The Hindu Business Line : Sunday, June 23, 2002

Precot Mills: Accept
PRECOT Mills has offered to buyback 10 lakh equity shares, representing16.67 per cent of the equity at Rs 33 per share through the tender offer. The offer opens on June 1, 2002 and closes on June 30. Brescon Corporate Advisors is the manager to ... More

OPEN OFFERS

Wartsila: Accept
WARTSILA Corporation, together with Wartsila Technology, has made an open offer to the shareholders of Wartsila India to acquire 15.24 per cent of the company's outstanding equity at Rs 120 per share. The two companies together hold 84.76 per ... More

Hindustan Zinc: Accept
STERLITE Opportunities and Ventures (SOVL) is making an open offer to acquire a 20 per cent equity stake in Hindustan Zinc at Rs 40.51 per share. This open offer follows the selection of SOVL as a strategic partner for the sale of the 26 per ... More

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Cement: Volume push, a concrete move
THE last ten months — with high volume growth — has been good for the cement industry from the long-term perspective even if it has not meant higher profits now. The lack of a favourable impact on profit levels has to do with the ... More

Consolidation -- Gradual cementing, but...
ONE recurrent theme in the cement industry over the last five years has been consolidation. Though the last 20 months or so have been quiet, barring the acquisition of a strategic stake in Larsen and Toubro by Grasim Industries, the preceding ... More

The bugbear of capacity creation
IN A commodity industry where volumes and efficiencies ought to play a major role in influencing profitability levels, it is clear that the cement industry has become dependent on price changes for profit growth. This does not mean that volume ... More

Cement stocks: Not so ready-mix
Recommendation:
ACC: Hold/Buy on declines
Gujarat Ambuja Cements: Hold
Madras Cements: Hold
India Cements: Hold and sell on rise
Grasim: Hold
L&T: Hold and sell on rise
More

MUTUAL FUNDS

Pioneer ITI Prima Fund: Hold
FRESH investments need not be considered in Pioneer ITI Prima Fund. The fund, with its focus on mid-cap stocks, has turned in a stellar performance in the recent months. But the sustained outperformance of mid-cap stocks over large-cap stocks is ... More

Birla Equity Plan: Pare exposures
INITIAL investors in Birla Equity Plan will have completed the mandatory three-year lock-in period for their investments in the fund in March 2002. These investors can now consider paring exposures to the fund and switching to a diversified ... More

LIC MF Gilt Fund: Invest
LIC Mutual Fund's Government Securities Fund is a long-term fund that invests in government bonds. Those with a long-term investment horizon can consider taking small exposures in it. Portfolio: As of May 31, the fund had 47 per cent in ... More

Pioneer ITI FMCG: Pare exposures
THE absolute performance of the Pioneer ITI FMCG Fund in the three-year period since launch appears unimpressive, with fund generating total returns of around 9 per cent. But this is largely because the fund was launched in bull market conditions ... More

Short-term is back in favour
SHORT-term funds — such as treasury management, liquid, money market and gilt funds — were back in favour in May 2002. Driven by the changes in the dividend tax regime — from a dividend tax on the fund to taxability with the ... More

Constructive developments
THE introduction of the various indices by the Association of Mutual Funds of India augurs well for mutual fund investors. AMFI has introduced different indices that may become the benchmark for the many income, monthly income and balanced fund ... More

STOCKS

Clariant: Good medium-term prospect
EXISTING shareholders of Clariant can continue to hold the stock at the current levels of about Rs 124 and consider additional exposures at lower price levels. Despite being one of the most profitable companies in the specialty chemicals ... More

Colgate Palmolive: Pare exposure
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE India's performance for the fourth quarter of 2001-02 clearly reflects that a revival in the demand for FMCG products is still some way off, despite a good monsoon in 2001 and incipient signs of industrial recovery. The ... More

Aptech-Hexaware: On course?
Hexaware: Hold
Aptech Training: Hold
More

Mahindra & Mahindra: Will Scorpio help switch gears?
Recommendation: Hold
Risk Averse: Sell on uptrend More

