SEBI's NEW YEAR GIFT TO INVESTORS - Waives Mutual Fund Entry loads from 04th January 2008

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today barred mutual fund houses from charging entry load from investors who buy the schemes directly from the funds, and not through a distributor, agent or a broker.

The new rule is effective January 4, according to a Sebi circular issued today.

At present, the industry average for entry load is 2.25% of the initial investment. Asset Management Companies (AMCs) selling schemes either through the Internet, mutual fund offices or their collection centres can benefit from the new rules.

"Keeping in mind the interests of investors and to facilitate the growth of the mutual fund industry, with effect from January 4, 2008, investors making applications for investments in mutual fund schemes directly without routing through any distributor/agent/broker i.e. through Internet, submitted to AMC or collection centre/investor service centre would not be subject to entry load," said the circular.

The regulator said the waiver will also apply to additional purchases done directly by the investor under the same folio and switch-in to a scheme from other schemes if such a transaction is done directly by the investor.

A CEO of a mutual fund house said this will make life difficult for fund houses most of whom are dependent on distributors to sell their schemes. Though no figures are available, industry officials reckon only 1-2% of their business come through direct sales. This may be 2-3% for HDFC Mutual Fund and others, which have more branch network.

Sebi said the growth of the mutual fund industry in the past years and the technology available for investments has enabled investors to take informed decisions and to invest in mutual funds through Internet and other modes without availing of services of distributors/ agents/ brokers.

"There was an overwhelming response in favour of the proposal by Sebi on waiver of entry load for investors who do not route their mutual fund applications through a broker/ distributor," the regulator said explaining its decision.

The maximum entry load a fund house can charge is 6% while the maximum exit load is 4%. but AMCs cannot charge over 7% from investors when entry and exit loads are totalled.

Companies set to connect India via VoIP

Now making calls over the internet will not be confined to just Delhi and Mumbai. The entire country will have access to the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service in the New Year. Over half-a-dozen companies including Sterlite Optical, Aksh Optifibre, Indus Online and Smart Broadband are in the race for providing internet telephony (VoIP) on the BSNL platform. The number is expected to go up in the next few days. BSNL had invited expression of interest (EoI) for providing VoIP service earlier this month and had asked companies to submit their proposals by December 28.
The company has, however, extended the date for submitting the EoIs as new enquiries were pouring in. “We have decided to extend the date of EoI submission by at least a week,” said a BSNL official.
Sources said that January 6 is likely to be the new deadline. Only four companies will be chosen by BSNL for providing the service. Presently, MTNL is the only company providing VoIP service through a tie-up with Aksh Optifibre. This facility is limited to subscribers of New Delhi and Mumbai only because of the limited reach of the company. Initially, BSNL had plans to start internet telephony service by the end of the year. However, the move got delayed because of last minute enquiries and requests for clarifications from a number of interested parties. The state-owned company has divided the country into two zones — the North West and South East zones for offering the VoIP service. In each zone the company would offer franchisee to two companies. However, one company cannot get franchisee for both the zones. The BSNL offer will also be open to those who do not have a PC at home. Such customers will be required to subscribe to BSNL’s broadband connection (for monthly rentals starting at Rs 199) and buy an analog telephone adaptor for about Rs 1,500. On the tarrif front, BSNL is set to match MTNL. This implies, tariffs for those who make PC-to-PC calls are likely to be as low as 10 paise per minute, while a call made from a PC to a landline or mobile abroad would cost a little over Re 1 per minute on account of the termination charges. BSNL also plans to offer this service in its 2.5 million plus PCOs in the country.

Existing license holders, too, were interested in providing the service on BSNL platform but the pre-bid document does not permit existing license holders to participate in the bidding process. “We are confident of winning the bid as amongst companies which are not existing license holders ours is the only one which has got experience in providing the VoIP service on a large scale through our partnership with MTNL,” Aksh Optifibre managing director K S Choudhuri said. Interestingly, there is hardly any interest among private license holders in offering the service on their own as they are afraid of incurring losses due to the comparatively low profit in the business. But BSNL’s entry into this segment is set to change the market dynamics and force other operators to follow suit even if it eats into their revenues from ISD calls.

Sensex to give 15-20% returns in long-term

Ajit Dayal of Quantum Advisors says Sensex has given compounded returns of 35% peranum in the last 7 years and one must not expect similar returns but returns of 15-20% over the long-term is possible.

He further told CNBC-TV18 that valuations in India are not cheap but they are not near bubble phase either and so they are not uncomfortable with current valuations. At present at Quantum Advisors they have fairly low cash levels said Dayal.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Ajit Dayal:

Q: The expectation is that come January there is going to be big dollops of cash and that’s probably going to take the market a bit higher than where it is. Would you go with that theory?

A: We have to go back a bit and look at- if you had put Rs 100 in the BSE 30 Index in January 2001, today that Rs 100 standing in December 2007, seven years later effectively would have been Rs 874. So that’s a profit of Rs 774 over the last 7 years i.e a compounded rate of return of about 35% per annum or about 2.5% per month. I don’t think that people should expect January-February-March-April 2008 to sort of give you that sort of return.

Having said that we are very optimistic on India. We believe that Indian economy is totally in many ways dealing from what's happening in the US. It never has really been coupled to the global economy. India is very much a domestic driven economy. Unfortunately, some mishaps in policy where we have got P-notes that has made us part of global capital flows in a far more accelerated fashion then probably what we can handle and so if something happens in the US- subprime crisis, if the big groups out there begin to withdraw capital from all their sort of territorial expansion plans and territorial investment plans which includes India and they take capital back home then yes, because of the P-note exposure and linkage that the Indian capital market has you could see a sell off.

So will January 2008 see a sell off because of what's happening in the US or will January 2008 see an increase-We don’t know but one should expect about a 15-20% rate of return in our view from Indian stocks in the long run not the 35% per annum that we have seen since 2001 in last seven years but certainly a 15-20% long-term sustainable number still looks very good us.

Q: How comfortable are you feeling about valuations at this point- the 20,000 plus? Are you feeling okay about the way we are stepping into earnings?

A:We are a value investor and we tend to be in cash when we don’t like the valuations. We actually are in fairly low cash right now. We had taken a bit of profits if you will in the month of October and we looked quite smart because the market fell off when the P-notes thing was announced. We looked very stupid when the market rebounded and we are still sitting in some cash but we have been in fairly low cash levels right now and that’s should indicate to you and to our viewers that we are very comfortable with valuations, we are not saying it is cheap but we don’t think it is anywhere close to bubble environments.

There is always stock selection that’s going on in our processes and within a basket of 20-25 stocks we have a portfolio now, which is in our view still a value portfolio. So yes, there is value; we are not uncomfortable with the valuation at this index level.

Q: How are you feeling about that midcap and smallcaps? Do you think its still a valuation catch up that’s playing out or is it just the money flows, which are being diverted to that part of the market?

A: It is more like money flows. There is always sector rotation in stock market. Many fund managers have got sort of favorite sectors. We are sort of cap insensitive and sector insensitive in many ways when we pick and choose our stocks. But if one looked at what happened in the indices from 2006 May, which sort of bottom in May-June 2006, it’s been really the largecaps, the BSE 30 led stocks and within the BSE 30, 5-6 stocks have accounted for a much of the rise in the Index till about the third quarter this year.

So there is some sort of a leadership change, as you all would talk about it. With regards to DSP Merrill Lynch forecast of estimated 10% GDP growth rate, our numbers and our valuation numbers are based upon a 6.5-7% the rate of growth of GDP, and if the GDP numbers do indeed end up at been 8-9 or 10% that would make the market in our view very cheap. So at 6.5% we are seeing the market to be not expensive, not cheap but if a 10% number did pan out which we don’t believe it will but if it did pan out and in the next few years if we get the infrastructure right then we believe it can, then the market is trading still in our view extremely cheap.

