Mumbai, June 22
In a fresh crackdown against 'collective investment schemes', market regulator SEBI has asked Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd to wind up all such activities and refund the money collected from public investors, which could be more than Rs 1,000 crore, within three months.

Besides, the company and its five directors have also been barred from the securities market till the time all its schemes are wound up and the money is refunded to investors.

In its order dated June 21, SEBI has also warned the company and its directors of initiating prosecution proceedings and a criminal case for "offences of fraud, cheating, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of public funds" if its orders are not complied with.

SEBI probe also found that the investment application forms of the company also mentioned that it was part of 'Alchemist Group', which was engaged in diverse activities such as steel, food and beverages, IT, healthcare, media, aviation, realty, hospitality, education and tea estate, among others, with asset base of over Rs 5,000 crore.

"Thus, an investor/applicant is misled to believe that the company, Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd, is part of the Alchemist Group, whereas the company has contended (before SEBI) that it is not associated with the Alchemist Group," the SEBI order said.

The said 'Alchemist Group' is headed by industrialist KD Singh, currently a Rajya Sabha MP of Trinamool Congress from Jharkhand.

SEBI began its investigations into the affairs of the company in 2011 after receipt of an anonymous complaint about Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd mobilising money from the public investors in breach of regulations.

The regulator later found that the company was running 'collective investment schemes' in the name of real estate business and had garnered Rs 1,087 crore as on March 31, 2011.

The company was charging up to 75 per cent as 'development charges' from the money collected from investors towards purchase of land.

During the initial probe, the company refused to provide details sought by SEBI, saying the regulator did not have a jurisdiction and it was not running any Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) business.

Alchemist Infra later provided some details to SEBI after repeated reminders and SEBI issued show-cause notices to the company and its directors in 2012.

In the meantime, the company sought to settle the case through SEBI’s consent mechanism, but the plea was rejected by the regulator.

The company also approached the Jharkhand High Court in Ranchi in February this year, but the court dismissed its petition through an order dated May 10 and asked SEBI to conclude its inquiry and pass an order within six weeks. — PTI

New York, June 22
Fasten your seatbelts. And expect lots of turbulence. If that was the message Ben Bernanke was trying to deliver when he said the Federal Reserve could soon start scaling back its massive stimulus programme for the US economy, it's safe to say investors received it loud and clear.

In fact, the sell-off in stocks, bonds and commodities that rippled around the globe after Bernanke's remarks looks to some like the dawn of a new period of volatile, disorderly trade - a stark change from the calm that prevailed since the Fed began its most recent bond-buying programme last autumn.

"When market regimes shift, they rarely do so in an orderly fashion - look at equity prices collapsing at the end of the dot-com bubble or the height of the financial crisis," said Stephen Sachs, head of capital markets at exchange-traded fund issuer ProShares in Bethesda, Maryland. "It usually gets violent. We're going to face that in interest rates now."

Indeed, the bond market is at the epicentre of the financial market earthquake that Bernanke unleashed. Benchmark yields, which Fed easing had driven to record lows, surged to near two-year highs and are expected to keep climbing as traders come to grips with the prospect of the Fed ending bond purchases by mid-2014.

The aftershocks have rattled markets from Tokyo to Sao Paulo, and assets that had been top performers plunged. US credit markets were hammered, with the gap between junk bond yields and Treasuries hitting their widest so far this year, while global equity markets lost $1 trillion on Thursday alone. — Reuters

Q: I propose to tender my shares for sale in a forthcoming open offer. These were bought more than a year ago and STT was paid at the time of purchase. So effectively, I will be incurring long-term capital loss (LTCL).

I understand that long-term capital gain (LTCG) is exempted only if executed through the stock exchanges after paying the STT.

Is there any way of setting off these losses against any other forms of gains? If I were to carry forward this loss to next year, can I then adjust it against any other profit (for e.g. STCG either through stock exchanges or through open offer or LTCG which may have arisen through a similar open offer next year?) 
— Aziz

A: As per Section 74, a loss under the head Capital Gains can be set off only against capital gains and not under any other head. Moreover, any long-term loss cannot be set off against short-term gains.

In other words, though short-term loss can be set off against both short-term and long-term gain, any long-term loss can be set off only against long-term gain.

The balance loss can be carried forward and set off against capital gains in the following eight years, again with the stipulation that long-term loss cannot be set off against short-term gains.

Therefore, you may set off this loss only against taxable long-term gain either this year or in the following eight years. To put it differently, since LTCG on shares sold on the stock exchange is exempted, the same cannot be used for set-off. However, if you were to earn LTCG by way of tendering shares in an open offer or on any other asset such as real estate etc., the LTCL can be set off.

New Delhi, June 22
Gold prices today recovered from two-week low levels and surged Rs 260 
to Rs 27,640 per 10 grams in the national capital today on brisk buying 
by stockists amid a firm global trend.

Silver also spurted by Rs 600 to Rs 42,300 per kg on revival of buying by industrial units and coin makers, following a steep fall in the previous session.

The trading sentiment bolstered after the gold recovered in overseas markets from its lowest levels since September 2010 on speculation the slump may spur purchases. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Beijing
China inks $270 bn oil deal with Russia: China has signed a long-term agreement with Russia for oil deliveries with an estimated value of $270 billion over the next 25 years. The deal will see the supply of 365 million metric tonnes of oil to China starting from next month, state-run China Daily reported on Saturday. China's largest state-owned oil and gas producer, China National Petroleum Corporation and Russian oil giant Rosneft inked the pact. — PTI