Quora

The technology components that make up Quora http://bit.ly/eTD3g8

Why Startups fail

Why Startups Fail: An Analysis of Post-Mortems http://bit.ly/g1fTOH

R programming language

Great list of books for the R programming language (statistical correlation) http://www.r-bloggers.com/r-programming-books-updated/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+RBloggers+(R+bloggers)

This is a test of the email posting for WordPress Blog

Checking if post by email works.

What is an Indexed Mutual Fund and when should you buy it?

Shubhojit Chatterjee asks “Can you please help us to know how to trade in Sensex as we are trading through ICICI Direct and they don’t have access to NSE”.

First lets review what an indexed mutual fund is. Indexed funds are an investment vehicle that aims to replicate movements of an index of a financial market such as NSE or BSE. For Indian investors that means a fund that will do as well or as poorly as the SENSEX or Nifty. These indexed funds will own all the securities of that index. So, for SENSEX index fund that means owning shares in all 30 companies that make up the index. Its usually a computer model that drives this fund not human stock picking. This also means lower management costs and fees because its mostly automated.

For the Indian market however the indices are fairly narrow so you dont actually get to capture the broad market, but a basket of stocks. (Editorial note: you would have done well though in the last 9 months!).

 Here is a list of (maybe not complete) of Index funds that track the SENSEX:

1. HDFC funds

2. Franklin India BSE Sensex Fund & Nifty fund

3. Tata SENSEX fund

4. LIC MF Index Fund SENSEX & Nifty

5. UTI Master Index plan

Over the past few years funds that tracked Nifty have had a better risk / reward return (beta) than those that tracked SENSEX, since the Sensex is more volatile, and most funds that track the Sensex dont do as good a job as those that do Nifty.

List of Mutual Fund Companies in India

1. Reliance Mutual Funds

2. HDFC

3. Fidelity

4. Franklin Templeton

5. ABN Amro

6. AIG

7. Bank of Baroda

8. Birla Sun Life

9. Canara Bank

10. DBS Chola Mandalam AMC

11. DSP Merrill Lynch

12. Deutsche Bank

13. Escorts Mutual

14. HSBC

15. ICICI Prudential

16. ING

17. JM Financial

18. JP Morgan

19. Kotak Mahindra

20. LIC

21. Lotus India

22. Morgan Stanley

23. Principal

24. Quantum

25. State Bank of India (SBI)

26. Sahara Mutual Funds

27. Standard Chartered

28. Sundaram BNP Paribas

29. Tata

30. Taurus Mutual Funds

31. UTI

32. Benchmark Funds

#	Company	URL
1	AIG Investments	http://www.aiggig.co.in
2	Association of MF in India	http://www.amfiindia.com
3	ABN Amro	http://www.abnamro.co.in/investmentservices/investment_products/mutual_funds.html
4	Benchmark Funds	http://www.benchmarkfunds.com
5	Birla Sunlife	http://www.birlasunlife.com
6	Bank of Baroda	http://www.bobmf.com
7	Computer Age Mgmt Services	http://www.camsonline.com
8	Canara Robeco	http://www.canbankmutual.com
9	DBS Cholamandalam	http://www.dbscholamutual.com
10	Deutsche Bank	http://www.deutschemutual.com
11	DSP Merrill Lynch	http://www.dspmlmutualfund.com
12	Escots	http://www.escotsmutual.com
13	Fidelity	http://www.fidelity.co.in
14	Franklin Templeton	http://www.franktempletonindia.com
15	HDFC	http://www.hdfcfund.com
16	HSBC	http://www.hsbcinvestments.co.in
17	ING Vysa	http://www.ingvysamf.com
18	J M Mutual	http://www.jmmutual.com
19	JPMorgan	http://www.jpmorganmf.com
20	Kotak	http://www.kotakmutual.com
21	LIC Mutual Funds	http://www.licmutual.com
22	Religare Mutual Funds	http://www.religaremf.com
23	Morgan Stanley	http://indiamf.morganstanley.com/
24	Principal	http://www.principalindia.com
25	Prudential ICI	http://www.icicipruamc.com/
26	Quantum	http://www.quantumc.com
27	Reliance	http://www.reliancemutual.com
28	Sahara	http://www.saharamutual.com
29	State Bank of India	http://www.sbimf.com
30	SEBI	http://www.sebi.gov.in
31	Standard Chartered	http://www.standardcharterdmf.com
32	Sundaram BNP Paribas	http://www.sundarambnpparibas.in
33	TATA	http://www.tatamutualfund.com
34	Taurus	http://www.taurusmutualfund.com
35	UTI	http://www.utimf.com
36	ICI	http://www.ici.org
37	PIMCO	http://www.pimco.com
38	Vanguard	http://www.vanguard.com

