It has been a very hectic week, last week. The diplomatic semi-final played between India and Pakistan at Mohali, which brought a ray of hope of peace yet again, if not for long at least for a couple of days. Even before we could get over the victory at Mohali and digest the fact that we were one match away from once again becoming world champions, Pakistan was back at its normal ways and arrested an Indian diplomat in their country. Politics is best left to politicians and let us leave it at that.
I had the privilege of visiting the home town of our Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in between the semi-final and the final of the world cup. I visited Ranchi to see the facilities of DB Corp at Ranchi and see what the Jharkhand launch has done to the newspaper industry in Ranchi. My passing of Dhoni’s house was a revelation which I believe I must share with all of you.
The whole world knew that ‘MAHI’ as he is fondly known as, was away in Mumbai for the final and would not be there at home. Yet at 4pm in the afternoon, when the sun must have been around 34C, there were no less than 250 people outside his house and also an OB van of some TV channel. If I may be allowed to make a comparison with the great superstar Amitabh Bacchan in his heydays used to give darshan to his fans and the maximum crowd that one saw outside his house in Juhu would be at best 500 people. This one must understand would be when the watchman outside would tell that his owner would be coming at a particular time and the “Mumbai Darshan” buses which take tourists on a tour of the city end their trip at Juhu beach.
The relevance of this incident is not to debate which of the two is greater but to make people aware how focus is now shifting. Some time ago it was all about the metro towns and now it is all about the tier2 and tier 3 towns. We are talking about semi-urban and the rural economy leading India’s sharp growth in GDP. There is a very comprehensive report brought out by one of the leading consulting firms which is known as the “Dhoni” factor. Now this fact would get further strengthened and would be a taking point in business schools going forward.
The markets saw a strong rally last week, with the BSESENSEX gaining 600 points last week. If one were to add with last week’s rally of 900 points plus means a total of 1,500 points. This certainly was a strong pullback by all standards and took care of various drivers which led to this rally. The fact that there was a range bound movement for quite some time, Foreign Institutional investor’s inflows and short covering of March futures towards expiry.
I believe markets will now look for cues from not only global markets but to a great extent from the quarterly and annual results that will be announced starting next week onwards. Looking at the “Dhoni” factor I believe to make money in this market one would have to look at the broader markets and also look at midcap and small cap companies. The narrower benchmark indices may become fairly range bound and may not offer money making opportunities going forward.
In conclusion the world cup win was a big revelation and one needs to implement the findings to be a winner going forward.
Jai Hind and hats off to MAHI! You have shown that a leader who leads from the front and is guided but a determined and disciplined coach can achieve the ultimate. Similarly if you are disciplined in the market and follow the principles you would make money even if the markets go nowhere.
