Trading Definitions
The scrips traded on BSE are classified into ‘A’, ‘B1’,’B2’,’C’,’F’ and ‘Z’ groups.
A = Carry forward system (badla)
Z = Blacklisted companies
F = Debt market
Dividend: Periodic payments made out of the company's profits are termed as dividends.
Growth: The price of a stock appreciates commensurate to the growth posted by the company resulting in capital appreciation.
Bonds: It is a fixed income (debt) instrument issued for a period of more than one year with the purpose of raising capital. The central or state government, corporations and similar institutions sell bonds. A bond is generally a promise to repay the principal along with fixed rate of interest on a specified date, called as the maturity date. Other fixed income instruments include bank fixed deposits, debentures, preference shares etc.
Certificate of Deposits: These are short - to-medium-term interest bearing, debt instruments offered by banks. These are low-risk, low-return instruments. There is usually an early withdrawal penalty. Savings account, fixed deposits, recurring deposits etc are some of them. Average rate of return is usually between 4-8 %, depending on which instrument you park your funds in. Minimum required investment is Rs. 1,00,000.
Mutual Fund: These are open and close ended funds operated by an investment company which raises money from the public and invests in a group of assets, in accordance with a stated set of objectives. It’s a substitute for those who are unable to invest directly in equities or debt because of resource, time or knowledge constraints. Benefits include diversification and professional money management. Shares are issued and redeemed on demand, based on the fund's net asset value, which is determined at the end of each trading session. The average rate of return as a combination of all mutual funds put together is not fixed but is generally more than what earn in fixed deposits. However, each mutual fund will have its own average rate of return based on several schemes that they have floated.
Cash Equivalents: These are highly liquid and safe instruments which can be easily converted into cash, treasury bills and money market funds are a couple of examples for cash equivalents.
High (high): The highest price for the stock in the trading day.
Low (low): The lowest price for the stock in the trading day.
Close (close): The price of the stock at the time the stock market closes for the day.
Chg (Change): The difference between two successive days' closing price of the stock.
Yld (Yield): Dividend divided by price.
The ‘Bid’ is the buyer’s price. It is this price that you need to know when you have to sell a stock. Bid is the rate/price at which there is a ready buyer for the stock, which you intend to sell.
The ‘Ask’ (or offer) is what you need to know when you're buying i.e. this is the rate/ price at which there is seller ready to sell his stock. The seller will sell his stock if he gets the quoted “Ask’ price.
Dematerialization in short called as 'demat’ is the process by which an investor can get physical certificates converted into electronic form maintained in an account with the Depository Participant. The investors can dematerialize only those share certificates that are already registered in their name and belong to the list of securities admitted for dematerialization at the depositories.
Depository: The organization responsible to maintain investor's securities in the electronic form is called the depository. In other words, a depository can therefore be conceived of as a "Bank" for securities. In India there are two such organizations viz. NSDL and CDSL. The depository concept is similar to the Banking system with the exception that banks handle funds whereas a depository handles securities of the investors. An investor wishing to utilize the services offered by a depository has to open an account with the depository through a Depository Participant.
Depository Participant: The market intermediary through whom the depository services can be availed by the investors is called a Depository Participant (DP). As per SEBI regulations, DP could be organizations involved in the business of providing financial services like banks, brokers, custodians and financial institutions. This system of using the existing distribution channel (mainly constituting DPs) helps the depository to reach a wide cross section of investors spread across a large geographical area at a minimum cost.
In common parlance the carry-forward system is known as 'Badla', which means something in return. Badla is the charge, which the investor pays for carrying forward his position. It is a hedge tool where an investor can take a position in a scrip without actually taking delivery of the stock. He can carry-forward his position on the payment of small margin. In the case of short-selling the charge is termed as 'undha badla'.
Revenues/Sales growth: Revenues are how much the company has sold over a given period. Sales are the direct performance indicators for companies. The rate of growth of sales over the previous years indicates the forward momentum of the company, which will have a positive impact on the stock's valuation.
Bottom line growth: The bottom-line is the net profit of a company. The growth in net profit indicates the attractiveness of the stock. The expected growth rate might differ from industry to industry. For instance, the IT sector's growth in bottom-line could be as high as 65-70% from the previous years whereas for the old economy stocks the range could be anywhere in range of 10- 15%.