Relevant stock investor statistics for investing in India

1. Trading Volume:

1984: US $3M / daily,

1994: US$100 Million,

2007: 8 Billion / daily ($6B in derivatives)

2. Assset Management Companies:

1994: 10, Total Funds ~ 100

2007: 32, Total Funds ~1000

3. Best Mutual fund companies in India

DSP Merrill Lynch

Fidelity Mutual Funds

Frankling Templeton Funds

HDFC Mutual Funds

Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Funds

Source: Personalfn.com

List of News Resources for Indian Market

1. Yahoo Finance India

2. ANI

3. Business Week India

4. Business Wire India

5. CNBC TV 18 Live

6. Financial Express

7. Hindustan Times

8. Rediff Business News

9. CNN IBN Live (Live Streaming of IBN)

10. India Times Economic Times

11. Personal FN

12. Equity Master

13. Reuters News India

Hedge Funds Focused on India

1. Avatar

2. Hudson Fairfax Group

3. India Deep Value Fund

4. Fair Value Capital

5. Indea Capital

6. India Capital Fund

7. Monsoon Capital

8. Karma Capital Management

9. Atlantis Investment Management

10. Naissance Jaipur (India) Fund

11. Quantum Asset Fund

India’s leading Equity Brokerage Firms 2007

D&B India has a great report on the leading Equity brokerage firms in India. Over 394 firms are listed by Size, Total Terminals, Sub brokers, Total Employees, Branches, Cities of operation and Offerings. Some excerpts:

For the broking industry, we started with an initial database of over 1,800 broking firms that were contacted, from which 464 responses were received. The list was further short listed based on the number of terminals and the top 210 were selected for profiling. 394 responses, that provided more than 85% of the information sought have been included for this analysis presented here as insights. All the data for the study was collected through responses received directly from the broking firms. The insights have been arrived at through an analysis on various parameters, pertinent to the equity broking industry, such as region, terminal, market, branches, sub brokers, products and growth areas. 

Some key characteristics of the sample 394 firms are:

• On the basis of geographical concentration, the West region has the maximum representation of 52%. Around 24% firms are located in the North, 13% in the South and 10% in the East
• 3% firms started broking operations before 1950, 65% between 1950-1995 and 32% post
  1995
• On the basis of terminals, 40% are located at Mumbai, 12% in Delhi, 8% in Ahmedabad, 7% in Kolkata, 4% in Chennai and 29% are from other cities
• From this study, we find that almost 36% firms trade in cash and derivatives and 27% are into cash markets alone. Around 20% trade in cash, derivatives and commodities
• In the cash market, around 34% firms trade at NSE, 14% at BSE and 52% trade at both exchanges. In the derivative segment, 48% trade at NSE, 7% at BSE and 45% at both, whereas in the debt market, 31% trade at NSE, 26% at BSE and 43% at both exchanges
• Majority of branches are located in the North, i.e. around 40%. West has 31%, 24% are located in South and 5% in East
• In terms of sub-brokers, around 55% are located in the South, 29% in West, 11% in North and 4% in East
• Trading, IPOs and Mututal Funds are the top three products offered with 90% firms offering trading, 67% IPOs and 53% firms offering mutual fund transactions
• In terms of various areas of growth, 84% firms have expressed interest in expanding their institutional clients, 66% firms intend to increase FII clients and 43% are interested in setting up JV in India and abroad
• In terms of IT penetration, 62% firms have provided their website and around 94% firms have email facility

