INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
By Andy MukherjeeA stock connect between India and Singapore, modeled on the popular Shanghai-Hong Kong link, died before it could be
Blame a mix of chest-thu mping nationalism on the Indian side and political naivete on the part of the Singaporeans.
Singapore Exchange Ltd
was asked by the High Court in Mumbai on Tuesday to suspend the June 4 start of its new India equity derivatives and try to settle its
dispute with National Stock Exchange of India Ltd
The NSE objects to the SGX replicating the popular SGX Nifty 50 derivative contract by using publicly available settlement prices on the
At the same time, the NSE doesn't want to maintain an 18-year-old licensing agreement with SGX
Hence the impasse.
The arbitrator will try to find a solution by June 16
Pushed into a corner, SGX was prepared to do a connect with Gift, but now even those plans are dead.
If deepening its markets was the real
banks are present in those centers.
This year, investors have used the northbound pipe from Hong Kong to buy an average $900 million of
Shanghai stocks every day
Flows from Singapore into index and single-stock futures in Mumbai would have meant more wealth and jobs for the city
But plans for an international financial center in Mumbai, announced with much fanfare in 2015, are on ice, according to an
TheIndianSubcontinent report last week
In 2007, he headed the committee that provided a blueprint for turning Mumbai into an international financial center
pressure on short-sighted politicians and phlegmatic bureaucrats until every single recommendation of the report has been
So imagine the plight of Asia equity derivatives folks at Wall Street broker-dealers, trying to convince their bosses to set up a second
office in India in a place nobody in New York has ever heard of in order to create liquidity for clients
And what a time to make that pitch: Europe is repeating its 2012 meltdown; Trump is back to threatening China with a trade war; the Middle
East is on the boil; the Federal Reserve is still in tightening mode; and investors are fleeing emerging-market risk
Gift unit, it would still be in business with the NSE
into Gift.
Now that marriage has broken down irretrievably, participants are being asked to close their eyes and jump into a new market
budget speech in February; for now there is none.)
All I hear these days is how Gift is no different from Singapore
It has no capital-gains taxes; if you have an existing relationship with a big bank anywhere outside India, it could switch on your Gift
to have been given a quiet burial
It never stood a chance.
(This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of economictimes.com, Bloomberg LP and its owners)
