Saturday, 22 September 2018

"There's Never Just One Cockroach in the Kitchen" - Warren Buffett

Buffett had made that comment in an interview following an accounting scandal in Wells Fargo. He may as well have made that comment about corruption in ICICI Bank and misreporting of NPAs by Axis Bank.

Yes Bank was the third 'cockroach'. (PSU banks are not being discussed here because collectively they are a massive 'anaconda' that is threatening to swallow India's financial system as a whole!)

The latest 'vermin' is IL&FS, whose MD has quit on his own. (The MD of ICICI Bank remains in suspended animation - for reasons best known to her. RBI has shown the door to the MDs of Axis Bank and Yes Bank, but is powerless to do likewise with the MDs of PSU banks.)

Moody's recently said that rising liquidity worries at IL&FS are credit negative for banks and debt market. The stock market reacted by indiscriminately pummeling the stocks of banks, NBFCs and housing finance companies.

It is interesting to note that despite a hurriedly-called concall with denials about any near-term liquidity problems, DHFL's stock failed to recover much from its lows on Friday (Sep 21). Which is the next 'cockroach'? 

There will be more than one. The business model of banks, NBFCs and HFCs requires borrowing short-term to lend long-term. If short-term liquidity dries up (or, gets costlier due to rising interest rates) the proverbial you-know-what will hit the fan - as it seems to be doing now. 

One market expert tried to reassure investors by stating that Friday's huge selloff was due to 'technical reasons'. One presumes he meant that fundamentally everything is hunky-dory in the financial system. Really?!

Talking about 'technical reasons', the market made a 'panic bottom' - with a sharp surge in transaction volumes - before bouncing up on short covering and some value buying. 

Typically, such a 'panic bottom' occurs during the second leg of a bear phase. 
However, the fact that it has occurred at an early stage of a corrective move is a clear warning to perma-bulls. 

Remember the stock market adage: Panic bottoms seldom hold. That means the market is headed lower than Friday's low. By how much? Likely support levels will be discussed in tomorrow's post on Sensex and Nifty.

Related Post
How to tackle a ‘panic bottom’

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