Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Dysfunctional...

Sometimes I wonder if India has become a crazier country, or somehow thanks to the rise of the all-pervasive TV cameras and OB-vans (I saw a WagonR with a dish on top.. a WagonR!) that all the crazy shit gets reported. maybe it is because of the number of people we have, maybe it has also something to do with the massive wealth disparity in this country, but people are absolutely nutty here.
About the markets, I can't claim to know much, though I am a very diligent student of companies, since that is part of my job. Certain valuations made no sense when the markets were trading at 20K levels, being massively overvalued, insanely in certain cases and you don't need to be a trader to realise that. To the last commenter on this post, I don't just think it is the anchor-boy, who seems to be less on air nowadays for some strange reason, but almost a whole generation of market reporters and even analysts who have grown up in a bull-phase, not just in the markets, mind you.
I do not believe the India growth story is going to get unplugged, but like the rest of the country, the voltage might get very, very low. And the markets are always a sentiment leader, some shit is going to hit the fan in India soon. There might not be a very happy festive season later this year.
(Disclaimer: This blogger has a considerable amount of his savings invested in the markets, but a family friend manages my portfolio, and I have no idea what he does with my money really)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, thanks for addressing my comment in a separate post. You're quite kind :) Some closing points...

1. Anchor boy isn't "less on air" - he's now a brand and you can't dilute it by showing him too often. See, he's not an anchor now - he's a guru (remember has CNBC Investor Camps?) and he's a brand. That's the difference in the journalism behind CNBC India and CNBC USA. Here, Raghav, Udayan and Senthil have taken a conscious editorial decision that the channel will focus on telling the viewers WHAT to do, i.e. buy, sell and when. It seeps across the entire organisation. It worked miracles for them in the past and the competition hasn't even come close (NDTV Profit is too patchy and can come nowhere close and UTVi is too new and needs to grow out of the CNBC clone it currently looks like..not surprising given that almost everyone there is ex-CNBC). But this is a different market. CNBC has a great brand and they're resting on their laurels. But I can't digest a TV channel - and an arrogant anchor - telling me what I should do. That's not journalism.

2. I'm not going to comment on the India growth story. I just know that as long as shit-loads (and I mean gigantic shit-loads) of money are being made in the services industry (as chronicled by yourself for the media industry..and you'd know that salaries at CNBC were hiked to the roof to prevent outflow to UTVi..but not enough), there's enough money sloshing around to buy houses in Malabar Hills, boats, yachts, etc. It's not just investment banks where the money's being made, it's spilled over everywhere. I mean the kind of money Nikunj Dalmia (of all the people!!) is asking for at ET Now and UTVi is mind-boggling. And the best part is NDTV is still keeping him back! lol..wonder what they must be paying him.

Sorry man, I couldn't help that last bit. All the best with your money and I hope you make ton loads of it.

Again - I hope this (last) comment makes it! :)

Anonymous said...

plss anyone from ET Now reading this: pls dont recruit that Dalmia guy from undie profit. i promise not to watch ET Now if he is on board. It is best he remains at the most unwatchable business channel.

sarika said...

I can smell something burning....and see a mouthful of sour grapes

Anonymous said...

Hi, Indian Electronic Business Media is Bull Shit. The Spot Boy who worked at UTVI, today is the Editor in Cheif At CNBC, you know about whom, Iam mentioning. The great CNBC TV18 anchor Udayan Mukherjee. This guy with his sheer arrogance though good for nothing has grown larger than his life. The way he closely monitors guests for his shows by keeping his own clones like Mathew (The Scamstar) Sharnkar Sharma (another bear scamster), Rajat Bose (useless technical analyst who changes his views for every one hour) and Ashwini Gujral (the guy whoo keeps his legs on his table while appearing live-mannerless guy), these are the chronies of Udayan and Udayan's shows run around them. In India there is no choice and place for right kind of analysts in these channels. Next comes Nikunj Dalamia (The self proclaimed Stock Market Guru) who was just a graduate in commerce, began his career as an Assistant to Vikram Chandra of NDTV and rose to the level of Anchor. That's where his arrogance reached peak and he compares himself with Udayan. We indians donot have any option but to watch these baseless and useless anchors. There is no creative discussion in these channels shows, it is only regular rhetoric of which stock is good , which stock is not good and the same discussion tossed around 15 analysts in a day, who give 15 different answers and at the end of the day the viewer is a confused individual and indecisive investor. These channels guys needs some regulation and also these anchors needs some maturity and some licensing from SEBI with strict guidelines for business shows anchoring, till then I feel the free lancing comments of these anchors are going to be harmfull.

Anonymous said...

mr, anonymous.u are talking as if u were standing by these guys all the time.by the by,were u their tea boy?