So we will be rushing into buy, if we got new cash and the 10% GDP numbers did sort of pan out.

Q: From the earnings lot though would you include IT in your list this time around or you will still stay away?

A: No we have been buyers of IT. We have been buying IT; we had some IT exposure at the start of the year. We have actually been adding to it over the last few quarters. We don’t believe that currencies, a weak currency is the only reason to buy IT stocks. We believe there are some fabulous companies out there and we hope that we own them in the portfolio and have made the right selection.

We have been buyers of IT. So it has been a nice last one or two weeks for us though not nice one-two quarters for us because we have been sort of buying up the IT as they have been coming down.

Q: Have you had reason to add any agro commodities to your list such as sugar?

A: No, we actually looked at sugar a couple of months ago and we know the share prices have rebounded a bit since then. But we haven’t really had the strength to go in and buy into sugar because that is sort of driven a lot by political influence and by near-term political events. Our job as analyst, as fund managers we believe in the long-haul is to try to sort of analyze things that we can understand and we have little understanding of what makes sugarcane and sugar prices move around given all the political stuff going on around it. So we are not able to guess that and we don’t have it.

We have been certainly watching it, studying it but don’t have the conviction or the strength to put money behind it as yet. One day we will probably but haven’t done so far.

Q: What is the top pick for 2008?

A: We do not disclose names but I recently spoke about IT and we like IT. We haven’t bought IT with a view of three-six months; we do not buy stocks with three-six months views. We invest in them after studying and trying analyze where things could end up on the three-five year view at the very minimum. So our view is that IT as a sector could recover.

We are not believers in a strong rupee. I think we kind of fool ourselves a bit by saying that when we strengthen against US dollar that we are a strong currency. There have been some issues in America and America has had an inherently weak currency. So a basic currency trade is a two way game; if one has a weak dollar it got to be something strong on the opposite side. So we have happened by accident to have a strong rupee against the US dollar.

And our view is that the Indian rupee given the fact that if one looks at the current account deficits or trade flows, you stripe out of the portfolio money that’s coming into India every year and we have had about USD 50 billion of portfolio money in India over the last four years and so if you strip at money out, India is actually running a current account deficit and is been funded by portfolio flows and no one has any control or any understanding of how sustainable these portfolios flows are on a month to month basis, on a quarterly basis or even on annual basis specially given the fact that P-Notes account for half of those flows.

We are not convinced that a weak dollar in that sense a strong Indian rupee is a given and the IT companies that we own in the portfolios we believe can manage the environment around them

Courtesy: Moneycontrol

Nifty at 6950, Sensex 22,880 by July 2008

By Vasant Joshi
Technical analyst
Religare Securities

The Indian benchmark indices, barring minor hiccups, have remained strongly bullish last 18 months since June 2006. The origin of this bull phase goes way back to September 2001 when the BSE Sensex was at 2595 and NSE Nifty at a low of 850, says Vasant Joshi, technical analyst at Religare Securities. The Sensex has seen an eight-fold and Nifty over seven-fold rise since then, he adds. The volatility, of late, has crossed all the normal established barriers seen so far. The sheer pace of appreciation in the market valuation of small cap and mid cap segments has attracted a new breed of investors. There is, however, nothing unusual in it. The hyper volatile markets of 1992 and 2000 have also seen this phenomenon. We have seen a massive crackdown in indices in the post 1992 and 2000 scenarios, Joshi said. There is a clear-cut demarcation in the earlier bull phases of 1992 and 2000 and the current bull phase. The earlier bull phases were more or less driven by a handful of market operators who eventually got crushed under their huge outstanding positions. Professional players like mutual fund managers, domestic institutional investors, foreign institutional investors and hedge funds now contribute a major chunk to the market turnover. Also, an investor is now well equipped to hedge his investments without offloading them with the help of a variety of instruments available in the derivatives segment, says he. The continued rise in money supply has also resulted in rapid price appreciation in small cap and mid cap stocks. The valuation of quite a few stocks is, no doubt, mind boggling and difficult to digest on the basis popular concepts of stock valuation. The age-old concepts of stock valuation have become more or less redundant in view of the structural changes in the market mechanism. As long as the flow of funds remains intact and the settlement in derivative segment continues to be “cash settled”, there is no threat whatsoever to the ongoing bull phase. The bull phase can, therefore, be expected to continue through 2008 with occasional routine reactions needed for the realignment of market forces, Joshi says. A strong performance by the corporate sector is just supplementary to the changes in trading mechanism over the last 3-4 years. An average growth of even 10 per cent a year would be sufficient to keep the stock prices rocking and help them climb new peaks, says Joshi. “The projections for 2008 are in relation to the base of June 2006. The recommendations are based on the assumption that there will not be any major changes to the present trading mechanism. It should be noted here that a fall of more than 3 per cent below the suggested stop-loss levels would negate the upper projections for that sector. In view of the historical data, I have made use of BSE sectoral indices for the purpose.”

Mutual Funds as long-term investment

Mutual Fund is a collection of money from many individual and corporate investors. This pool of money is managed by professional money managers for investment in market instruments. People who pool money to buy shares of a mutual fund are its owners or shareholders (unit holders). Fund managers invest this money to buy securities such as stocks and bonds. A mutual fund can make money from its securities in two ways: a security can pay dividends or interest to the fund or a security can rise in value. Advantages of investing in mutual funds include professional management of funds, securities research, investment diversification, variety, liquidity, affordability, convenience, government regulation etc. On the other hand, disadvantages of investing in mutual funds include payment of charges regardless of fund's performance, lack of control on investments made by fund managers etc.

Making investment decisions

It is very important to identify the financial needs and goals before making investment decisions. Financial needs/goals could be short/medium term goals like planning for a vacation, creating an emergency fund etc and long term goals like child's education, retirement planning etc. Identifying your financial needs and goals helps in selecting the investment instruments and quantum of investment. These are some general points that investors could keep in their mind while planning for investment portfolio. Don't put all the eggs in one basket. Look for diversification of your investment instruments Since the markets are volatile in short term, it is not possible to time the market (entry at lowest point and exit at highest point). Always have realistic expectations about investment performance. Try to understand why a fund has capability to outperform. The reasons could be due to sector of investments, or experienced fund managers. Remember that the past performances of the instrument may not be repeated. Consider the fees/loads and taxes applicable on the investment. It's not always advisable to invest in a new mutual fund as they have no or limited track record. Beware of a salesperson who tells you to invest in Mutual Fund IPO and that it is at par (zero premiums).

Investment Review

Although the investment in Mutual Fund is termed as Passive investment yet the investors are required to review their performances on regular basis (at least once in three month). These are the things that investors should keep in mind while reviewing the performance of a mutual fund and making exit decisions Always check the fund's total return. This is easily available in the Mutual Fund's periodic reports, websites and in various business magazines/newspaper Investors can also compare the Mutual Fund return with some benchmark index, but while comparing mutual fund performance with that of an index (Large cap Mutual funds vs Nifty or BSE Sensex, mid cap Mutual fund vs BSE 200 or BSE 500), remember that your fund's performance is calculated after fees and expenses have been deducted; the performance of the index does not reflect the costs associated with constructing and maintaining an identical portfolio. It is not advisable to compare one mutual fund directly with another. Every Mutual Fund invests based on certain focus e.g. Blue Chip funds invest only in big companies which has established track record. Mid cap mutual funds invests in mid cap (medium to small) companies and hence they are on the upper end of Risk-Reward matrix. Similarly there can be funds which are sector based e.g. Information Technology funds, Infrastructure funds etc. Usually in short term market rallies, some sectors do well and others do not and therefore investors should not switch out of their Mutual Funds investment based on short term performances of mutual funds. Avoid frequent switching from one fund to another. Switching from one fund to another involves transaction cost and that will reduce your profits. However, if a fund is consistently underperforming then it is advisable to switch your funds to other instruments.

