flashing on billboards for the past few months in particular. Yen carry-trade Hike in the policy rates by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and strengthening of Japan is perhaps the most talked about event...

  The benchmark Nifty50 has oscillated in a tight range in the past eight weeks. On a point-to-point basis, it’s hardly changed - remaining mostly in the 19500-19700 range. More importantly, it has weathered a barrage of bad news in this period and stayed calm as reflected in the low volatility index. Some of the noteworthy events weathered by the market include - hawkish commentary from central bankers (including the RBI and the US Fed); downgrade of global growth estimates; poor growth guidance by IT services companies; a truly ominous escalation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine; erratic monsoon season and consequently elevated food inflation & cloudy outlook for the rural demand leading to a sharp rise in global crude oil prices; opinion polls indicating some setback for the ruling BJP in the forthcoming state assembly elections; etc. The bond yields in developed countries have risen to levels not seen in the past two decades. The US benchmark (10yr G sec) bon...