MC Insider: A new HNI favourite, block trades hog limelight, SVB jitters and more

What is the best way to kill a product? Offer a free alternative. That is exactly what a Twitter user did. The user saw a course being offered by a ‘stock-market guru’ and he put the crux of the option-strategy down in around 12 points, including examples. He also invited others to suggest alternatives and some have responded too. Already fake gurus are getting called out for false trades, but if furu-busters (those who go after fake stock gurus) start laying out the theory as well, furus may simply get “strangled”, leave alone the social-media posts on new Mercs and vacationing in exotic places drying up!

A little birdie tells us that a certain ‘stock market guru’, called a fake stock market guru or furu in some circles, has made a loss in excess of a crore from a bad trade. Buzz is that this person had sold puts of a rather big short trade that played out this year. But just when he exited the counter, with deep losses, the stock reversed direction and the group’s stock have been hitting upper circuit every day thereafter.

Smart money is moving into select auto-ancillary stocks. At a time when the benchmark has given muted returns in 2023 so far, this stock has perked up. And the reason for this is being attributed to HNI buying in the stock. This ESG conscious firm has managed to outperform the market, primarily because of HNI buying as investors believe that the company manufactures products that are consumed on a regular basis and are less cyclical in nature.

A little birdie tells us that the departure of a senior official, known for calling a spade a spade, from the health ministry has made the ministerial meetings quite boring. "Now no official is confident enough to question or negate the ideas put forth by the minister," an insider told us. The official, who was the man behind India's COVID-19 vaccination project, had recently opted for voluntary retirement scheme and is being sorely missed, we hear!

The collapse of SVB Financials in California has upped the guard among central bankers worldwide and Indian central bank too is closely watching the situation. Over the last two days, as the American crisis unfolded, select few at the top brass of the central bank exchanged views on the issue to assess the situation in terms of Indian banks’ likely linkages with the collapsed bank or entities related to it. The assessment will continue as the regulator is watching the situation, source say. The fear of contagion and likely spill over effects to the local markets are keeping the regulators across the world busy it seems.

This IT major has seen a series of top level exits in recent times with the latest one heading to occupy the corner office at a peer. Wait, that's not all folks, theres more! Now we hear there's one more gentleman from the firm on his way out and he may soon join a leading digital product engineering services company.

Block trades continue to hog the limelight in the equity capital market deals space with two big ones lined up in the auto segment. Promoters are also eyeing the block route for share sales , atleast this player in the industrial space is we hear. Just goes to show the considerably improved depth of the Indian markets.