MediaRing extends free voip call promotion

MediaRing will extend its MediaRing Talk Unlimited Free Calls promotion through 31 January 2008. This special promotion offers unlimited free calls to key global destinations including Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, UK and USA. See website for promotion terms & conditions.At the same time, MediaRing is also offering a special rate promotion to India at US$0.05 cents / minute on all fixed and mobile lines. This promotion also ends on 31st January 2008.MediaRing Talk has seen a strong surge in user sign-up rates and usage globally since its introduction in early 2007. So far MediaRing Talk has connected more than 13 million free phone calls and users have benefited from more than 50 million minutes of call time.

Hack to use Jajah Direct in Countries without access number via Grand Central

Jajah announced that users of Jajah Direct can enjoy 60 minutes free VoIP call during Xmas. But Jajah Direct only has access numbers in US, Italy, Germany, UK, Austria and Israel, which means users in other countries cannot benefit from this offer.

The hack below will introduce how to use Jajah Direct via GrandCentral in countries without access number.
First, register a GrandCentral number and a Jajah account. Then add the GrandCentral virtual number as a registered phone into Jajah account. After that, choose the virtual number as Callser ID in GrandCentral setting, because Jajah Direct identifies users via Callder ID.

Second, add the Jajah Direct access number as into GrandCentral contacts list. But when I was using GrandCentral to call this access number, the voice promot said the Caller ID cannot be identified and required credit card information. However, now in you Jajah account information, you can find virtual numbers corresponding to each contact. Add this virtual number to contacts list of GrandCentral and call it, then it will be connected.
Run VoIPBusterPro binding with GrandCentral virtual number and dial the Jajah Direct virtual number, your call will be connected.

The reason to use GrandCentral is that the virutal number from GrandCentral can be used as Caller ID and it provides free callback VoIP calls within US

Make Free calls to India and whole world

Here is a new hack (Posted by Hardik) to call India for free. And not only India but call anywhere in the world for free.
Talk with your loved ones for as long as you want with new hack to call the world for free!
Follow the steps to make free calls

Step 1: Getting a SIP based USA number

Sign up for calldigits (https://myaccount.calldigits.com/signup/). Select the third option(free account). After signing up you will receive an email to activate your account.
After activating the account you will receive an email with your calldigits number.

Step 2: Setting the softphone to make outgoing calls.

Download softphone at http://www.nch.com.au/talk/. Download the Talk Basic version.
While installing you may uncheck all the related programs as we don't need them.
Click next in all the setting page.
During the account setup process select "Yes, I already have a sip account".
In the next page Enter the sip details as follows
Friendly Display name: Anything
Sip account number: "Enter the number u received in Step 1(e.g. 6413885049)
Sip Server: talkdigits.net
Sip password: The password you chose in step 1

Step 3: Sing up on sendglobal.com

Go to www. sendglobal.com
Sing up for trial with following details
Promo code: 3XRG3
Phone number: The number you got in step 1
Activate your account

Step 4: Calling

Open the Express Talk software installed in Step 2
Enter the number: 7348873737
Upon answering the call it'll say that your account balance is 3$ and then it'll ask for the number you wish to call. Enter the number in format 011+Country code+Phone number
You will get around 20 minutes of talktime for India with each account.
After you finish with one account.
Follow step 1 and get another number(you can use same email account everytime)
For step 2 you can simply change the phone number in existing setup. Just click File-->Options-->Lines tab-->and replace the existing SIP number with the new number.
For step 3 you can use the same email account again and again

Bulls set for another run; Eye 21,250 on Sensex

Year 2007 has been a phenomenal year for Indian equities, and analysts expect indices to end it at all time highs as the bulls gear up for another run. “Market sentiment is bullish after the latest Fed rate cut. We expect a further rise toward 21,250 in Sensex and 6,500 in Nifty by the end of the year,” said technical analyst Sandeep Wagle of Angel Stock Broking. The US Federal Reserve disappointed world markets by a modest 25 basis-point cut instead of 50 bps on December 11, but Indian equities chalked up gains while Asian peers stumbled in reaction. On Dec 12, Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex closed up 85 points or 0.42 per cent at 20,375.87. The index scaled an all-time high of 20,419.11 intraday, recovering from an early low of 20,045.42. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended higher by 62 points or 1.02 per cent at 6159.30, bouncing from a low of 6005.45. The index rose to a high of 6175.65 during the day. A rebound in industrial production has also lifted market sentiment. Index of industrial production for October grew 11.8 per cent, the fastest annual rise in seven months, from an upwardly revised 6.8 percent in September. “We will not be surprised to see the Sensex closing at 20,500 by the year-end since I see absolutely no triggers for a correction,” a more conservative Shahina Mukadam, head of research at IDBI Capital, said, adding that large-caps still look strong. So far in December, the Sensex and Nifty have seen more positive closes than negative ones and risen by a whopping 5.13 per cent and 6.71 per cent respectively. Even weak global cues have not deterred the momentum. Analysts attribute this resilience to strong participation from domestic players, high net worth, retail and institutional investors. In the first week of this month, domestic funds net invested Rs 295 crore in equity, while foreign institutional investors net bought Rs 3523.2 crore, according to SEBI. “I am extremely bullish and have set targets of 6,158 followed by 6,236 in Nifty by the year-end. Local sentiment is upbeat and I also expect more foreign money to flow into the market as a result of the Fed's move. 25 basis points has not gone down well with most global markets, but it is a fairly positive sign for us,” said Suresh Kumar Iyer, technical analyst at Asit C Mehta Investment Interrmediates. What is encouraging is also the participation from the broader market consisting of mid-and small-caps. Second line scrips outperformed the benchmark indices in November and analysts believe there's a lot more steam left in them. “Domestic participants have proved their strength in the market going by the way the mid-caps have moved up. I remain positive on these stocks and expect the rally to continue till the first week of January. Valuation-wise, they offer better opportunity to investors,” said Viral Doshi, independent technical and derivatives strategist.

REBTEL OFFERS CHEAP VOIP CALLS TO CHINA

REBTEL is offering cheap mobile VOIP to China.
For example Rebtel’s low-cost calls from Shanghai to the United States will cost just $0.018 per minute; $0.019 per minute from the U.S. to Shanghai. AT&T charges $3.50 per minute to call a mobile phone in China from a mobile phone in the U.S. Rebtel scores over other service for its unique model of providing services. It works without downloading any special VOIP application. It works on any mobile phone, it doesnt require you to use high end mobile phones. It is a callback system + VOIP technology combined to provide you a free service. Of course, the native SIP client based VOIP applications and handphones are more powerful but for all those old handset users Rebtel can be a good choice. Rebtel also offers a free trial of 10 mins call. Besides that, they are running a festive offer. If you buy a $10 credit, you would get $30 in your account.

Federal Bank Launches Bullion Sale

Leading private sector lender Federal Bank on Thursday launched the sale of imported Suisse gold coins through its branches in Chennai and Coimbatore. The 99.99 per cent purity gold coins would be available in the denominations of five gm, eight gm, 20 gm and 50 gm, a bank statement said. Unlike other banks, which sell gold only through designated branches, the bullion sale of Federal Bank would be available at all the branches in Chennai and Coimbatore, it said. The sale was launched at a function at Anna Nagar branch in the city, when R Vijayalakshmi, Director, Orchid Healthcare Private Limited, received the gold coin from K S Mohan, Deputy General Manager of Chennai Region. Addressing the gathering, Mohan said that Federal bank branches would act as a "one-stop shop" for all the financial product requirements of its customers. "Banks are becoming financial super markets, offering a wide range of financial products such as insurance products, mutual fund products, gold and also DMAT account facilities for investors in the stock market", he said. Federal Bank was venturing into Life Insurance business in association with Fortis Insurance International. With a total business of over Rs 40,000 crore as on September 30, 2007, the bank has 556 branches, 12 extension counters and 448 ATMs spread across the country.
It has a strong patronage of non-resident Indians and is all set to open its first representative office at Abu Dhabi, UAE, before this fiscal end, the statement said

Best Mutual Funds in India

TATA Mutual Fund has declared a dividend of 30% (Rs 3 on the face value of Rs 10 per unit) in its open-ended equity scheme - Tata Growth Fund. The investment objective is to provide income distribution and /or medium to long term capital gains while at all times emphasizing the importance of capital appreciation.
All unit holders registered under the dividend option of TATA Growth Fund as on December 21, 2007 will be eligible for this dividend. Pursuant to payment of dividend, the NAV of the Scheme would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy (if applicable). The NAV as on December 17, 2007 under the dividend option of TATA Growth Fund was Rs 23.47.
The last dividend declared by the scheme was of 20% in November 2007. Over the last one year TATA Growth Fund has yielded 55% as against 40.28% given by its benchmark BSE Sensex, as on December 17, 2007.

