The Hindu Business Line : Sunday, August 17, 2003

L'affaire Samir Arora — SEBI misses the bigger picture
ANY effort to tackle the evils of stock price manipulation, especially those that involve insider trading and informed trading, is to be welcomed by investors. In this context, the ban imposed on Mr Samir Arora, the ... More

Alliance Capital: The Pied Piper effect
IF YOU look at the performance card of Alliance Capital's equity and balanced funds, the returns still look fairly impressive, despite an indifferent performance over the last three years. The exceptions are Alliance ... More

Avid bidder, weak charge
If SEBI feels employees should not have bid for the fund, why didn't it say so when Mr Samir Arora expressed interest in Alliance Capital? More

FII accounts and domestic funds: Conflict of interest
MOST mutual funds that count, with the exception of UTI Mutual Fund, have a linkage with foreign institutional investors (FIIs). In quite a few cases, the same fund management teams also ... More

Turning over a new leaf
AFTER greeting the government's initial attempts at restructuring subsidies with protests and misgivings, the fertiliser industry appears to be adapting quite well to the transition. Players are getting together to ... More

UTI as a mutual company...
Will be in Vanguard of change
THE idea of the UTI as a publicly listed company sounds exciting. The UTI's initial public offer UTI will, indeed, provide retail investors a chance to participate in the growth of the promising asset management ... More

Sponsored ADRs — Make the tender book transparent
The shrinkage in the floating stock during a sponsored ADS offer has significant implications for prices on the spot and the derivatives market. In such cases, online disclosure of tendered shares in real time is a must. More

MUTUAL FUNDS

HDFC Liquid Fund: Invest
HDFC Liquid Fund generated an average annualized return of 4 per cent, which is substantially higher than the interest rate on savings bank account. Those who switch between cash and equity can use this fund to enhance ... More

Tata Equity Opportunities Fund: Hold
THE Tata Equity Opportunities Fund has delivered a return of 44 per cent since March 2003, when it was restructured as an open-end equity fund. Its track record before this period was uninspiring. The recent returns ... More

Canpremium: Switch
INVESTORS in Canpremium can consider reducing their exposures to the fund. Canpremium has a good performance record over a three-year period. The fund's expense charge of about one per cent is the lowest among balanced ... More

K-Income Plus from Kotak
KOTAK Mahindra Mutual Fund plans to launch an open-end income scheme, Kotak Mahindra Income Plus. The fund offer invests mainly in debt instruments and to a moderate extent, in equities. There will be a contingent ... More

FDs not without advantages
THE latest series of advertisements from Franklin Templeton are targeted at depositors in fixed deposits. Investors put more money into fixed deposits and bank term deposits than they in mutual fund debt schemes. Thus, ... More

Sundaram Mid-Cap: Hold
INVESTORS with a penchant for high risk can stay invested in the Sundaram Mid-Cap Fund. The fund is aggressively managed and appears to be trying to take advantage of momentum in the markets. Investors who have lower ... More

STOCKS

ITC Hotels: Hold/Buy on declines
THE turnaround, increased occupancy rates and good future prospects are reasons for shareholders to hold on to the ITC Hotel stock, which trades at about Rs 80. Fresh exposures can be considered at lower levels as the ... More

Macmillan India: Book profits/Re-enter at lower levels
SHAREHOLDERS of Macmillan India can consider paringexposures to the stock at Rs 236. The stock discounts its latest full year earnings by about 16.5 times and has nearly doubled from the post-bonus low of Rs ... More

IDBI: Sell/Re-enter at lower levels
The sops given to IDBI will endow it with enough resources to counter the negative impact of the mountain of bad loans. However, whether it will automatically transform into a bank whose profits will keep growing, is subject to doubt, say s Suresh Krishnamurthy. More

Subros: Pare exposures
SHAREHOLDERS of Subros Ltd can consider paring exposures at the current level of Rs 102. The stock trades at a multiple of about nine times FY03 earnings per share. If the annualised EPS of Rs 18.82 based on the ... More

Bharat Electronics: Buy
FRESH exposures can be considered in Bharat Electronics at the current price of Rs 372. The stock has run up sharply over the last six months. The stock trades at about 10 times its trailing 12-month per share earnings. ... More

Tata Motors: Partake in the overdrive
THE Tata Motors stock has been at the forefront of the stock market rally, appreciating by about 60 per cent over the last three months. Given the underlying fundamentals, there is further scope for gains. Investors can buy into the stock at ... More

