Talent: Sprinting or going for a sell-off

Have you ever thought of a business model where you ask people to pay 20,000 and get trained. Than you tie up with your friends company or you probably know someone put the crowd for three month internship where you recieve 7000 stipend per person you send. And than you ask the company to kickout 40% of the people so that you can send the next lot. Many companies have started this business model where HR and the person ties up.

Friends an appeal just do not fall into this trap. Also never send any money/draft to a person who states that he belongs to so and so company if you send a draft to us you will get a call and than we will return your money. Indian law does not allow such provision where companies charges you for conductiong your intrview.

So beware of this trap and do not forget to spread the same. If you come across any such companies name please mail it to your friends and also report it to Police/Ministry. Write to us @ splconquest@gmail.com

Investment- with one more dimension

Analyze market with one different dimension-Have you ever thought you can catch market momentum and reversal by mix of few indicators. Nifty PUt-call ratio, PE of Index, Momentum reversal indiicators and few other parameters. The biggest challenge is to take and make money in the falling wedge. For instance one cannot deny the fact that market can be irrationally exhuberant compared to what one can look at.

Learnings for finance students in this case would bee how to make sure that market is postioned for a fall/ rise.

Take a sectoral example:Consider a case of banking Industry. Historically all PSU's have traded in terms of P/B in the range of 0.6 to 1.42. If one catches and holds at 0.7 he has made money like anything because of the underlying volatility. Think about one strategy where you lock investment in a banking stock for dividend yield> post tax return on savings account. this is the right time to invest in a bank. If you want to analyze, look at the PSU's with three year average dividend payout in 2006 scenario and 2009 beginning and if they were giving you a div yield of 7% odd. You build one of the sure short money making strategy. Buy underlying/ Sell higher call options if freely tradeable/ sell simultaneous puts or take a short on Banking Index with Vanilla long on your stock and capacity to absorb short term supplies. there are numerous ways one can make money if it identifies a right time to enter into a sector. This is part one of the Investment Series that we are going to post every alternate day. Now its upon you to think how one can make money and learn the art of making money by using all the ideas that we suggested. For queries write to us@ splconquest@gmail.com.

Friends this is what we expect in the scholarship competition for JP this year. Last year we had banking dilemma but this year the hot flavor is Portfolio investments in India. We will definitely have something on it in the competition. Keep following us to learn the real investment strategies and overview of the economy.

Some key words in banking sector you need to understand are NPA, GPA,NII,NIM,PCR,P/B,Asset utilization, Risky weights etc. along with basic information

Unleashing New life in Automobile Industry

April 1^st 2010 would be written in gloden words in $35 billion Indian Automobile industry. In another step towards greener technology, we are going through a phase of evolution from Bharat Stage I to II to III and now much awaited IV norms.

But are all Indian Players ready for it? And how expensive would the new cars be with new norms, considering the current norms prevailing in the market? But we think that considering the economic meltdown and the ever looming recession, the work is still difficult for any automobile company, despite the fact that some players like Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Motors and Hyundai claim boldly that they are ready for it and even come up with cars that comply to these norms.

Why it is that none of NE states have been named to comply with Bharat IV norms? Are they neglected? And would there be price reduction for those CV and passenger vehicles which does not comply with IV norms? And do you think that people who do not reside in those 11 identified cities (NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra) are left unattended to suffer from pollution? And don’t you think it would create another marketing dilemma for these players to decide upon to focus more on which area after April 1^st – 11 cities or Rest of India? And by how much %age is it expected to boost exports?

One would be surprised to know SIAM officials are happy to stay behind European norms and cited the example of after-treatment devices as they claim that we can learn from their experience. Are Indians born to be followers according to these officials?

Great news for workers and planners of NREGP! We think that the governement has to put up a separate notice board at each state board that one is moving from Bharat stage IV norms area to non-norms area, if one is going from say Delhi to J&K.

Share your ideas!

