The process of diversification of investment portfolio has various phases involving investment into various classes of assets like equity shares, preference shares, money market instruments like commercial paper, inter-corporate investments, certificate of deposits etc. Within each class of assets, there is further possibility of diversification into various industries, different companies etc. The proportion of funds invested into various classes of assets, instruments, industries and companies would depend upon the objectives of investor, under portfolio management and his asset preferences, income and asset requirements. A portfolio with the objective of regular income would invest a proportion of funds in bonds, debentures and fixed deposits. For such investment, duration of the life of the bond/debenture, quality of the asset as judged by the credit rating and the expected yield are the relevant variables. Bond market is not well developed in India but debentures, partly or fully convertible into equity are in good Continue reading
Stock Investments
Modern Portfolio Theory – Markowitz Portfolio Selection Model
Markowitz Portfolio Theory Harry Markowitz developed a theory, also known as Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) according to which we can balance our investment by combining different securities, illustrating how well selected shares portfolio can result in maximum profit with minimum risk. He proved that investors who take a higher risk can also achieve higher profit. The central measure of success or failure is the relative portfolio gain, i.e. gain compared to the selected benchmark. Modern portfolio theory is based on three assumptions about the behavior of investors who: wish to maximize their utility function and who are risk averse, choose their portfolio based on the mean value and return variance, have a single-period time horizon. Markowitz portfolio theory is based on several very important assumptions. Under these assumptions a portfolio is considered to be efficient if no other portfolio offers a higher expected return with the same or lower risk. Continue reading
Advantages and disadvantages of the Depository System
Advantages of the Depository System The advantages of dematerialization of securities are as follows: Share certificates, on dematerialization, are cancelled and the same will not be sent back to the investor. The shares, represented by dematerialized share certificates are fungible and, therefore, certificate numbers and distinctive numbers are cancelled and become non-operative. It enables processing of share trading and transfers electronically without involving share certificates and transfer deeds, thus eliminating the paper work involved in scrip-based trading and share transfer system. Transfer of dematerialized securities is immediate and unlike in the case of physical transfer where the change of ownership has to be informed to the company in order to be registered as such, in case of transfer in dematerialized form, beneficial ownership will be transferred as soon as the shares are transferred from one account to another. The investor is also relieved of problems like bad delivery, fake certificates, Continue reading
Depositories in India
At present there are two depositories in India, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central Depository Services (CDS). NSDL is the first Indian depository, it was inaugurated in November 1996. NSDL was set up with an initial capital of US$28mn, promoted by Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Unit Trust of India (UTI) and National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE). Later, State Bank of India (SBI) also became a shareholder. The other depository is Central Depository Services (CDS). It is still in the process of linking with the stock exchanges. It has registered around 20 DPs and has signed up with 40 companies. It had received a certificate of commencement of business from Sebi on February 8, 1999. These depositories have appointed different Depository Participants (DP) for them. An investor can open an account with any of the depositories’ DP. But transfers arising out of trades on the stock Continue reading
Issue of a share at par and at a premium
In general, an ordinary share in India is said to have a par value (face value) of Rs.10, though some shares issued earlier still carry a par value of Rs.100. Par value implies the value at which a share is originally recorded in the balance sheet as equity capital. Equity capital is the same as ordinary share capital. The SEBI guidelines for public issues by new companies established by individual promoters and entrepreneurs, require all new companies to offer their shares to the public at par, i.e. at Rs.10. However, a new company set up by existing companies (and of course existing companies themselves) with a track record of at least five years of consistent profitability are allowed by the SEBI guidelines to issue shares at a premium. It should be noted that when a company issues shares at a premium, it is able to raise the required Continue reading
Different Types of Stock Beta
Beta coefficient is a comparative measure of how the stock performs relative to the market as a whole. It is determined by plotting the stock’s and market’s returns at discrete intervals over a period of time and fitting (regressing) a line through the resulting data points. The slope of that line is the levered equity beta. When the slope of the line is 1.00, the returns of the stock are no more or less volatile than returns on the market. When the slope exceeds 1.00, the stock’s returns are more volatile than the market’s returns. The beta coefficient is a key component for the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which describes the relationship between risk and expected return and that is used in the pricing of risky securities. The important types of stock beta used in financial analysis are historical beta, adjusted beta and fundamental beta. An historical betas are Continue reading