The Hindu Business Line : Sunday, August 11, 2002

Open offers: To tender or not
TAKEOVER AND CONTROL are in the air as India Inc made as many as 81 open offers last year compared to only 43 in 1997-98. The profile of companies hitting the market too has changed. There were only a handful of big-ticket offers in 1997-98 ... More

The delisting conundrum
A SIGNIFICANT trend in the stock market over the past one year or so — unlikely to have missed the eye of an average investor — is the plethora of open offers made by multinational companies to gain full control over their Indian ... More

MUTUAL FUNDS

Zurich India Prudence: For moderate risk-takers
A BALANCED fund is a good product for investors who are looking for moderate risk (and thus return) - lower than that offered by pure equity products and higher than that offered by pure debt products. Balanced funds, in which the fund manager ... More

Templeton Floating Rate Income Fund (Long-Term Plan): Invest
TEMPLETON Floating Rate Income Fund (Long-Term Plan) gave holding-period returns of 3.5 per cent since its launch this February. Investors can take small exposure in this fund. The fund is suitable for any investor wanting to diversify her ... More

IL&FS Growth & Value: Hold
INVESTORS in IL&FS Growth & Value can continue to stay invested. The fund's performance in the past year represents a turnaround for the fund compared to performance earlier. The restructuring of the portfolio in July 2001 involving a move away ... More

SEBI going investor-friendly, at last
A SERIES of moves by SEBI in mutual fund regulation over the past few months, aimed at protecting the interest of investors, needs to be appreciated. These steps range from improvement in disclosure norms to investment rules for unlisted ... More

Morgan Stanley Growth Fund: Hold
INVESTORS in the Morgan Stanley Growth Fund can hold their investments for now. For investors wishing to redeem their holdings, the only exit option from the fund is through the secondary market and this is an inappropriate time to exit the fund. ... More

Pioneer ITI Prima Fund: Hold

DERIVATIVES MARKETS

Reliance Aug contracts in focus
EQUITIES in the spot market drifted downwards during the preceding week on the heels of concern over the impact of inadequate rainfall on the economy. The BSE Sensex ended the week at 2,976.34 points, marginally lower than closing value for ... More

In-the-money covered calls
WRITING covered calls, which are out-of-money, are more of revenue-generating methods than risk-reduction methods. Hence the decision of the investor while choosing the strike price is determined by the purpose of this strategy. Is it for earning ... More

What is cross-margin?
A NEWS report stated that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is considering cross-margins between the spot and derivatives segment. What is cross-margin? In the futures market, you do not pay the entire amount for buying a ... More

INTERVIEW

`Mid-cap is high-risk, high-return' — Mr Nilesh Shah, CIO, Templeton India Asset Management Co
DESPITE the unencouraging conditions for equity investment prevailing in India, and Templeton India's rather bumpy start, the performance of its funds has improved in the last few years. This is the concluding part of the interview with ... More

COMMENTARY

Trading sentiment remains upbeat
THE stock market sentiment remained buoyant in the first two days of the week. However, reports of drought across all key states affected the market sentiment on Thursday with the Sensex registering a decline of about 59 points. However, ... More

Note of optimism
THE uncertainty over the future direction of the markets led to the BSE Sensex closing marginally lower than the previous week's close. The BSE Sensex closed for the week at 2976.34 points, 8.76 points (or 0.29 per cent) lower than the previous ... More

Apollo Tyres in focus
DAILY gyrations cancelled out each other though markets managed to edge forward a few points this week. A few eddies did swirl up some action in individual counters and here's the tab. Satyam Computer: A host of reasons had a salutary ... More

Book profit in pivotals
ITC (Rs 678): The price action in the scrip turned volatile during the week gone by. After some initial decline, the scrip rose sharply on Friday. However, the earlier bearish outlook in the longer time frame continues to remain valid. ... More

US markets revisit 1997 levels
JULY saw markets, particularly the most-developed ones — US and Europe — touching their 1997 levels. With more skeletons tumbling out of corporate cupboards, investors were in no mood to forgive. Indeed, many even seemed to have lost ... More

Nasdaq: Sideway trend to continue
AFTER passing through a bearish phase for weeks together, the American stock markets staged some sort of recovery during the just concluded week. After some weakness on Monday, the stock market sentiment improved steadily as the week ... More

RECOMMENDATION

Bajaj Auto: Book profit/Buy on declines
BAJAJ Auto has undergone a metamorphosis over the recent years by successfully changing its identity tag from a scooter to a motorcycle company. It, however, remains to be seen if Bajaj can sustain the current growth tempo. The competitors have ... More

Gillette India: Pare exposures
GILLETTE India has managed a turnaround in its financials for the quarter ended June 30, 2002. After making losses over the past five quarters, the company showed a net profit of Rs 4.29 crore for the latest quarter. However, the turnaround is ... More

Metals: Investment outlook
CONSIDERING the softening price trends of aluminium and copper at the London Metal Exchange, the earnings performance of aluminium and copper majors are poised to suffer in the near term. To a large extent, the sluggish price trends have already ... More

Clariant India: Hold
CLARIANT India Ltd's first quarter results were not noteworthy on the face of it. The company's topline grew a marginal 3.3 per cent and bottomline inched up by a mere 2 per cent over the corresponding previous period. However, Clariant's ... More

IPOS

First India Growth Fund: Avoid
INVESTORS can avoid taking exposures in First India Growth Fund during its Initial Public Offering and wait for the fund to accumulate a track record before investing in the fund. Since there are several open-end equity funds already in ... More

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Looking back
Aug. 4-Aug. 10
Margin financiers behind Sensex fall?

BSE witnesses first-ever 2-way fungibility trade

Margin financing through SEs — SEBI shoots down BSE proposal

FII inflow down 80 pc so far this fiscal