Free calls on Face book

TruePhone has launched a VoIP application for Facebook,which allows users to call others for free.The application called "Call Me"can be used to make calls without the need for an online TruePhone account.Your number should be a US phone number,a landline phone number,a GTalk ID ,or a SIP no.Your friends have to click your "Call Me" button on your FaceBook profile to get connected.They do not need to have a phone to call you.Everyone can use the "Call Me" buttons on their friend's profiles for a short period of time.After that they must install the VoIP application on their computers

Indian Rupee Falls on Concern Global Funds to Reduce Investment

India's rupee fell for a second day on concern that declining local stocks will prompt global funds to slow investment in the country.
The currency dropped to the lowest in two weeks as India's benchmark share index extended yesterday's biggest loss in four months. Signs that credit-market losses tied to U.S. subprime mortgages will slow global economic growth prompted investors to sell higher-yielding assets.
``Sentiment on the rupee is a bit weak,'' said Vikas Babu, a currency trader at state-owned Andhra Bank Ltd. in Mumbai. ``The weakness across Asian stock markets has raised concerns about possible capital outflows.''
The rupee weakened 0.1 percent to 39.565 per dollar as of 10:40 a.m. in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency dropped 0.5 percent yesterday, the biggest decline in two months. It may fall as low as 39.7 today, Babu said.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index fell for a fourth day after dropping 3.8 percent yesterday, its largest decline since Aug. 16. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional shares lost 0.3 percent.
The rupee's 11.9 percent gain this year, the second-biggest among Asian currencies after the Philippine peso, was fueled by record purchases of stocks and bonds by global investors. Overseas investors more than doubled Indian equity purchases to an all-time high of $17.2 billion this year and debt investments reached $2.02 billion, the highest ever.

Rupee remains sluggish against dollar

The rupee on Tuesday remained sluggish and was down at 39.5550/5650 against the US currency in late morning deals in line with weak trend in equity markets and firm dollar overseas. In fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened lower at 39.63/64 a dollar against yesterday's close of 39.54/55 per dollar. Dealers attributed initial sharp fall in the rupee to bearish equity markets where the benchmark Sensex was down by over 130 points at initial stages. But smart recovery in the index in late morning deals helped the rupee recover some lost ground and was quoted at 39.5550/5650 a dollar. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,151 crore in cash segment on December 17 as per provisional figures, which also weighed on the rupee. Meanwhile, the dollar advanced several multi-month highs against its major rivals on Monday on the back of dollar- positive data that weakened US stocks and boosted the yen.

AGLOCO DOESN'T PAY TO SURF

If it was a bad idea the first time around, it’s probably a bad idea the second time around too.

Mike was harsh on AGLOCO, a variation of the failed AllAdvantage pyramid scheme from a few years ago, when he wrote about their launch. He was right to question the business - they’re closing down. The following email was sent to at least some AGLOCO members:
We would like to update you on the status of AGLOCO’s operations. We continue to believe in the AGLOCO concept, but our revenue is currently not sufficient to give Members a meaningful distribution. And though there are increases in membership, the resulting revenue is not enough to support operating costs. As a development team we are unable to continue to use our savings to fund the operations. If any Member would like to pursue continuing the operations of AGLOCO, you may contact us at agloco1@live.com .
We would like to thank every Member for supporting our effort to bring a piece of the Internet directly to the user. We hope that we can find a way to keep the operations going.
AGLOCO is the reincarnation of AllAdvantage (complete with some of the same founders), a Web 1.0 company that paid users for viewing advertising through a toolbar. The founders, who blamed the stock crash in 2000 for the AllAdvantage faiure, claimed they’d get it right this time around. In particular, the ability to highly target advertising would allow them to generate enough revenue for a sustainable business.

Sensex Down 769 Points on Global weakness

The bears finally got their chance on Monday, pulling the key indices down around 4 per cent.

The broad based sell-off was triggered by weakness in stocks across the globe, but the intensity of the fall caught most market participants by surprise. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty closed down 270 points or 4.48 per cent at 5777, after slumping to an intra-day low of 5740.60. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex slipped to a low of 19,177.19 and finally settled at 19,261.35, down 769 points or 3.84 per cent from Friday’s close. DLF (down 7.53%), NTPC (7.3%), (5.81%), Tata Steel (6.15%) and Tata Motors (5.8%) were the biggest index losers. “A negative opening was expected given the weakness in US and Asian markets, but we did not expect such a drastic fall. With 5800 on Nifty broken, the short-term trend has now turned negative. If global markets are positive Tuesday, we could see a bounce back. If not, the selling will continue,” said DD Sharma, senior vice president at AnandRathi Securities. Likely FII sales, as a result of RBI’s latest diktat, could also have led to the fall, Sharma said. Reserve Bank of India on Friday widened the definition of stock market exposure and gave banks six months to bring down their exposure to equities. RBI told banks that the exposure will now include lending to mutual funds and payment commitments made to exchanges on behalf of MFs and foreign funds. BSE Midcap Index shed 3.87 per cent and Smallcap Index was down 2.91 per cent. The CNX Mid-cap Index shed 4.13 per cent and Nifty Mid-cap 50 dropped 5.12 per cent. Market breadth showed 1,944 declines and 995 advances on BSE, while on NSE 210 shares advanced and 1,007 declined. Traders also used declines to go short and wind up long positions in the derivatives segment. Nifty December ended at 4-point premium to the underlying, adding 40 lakh in open interest. “There was 11-12 per cent build up in open interest in Nifty December, indicating build up of shorts. However, some shorts were covered by the end of the session going by the 4-point premium to the spot. There was also liquidation of longs in several mid-cap counters. 5700 is now a crucial level to watch for. If that is broken Nifty December futures could fall to 5500,” said Ashish Chaturmohta, derivatives analyst at AnandRathi. Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.71 per cent to close at 15,249.79, Hang Seng ended down 3.51 per cent at 26,596.58, Straits Times Index fell 3.25 per cent to 3,353.56. UK’s FTSE 100 was down 1.59 per cent at 6,295.20, Germany’s DAX 30 declined 1.49 per cent to 7,829.78 and France’s CAC 40 was lower by 1.62 per cent at 5,514.41

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Terrasip is a purely SIP based VOIP provider. Its currently offering free calls to a massive list of land line destinations.
List of Free Calling destinations available on TerraSIP
Argentina Buen. Aires free
Argentina La Plata free
Australia Melbourne free
Australia Brisbane free
Austria Vienna free
Brazil Rio de Janeiro free
Canada Toronto free
Canada Alberta free
Canada Quebec free
Canada Quebec City free
Chile Santiago free
China Beijing free
China Shenzhen free
China Mobile free
Colombia Bogota free
Cyprus free
Czech Rep. Prague free
Denmark Copenhag. free
Estonia Talinn free
France Paris free
Germany free
Greece Athens free
Hungary Budapest free
India Bangalore free
Indonesia Jakarta free
Iraq Bagdad free
Ireland Dublin free
Israel Tel Aviv free
Italy free
Japan Tokyo free
Korea South Seoul free
Latvia Riga free
Malaysia Kuala Lum. free
Mexico Guadalajara free
Mexico Mexico City free
Netherlands Amsterd. free
New Zealand Auckl. free
Norway Oslo free
Pakistan Karachi free
Peru Lima free
Poland free
Portugal free
Romania Bucharest free
Russia Moscow free
Russia St Petersburg free
Slov. Rep. Bratislava free
Spain free
Sweden free
Switzerland free
Turkey Ankara free
United Kingdom free
USA New York free
Venezuela Caracas free

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Tpad Provides Free VOIP Calls for Wi-Fi Mobile Phone Users

Tpad are the latest entrants to the developing Wi-Fi mobile phone market offering a service that enables GSM mobile phone users to make free calls to any SIP enabled user anywhere in the world.
The VoIP provider's service uses the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) the major open standard utilized by most major mobile phone service providers. Because of this a Tpad User in America, for example, can initiate a free call using their mobile phone to Europe or Asia using the service.

