The Hindu Business Line : Sunday, April 20, 2003

Odds against sector-specific funds
A STUDY of stock price patterns over the last five years emphasises the need for a diversified portfolio. Sector-specific investing — the focus of sector funds — can be extremely risky. The returns are also not commensurate with ... More

UTI Monthly Income Plans 99(2) to 2001: No choice but to hold
INVESTORS may not be too happy with the dividend payouts announced by the Unit Trust of India (UTI) for 2003-04 on its five Monthly Income Plans launched after August 1999. The dividends range between 3.04 per cent per annum and 5.12 per cent. ... More

Birla IT Fund: Hold
INVESTORS in Birla IT Fund can stay invested for now. It may not make sense to pare exposures at a time when some amount of panic has gripped the valuation of IT stocks. It may be better to wait out for some signs of consolidation, which can be ... More

To stay or not to stay?
WHEN the sponsor (read owner) of your mutual fund decides to throw in the towel, and sell his stake, what should you, as an investor, do? This question is likely to have cropped up often in the minds of Indian mutual fund investors in recent ... More

MIP dividends cut sharply
THE rate of income distribution of the Monthly Income Plans of the Unit Trust of India (UTI) have been pegged at levels lower than what can be obtained even on a savings bank deposit. The MIPs are now under the charge of the Administrator of ... More

Sundaram Select Funds: Hold
INVESTORS in Sundaram Select Focus can continue to stay with the fund. The performance of the fund since its launch in July 2002 has been a mixed bag. In the initial period, the fund's performance trailed that of S&P CNX Nifty, its benchmark. In ... More

Daring to experiment
IT MAY have taken a long time in coming, but equity fund management finally appears to be coming of age in India. A close look at some of the major equity fund portfolios shows that fund managers today are far more willing to set aside ... More

STOCK MARKETS

Stock market trends: Making hay while a theme lasts
ONE theme or the other dominates the stock market. The themes have usually been sector specific — for instance, the current fad for banking stocks — or idea centred, such as privatisation. Such a theme-driven uptrends usually last for ... More

Nasdaq: Positive outlook
TRADING was curtailed to four days owing to holiday on account of Good Friday. The American stock market sentiment remained strong during the week. The focus has now shifted from developments in Iraq to the corporate sector related events. The ... More

DERIVATIVES MARKETS

DO THE DERIVATIVES
Call-Intrinsic and Time value
LAST fortnight, we learnt about `call'. This week we move on to understand what is the `value' concept in a call. The premium that you pay to purchase a call can be broken down into two parts. One is the `intrinsic value' and the other ... More

Satyam may remain in focus
THE equities, which began the week on a promising note, could not sustain the gains and ended the three-day trading week in a negative territory. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty closed the week at 940.70 as against the previous week's close of 949.80. ... More

FOREIGN INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS

Threshold limit hiked for FII/NRI investments
THE RBI has enhanced the threshold limit for FII/NRI investments in Indian companies having equity base of Rs 1,000 crore and above. The threshold limit has been reset at 0.5 percentage point below the sectoral cap against the earlier limit of ... More

REGULATORY BODIES & RULINGS

Interest rate derivatives trading from April 28
THE Securities and Exchange Board of India has finally set April 28 as the tentative date for the commencement of trading in interest rate derivative contracts on the stock exchanges. Earlier, a SEBI committee had suggested April 21 for the ... More

COMMENTARY

HDFC Bank perks up on improved results
WIPRO (Rs 884): The stock price of Wipro dropped by 4.8 per cent this week. This has to be seen in light of drop in the net profit of the company, due to the pressure on margins, for the quarter ended March 2003. The net profit during the ... More

RECOMMENDATION

Wipro: Sell on uptrend
IS WIPRO Technologies, the growth engine of the diversified Wipro, beginning to slow down? Nothing on the revenue front would justify such an inference. In each of the four quarters of 2002-03, Wipro Technologies — the Global IT Services ... More

Hughes Software: Buy
AT CURRENT price levels, the Hughes Software Systems (Hughes) stock looks attractive for investors with at least a one-year investment horizon. Since the business environment for the telecom vertical continues to remain challenging, a large ... More

MRF: Pare expores, re-enter at lower levels
AFTER recording robust earnings growth in the past few quarters, tyre major MRF has had to contend with a relatively modest improvement in performance for the quarter ended March 2003. The turnover growth at 18 per cent for the quarter ended ... More

Canara Bank: Book profits
INVESTORS in the stock of Canara Bank can consider booking profits and reducing their exposure to the stock. The stock price of Canara Bank, which listed its stock in December 2002, has appreciated sharply in the recent past. It has delivered ... More

TVS Srichakra: Pare exposures
TVS Srichakra is a beneficiary of the sustained increase in two-wheeler production witnessed in the last few quarters. However, taking into account the slowdown in demand for two-wheelers in the last couple of months and the recovery in share ... More

Punjab Tractors: Hold/Avoid fresh exposures
SHAREHOLDERS of Punjab Tractors Ltd (PTL) may continue to retain the stock in their portfolio. At Rs 127, the stock has gained marginally over the last week. During the last ten months, the PTL stock's performance was largely governed by the ... More

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