The Hindu Business Line : Sunday, March 20, 2005

Heady equity prices — Reality check to avoid distress
STOCKS sizzle at close to all-time highs, driven by robust trends in the economy and liquidity, courtesy FII flows. Investors must now ensure that they protect the gains of the past two years and avoid nasty ... More

Why we expect more from Fidelity
IT HAS certainly taken a long time for Fidelity Investments, one of the largest money managers in the world, to flag off mutual fund operations in India. But Fidelity, which manages $1 trillion in global assets, has the ... More

Have mutual funds got it right, finally?
THERE has been a spate of initial public offers by mutual funds in recent months. These IPOs have been attracting record subscriptions and ominous parallels are being drawn with what happened in 2000. The tendency of ... More

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Come, let's shop for a mobile
TILL a few years back, it was considered hip to sport a mobile phone. Nowadays, with the gadget acquiring ubiquity, one makes a fashion statement if one decides against going mobile! Much as the market for cellular ... More

MUTUAL FUNDS

HDFC Multiple Yield Fund: Hold
INVESTORS in HDFC Multiple Yield Fund can stay with the fund. The fund has done well in the six months since its launch, outperforming its benchmark during the period. At the same time, its riskiness, measured in terms ... More

Birla Midcap Fund: Hold
INVESTORS can stay with Birla Midcap. While the launch of several mid-cap funds is in the offing, currently there are few funds that are strictly focussed on mid-caps. Franklin Prima is the only fund that has a ... More

Maiden offer from Fidelity MF

Prudential ICICI has been allowed to introduce separate sub-plans for foreign institutional investors under the following schemes — Prudential ICICI Discovery Fund, Prudential ICICI Power, Prudential ICICI Growth, Prudential ICICI ... More

STOCKS

Sell UTV, Buy NDTV & Balaji Telefilms
INVESTORS could take advantage of the substantial premium that the stock of UTV Software Communications Ltd (UTV) has commanded on listing to cut exposures and switch to a combination of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) and Balaji Telefilms. The ... More

Apollo Tyres: Buy
LONG-TERM investors can consider equity exposure in Apollo Tyres at the prevailing market price of Rs 293. Though the performance of the tyre companies have not been quite impressive in recent quarters, the situation ... More

IDBI: Buy
FRESH investments can be considered in the stock of IDBI. After its conversion to a banking company, it is now poised to grow faster. The stock price has factored in the growth prospects to an extent, but not all the ... More

Hotel Leelaventure: Buy
INVESTORS can consider exposure in the stock of Hotel Leelaventure, owners of the Leela Group of Hotels. The stock has appreciated briskly in the past couple of months and now trades at about 25 times its expected FY-05 ... More

Nestle India: Hold
SLIPPING profits and a rich valuation have held down the Nestle India stock over the past year. The stock has been left out of the re-rating bestowed on others in the FMCG space such as Procter & Gamble Hygiene, Dabur . More

TAXATION

Money sent by dad for education is no gift
I AM a 21-year-old college student. My father, who is a non-resident Indian working in the Gulf, sends me money to meet my expenditure for education. This is done by way of a credit to my bank account through wire ... More

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Near-term outlook turns bullish
Preferred view: The movement in the index was in alignment with last week's expectations. The Nifty ruled weak and also dropped below the target level of 2110. After a five-day bearish trend, the sentiment turned bullish on Friday. The ... More

Weakness beckons HLL, HDFC
HDFC (Rs 760): The share price declined below the stop-loss level of Rs 780. With the breach of the Rs 780-level, the stock appears headed towards the next support level at the Rs 725-735 range. Fresh buying may be avoided while existing ... More

Focus of the week
Apollo Hospitals (Rs 343.8): The outlook for the stock is bullish. After a sharp upward move, the stock has been in a corrective phase over the recent months. The price action over the past few days indicates that the stock has completed ... More

Query corner

CARS

Log on to Logan
COME 2007 and there would be one more contender vying for the entry-level car buyer's attention. In what could be an uncomfortably crowded marketplace for cars in this segment, the new entrant that will jostle for ... More

The fine art of urban Fusion
WHAT would you call a vehicle that is built to look like a sports utility vehicle, is as roomy inside as a sedan and is almost as compact on the outside as a hatchback in the B-segment? Fusion. An apt name and that's ... More

Ford Fusion exceptionally good at high speeds
I AM planning to buy a new car, though my initial plan was to buy a Sedan, I waited for the Ford Fusion to be launched. Now I have to choose between one of the Sedans available in the Rs 6-8 lakh range and the ... More

ECONOMICS

Household economics
ECONOMICS is all about how people make choices. And what better way to observe this than start with our household. Is your home filled with consumer durables? The decision to buy, say, a washing machine is based on ... More

DERIVATIVES MARKETS

Put/call ratio remains firm
WITH the market cooling off last week, there was a marked drop in trading activity in the derivative segment. The average daily turnover on the NSE in the F&O segment declined to Rs 12,061 crore against the previous week figure of Rs 13,523 ... More

FIXED DEPOSITS

CUB's gesture to senior citizens
City Union Bank: Senior citizens can consider investing in the short-term deposits of City Union Bank. The bank offers 6 per cent for deposits maturing in six months, 7 per cent for one-year deposits and 7.50 per cent for two- ... More

INTERVIEW

`We will grow better than industry growth rates'
There will be four triggers to improvement of margins. One, is offshoring. Second is sheer volume growth. Three, build new practices where a part of the revenues comes in at a higher realisation. Four, bring process efficiency in software operations. More

IPOS

Jaiprakash Hydro-Power: Invest at Rs 32
INVESTORS can consider subscribing to this initial public offer of shares by Jaiprakash Hydro-Power at Rs 32 per share (PEM of 12) with a medium/long-term perspective. The project is already operational and there is ... More

PUBLIC OFFERS

IVRCL Infrastructure: Invest at Rs 415
AN INVESTMENT in the equity offer of IVRCL Infrastructure may be considered at Rs 415, which is the upper end of the price band, for the following reasons:

A surging order book that is likely to drive robust ... More

BOOKS

Make yourself richer tomorrow than you are today
IF you're already wealthy, skip this. Else, take the six steps that Michael Masterson prescribes for `financial independence' in his book Automatic Wealth, from Wiley (www.wiley.com). "My expertise is in starting and developing ... More

CARTOON