Chris Morris, Tpad General Manager, states: "At Tpad we give you a free personal SIP phone number that you can use to make and receive calls. You just simply dial the SIP number of your friend anywhere in the world and the call is totally free. For instance, I can call my friend in Spain for free from my mobile when I am in a WiFi Hotspot by just dialling his seven digit Tpad number."
Tpad's service allows free calls to be made using any SIP Device (WiFi Mobile/ATA/IP Phone) whereas most existing mobile phone VoIP methods are either expensive or difficult to set up. For example, Skype's new 3 Skypephone uses a non-SIP proprietary architecture that can't be used to call to SIP users. Likewise Apple's iPhone, which has a WiFi connection, is not SIP enabled preventing users from making free or low cost international calls.
"The main advantage of SIP is that it works easily with other applications," said General Manager Chris Morris. "It's open and very flexible as it allows you to make free calls to any type of SIP Device," he added.The Tpad service is currently available on any Wi-Fi mobile phone that has a built-in SIP client, currently all Nokia N and E-Series phones support this. It is expected that as more dual-mode (standard mobile phone service and Wi-Fi) phones reach consumers by the end of the year the interest in the service will grow.Leading mobile phone producers such as Samsung and Motorola will soon be releasing brand new phones that are compatible with the SIP protocol.
Tpad has recently added detailed step-by-step SIP guides to their website to help make the service as accessible as possible for even the most novice user. The guides demonstrate the process of quickly setting up your mobile / SIP device with the Tpad Global VoIP Network.

Indian Rupee eases on weak Asia, but losses capped

The rupee eased slightly on Monday, hurt by declines in most Asian currencies on waning prospects of further rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve, though dollar selling by a private-sector bank capped losses. At 9:45 am (0415 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 39.35/36 per dollar, just softer than the previous close of 39.34/35 per dollar on Friday, which was its strongest finish since Nov. 19. The rupee hit a near-decade high of 39.16 last month. "The negative cues from dollar-Asia and other equity markets are what people are looking at, but the rupee is not likely to be affected as much as other Asian currencies," said the chief dealer with a foreign bank. Asian shares fell on Monday after surging US inflation and high oil prices fanned concerns the Federal Reserve may be unable to make deeper cuts to prevent a possible recession. Still, dealers said that elevated overnight interbank interest rates would limit the rupee's losses, as banks may pare dollar holdings to tide over tight cash conditions. Call rates were trading at 7.70-7.80 per cent, higher than the 6 per cent when cash conditions are normal. Adding to the tentative mood were concerns India's central bank would block any rapid appreciation in the rupee, which has gained over 12 percent this year. The Reserve Bank of India bought $64.5 billion in intervention in the first 10 months of the year.



Courtesy to
The Economic Times

Basics of Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is a type of investment vehicle where investors pool their money in order to allow each investor participate in a portfolio of securities. The individual investor doesn't actually own each security but instead, he owns shares of the mutual fund. The main benefit of a mutual fund is that it provides a way for the investor to achieve diversification in his investments without having to invest a a lot of money.The first mutual fund was the Massachusetts Investors Trust introduced in 1924. At the end of it's first year, the fund had 200 investors with $63,600 in assets. At the end of 1995, the fund grew to 73,500 investors with assets totalling $1.8 billion! Now there are over 7000 different mutual funds available for you to choose from. You may be wondering why you should choose a mutual fund. Simple - a mutual fund offers 2 large benefits over owning the stocks individually. Those benefits are diversification with professional management without having to invest a lot of money.Diversification is important because it helps to reduce the risk. By owning shares of multiple companies, the fund's share value is not devastated if an individual company has a poor performance.Selecting which securities to buy, the allocation of cash and securities, and when to purchase is all done by the fund manager or the management team. The fund manager has the training, time and the resources to make the best informed investment decisions.Also, he fund may be part of a family of funds where the investor can switch between funds at no additional cost, including switching in and out of a money market funds. Most mutual funds include some degree of check writing privileges and may offer automatic transfer of funds on a periodic basis like monthly for those who want to regularly invest a set dollar amount. This type of investment is called dollar cost averaging.

Types of Mutual Funds Available:

Domestic Equity Funds - These mutual funds mainly focus on stocks offered by different U.S. companies. With this type of fund there is a wide range of offerings that takes into consideration the size of the company, the stability of the company, growth and the potential valueof the company.
Global/International Funds - Global or International mutual funds mainly allow the investor to include foreign equities into their investments. Although deemed slightly riskier their values do tend to go up when domestic equities drop, offering a balance to the investors portfolio.
Sector Funds - sector funds give the investor a way to focus on specific parts of the business world. For example, niches like real estate, precious metals or financials. If an investor is able to tolerate an amount of risk, they may end up benefiting from investing in this way. Particularly if the investor knows something about that market segment.
Fixed Income Funds - fixed income mutual funds tend to be less volatile. This is the right fund for an investor who is looking for income. Fixed mutual funds for the most part are made up of bonds, CD's and money market funds. Yes, they do fluctuate with interest rates, still are a sound investment for someone looking for an income generating portforlio.
Hybrid Funds - Hybrid mutual funds are generally made up of different investment sectors in one mutual fund. For example, a usual mix may be the pairing of equities with bonds or blue chip stocks with riskier ones.
Index Funds - Index mutual funds imitate the selections and amounts of specified market indexes like the S&P 500. They are generally unmanaged keeping costs down.
Enhanced Index Funds - Enhanced index funds are actively managed funds applying a portion of their resources to outperform their benchmark indces.
Asset Allocation Funds - Asset allocation funds target investors who want a single product solution. They are designed to invest across the primary asset classes including equities, fixed income securities and money market. Each fund is allocated among different asset classes according to their risk tolerances.
Conservative Allocation Funds - Conservative allocation mutual funds are usually for investors with a minimum five-year investment timeframe.How to Select a Mutual FundUnfortunately, there's no one size fits all strategy when it comes to any type of investing. You need to take into consideration what your needs are and what your future financial goals are. Everyone's situation is unique. We encourage you to talk with your financial advisor to find out which mutual funds would best complement your portfolio. When choosing a mutual fund you should first get a prospectus then, call the fund company. In many cases, the prospectus is available right on the company's website. Also, Morningstar rates mutual funds. Each year end, many financial publications list the year's best performing mutual funds. Naturally, very eager investors will rush out to purchase shares of last year's top performers. That's a big mistake. Remember, changing market conditions make it rare that last year's top performer repeats that ranking for the current year. Mutual fund investors would be well advised to consider the fund prospectus, the fund manager, and the current market conditions. Never rely on last year's top performers.The ProspectusA prospectus for a mutual fund is a publication that has all the information that is required by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The funds propectus includes objectives and policies, roles, services, fees, and major features of the fund.The prospectus also defines the boundaries within which the fund manager can operate. Using a hypothetical example, we will assume that the prospectus of the Chicken Farms Mutual Fund says "the fund will only invest in chicken farms in the USA that have shown a profit for at least the last two years." The fund manager would have the freedom to buy stock in any chicken farm meeting that criteria. However, the fund could not buy any chicken farm shares anywhere else other than the U.S. The prospectus also tells you the costs of the fund.Costs of Mutual FundsUsually, mutual funds are offered with several classes of shares, or they are no-load funds. Mutual fund companies exist to make money. That money can come from many different sources:
A sales charge: incurred upon purchase of shares
A deferred sales charge: incurred upon the sale of shares
Management fees: an on going operating cost
Distribution fees: on-going costs usually associated with advertising
Trading costs: costs charged by the broker for executing trades within the fund. These can be high in funds that have high turnover rates.
Other expenses: another category for on going expenses
No load funds will typically have no sales charge and no deferred sales charge, but will have the other fees listed.Load funds will offer different classes of shares such as A, B, or C shares. These will be defined by varied cost structures. An example of the impact of an investment which is held for different time periods will also be included in the prospectus. The best deal for you primarily depends on how long you hold the shares. No-load funds that are held for many years can be more expensive than load funds.In conclusion, mutual funds are a way for investors to diversify their risk and still benefit from professional money management. The prospectus identifies key information about the mutual fund including its operating boundaries and its costs. The fund manager operates within those boundaries and is important in order to achieve good results within those boundaries. Do your research, then talk to a professional investment advisor about mutual fund investing.

