DSP ML MF bets on utilities, banking, IT

DSP ML Mutual Fund invested in utilities, banking, technologies, metal, engineering, and oil & gas in February, but sold cement, media, telecom, pharma and manufacturing stocks.
A study of the equity portfolios managed by DSP ML Mutual Fund for the month of February, reveals that in utilities it bought CESC and NTPC and made fresh investments in GVK Power and Tata Power.

In banking sector, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Development Credit Bank and IDFC were in buy list whereas IDBI, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Indian Overseas Bank were in sell list. It made fresh entry in Power Finance Corporation and Network 18 Fincap.

In technology pack, NIIT and Tata Consultancy Services were in buy list while HCL Tecnologies , Satyam Computer Services, and Mastek were in sell list. It made fresh entry in newly listed Redington, Firstsource Solution and also in technology pivotal Patni Computer System. It exited Wipro, Allsec Technologies.

Metal stocks SAIL, Tata Steel were bought while Sterlite Industries was sold. It entered in Welspun Gujarat Stahl Roh. In engineering pack, it bought over 89.74 lakh shares of KEC Infrastructures. Bharat Earth Movers and Siemens were also in buy list while L&T, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Havells India were in sell list.

In oil & gas, Reliance Industries was in buy list. However, Cairn India and ONGC were among the top sells.

DSP ML MF sold cement, media, telecom, pharma and manufacturing stocks. In cement, it sold 13.70 lakh shares of Lanco Infratech. Hindustan Construction Company was also in sell list. It exited Ultrattech Cement and Mahindra Gesco. Nagarjuna Construction, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and India Cements were in buy list.

In media, it sold over 18.48 lakh shares of Zee Entertainment. Wire and Wireless was also in sell list. It entered in Global Broadcast News. However, Zee News and NDTV were bought.
It sold over 12 lakh shares of Relaince Communication in telecom,. ITI and VSNL were also in top sell list. It bought over 31 lakh shares of Tata Teleservices. It exited Finolex Cables. In pharma, Dr Reddy Laboratories was in sold list whereas Ranbaxy Laboratories was in bought list. It exited Panacea Biotech and entered Glaxosmithkline Pharma. In manufacturing, Essel Propack and Bharat Forge were in buy list. It exited Raymond and Ballarpur Industries.

Economic Survey: What do Economists say about it?

Indranil Sengupta, Chief Economist at Kotak Institutional Equities says that the government typically has growth as its prime objective, whereas the Central Bank has inflation management price stability as its primary objective.
He says, "It is on expected lines; the growth story is paramount for the policy to maintain and my sense is that if you look at all the leading indicators in the economy they all seem robust. So I do not think that growth is a concern at this stage. Inflation is a concern because a lot of inflation is been driven by supply shortage as the survey itself points out."
He adds that taming inflation will mean being patient with the causes of inflation because as the survey points out, this is not something which will go away in a hurry. Also tightening monetary policy beyond a level will hurt growth, he says.
Subir Gokaran, Chief Economist at Crisil says, "The survey is making an admission, I think it’s being very realistic and blunt, but it has made an admission that its difficult to control the kind of inflation we are seeing, as it is driven by food prices in particular, which should be controlled in the short-run. So it is a challenge from a medium-term perspective to keep inflation within check. I think one should not expect an immediate relief or solution for food-driven inflation that we are seeing today. I appreciate the candor that the survey is expressing on this issue."
Chief Economist at Standard Chartered Bank, Sucheta Mehta says that the price of imported oil which is lower YoY, is a positive for the economy and inflation.
She says, "I think that on the current account balance front, the key positive at this point in time is that the price of imported oil is lower YoY. This helps moderate impact of imported inflation on firstly, the Economy and secondly the impact of oil on the current account balance. So that is one thing that is positive from the global environment perspective. I think that trade liberalization has been an ongoing theme. Perhaps, further reduction in customs duty could be one thing that could be coming through in the Budget."

India Inc gives weak performance this FY

With the 2006-07 financial year soon coming to an end, we compare the performance of all listed companies in FY 2006-07 (prices taken between April 3, 2006 and March 26, 2007) with FY 2005-06 (prices taken between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2006).
Analysing the performance of companies, which were trading on the stock exchanges in both the financial years, it was seen that 76% of the total listed companies have seen a fall in their market capitalization in this financial year as compared to the last. Out of 1626 companies, market capitalization of 1226 companies have taken a dip.
This data clearly suggests the weak performance of India inc's in FY06-07. The weakness, as per experts, can be attributed to factors like high inflation and interest rates. The event of 'budget', which always gives a much needed upside to the market, also did not seem to go very well with the investors.

