Reblog: SBI Life Insurance IPO review


SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (SBI Life) is a life insurance arm of SBI group that is coming out with a public offer after 23 years gap. The last issue was in 1994 for SBI.

SBI Life India’s largest private life insurer, in terms of New Business Premium generated in each fiscal year, since Fiscal 2010. It has also increased its market share of New Business Premium generated among private life insurers in India, from 15.87% in Fiscal 2015 to 20.04% in Fiscal 2017. Between Fiscal 2015 and Fiscal 2017, SBI Life’s New Business Premium generated increased at a CAGR of 35.45%, which is the highest among the top five private life insurers (in terms of total premium in Fiscal 2017) in India.

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Reblog: The dangers of timing the markets


Traditional wisdom suggests that when it comes to investing, timing is everything. But is it?

We’ve witnessed shock after shock in the political arena over the past year, which has repeatedly jolted the markets into action.

For investors, it’s difficult to sit tight amid all this noise, and you might feel encouraged to sell out of stocks to try to protect yourself from the falls. But by selling out early, you could end up missing out on the gains.

Timing the markets is effectively a double whammy in crystal ball gazing, because not only do you have to predict the outcome of these events (and just note how shocked most of us were about the Brexit vote), but also how the markets are going to react.

Disaster domino effect

Mark Northway of Sparrows Capital says the events which have transpired over the past year have provided opportunities for fund managers to “test their mettle” and trade in and out of the turbulence.

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Sensex ends flat on Friday, Nifty below 10,100; indices up 1% for the week


Equity benchmarks rebounded in last hour of trade, but ended flat supported by index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Infosys. The indices were up 1% for the week.

The S&P BSE Sensex settled at 32,272, up 30 points while the broader Nifty50 index ended at 10,085, down 1 point

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap index underperformed the benchmarks indices, down 0.3% while BSE Smallcap index was up 0.4%

Global stocks remained subdued after North Korea fired another missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, in a sign that Pyongyang remains defiant despite tightening international sanctions.

The Nifty Pharma Index was down 0.5%, breaking its three-day winning streak.

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Reblog: ICICI Lombard IPO review


 

 

 

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. (ILGI) is a general insurance arm of ICICI Bank group. The Bank is in the process of unlocking value of its arms via public issues and listings. Last year the group came with first life insurance sector arm ICICI Prudential Life Insurance IPO that after initial hiccups surged and continues to do well. Now it is coming out with a maiden offer for its general insurance arm which is ranking first among private sector general insurance companies with better product mix and having better business on all fronts.

ILGI is the largest private-sector non-life insurer in India based on gross direct premium income in fiscal 2017, a position it has maintained since fiscal 2004 after being one of the first few private-sector companies to commence operations in the sector in fiscal 2002. The company offers its customers a comprehensive and well-diversified range of products, including motor, health, crop/weather, fire, personal accident, marine, engineering and liability insurance, through multiple distribution channels. It was founded as a joint venture between ICICI Bank Limited, India’s largest private -sector bank in terms of consolidated total assets with and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a Canadian based holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and investment management.

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Reblog: The Importance Of Time Horizons For Investing (And Beyond)


The Importance of Time Horizons

 When it comes to evaluating market risk, your time horizon is a key factor to consider. As a general rule, shorter time horizons require more caution than do longer ones. I would also argue, however, that this concept applies to many areas of investing—and beyond.

Long-term investing

Let’s start with why longer-term results can be more predictable than shorter-term ones. The answer is, simply, averaging. One data point might be noisy, but as you accumulate more and average them, the outliers tend to offset each other. As a result, the signal starts to dominate the noise. The more data points you have, the closer you get to the expected result. Investors with 40 years, for example, can look at longer-term return goals with a reasonable expectation of actually getting them. But for shorter time frames, the noise can dominate. Hence, the extra caution needed as you get closer to retirement.

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Sensex pares gains to turn flat, Nifty below 9,950; L&T up 4%


Equity benchmarks ended flat with a positive bias on Friday. L&T, HDFC Bank and ITC helped the market close higher but Infosys and HDFC capped upside.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 24.78 points at 31,687.52 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 4.90 points at 9,934.80.

The market breadth turned negative in afternoon trade today as about three shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

IDBI Bank shares gained a percent as the board of directors has approved divestment of its stake in SIDBI.

Glenmark Pharma shares dropped more than 3 percent after brokerage house Credit Suisse slashed its target price on the stock to Rs 650 from Rs 750 per share.

Bajaj Finance shares fell more than 3 percent in the afternoon as the company raised funds through QIP at a discount to its floor price.

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Reblog: 8 step basic fundamental analysis for beginners


In this post I will present a simple 8 step fundamental analysis template which can be used to analyze if a a stock is investment-worthy or not.

For any stock to merit investment, the most important thing is the financial stability of the business. It is important that a company has manageable debt levels and generates enough operating profits to easily pay interest on its loans and has sufficient cash for day to day operations while delivering decent growth in revenues and profits.

I use the first four ratios described below to assess the financial stability of a company when i consider investing in its stock.

  • Long term Debt/Equity Ratio 
    Debt/Equity Ratio is a debt ratio used to measure a company’s financial leverage, calculated by dividing a company’s total liabilities by its stockholders’ equity.
    Companies (excluding financial institutions) with D/E of less than 1 to be stable and can easily cope with short term downturns as they have higher reserves than what they have borrowed.
    D/E= Sum of non current debts/Shareholder Funds.

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Reblog: Psychology of fear


 

The stock market has a long history of humbling investors. The Investment Masters understand the need for humility. Ordinarily, when investors have had a good run they risk getting over-confident and letting down their guard, only to have the stock market deliver them losses.

Many of the Investment Masters maintain a psychology of fear.

“It is better if you invest scared, if you worry about losing money, if you worry about being wrong, if you worry about being overconfident because these are the things you want to avoid. They should be foremost in your mind.” Howard Marks

“We are big fans of fear, and in investing it is clearly better to be scared than sorry.” Seth Klarman Continue Reading


Nifty ends above 9,950, up 1% for the week; Sensex settles 161 pts higher


Benchmark indices rose on Friday and gaining for a third straight week after much weaker-than-expected economic growth data raised hopes the central bank would cut interest rates at its next policy meeting in October.

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slid to a three-year low of 5.7% in the quarter ended June, a marked slowdown from a 6.1% growth in the previous quarter.

However, India’s factory activity unexpectedly expanded in August, snapping back from a contraction the previous month, as disruptions stemming from confusion over GST eased.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap up 0.9% and 0.8% respectively.

Shares of Gravita India touched 52-week high of Rs 134.65, rising 11% intraday on the back of strong Q1 numbers.

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Reblog: Why You Should Take the Profits and Run!


This article is for those traders (new or experienced) who have trouble booking profits. Do you often see large profits evaporate as the market reverses against you, leaving you feeling powerless and confused? If so, you know how frustrating it can be and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Poor target placement, lack of experience, greed, arrogance and stubbornness are all issues that can cause traders to not take profits off the table.

I appreciate this article may conflict with some of my core beliefs and teachings on taking profits since typically I encourage people to aim for a 2 to 1 risk reward or greater and to set and forget stops and targets. In theory, this makes sense, but in the real world, as you likely already know, there are still a great number of trades that almost hit your profit target or where a trade has moved quickly in the right direction and you’re staring at a giant profit… and then the next day or week, the market goes the other way and your once giant profit has become a much smaller profit or even a loss.

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