Saturday, April 12, 2008

Are World Stock Markets Manipulated

I am pointing out some facts then you decide the answer yourself

The Bull run in most of the Equity Markets started in the 2nd quarter of 2003, now each of the markets have gone major upswings or downswings almost altogether lets see how

1) First my very own BSE Sensex
Sensex traded at 2924 on 25th April 2003, now it formed first major top at 6194 on 14th January 2004, and this top was almost equivalent to its 2000 top, now after correction the bottom was at 4505 on 17th May 2004, the breaking above the previous top was achieved on 30th November 2004. The sensex consolidated in a range of 6000 – 7000 from December 2004 to June 2005. Now the sensex went up to 8800 in Oct 2005 wherein it corrected up to 8000 in Oct 2005 itself. A big upward movement took the sensex towards 12676 in May 2006 almost 50% gains within 7 months. A steep correction saw the sensex drop to 8800 in June 2006. The sensex broke above the previous top in Oct 2006. Yet again the sensex consolidated in the range of 12500 – 14500 in the period between December 2006 to June 2006 with a steep fall in Feb 2007 (on subprime issues, which just started showing up) but immediately resuming uptrend. The sensex was just a catching distance away from 16K when subprime issues saw the world markets and hence the sensex drop up to 14K in July 2006, wherein Fed rate cuts saw most emerging markets move upwards with Sensex and hangseng being outperformers, sensex moved past 21K, but then US recession rather then a slowdown seemed more probable after first drop in hiring was reported in US jobs report and most emerging markets dropped heavily with hangseng and sensex yet again showing there out performance but this time on the bearish side.

2) Now let’s have a look at Brazil Index Bovespa
Bovespa formed its first major top in Jan 2004 at 24K which was near about 25% more than its 2000 high, now after correction the bottom was 18.5K in May 2004.The breaking above the previous top was achieved in November 2004, and then it consolidated in the range of 24K to 28K in period between Nov 2004 to Sep 2005. In May 2006 bovepsa too underwent a major correction which saw it dropping from 42K to around 32K in Jun 2006. It too broke above the previous top in November 2006, and also saw a steep fall in February 2007 and June 2007 which was related to subprime issue. Bovespa too gave handsome returns when Fed started to cut rates.

Now if we compare this two Indices we see that both of them formed their first major top in January 2004, after which both of them saw some sideways movement till November 2004, both of them show triangular pattern in there charts for a period between November 2004 to June 2005 both of them gave significant correction in May 2006. Bovespa outperformed sensex in the period between March 2007 to June 2007 and sensex was the leader in the period between August 2007 to January 2008. While Bovespa might have given more returns than sensex, it is the Indian currency which appreciated more against the Dollar then the Brazilian real.

Likewise if you see charts of most other markets including Dow Jones, Ftse, Hangseng, Strait Times, All Ordinances etc you will notice that while Bovepsa, Sensex, Mexico IPC, Jakarta Composite etc were rallying the Markets which were lagging behind were consolidating, it has hardly ever happened that this markets were rallying and the other ones were falling, they were just plain consolidating. Most Important aspect noticed is that hardly a single month could be found in last 5 years wherein while one market has given above 10% returns the other one depreciated by 10%. So there is hardly any month when a call option on certain Index has given good return the opposite Put option has given good returns on any other Index.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Manipulations are the part of business,you cant avoid them even if you don't like them.