UTI MF announces 1:10 bonus in 3 schemes

UTI Mutual Fund has announced a bonus in the ratio of 1 unit for every 10 units held under three of its schemes viz. UTI Retirement Benefit Pension Fund, UTI Unit Linked Insurance Plan and UTI-Children’s Career Balanced Plan. The face value of each unit of said schemes is Rs.10.

The record date for the bonus is March 30, 2007. Pursuant to the payment of bonus, the NAV of the schemes would fall to the extent of bonus units allotted and statutory levy if any. The NAV per unit of UTI Retirement Benefit Pension Fund, UTI Unit Linked Insurance Plan and UTI-Children's Career Balanced Plan as on March 26, 2007 was Rs.19.3276, Rs.15.4360 and Rs.14.5136 respectively.

Asian And US Markets perfomance

Asian markets:

Asian stocks recovered from a rocky start to trade mixed at mid-morning today, although Japan's Nikkei 225 average failed to shake its downbeat tone, ranking as the leading regional decliner as exporters such as Honda Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. moved lower after the yen rose to a one-week high against the US dollar.
Japan's Nikkei tumbled 0.92% or 158.48 points at 17,096.25, Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.21% or 6.81 points at 3,194.94. However, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up 0.09% or 6.78 points at 7,794.92, South Korea's Seoul Composite rose 0.26% or 3.72 points at 1,443.46 and Hong Kong's Heng Seng was flat at 19,551.72.

US Market:

The Dow industrials fell 96.93 points, or 0.78%, to 12,300.36. The Dow fell by as much as 140 points after the Fed released Bernanke's prepared remarks for his testimony.

Market As of Today some ups!!!!!!!!

It was yet another day of sluggish trade wherein the markets opened on a flat note and proceeded to trade rangebound amid extreme volatility. It was a quite day despite being F&O expiry date but gained some momentum during the late trade due to buying interest seen in the FMCG, Capital goods and IT stocks, however the banking, auto and metal stocks remained under pressure through the day and consequently managed to shut shop in green after three consecutive decline.
The Sensex closed up 95.32 points or 0.74% at 12979.66, and the Nifty up 37.00 points or 0.98% at 3798.1. About 1547 shares have advanced, 918 shares declined, and 69 shares are unchanged.
BSE Midcap closed in green, up 22.59 points or 0.43% at 5,319.17 and Smallcap was up 65.34 points or 1.04% at 6,377.79.
BSE Auto index ended in red, was down 16.27 points or 0.34% at 4,803.59. Ashok Leyland, Sundaram and TVS Motors declined most.
BSE Bankex closed down 27.60 or 0.42% at 6,507.65. UTI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bank of India ended low.
BSE Metal index ended down 28.29 points or 0.34% at 8,346.06. Sesa Goa, Jindal Steel and Sterlite Industries were the hardest hit scrip.
BSE Capital Goods index was up 108.51 points or 1.22% at 9,000.14. KEC Infra, Aban Offshore and L&T were the top gainers.
BSE FMCG index ended up 34.97 points or 2.08% at 1,712.21. HLL, ITC and United Spirits gained most.
BSE Pharma index closed up 35.53 point or 1% at 3,581.82. Glenmark, Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma were the top gainers.
BSE IT index was up 43.23 points or 0.89% at 4,875.08. TCS, Mphasis and HCL Tech surged.
BSE Oil & Gas index ended up 27.39 points or 0.43% at 6,391.51. BPCL, ONGC and Chennai Petroleum were top gainers.