List of Equity Research firms in India

1. Almondz

2. Emkay Research

3. India Infoline

4. PINC Research

5. Motilal Oswal

6. Prabhudas Liladhar

7. Citigroup India

8. DSP Merrill Lynch

9. JP Morgan Equity

10. CLSA

11. Morgan Stanley

 12. IL&FS Investsmart

13. Religare, Religare Securities and Religare Online

14. HDFC Securities

15. SSKI

16. ENAM Edelweiss Research

17. ICICI Securities

18. Pranav Securities

19. Sharekhan

20. KJMC

21. Karvy

22. Deutsche Bank

23. Prime Broking

24. Goldman Sachs

25. P-Securities

26. Angel Broking, Angel Trading

27. SSKI

28. Ambit Capital

29. Finquest Securities

30. UBS Investment

31. IDBI Capital

32. Macquarie Research

33. Asit C. Mehta Research

34. Bajaj Capital

35. Kotak Securities

36. Dolat Capital

37. UTI Securities

38. IL&FS Investsmart

39. Enam Securities

40. ABN Amro

41. ASK Securities

42. Networth

43. Khandwala Securities

44. ASK Raymond James

45. HSBC

46. Anand Rathi

47. Ventura Securities

48. Niche Research

49. Antique Stock Broking

50. Asian Market Securities

51. Man Financial

52. KR Choksey Research

53. Indiabulls Research

54. SPA Research

55. SKP Securities

56. Keynote Capitals

57. Brics Securities

SENSEX and List of 30 companies

30 companies make up the most watched index in India – the SENSEX (SENSitive IndEX). These are the largest capitalized companies.

Name	Sector
ACC	Housing Related
Ambuja Cements Ltd	Housing Related
Bajaj Auto	Transport Equipments
BHEL	Capital Goods
Bharti Airtel	Telecom
Cipla	Healthcare
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories**	Healthcare
Grasim Industries	Diversified
HDFC	Finance
HDFC Bank	Finance
Hindalco Industries	Metal, Metal Products & Mining
Hindustan Lever Limited	FMCG
ICICI Bank	Finance
Infosys	Information Technology
ITC Limited	FMCG
Larsen & Toubro	Capital Goods & Construction.
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited	Transport Equipments
Maruti Udyog	Transport Equipments
NTPC	Power
ONGC	Oil & Gas
Ranbaxy Laboratories	Healthcare
Reliance Communications	Telecom
Reliance Energy	Power
Reliance Industries	Oil & Gas
Satyam Computer Services	Information Technology
States Bank of India	Banking & Finance
Tata Consultancy Services	Information Technology
Tata Motors	Transport Equipments
Tata Steel	Metal, Metal Products & Mining
Wipro	Information Technology

 

The National Stock Exchange (NSE)

National Stock Exchange (NSE) started trading in the equities segment (Capital Market segment) on November 3, 1994. There are 1,319 companies listed on NSE as of September 2007. List of most active stocks onthe NSE, is a who’s who list of Indian companies.