Indian markets among most expensive globally?

Price- to-book value ratio of Sensex stocks is at record 6.5

With the key stock indices at new highs, the Indian markets may now look quite expensive by most valuation parameters.

The Sensex PB ratio is now at a record high of 6.5, making the Indian benchmark the most richly valued among the global indices on this valuation parameter. The PB ratio is a measure of the value that the stock market is willing to assign to a company, based on the tangible assets on its books.

It is computed by dividing the market price by the book value per share. The PB ratio is the most widely used measure, after the PE multiple, to value stocks.

While the Sensex PB ratio rules at 6.5, data published in Forbes.com in mid-November, reveals that the developed markets in US and Europe trade at PB ratios of between 2.4 and 2.8.

Emerging markets such as Brazil (4.3) and Mexico (3.5) sport PB ratios that are a tad higher than developed markets, but they are still well below Indian levels.

Even the Shanghai Composite Index hovers pretty close to the Sensex, if you go by its PB ratio.

Rapid rise

The current PB ratio of the Sensex is 80 per cent above its eight-year average. What is more, it has climbed from 4.8 in August to the current value of 6.5, in less than three months. The rapid increase in the stock prices over the last three months could be partially responsible for the distortion in this gauge.

Another bit of disturbing news is that it is not just the 30-stock Sensex that is stretched on this parameter. The more broad-based BSE 500 index too is ruling at a PB ratio of 6.2.

This indicates that the widespread rally in recent months has expanded valuations across-the-board.

However, PB ratio for the BSE Small-cap index is at a relatively modest 3.4.

Understated values

However, there is a section of investors who believe that a high PB ratio isn’t particularly worrying for Indian stocks.

Explains Mr Shriram Iyer, Head of Research at Edelweiss Capital: “Price to Book Value, as a valuation measure, usually sets a floor for valuing a stock. It doesn’t capture future earnings potential.” He explains that while a company’s book value typically captures the cost incurred to build assets, it doesn’t reflect the earnings that can be generated by these assets over the next few years.

Mr Iyer also feels that “book value” in the Indian context tends to be understated in balance sheets due to several reasons. He cites the example of natural resource companies.

“The value of mining rights, gas reserves or other resources held by companies such as ONGC, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, SAIL and so on has risen sharply in recent times, but these assets are captured at cost in the company’s books. To that extent, the price-to-book value may not reflect the earnings potential of such companies.”

“There could also be several intangibles that are not reflected in the books. The value of an insurance subsidiary for a financial service company or the earnings potential of land held by a realty company will not be reflected in book value; yet they may have high earnings potential.

However, it would be difficult to comment on whether a PB ratio of over 6 is expensive for the Indian market,” he adds.



Coutesy to
"The Hindu Business Line"

Building a Good Equity Portfolio

In today's booming stock markets a well-constructed equity portfolio is vital to wealth creation. The equity markets in India are generating double-digit returns. Equity returns seem to dwarf the returns generated by all other asset classes. In this scenario the big question that arises is how to capitalize on this fact to get better returns for your portfolio while keeping in mind that you have to:nSecure the higher return with the least amount of risknProtect both profits and principalnMake sure that investment portfolio will be worth more in the future.

Asset allocation
Successful investing begins by conceding that - to a degree - uncertainty will always be your companion. Hence the first step in building a portfolio will be to determine your risk bearing capacity. On the basis of your risk taking ability you determine the extent of your portfolio you can allocate to equity, a process also called asset allocation. Asset allocation refers to spreading investments among different asset classes, not just different securities or market sectors. As different asset classes are imperfectly correlated it allows you to boost returns while reducing your portfolio's volatility. Determining the quantum of assets to be invested in each asset class based on risk profile will help in protecting the portfolio in volatile times. Asset allocation has in the past allowed people to survive, prosper and build wealth during bear markets.

Focus on equity

But investing is not all about portfolio protection; it's about building wealth. It's about creating a retirement corpus or a substantial amount to bank upon. The idea is to leverage Indian macro economic situation to assist in wealth creation. This is possible by giving higher focus to equity portion of the portfolio. Equity investments do carry higher risk, but it's possible to minimize this risk with a judicious approach. Equity investment can be done in different approaches or styles. Investment style or an approach refers to a broad category that displays similar fundamental characteristics. Some of the well-known approaches to equity investing are income investing, growth investing and value investing.

Income investing

This style of investing is best suited for investors with very low risk appetite and retirees who want regular income from their portfolio. The idea here is to invest in good quality dividend paying stocks. The price of these stocks generally does not fluctuate much. Most of the earnings of these companies are distributed as dividends. Companies generally pay dividends on a half yearly basis. If you purchase several different stocks whose dividend payments are staggered you can structure a regular stream of income from your equity portfolio and additionally give you adequate protection to your portfolio on the downside. A dividend yield higher than the post-tax yields of fixed income securities is definitely a good option for investors who look for income investing. In general, companies with low growth prospects offer a high dividend yield, against those with high growth prospects.

Growth investing

This style of investing is more suitable for investors who can wait for a longer time for their returns and have a higher ability to bear risk. Growth investing is selecting and buying stock in companies that tend to grow substantially faster than others. The idea behind it is that a growth in earnings and/or revenues would directly correlate into an increase in the stock price. The other characteristics of growth stocks include higher than average P/E ratio and poor dividend payout because, fast-growing companies need their capital to finance their expansion. Most companies reinvest a high portion or all of their earnings in their own businesses.

Value investing

Value like growth investing is for a patient investor as it will be a long time before the value of the company is recognized by the stock markets. This term describes the purchase of cheap, unpopular shares that is currently ignored by the markets. Suitable shares for value investing are those with high cash flow, dividends and earnings yields, and high ratios of sales and book value to share price. Over the very long run, value shares appear to outperform growth shares, possibly because of the greater volatility in these companies. Whether you are income investor or value investor you need a good strategy to pick-up the stocks. You can judge a company by its numbers, management, brand value, competition in the industry and the growth of the future earnings. It's imperative that your equity portfolio should consist of 10-15 stocks spread across 2-5 sectors to diversify risk. There is no single approach to make you successful in equity investing but the combination of all the approaches in a balanced manner can give you the best returns at the current juncture.


