Volatility in stock prices is a cause of concern for both the policy makers and the investors. To curb excessive volatility, SEBI has prescribed a system of circuit breakers. The circuit breakers bring about a nation-wide coordinated halt in trading on all the equity and equity derivatives markets. An index based market-wide circuit breaker system applies at three stages of the index movement either way at 10%, 15% and 20%. The breakers are triggered by movement of either S&P CNX Nifty or Sensex, whichever is breached earlier. Further, the NSE views entries of non-genuine orders with utmost seriousness as this has market-wide repercussion. It may suo-moto cancel the orders in the absence of any immediate confirmation from the members that these orders are genuine or for any other reason as it may deem fit. As an additional measure of safety, individual scrip-wise price bands have been fixed as below: Daily Continue reading
Stock Investments
Advantages of Rolling Settlement
Rolling settlement system replaced the badla system from July 2, 2001. On July 2, 2001, 215 scrips were brought under the riling systems, bringing the total to 414 scrips. By January 2, 2002 all scrips were brought under compulsory rolling mode. Internationally most developed countries follow a T+3 cycle and are aiming to move to a T+1 cycle (next day settlement) or a T+0 cycle where trades are settled on the day they are executed (same evening settlement). This is system of T+0 is prevalent in Switzerland and volumes are phenomenal when compared to the T+3 system. Indian stock markets moved to the T+3 system from April 2002, in line with the recommendations of the “Group of Thirty” which suggested it as minimum international standard. The rolling settlement has many advantages. One, it reduces speculation and arbitrage in scrips as settlement occurs on a daily basis. Thus, there would be Continue reading
Financial derivative types: Forward Contracts
Forward contracts: Forwards are the oldest of all the derivatives. Forwards are contracts to buy or sell an asset on or before a future date at a price specified today or an agreement between two parties to exchange an agreed quantity of an asset for cash at a certain date in future at a predetermined price specified in that agreement. The promised asset may be currency, commodity, instrument etc. Eg: On January 1, Mr. X enters into an agreement to buy 5 sacks of basmati rice on June 1 at Rs. 3000/- per sack from Mr. Y, a wholesaler. It is a case of a forward contract where Mr. X has to pay Rs. 15,000/- on June 1 to Mr. Y and Mr. Y has to supply 5 sacks of basmati rice. In a forward contract, a user (holder) who promises to buy the specified asset at an agreed price Continue reading
Investments when entire Stock Market is Under or Over Valued
Should management proceed with investing in a project with a satisfactory NPV (Net Present Value) if it has sufficient funds to do so, and if (a) the entire stock market is significantly undervalued and may well rise by 25 or 30% over the next year, or (b) the entire stock market is significantly overvalued and may well fall by 25 or 30% over the next year? In case (a), it could be argued that management should postpone the investment for a year, and invest the cash in a general portfolio of shares, realize them after a year, then take up the postponed investment, and use the capital gain either for future investment or a special dividend payment to shareholders. However, most shareholders do not expect or want the company to use their money for speculative share investments since most companies are unlikely to possess the appropriate skills to do so. Continue reading
Strategies of Options Contracts
Options are of two types – calls and puts. Calls give the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a given quantity of the underlying asset, at a given price on or before a given future date. Puts give the buyer the right, but not the obligation to sell a given quantity of the underlying asset at a given price on or before a given date. We look here at some Strategies of options contracts. We refer to single stock options here. However since the index is nothing but a security whose price or level is a weighted average of securities constituting the index, all strategies that can be implemented using stock futures can also be implemented using index options. Hedging: Have underlying buy puts Speculation: Bullish security, buy calls or sell puts Speculation: Bearish security, sell calls or buy puts Hedging: Have underlying buy puts Owners of Continue reading
Rights Issue or Rights Offering
RIGHTS ISSUE Normally, whenever an existing company makes a fresh issue of equity capital or convertible debentures the existing shareholders or convertible debenture holders have the first right to subscribe to the issue in proportion to their existing holdings. Only what is not subscribed to by the existing shareholders can be issued to the public. Thus, an issue offered to the existing shareholders or convertible debenture holders as their right is known as rights issue, as opposed to an issue open to the public at large, in which case we call it a public issue. An investor may exercise this right to subscribe to the offered issue, or he may sell the rights separately in the market. The rights have a market value only when the issue is made below the market value of the security. When this happens, as can be expected, the market Continue reading