ROI - Return on Investment: ROI in layman terms is the return on capital invested in business i.e. if you invest Rs 1 crore in men, machines, land and material to generate 25 lakhs of net profit , then the ROI is 25%. Again the expected ROI by market analysts could differ form industry to industry. For the software industry it could be as high as 35-40%, whereas for a capital intensive industry it could be just 10-15%.
Volume: Many investors look at the volume of shares traded on a day in comparison with the average daily volume. The investor gets an insight of how active the stock was on a certain day as compared with previous days. When major news are announced, a stock can trade tens of times its average daily volume.Volume is also an indicator of the liquidity in a stock. Highly liquid stocks can be traded in large batches with low transaction costs. Illiquid stocks trade infrequently and large sales often cause the price to rise/fall dramatically. Illiquid stocks tend to carry large spreads i.e. the difference between the buying price and the selling price. Volume is a key way to measure supply and demand, and is often the primary indicator of a new price trend. When a stock moves up in price on unusually high volumes it could indicate that big institutional investors are accumulating the stock. When a stock moves down in price on unusually heavy volume, major selling could be the reason.
Market Capitalization: This is the current market value of the company's shares. Market value is the total number of shares multiplied by the current price of each share. This would indicate the sheer size of the company; it's stocks' liquidity etc.
Company management: The quality of the top management is the most important of all resources that a company has access to. An investor has to make a careful assessment of the competence of the company management as evidenced by the dynamism and vision. Finally, the results are the single most important barometer of the company's management. If the company's board includes certain directors who are well known for their efficiency, honesty and integrity and are associated with other companies of proven excellence, an investor can consider it as favorable. Among the directors the MD (Managing Director) is the most important person. It is essential to know whether the MD is a person of proven competence.
PSR (Price-to-Sales Ratio): This is the number you want below 3, and preferably below 1. This measures a company's stock price against the sales per share. Studies have shown that a PSR above 3 almost guarantees a loss while those below 1 give you a much better chance of success.
Return on Equity: Supposedly Warren Buffet's favorite number, this measures how much your investment is actually earning. Around 20% is considered good.
Debt-to-Equity Ratio: This measures how much debt a company has compared to the equity. The debt-to-equity ratio is arrived by dividing the total debt of the company with the equity capital. You're looking for a very low number here, not necessarily zero, but less than .5. If you see it at 1, then the company is still okay. A D/E ratio of more than 2 or greater is risky. It means that the company has a high interest burden, which will eventually affect the bottom-line. Not all debt is bad if used prudently. If interest payments are using only a small portion of the company's revenues, then the company is better off by employing debt pushing growth. Also note capital intensive industries build on a higher Debt/Equity ratio, hence this tool is not a right parameter in such cases.
The Beta factor measures how volatile a stock is when compared with an index. The higher the beta, the more volatile the stock is. (A negative beta means that the stock moves inversely to the market so when the index rises the stock goes down and vice versa).
Earnings Per Share (EPS): This ratio determines what the company is earning for every share. For many investors, earnings are the most important tool. EPS is calculated by dividing the earnings (net profit) by the total number of equity shares.
Price / Earnings Ratio (P/E): The P/E ratio takes the stock price and divides it by the last four quarters' worth of earnings. If AB ltd is currently trading at Rs. 20 a share with Rs. 4 of earnings per share (EPS), it would have a P/E of 5. Big increase in earnings is an important factor for share value appreciation. When a stock's P-E ratio is high, the majority of investors consider it as pricey or overvalued. Stocks with low P-E's are typically considered a good value. However, studies done and past market experience have proved that the higher the P/E, the better the stock.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Stocks under lense:
Dish TV currently trading at Rs 66.10 can go up to Rs 120
United Spirits - currently trading at Rs 1,858.25, target price of Rs 2,164
Ispat Industries stock is currently trading at Rs 41.30 can go up to Rs 60
ACC currently trading at Rs 1,025 target price of Rs 1,300
Dish TV currently trading at Rs 66.10 can go up to Rs 120
United Spirits - currently trading at Rs 1,858.25, target price of Rs 2,164
Ispat Industries stock is currently trading at Rs 41.30 can go up to Rs 60
ACC currently trading at Rs 1,025 target price of Rs 1,300
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)