Apollo Tyres: Book profit
THE share price of tyre companies has been pushed to higher levels in the last three months. The recovery in the auto sector, coupled with the overall improvement in market sentiment has had a positive impact on the share price of Apollo ... More

Berger Paints: Buy
TRADING at around Rs 77, Berger Paints remains a good investment option for an investor with a medium-to-high risk profile. The stock trades at a price earnings multiple of around six times its latest earnings per share (EPS). Since the previous ... More

GENERAL INSURANCE

Travel insurance -- `Packed' with secure features
IT IS that time of the year when higher studies beckon and pre-departure checklists are drawn up. And travel insurance surely must be on such a list. Students going to foreign shores for further studies, businesspersons or professionals about ... More

STOCK MARKETS

Weak trend in Infosys, Satyam
ITC (Rs 623): After a weak trend in the early part of the week, the share price of the company staged a strong comeback on Friday. The overall trend in ITC, however, continues to remain negative. The price movement over the recent weeks ... More

Ranbaxy closes on cheerful note
Ranbaxy Laboratories: Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals (a wholly-owned subsidiary) has in its alliance with US-based CorePharma, received FDA approval to manufacture and market a generic version of the drug Adderall, a medication addressing the ... More

Short-term uptrend in Tata Power
EXCEPT on Thursday, the stock market sentiment remained dull during the week. The weak trend in frontline technology stocks such as Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer played a key role in affecting market sentiment. Old-economy heavy ... More

FIIs in selling spree
ALTHOUGH the tension on the Indo-Pak border eased, the depressed state of the US markets appears to have haunted the Indian stockmarkets this week. Fuelled by major selling pressure from the institutional investors - both FII and domestic, the ... More

Nasdaq: Weak trend prevails

DERIVATIVES MARKETS

Signs of improvement
OVERALL Trends: The cash markets treaded in negative territory during the course of the week. On a week-on-week basis, the BSE Sensex lost close to 2.1 per cent over the previous week. The trend at the National Stock Exchange was in line ... More

Options help guide

Futures guide

FIXED DEPOSITS

Investing in your employer is risky
MANY salaried people tend to invest in fixed deposits in their employer-companies. My friend, who is one such person, explains that he does so because he perceives that his money will be safe with his employer. Is it advisable to invest a ... More

Venky's India: Good egg
VENKY'S India offers cumulative and non-cumulative deposit schemes. The cumulative scheme offers 9 per cent for one year and 9.5 per cent for three years. The minimum deposit amount is Rs 5,000. Under the non-cumulative scheme, it accepts ... More

INCOME TAX

Housing loans: Different angles to tax breaks
A: WHERE a property is owned by two or more persons and where their respective shares are definite and ascertainable the share of each such person in the income from the property is to be computed in accordance with Sections 22 to 25, and ... More

INSIGHT

Is the glitter for real?
AS GOLD prices in the international markets sailed past the three-year high of $326 per troy ounce early this month, the event divided investors into two warring camps. On the one hand are the inveterate gold enthusiasts cheering the "second ... More

Catch-22 for Indian investors
GOLD prices and the US dollar have for long competed as alternative investment avenues for institutional investors and speculators. Almost for a decade now, investors have shunned gold to pour money into foreign currency assets, mainly the US ... More

Let oil cos be Indian
IOC, BPCL and HPCL together hold assets ranging from refineries and pipelines to tankages and storage caverns that are of immense strategic value. What the MNCs are eyeing is the Indian market and all that they need for that is the retail network of these companies. More

SEBI, over-ruled!
The rate of conviction is a key indicator of the regulator's effectiveness. SEBI comes off poorly here and if it does not learn from its experiences, it may find its effectiveness as a regulator weakening especially when major offences happen. More

The lure of large IPOs
Careful assessment is necessary to ensure that what you gain by investing in the IPOs is not lost by staying, or not staying, invested in the secondary market. However, these are only short-term considerations. So, long-term investors — if they are not worried about the need to add value — can forget these complicated issues and remain invested. More

Costs: Funds' pressure on SEBI

RIGHTS ISSUES

Ballarpur Industries — Risky in letter and spirit?
Recommendation:
Equity: Subscribe
FCD: Avoid unless you have high-risk preference More

CARTOON