Courtesy to Economic Times

Free Voip Calls during Christmas by Jajah

Jajah is giving away 1 hour of free calls on Christmas day to all Jajah Direct Users.
This promotion only applies to calls made using the JAJAH Direct product and not other JAJAH products. Jajah Direct is their new service which provide calling via their access numbers in several countries. Each user will receive a credit for the value of the first 60 minutes up to a total value of $2.10 USD, which has to be used on Christmas day.
JAJAH Direct service is available in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, Israel and Italy only.
Jajah's free calling promotion will start at calls made between December 24 (12 am GMT) through December 25 (12 am GMT).
It is expected that India and Pakistan can also be reached using this free offer for Christmas

Free VOIP Solution Free calls Worldwide: VOIP Guide celebrates first birthday

Free VOIP Solution Free calls Worldwide: VOIP Guide celebrates first birthday

NEW FUND OFFER - DBS CHOLA SMALL CAP FUND

The DBS Chola Small Cap Fund is the latest offering from the DBS Chola fund house.
This scheme aims to achieve capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related instruments of companies with smaller market capitalization. Here, small cap companies are defined as those whose market capitalization falls between the highest and the lowest constituent of the BSE Small Cap Index. The DBS Chola Small Cap Fund proposes to invest at least 65 per cent of the fund proceeds in equity and equity related securities of small companies. It has an option of investing upto 35 per cent in securities of companies other than smaller companies and upto 35 per cent may be invested in debt and money market instruments as well.This fund would automatically be converted into an open ended fund after the expiry of three years.Scheme Details Issue Opens: November 20, 2007Issue Closes: December 20, 2007Type: Closed-end, equity schemeBenchmark Index: BSE Small Cap IndexMinimum Investment: Rs 5000Entry Load: NilExit Load: Nil. However, redemption will be permitted after deduction of unamortized initial issue expenses Cost: Initial issue expenses, not exceeding 6 per cent of the corpus collected, would be amortized on a daily basis over the three-year closed-end tenure of the scheme.

Performance History:

Fund ManagerR. Rajagopal is the designated fund manager for the scheme. He has a total experience of 13 years. His prior assignments were with IDBI Capital Market Services as Vice President Equity Investment, Principal - PNB Asset Management Co. as Senior Investment Analyst, IDBI Investment Management Company as Fund Manager, Kotak Mahindra Finance as Manager and Stock Holding Corporation of India as Executive.Rajagopal is responsible for managing all equity and the equity portion of DBS Chola MIP Fund.
Performance History: DBS CholaDBS Chola AMC stared its operation in the year 1997. Currently their AUM are worth Rs. 5164 crore. The fund house's 9 equity fund offerings constitute just 6 per cent of its total assets under management. Out of its three rated equity funds, DBS Chola Opportunities has a 4-star rating while DBS Chola Midcap Fund and DBS Chola Growth have a 3-star rating.

Gold & Silver Tumbles in Market on Global Cues

Both the precious metals, gold and silver, tumbled sharply on the bullion market on Friday on fresh stockists offerings triggered by steep fall in global markets. Lack of industrial demand coupled with sharp fall in New York market were the main reasons behind fall in white metal prices. Standard gold (99.5 purity) dropped by Rs 155 per ten grams to Rs 10,180 from Rs 10,335 previously. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also fell to Rs 10,230 from Rs 10,385 yesterday. Silver ready (.999 fineness) slumped by Rs 390 per kilo to Rs 18,870 from Rs 19,260. Gold and silver futures fell sharply in New York on Thursday as the dollar flexed its muscles following big rises in US retail sales and the Producer Price Index, trimming expectations for further US rates cuts, traders said. February gold tumbled by $14.80 to $804 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. March silver lost 58.8 cents to $14.237. In Hong Kong, gold ended lower at $799.40/800.10 per ounce as against $810.60/811.30 yesterday and in London, it was fixed lower in the morning at $796.25 per ounce as against $800.70 per ounce previously.

FREE VOIP CALLS TO CHINA & HONKONG

Mediaringtalk and Owtalk are both gearing up for the new year and have extended free call offers.
Mediaringtalk will continue to offer free calls till Jan 2008 and Owtalk will offer free calls to hong kong till end of 2007. This is great news for people who want to make free calls to singapore, hong kong, USA, Canada, Taiwan, Australia and United Kingdom. Owtalk only offers free calls to hong kong.

Exit laggards, buy largecaps: Experts

The markets failed to repeat yesterday's outperformance. The indices were hit by negative cues from across the globe and closed deep in the red.

The cues from global peers were weak as most of Asia ended down. Among Asian markets, the top laggard was Taiwan down 3.5%, followed by Hang Seng down 3%, and Nikkei down 2.5%.

The market ended near the day's low as heavy selling pressure was seen during the final hour of trade. The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The Sensex was down 271.48 points, or 1.33%, at 20104.39 while the Nifty ended down 101.20 points, or 1.64%, at 6,058.10.

The BSE Midcap Index ended at 9,375.94 up 0.4% while the BSE Smallcap Index ended at 12,007.33 up 1%. Among sectoral indices, the BSE FMCG Index was the major gainer in today's trade, up 2% at 2,231.77.

Time to book Profit - Say Experts

Close on the heels of HSBC’s Sanjiv Duggal giving a thumbs down to Indian equities, Deutsche Asset Management’s investment specialist Bill Barbour has also blown the warning bugle cautioning investors to be prudent while investing in the home market.

“Your market has gone up a long way. It’s time to book profits,” Mr Barbour warns Indian investors. According to Mr Barbour, Indian shares, priced at an average of 23 times estimated earnings, is a bit over-valued. Though foreign investors are still “big fans” of India, there are cheaper investment opportunities (with more upside to appreciate further) in other markets like Brazil, South Korea, and Taiwan, he opined. “Investors have received fantastic returns — at times as high as 40 to 60% — over the past 5 years from the Indian market. People should understand that no tree grows to the sky.
I am not saying Indian shares will not do well in the long term; but as of now, Indian valuations are a bit too over-stretched,” Mr Barbour told ET. A recent study to see how well-priced Indian bluechips are vis-a-vis their peers in developed and emerging markets, reveal that Indian shares are far more expensive (in terms of PE multiples) than world leaders with better revenues and adjusted profits. To highlight the disparities in PE (price to earnings) of Indian companies and world leaders, L&T with a trailing PE of around 56 times is far more “pricier” than engineering behemoth GE (17) or Mitsubishi (13). Likewise, ICICI commanding a PE of 43 times is far more expensive than Citigroup (9) and BNP Paribas (8). IT major Infosys with a trailing PE of 26 is undoubtedly valued higher than EDS (13) and Oracle (20). “People might say India is cheaper when compared to China. But to put things in the right perspective, we can buy a bank in the US at 1 time price to book value (PBV). Indian banks command 4.5-6 times PBV and Chinese institutions around 8 times PBV. This is highly illogical. Yes, HDFC and ICICI are great companies and they’ll do well in the long term. But compared to the Merrill Lynches of the world, Indian banks are very expensive. However, all said and done we are big fans of India,” said Mr Barbour. If fund managers decide to exit investments in India, they have cheaper investment opportunities in Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan and Russia.
Another lure is that post the financial crisis hitting US markets, American shares have become much cheaper for them to invest in. On the Chinese market, Mr Barbour said China is in a bubble. “Everybody is buying shares in China because it is going up; but shares that go up, also undergoes a corrective phase,” he added. On the US slowdown, Mr Barbour opines, “We are looking at a slowdown in the US. But hopefully, we have averted the worse case scenario. Everyone talks about decoupling of the US economy with Asian economies; but even with that US still accounts for a huge amount of growth. If US slows down, it will impact all other economies”.

Courtesy to Economic Times

Why India gets the blame, China the praise?

