The Hindu Business Line : Sunday, January 30, 2005

Fine-tuning the Takeover Code — Better bargain for shareholders
IN AUGUST 2004, Citigroup, the promoter of e-Serve International, made an offer to buy out all the outstanding shares from the public in the company and to voluntarily delist the stock. Before making this offer, ... More

MUTUAL FUNDS

Birla Advantage Fund: Hold
INVESTORS can stay with Birla Advantage Fund. The fund outperformed the benchmark indices by a significant margin over the year. It should, however, not be the only fund in your portfolio as its performance over a ... More

Franklin Bluechip declares 25 pc dividend

STOCKS

Gillette India: Hold
Shareholders in Gillette India should hold the stock as the global acquisition of The Gillette Company by Procter & Gamble of the US is expected to trigger the open offer requirement in the Indian context. Consequent to P&G's acquisition of a ... More

Larsen & Toubro: Hold
SHAREHOLDERS of Larsen & Toubro may remain invested in the stock, as there appears to be scope for gains over a one/two-year perspective. The company's performance so far this fiscal points to a substantial scaling ... More

HPCL: Book profits
The company faces a challenging period ahead both on the refining and marketing fronts. If the challenge in refining is to protect margins, in marketing, it is in taking on the high quality private competition that is emerging. It may be prudent to e xit the stock for now and await further developments to consider a re-entry at a later date. More

Arvind Mills: Buy
INVESTMENT can be considered in the Arvind Mills stock. After a line of disappointing quarterly results, the company's performance during the October-December quarter rebounded on the back of a reduction in interest ... More

Allahabad Bank: Buy
SHAREHOLDERS can accumulate the Allahabad Bank stock. The bank's business growth in the quarter ended December 2004 was impressive. Improvement can be seen in almost all vital business parameters. The stock valuation, ... More

Rashtriya Chemicals: Buy
INVESTORS with a long-term investment perspective can consider buying the stock of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) at the current price of about Rs 35. Near-term growth in the company's earnings may be ... More

Biocon: Hold
INVESTORS can retain their holdings of the Biocon stock. Though the stock trades at about 23 times its expected per share earnings for FY05, the rich valuation, in our view, is not unwarranted. Biocon appears well ... More

TAXATION

Cum and ex

Forms for securities transaction tax

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Nifty may seek 2300 level
Preferred View: The market sentiment was distinctly bullish during the week gone by, despite the expiry of the January month derivatives contract on Thursday. The index managed to hold above the crucial Fibonacci support level at ... More

Positive outlook for Infosys, HLL
ITC (Rs 1400.65): The earlier bullish outlook remains unaltered. The stock appears on course to move to the target zone of Rs 1450-1500. Fresh buying may be considered, with suitable stop-loss, on a move above Rs 1420. Shareholders may ... More

Focus of the week
Saw Pipes (Rs 237.2): The recent recovery in the share price appears to be the start of a new upward move. The stock is likely to move to the Rs 255-260 range. A move above Rs 245 would confirm the positive outlook. Remain invested with ... More

Possible downward bias in Nifty
LAST week saw the smooth settlement of January contracts and the introduction of April contracts at the derivative segment on the NSE. Rollover of open positions from January to February contracts was also quite hectic, both in index and ... More

Query corner

F&O - Query corner

PRECIOUS METALS

ICICI Pure Gold
IT'S the wedding season and that means a rush to buy gold, no matter what the price. At least that's how it is with us Indians, who are sentimental about the yellow metal, besides treating it as an investment ... More

HOUSING FINANCE

Ten questions to ask before taking home loan
YOU are looking for a home loan to fund your new apartment and see a special "festival offer" advertisement in the newspaper. Before rushing to call the home finance company and signing on the dotted line get more ... More

LIFE INSURANCE

Tata AIG ShubhLife
THE flurry of unit-linked insurance plans have pushed to the back-seat the traditional term and endowment policies. However, this has not deterred Tata AIG from launching ShubhLife, an endowment plan . We will examine ... More

DISINVESTMENT

National Investment Fund — Only as good as the funds flow
POLITICS is all about scoring brownie points. That this, at times, impinges on economics is too well known. This has happened yet again. Late last week, the UPA Government agreed to set up a National Investment Fund ... More

ECONOMICS

Bird-brained economics!
AN EXPERIMENT in the area of financial economics shows that sometimes our behaviour is similar to that of the birds. No wonder we are sometimes accused of being bird-brained! Involving hungry pigeons, the experiment ... More

STOCK MARKETS

Reduced FII flows are no threat
STOCK prices are on a high after two consecutive years of strong inflows from foreign institutional investors. Now market participants, especially retail investors, are a worried lot. They are now fretting about the ... More

DERIVATIVES MARKETS

Futures guide

Options guide

Using Futures/Options

FIXED DEPOSITS

FD options
KCP Sugar and Industries: Investors can consider subscribing to the two-year fixed deposit programme from KCP Sugar and Industries Corporation. Longer tenures can be avoided in the light of the fluid interest rate scenario. However, the ... More

INTERVIEW

`We want to capture the meat of mid-cap market' — Mr Ajay Bagga, CEO, and Mr Kenneth Andrade,Fund Manager, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund
I do not foresee any issue in terms of not having enough stocks to invest in. The market will keep growing. You will find new stocks coming in. Mutual funds are not growing as fast as the market capitalisation. There is an opportunity there. More

"The fund will look for opportunities across market cap" — Mr Sukumar Rajah, CIO (Equity), Franklin Templeton
Franklin Templeton already manages a range of top ranking diversified equity funds. It is now rolling out the Franklin Flexi Cap Fund, which it says will free its fund managers from the constraints of having to adhere to any pre-determined ... More

INCOME TAX

Who pays tax when husband makes money in wife's name?
I AM a retired person and have invested the amounts received on retirement in a fixed deposit account jointly with my wife. My wife is not employed and does not have any income of her own. I have taken a loan against ... More

BOOKS

`Richter scale' for the market
RULE 1: "Markets are risky." How drab that seems, like saying, `winter is cold'. Yet, if the rule is from Benoit Mandelbrot, you better pay heed, for he is the `mathematical superstar' who invented fractal geometry. His ... More

CARTOON