Markets today:
Market gains in late trade on expiry day
Sensex up 0.74% or 95.32 points at 12979.66; Nifty up nearly 1% or 37 points at 3798
BSE FMCG Index up 2%; HLL up 3.72%, ITC up 2.5%
BSE Capital Goods Index up 1.22%; L&T up 3.15%, Suzlon up 2.17%
Index Gainers; HCL Tech up 4.5%, Zee Ent up 4.47%, BPCL up 4.30%, TCS up 3.94%
CNX Midcap Index up 0.18%; led by construction cos
Sobha Developers up 8.70%, Akruti Nirman up 5.95%, Indiabulls Real Estate up 5.85%
BSE Small-cap Index up 1.04%; Nitin Spinners, Shreyas Spinning up 20% each
NSE Advance Decline ratio at 3:2
Total market turnover at Rs 64695.09 cr Vs Rs 56773.14 cr
Turnover today:
NSE Cash - Rs 10057.08 cr
NSE F&O - Rs 50961.50 cr
BSE Cash - Rs 3676.51 cr
Total - Rs 64695.09 cr

New to Mutual Funds? Tips for a beginner Money - III

Fund Candy

1. Diversified equity funds
2. Index funds
3. Opportunity funds
4. Mid-cap funds
5. Equity-linked savings schemes
6. Sector funds like Auto, Health Care, FMCG, IT, Banking etc.
7. Balanced funds for those who are not comfortable with 100% exposure to equity

If selected properly, these equity and equity-oriented funds have the potential to deliver returns that could be far superior to other asset classes.

New to Mutual Funds? Tips for a beginner Money - II

Remember, all these factors will have a direct impact on the fund you choose and the return that you can expect to get. If you are a long-term investor with some appetite for risk and are looking for returns to beat inflation, equity funds are your best bet. MFs offer a variety of equity and equity-oriented schemes (See table ‘Fund Candy’). For a beginner, it makes sense to begin with a diversified fund and gradually have some exposure to sector and specialty funds.

Keeping track..

Filling up an application form and writing out a cheque is not the end of the story. It is equally important to keep an eye on how your investments are performing. While having a qualified and professional advisor helps both in terms of making the right decision as well as measuring performance, it makes sense to know how to do yourself with a little help from these sources:

Fact sheets and Newsletters: MFs publish monthly fact sheets and quarterly newsletters that contain portfolio information, a report from the fund manager and performance statistics on the schemes managed by it.

Websites: MF web sites provide performance statistics, daily NAVs, fund fact sheets, quarterly newsletters and press clippings etc. Besides, the Association of Mutual funds in India, AMFI, website, contains daily and historical NAVs, and other scheme.

Newspapers: Newspapers have pages reporting the net asset values and the sales and redemption prices of MF schemes besides other analysis and reports.
Remember, it is very important for you to be well informed. To achieve this, you need to spend a little time to understand and analyze the information to enhance the chances of success. Even if you spend one percent of the time that you spend on earning money, it’ll be a good beginning. Above all, take help of a professional advisor to select the right fund as well as the right mix of one time investment, SIP and the STP.

New to Mutual Funds? Tips for a beginner

First time investors in Mutual Funds act in the face of imperfect information and often get overwhelmed by uncertainties characterizing the investment situation. But there’s more to Mutual Fund investing than market timing.

First things first..

The first thing an aspiring unit holder must do is to establish what type of portfolio he wants to build. In other words, to decide the right asset allocation. Asset allocation is a method that determines how you invest your money in different investments with the proper mix of various asset classes. Remember, the type or class of security you own i.e. equity, debt or money market, is much more important than the particular security itself.
The popular thumb rule for asset allocation says that whatever the investor’s age, he should keep that percentage of his portfolio in debt instruments. For example, if an investor is 25, he should have 25% of his investments in debt instruments and the rest in equity. However, in reality, different circumstances and financial position for each individual may require different allocation. Portfolio variable is another factor that one needs to understand to practice asset allocation. These are age, occupation, number of dependants in the family. Usually the younger you are, the more riskier the investments you can hold for getting superior returns.

How to pick the right fund/s?

Next, focus on selecting the right fund/s. The key is to select the fund/s based on their investment philosophy and consistency in terms of returns. To ensure you are selecting the right type of funds that are appropriate for your needs, consider following:
Determine what your financial goals are. Are you investing for retirement? A child’s education? Or for current income? Consider your time frame. Do you need money in three months time or three years? The longer your time horizon, the more risk you may be able to take. How do you feel about risk? Are you in a position to tolerate the ups and downs of the stock market for the possibility of higher returns? It is necessary to know your own risk tolerance. It can be a guide for choosing the right schemes. Remember, regardless of the potential returns, if you are not comfortable with a particular asset class, you should consider other options.