Bali (Indonesia), Dec 8 - China and India are both fighting climate disaster in their own ways, but the former is smarter when it comes to talking about it.
The result - India is being seen here as a hard-line nation that is against the Bali roadmap to fight climate change in a post-2012 world, while China is getting all the kudos.
As the Dec 3-14 UN climate change conference reaches the halfway stage, many of the over 10,000 delegates from 187 countries are wondering what India is up to. India is one of the few big countries without a delegation office, and most government delegates usually tell the media they are not allowed to talk. At best, they react when India is criticised in public.
The message going out from India here: it will fight any attempt to place any target on developing countries to cap their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) that lead to climate change because such a target will harm its development process.
China says the same thing, but says it very differently. It starts by saying: of course China will play a major role in fighting climate change. It has already done a lot. But in order to do more, it needs help, just like other developing countries. Almost as an afterthought, it says: there should be no GHG emission targets on developing countries. And even that it says through the G-77 plus China platform.
As a matter of fact, India has earmarked 2.5 percent of its GDP to adapt to climate change during the 11th five-year plan (2007-2012), higher than any other country. India has a large number of projects promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. But few people outside the country know about this.
The steps taken by China so far to fight climate change are similar. But the Chinese government outlined its national climate change programme early June and set itself some targets, which India has failed to do despite setting up a prime minister's task force on climate change.
Media reports say the task force met Nov 26 to discuss a position paper that the country would have at the Bali summit, and there the politicians rejected the paper prepared by the bureaucrats because it did not say anything concrete about what India planned to do to fight climate change. At that stage, it was too late to prepare another paper.
So the Indian government delegation has come here with a list of laws and policies that improve energy efficiency and promote renewable energy sources. The list was prepared by a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) task force, whose report goes on to seek a number of policy measures from the government but is largely silent on what even the private sector plans to do to fight climate change.
Contrast this with China, which has clearly outlined the main goals in its national climate change programme - 15 percent of total energy to be generated through renewable sources by 2020; 20 percent improvement in energy efficiency by 2010; and increase in forest cover to 20 percent by 2010.
The Chinese government has also announced it will close down 50 GW of its most-pollution coal-fired power plants, without committing to a deadline on that.
China already has fuel efficiency standards more stringent than in the US, Canada or Australia.
Courtesy:- http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/155251.html

INDIAN RUPEE GAINS ON HOPE OF FRESH FOREIGN INFLOWS

Despite market players betting on the central bank cancelling bond auctions for the coming week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the auction of two dated securities worth Rs 7,000 crore between Dec 7 and 14.
Though this announcement dampened the sentiment on the bond market, it drew positives from low inflation data and expectations of a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. Yield on the 10-year benchmark bond, the 7.99% bond maturing in 2017, ended flat on Friday from its previous close at 7.87%.
The rupee rose on Friday on hopes of foreign inflows bolstering sentiment for the local unit. The rupee ended the day at 39.39/40 against the dollar, up from Thursday’s close of 39.48/49. While there were some foreign inflows, a huge private equity deal by a British bank resulted in the sale of around $500 million, which caused the rupee to rise.
Hopes of a rate cut by the US Fed made investors shy away from buying dollars at current rates. The rate cut will result in a spate of fresh inflow to developing economies, resulting in a rise in the rupee. After opening at 39.43/44 levels, foreign inflows caused the rupee to rise to an intra-day high of 39.38. There was intervention by the central bank at this point, with nationalised banks buying dollars.

Boat Race (Vallamkali) in Kerala Back waters during Onam

SMART KID - NEW UNIT LINKED REGULAR PLAN FROM ICICI PRUDENTIAL

Never compromise on your child’s career.

Smart Kid New Unit-linked Regular Premium, a unit-linked policy which allows you to withdraw money whenever necessary to meet the key educational expenses of your child. Additionally, the life insurance cover ensures your loved ones stay financially secure in your absence.

Lump sum payment of sum assured plus company contributes future premiums in the unfortunate event of death of parent

In the unfortunate event of death of the holder (parent), beneficiary (child) receives an annual allowance every year until maturity

Withdrawal facility to provide money for key educational Expenses of child

Potentially higher returns over the long-term by investing in Unit-linked funds

Tax benefits on premiums paid and benefits received under the policy, as per prevailing Income Tax laws.

UTI Infrastructure Advantage Fund

UTI Infrastructure Advantage Fund
India’s infrastructure sector is expected to witness huge investments in the coming years. To enable you to take advantage of this boom, UTI now launches the UTI Infrastructure Advantage Fund. As a 3 year close ended fund it focuses on investing in high growth infrastructure sectors such as Airports, Banking, Construction, Engineering, Energy, Mining, Ports and Power among others.
INFRASTRUCTURE-THE FIRST CHOICE
The importance of infrastructure for India’s sustained economic development is well recognized today. Investment in this sector has gained momentum in the last few years and is experiencing rapid growth across the different sub-sectors. Enormous growth opportunities are going to emerge in the near future as well.
The Government of India has already started major initiatives including plans to open up the infrastructure development to private sector companies in order to further boost up the growth and development. Let’s take a quick look at some of the initiatives in the infrastructure sectors:
Highways:
An ambitious National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), involving a total investment of Rs.2,20,000 crores upto 2012 is underway.
Railways:
(a) To build dedicated freight corridors in the Western and Eastern high-density routes.(b) Technological upgradation and modernisation for higher operating ef?ciency.(c) PPP (Public Private Partnership) envisaged in new routes, railway stations, logistics parks, cargo aggregation, warehouses etc.
Ports:
(a) Empower and enable the 12 major ports to attain world-class standards.(b) Plan for improving rail-road connectivity of major ports, which is to be implemented within a period of three years.
Airports:
(a) Green?eld international airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad have been approved and are currently under construction.(b) A comprehensive plan for the development of other 35 non-metro airports is also under preparation.
Telecom:
250 million subscribers by December 2007. Over 4 million new users being added every month.
Power:
(a) Power for all by 2012. Additional 60,000 km of transmission network to be put up by 2012.(b) Total investment opportunity of about US$ 200 billion over a seven year horizon.
Private Sector participation in infrastructure
The share of public and private investment in the total infrastructure investment during the 11th plan is projected to be about 70 % and 30% respectively, in contrast with 83% and 17% respectively during the 10th Plan. Telecom, Ports and Airports are some of the sectors where private investment is expected to constitute more than 65% of the total investment.All these initiatives are going to put infrastructure reform process in the fast lane and drive the Indian economy on an accelerated growth path. Thus companies in the infrastructure sector / sub sectors are going to see greater opportunities / value in the times to come.
UTI Infrastructure Fund: An Impeccable Track Record
UTI Mutual Fund has an impeccable track record in the management of an Infrastructure Fund called UTI Infrastructure Fund. We were one of the ?rst to spot the opportunity in 2004 when the sector really took off. The fund has a consistent performance track record and it is one of the best schemes in the equity diversi?ed category with a one-year return of 79.95 % as on 1st Nov. 2007 (as per Value Research). Currently the scheme has been rated as a 5-Star Fund by Value Research. (Source: www.valueresearchonline.com)

Indian Mutual Funds - New Fund Offers

Franklin Asian Equity Fund - Those of who want to spread their portfolio/ risk across Asian markets can apply.

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (KMAMC) is all set to play the infrastructure theme by launching the Kotak Indo World Infrastructure Fund, a three-year close-ended equity scheme.The fund will open for subscription on November 27 and close on December 22.
Fund is close ended.Investors too keen on infrastructure can prefer investing through SIPs in open-ended funds like UTI Infrastructure, Tata Infrastructure or ICICI prudential infrastructure fund. But limit your exposure to sectoral funds.

ICICI Prudential Real Estate Securities Fund (The scheme will not be directly owning or holding real estate properties.) is a 3-year close-ended debt fund, designed to invest in Real Estate Sector and real estate oriented sectors like Cement, Construction, Metals, Hotels, Retail, Banks & Finance Companies etc.The scheme will:Predominantly invest (51% to 100%) in high yielding debt securities issued by companies that are associated with or benefitting (directly / indirectly) from the real estate sector.Invest up to 49% in equity of companies, which are engaged in industries that benefit directly or indirectly from the Real Estate Sector or have substantial investments in property (incl. Land holdings).The initial allocation of the fund will typically be 70% in debt instruments and 30% in equity and equity related securities.

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