Lone Pine Capital LLC, run by Stephen Mandel, and Traxis Partners LLC are among 56 overseas funds that registered to buy shares in India in July, the most in six months. Helios Capital Management Pte and Stonewater Capital LLC also won approval from the nation's regulator, nine months after authorities forced hedge funds to register. The Securities and Exchange Board of India reviewed the rules today without making changes, Chairman C.B. Bhave told reporters after a board meeting in Mumbai. The following table is a list of funds registered with the Securities & Exchange Board of India since January.   more »

A $31 meltdown in value during the overnight hours brought gold to the $775 level far faster than even the most pessimistic expectations we had seen of late. Once the $800 level was breached at 19:40 hours NY time, the metal went into a tailspin the magnitude and viciousness of which was frightening. While gold will make every headline in today's financial press as it undergoes this now nearly vertical slide that puts even its 2006 drop of $200 into the minor leagues, the bigger story unfolded in the silver market where the white metal lost more than 12% of the value it finished at on Thursday afternoon. Words like 'overdone' or 'oversold' began to no longer apply once the metals penetrated the key psychological round figures that lay at $800, $14, $1400 and $300 for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. "The speculative allure [gold] had presented to index and hedge funds has all but dissipated," said Jon Nadler, a senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers.While the storm in commodities is far from over (they have now fallen 21% since Independence Day), today's focus will be trying to find depth gauges long enough to probe what kind of waters these markets are currently navigating in.   more »

Two years ago, Wilbur Ross, an investor in distressed securities, set up a $300 million fund focused on India. He convinced India's Housing Development Finance Corp. (HDFC), a local giant, to partner with the fund, bringing its extensive network of local contacts and strong reputation to the venture. He staffed an office in Mumbai, run by managing director Ranjeet Nabha, a Dartmouth MBA who had been a vice-president at JPMorgan Chase and later CEO of a software company. And then Ross proceeded to do very, very little. Now, Ross is at last making a major move. On Aug. 11, the chairman of New York-based WL Ross & Co. announced his India fund would buy an $80 million chunk of convertible bonds issued by Indian discount airline SpiceJet . The once red-hot Indian stock market has cooled down enough to suit Ross, who made his name patching together the remnants of dying U.S. industries like textiles and steel. And several years of cutthroat competition—and more recently, record-high prices for jet fuel—have left India's nascent airline industry in particular need of help(BusinessWeek.com, 7/7/08).   more »