Rank	Name of the Security	Turnover (Rs. crore)	% Share in Total Turnover	Market Capitalisation as on 31.3.2007 (Rs. crore)	% Share in Total Market Capitalisation
1	Reliance Industries Ltd.	115726.62	5.95	190952.41	5.67
2	Infosys Technologies Ltd.	68436.53	3.52	113999.62	3.39
3	Satyam Computer Services Ltd.	49061.12	2.52	30968.90	0.92
4	Tata Steel Ltd.	48777.68	2.51	26100.96	0.78
5	Reliance Communications Ltd.	48128.60	2.47	86057.84	2.56
6	Oil And Natural Gas Corp. Ltd.	37617.77	1.93	188391.89	5.59
7	State Bank Of India	34177.36	1.76	52337.79	1.55
8	Tata Motors Ltd.	32929.28	1.69	28062.87	0.83
9	Indiabulls Fin. Ser. Ltd.	28234.31	1.45	7503.24	0.22
10	ACC Ltd.	28030.51	1.44	13771.70	0.41
11	Tata Consultancy Serv Ltd.	26848.24	1.38	120745.86	3.59
12	ICICI Bank Ltd.	26107.99	1.34	76378.67	2.27
13	Larsen & Toubro Ltd.	25908.66	1.33	45470.97	1.35
14	ITC Ltd.	25887.82	1.33	56866.00	1.69
15	BHEL	25577.16	1.31	55348.80	1.64
16	Reliance Capital Ltd.	25481.92	1.31	14965.43	0.44
17	India Cements Ltd.	24228.68	1.25	3568.95	0.11
18	Century Textiles Ltd.	23951.31	1.23	5076.11	0.15
19	Sterlite Inds (Ind) Ltd.	23373.31	1.20	26204.16	0.78
20	Steel Authority Of India	22665.94	1.17	47210.48	1.40
21	Tech Mahindra Ltd.	22415.65	1.15	16744.42	0.50
22	Hindalco Industries Ltd.	21066.59	1.08	16883.97	0.50
23	Maruti Udyog Ltd.	21065.20	1.08	23696.40	0.70
24	IVRCL Infrast & Proj Ltd.	20411.81	1.05	3792.62	0.11
25	Suzlon Energy Ltd.	19237.51	0.99	28819.64	0.86
26	Hindustan Lever Ltd.	19124.82	0.98	45284.19	1.34
27	Siemens Ltd.	18675.24	0.96	18387.03	0.55
28	Mahindra Gesco Developers Ltd.	18048.49	0.93	2106.36	0.06
29	IFCI Ltd.	17554.82	0.90	2145.95	0.06
30	Zee Entertainment Ent Ltd.	17535.18	0.90	10869.52	0.32
31	Bombay Dyeing & Mfg. Co Ltd.	17161.69	0.88	2089.56	0.06
32	Bharti Airtel Ltd.	16184.78	0.83	144825.39	4.30
33	Bajaj Auto Ltd.	16080.06	0.83	24563.31	0.73
34	Unitech Ltd.	15953.52	0.82	31448.83	0.93
35	Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.	15944.97	0.82	11465.55	0.34
36	Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd.	15751.39	0.81	16184.56	0.48
37	HDFC Ltd.	15044.80	0.77	38154.76	1.13
38	Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.	14514.50	0.75	19148.77	0.57
39	Wipro Ltd.	14495.60	0.75	80716.78	2.40
40	Grasim Industries Ltd.	13364.11	0.69	19186.38	0.57
41	Jaiprakash Associates Ltd.	13294.97	0.68	11821.40	0.35
42	Ranbaxy Labs Ltd.	12764.21	0.66	13118.09	0.39
43	Hdfc Bank Ltd.	12147.77	0.62	30168.75	0.90
44	Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.	12121.30	0.62	9245.25	0.27
45	Indian Petrochemicals Cor. Ltd.	10979.86	0.56	8143.03	0.24
46	Dr. Reddy’S Laboratories Ltd.	10953.06	0.56	12227.34	0.36
47	Parsvnath Developer Ltd.	10826.47	0.56	4783.63	0.14
48	Bajaj Hindustan Ltd.	10648.72	0.55	2757.44	0.08
49	NTPC Ltd.	10413.97	0.54	123888.10	3.68
50	Sesa Goa Ltd.	10068.95	0.52	6705.12	0.20
	Total	1,205,001	61.94	1,969,355	58.48

The Bombay Stock Exchange

Bombay Stock Exchange Limited is Asia’s oldest stock exchange. It carries within itself the depth of knowledge of capital markets acquired since its inception in 1875. Located in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, it has been the backbone of the country’s capital markets.

As of Sep 2007, there are 4871 companies listed on BSE. There are 1100 Foreign Institutional Investors registered with BSE.

There are several indices that measure BSE.

Stocks traded on the Exchange have been classified into ‘A’, ‘B1’, ‘B2′,’T’, ‘S’, ‘TS’ ‘F’ ,’G’ and ‘Z’ groups.

The Exchange has for the guidance and benefit of the investors have classified the scrips in the Equity Segment into ‘A’, ‘B1’, ‘B2′,’T’, ‘S’, ‘TS’ and ‘Z’ groups on certain qualitative and quantitative parameters which include number of trades, value traded, etc.

The “F” Group represents the Fixed Income Securities.

The “T” Group represents scrips which are settled on a trade to trade basis as a surveillance measure.

The “S” Group represent scrips forming part of the “ BSE-Indonext” segment .

The “TS” Group consist of scrips in the “ BSE-Indonext” segment which are settled on a trade to trade basis as a surveillance measure.

Trading in Govt. Securities for retail investors is done under “G” group.

The ‘Z’ group was introduced by the Exchange in July 1999 and includes the companies which have failed to comply with the listing requirements of the Exchange and/or have failed to resolve investor complaints or have not made the required arrangements with both the Depositories, viz., Central Depository Services (I) Ltd. (CDSL) and National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) for dematerialization of their securities.

The Exchange also provides a facility to the market participants for on-line trading of odd-lot securities in physical form in ‘A’, ‘B1’, ‘B2′ ‘T’,’S’, ‘TS’ and ‘Z’ groups and Rights renunciations in all the groups of scrips in the Equity Segment.

About 6000 Stocks listed in India: Oct 2007

As of June 2007, there are over 4800 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and over 1200 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange.