After months of mirroring the Wall Street (Indian markets going down with it), domestic markets ‘decoupled’ again this week from global markets (sadly, when the global markets were recovering). In the beginning of this year, the domestic markets were supposed to have ‘decoupled’ due to India’s high GDP growth trajectory.

A few months back, the domestic markets alone were on a bull run when all markets were falling like ninepins. Now in a case of complete reversal - the global markets are trending upwards with a possibility of a good rally in April and the domestic markets lack conviction for a rally and traded with low volumes. As global markets rallied on the hope that we have seen the last of the sub-prime losses, the domestic markets refused to toe in tandem. Each time the market valiantly tried to capture the 5,000 mark in the Nifty, it came down sharply. This decoupling then coupling and again decoupling has left the investors poorer.

The global markets were in a good mood last week. It merrily shrugged away bad news in the form of the UBS write-down and Ben Bernanke’s recession warning. The share price of UBS, instead of falling sharply, jumped 11 percent. Investors chose to see it as a Swiss bank scrubbing its balance sheet clean. Despite Bernanke’s statements there was a new sense of optimism in the market that the worst of the credit crisis might be behind Wall Street. But sadly, the Indian markets couldn’t make the most of it.