JMIRROR on Blog

Daily English 0615 - Back to earth

최근에 인도 주가 폭락에 관련된 기사입니다. 인도주가가 5월 초순 고점을 찍고 정말 급낙하고 있습니다. 5월 말에 Economist에 난 기사 인데요. 인도의 주가는 6월에도 계속 떨어져서, 연초 수준 이하로 떨어졌네요. 그래도 1년 전에 비하면 아직 30% 이상 오른거네요.

급등에 급락입니다.

아래 기사는 조금 지난 기사여서, Freshness는 떨어지지만, 영어공부도 할겸, 경제 공부도 할겸 한번 공부해 볼 만 한 기사입니다.

Back to earth

May 25th 2006 | DELHI
From The Economist print edition
After a giddying climb, investors get that sinking feeling

MANY investors around the world have been suffering from the churning stomach you feel when an aeroplane hits an air pocket. India’s stockmarket has lost as much height, and as quickly, as almost any. On May 22nd, for the third trading session in a row, the main market index, the Sensex, set a record for its intra-day volatility. Trading was suspended for an hour after it had fallen by 10%. At that point, share prices had fallen by nearly 20% within two weeks. Even so, they were still worth 60% more than they had been a year earlier and were still up more than 10% since the beginning of the year. They recovered somewhat, but most analysts think that volatility is here to stay.

For the past three years, India’s has been one of the best-performing stockmarkets in emerging economies. Not only has the country enjoyed economic growth averaging 7.5% a year, it also has some world-beating companies—and not just in software. So, according to research by analysts at Morgan Stanley, in 2005 it attracted 29% of the foreign funds flowing into seven big emerging markets (the other six were Brazil, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey). Its share the previous year was almost as big.

The market last suffered from similar nerves in May 2004 when today’s government took office with the support of the Communists. After that, the Sensex tripled to reach its peak earlier this month. A “correction”, agreed analysts after the event, was “overdue”.

That this has been so severe was blamed on three things. One was a draft “instruction” from the tax authorities, misinterpreted as being directed at foreign investors. The second was that investors and traders were running out of cash to meet margin calls, and being forced to sell shares. The third was the government’s apparent lurch towards populism after successes for the Communists in state elections this month.

None of these explanations, however, seems as convincing as the simple observation that, having attracted disproportionate amounts of flighty portfolio inflows, India was always likely to suffer. Around the world, and in Japan in particular, economists have expressed concern about India’s current-account deficit and the way it is financed—largely through portfolio inflows. At only 2.1% of GDP last year, the deficit does not seem especially large. But Japanese investors have heard the warnings. They have been among the biggest contributors to the Indian stockmarket boom. They are also among the quickest to go home now that the world seems a riskier place.

───────────────────────────────

WORDS

1. stomach-churning (ADJ)
If you describe something as stomach-churning, you mean that it is so unpleasant that it makes you feel physically sick.
The stench from rotting food is stomach-churning.

2. volatile
A situation that is volatile is likely to change suddenly and unexpectedly.
The international oil markets have been highly volatile since the early 1970s.
unstable

volatility N-UNCOUNT
He is keen to see a general reduction in arms sales given the volatility of the region.

3. overdue (ADJ)
If you say that a change or an event is overdue, you mean that you think it should have happened before now.
This debate is long overdue.

4. lurch (VERB)
To lurch means to make a sudden movement, especially forwards, in an uncontrolled way.
As the car sped over a pothole she lurched forward.
Henry looked, stared, and lurched to his feet.

5. flighty (ADJ)
If you say that someone is flighty, you disapprove of them because they are not very serious or reliable and keep changing from one activity, idea, or partner to another.
Isabelle was a frivolous little fool, vain and flighty.