LGB: Value at a price
INVESTORS with a penchant for high risk can consider exposures in LG Balakrishnan Brothers (LGB). The stock has run-up sharply and now trades at close to its 52-week high. But potential for further gains exist, given the good showing in the ... More

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Infosys may seek lower levels
ITC (Rs 762.8): After being confined to a narrow trading range, it managed to stage a sharp rally in the past few days. The near-term outlook appears positive with a move towards the Rs 810-820 range being a distinct possibility. A move ... More

Query Corner
I would like to know the future outlook for HTMT and Eveready Industries. — Prasanna Srikakulam Hinduja TMT (Rs 197): The near-term outlook for the stock does not appear too promising. A drop to the Rs 150-160 range appears ... More

Upside potential for key indices
Preferred view: As anticipated in earlier weeks, the index managed to comfortably move past the previous resistance level of 3760. The Sensex appears to be on its way towards the immediate target zone of 4050-4100 that was mentioned a few ... More

LIFE INSURANCE

INSURANCE CORNER

ING Vysya's Fulfilling Life
A FUSION product with the features of both whole-life and money-back policies, ING Vysya's Fulfilling Life not only makes payouts at regular intervals during the lifetime of the policyholder but also makes a lumpsum ... More

STOCK MARKETS

Hardening steel prices jack up Jindal Vijayanagar
Jindal Vijayanagar (Rs 21): The stock price of this steel manufacturer rose by 75.4 per on expectations of improved demand and firm trend in steel product prices. Hindustan Motors (Rs 18): On the back of the market rumours that ... More

Shipping stocks sail smooth
The bull run in steel stocks has now boiled down to second and third-rung stocks too. Not that the rally in the frontline stocks has fizzled out. SAIL doubled in value over the period and returns on Tata Steel was 25 per cent over the period. For ... More

DEBT MARKET

Yields may remain tight
THE RBI finally resorted to OMOs (open market operations) to drain the excess liquidity from the system. On August 14, the RBI took Rs 11,470 crore out of system. Yield on the 6.35 per cent 2020 bond, which attracted bids less than the notified ... More

DERIVATIVES MARKETS

Markets in backwardation
There is nine trading days for the August contracts to expire. With open interest increasing, implied volatility (IV) is bound to rise in the week ahead. More

USING FUTURES/OPTIONS
Settlement mechanism
The futures and the options contracts on the NSE have different settlement mechanisms. Settlement of Nifty or individual futures contracts: For future contracts there is daily mark-to-market and final settlement price. Daily ... More

Options Guide

Futures Guide

CORPORATE BONDS

Implication of bonds with put options
SEBI, in its recent concept paper, has proposed that companies issue bonds with put options. What does the proposal mean to bond investors? Such bonds will enable investors to sell the instrument back to the company ... More

FIXED DEPOSITS

Cholamandalam Investment & Finance — Riding on auto sector
THE fixed deposit programme of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance, a Murugappa group company, is open for investment. The interest rates are lower than that of Ashok Leyland Finance. However, considering ... More

INCOME TAX

The treatment of `other income'
A PRIVATE limited company discontinued about 10 years back all its manufacturing and trading activities. Before its discontinuance, the company had unabsorbed business losses. Since then, the only source of income ... More

RIGHTS ISSUES

Manappuram General Finance and Leasing: Unattractive
INVESTMENT in the rights offer of Manappuram General Finance and Leasing (MGFL) can be avoided. The offer is being made to augment the long-term resources of the company. However, the capital adequacy of the company ... More

OPEN OFFERS

Prabhat India: Accept
SHAREHOLDERS in Prabhat India can accept the offer made by Suraj Prakash Bhagat and associates. The offer for 20 per cent of the paid-up capital of Prabhat India is being made at Rs 20 per share. Prabhat India is ... More

INVESTMENTS

Corsa Sail: Stylish and comfortable
THE launch of the Opel Corsa Sail (that's three big time, famous brands from the GM stable in a line) was expected since GM launched the three-box Corsa model. It was just a question of when. Now, finally, the Corsa ... More

MF debt products demystified
THE option of converting your investment into cash any time, a low tax outgo and the possibility of higher returns — these are the key attractions of debt mutual funds. But for the novice choosing the right ... More

BOOKS

BOOK VALUE

A dose of philosophy for the money-minded
CHOOSING the right investment philosophy could be as tough as finding the right match in the Sunday classifieds. Just as grooms and brides come in all shapes and sizes, the esoteric formulas that investment experts ... More

CARTOON