An Appeal from SPL Conquest

Given the response on the mail over what we post on our blogspot, seems to have a uni-direction thought process. This monotonous thought process is possible only when an individual thinks about it and writes the same. Any topic that we post can be viewed from different perspective as well. The idea of keeping you people thinking, is to promote discussion among your friends, but despite over 100 of responses, it seems our purpose stays defeated, as you all are not forming a habit of discussion. The benefit that will accrue if you discuss among your group:

• It will boost your confidence on the final day
• By learning other people’s perspective, you’ll be able to develop a sound thought process

So, it’s a request on our part to all the visitors, followers to make it a habit of posting the analysis as a group.

Another thing that can be done on your part is to start the channel on comment section, where you can get the insight across B-schools and not only of your own confined group.

A new Avtar – Pay per click, Cost per impression, …, ??

You would be shocked to know that in 2008-09 advertisers spent Rs. 51663 million. Now just think of calculating the amount of extra money that you paid for product/services which compensates for advertisement and promotion spending?

Have you ever calculated the time that you devote online vis-à-vis watching television or listening to radio or say watching a print ad? Or has it changed over a period of time from traditional media to digital media? Out of the total advertisement spending, about 5.4% was taken up by Internet advertising, 51.4% and 27.4% by televsion and print respectively. But the interesting fact is that digital media is set to grow from approx Rs. 800 crore by whopping 44% in the next year, while the rest is expected to fall by 10%. Try to analyse the reason for the expected rise in figures. (Food for thought: rising service sector, rising young adults, increasing social networking portal, increasing visibility, higher accountability, easier to calculate ROI and what more…)

And is the allocation and growth figure similar for each and every sector or how much is the disparity among sectors? Just look at the chart shown above and try to anlayze the reason for the disparity. (figures are in Rs. million)

But one cannot deny the fact that every solution has a flip side to it. So what about the ethical issues associated with it? Moreover, keeping into consideration the wide difference in the reach of internet users and number of mobile subscribers, online advertisement might have a tough competition with mobile advertisement.

Share your thought on it for one day you could also be in a dilemma on the proportion of advertisement spending through different channels.

Cornflakes – A substitute of Food

Reasons to celebrate! There has been a price war among the cereal manufacturers like Kellogg, General Mills and Post and Nabisco cereals. But is it really a reason to enjoy for the consumer?

In some of our previous articles, we have mentoined that Indians are trying to ape the West, but is it justified at the cost of your health? Do you think that people are diverting more towards ready to cooked food? Or is it mere presentation of one’s standard of living? Still unanswerable!

Is recession good for cornflakes manufacturers, as they claim that cereal is an especially strong category, as consumers seek to maximize the value received from every dollar spent?

Have you ever tried to probe into the real target segment for cornflakes? Is it only limited to working young adults, school going children or is it tightening its grip to every class and every age group?

Studies suggest that most commercial cereals like cornflakes with the exception of Fibre One, Ultrafibre,Bran Flakes and a few others, contain a gram or two of fiber, and they are usually high-glycemic (meaning they raise blood sugar quickly). Not only this, they even contribute to weight gain, cravings and ultimatley lower energy.

If one is planning for suicidal, we think it’s really a good option, but the drawback is that it kills slowly. Alas! The consumption of high-glycemic foods is not only bad for your waistline, but even worst for your heart. They even hamper the functioning of one’s blood vessels and raise the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. And best part is that it put undue stress on one’s artries.

We would suggest you to give a second thought whenever you are consuming cornflakes at the cost of your health and when one knows that Breakfast has to be the King.

Share your viewpoints!

Equity Market- Is it unleashing the beast again?

Irrationality and Euphoria this is exactly what prevails in the market which is beyond people sentiments and also beyond control, couple of quarters back one used to think about tight grip of bears and the same market used to consider bulls are dead.
Market is a beast which will ensure nor the bull or the bear survive. It says let the irrationality survive but still the fortune will be created by Rational investors.

How? An appeal to all of you to think and analyze market in these three phases.
May 2006-Oct 2006 the recent crisis of 2008 and the midst of bull runs in the associated periods between 1st Jan 2006 to 1st August 2009.

How does this help for your placements?

While posting this on our blog, we had to justify how this will help you people on placements. Think about it what this exercise could do

You people need to analyze market trends in the sense which sectors were growth packs and which sectors underperformed, which sector had potential rise and which was a market performer?
What triggered market meltdowns? For e.g. 2006 was an aftermath of sell-off in commodity market. This is one case were people opened up Valuations Matrix and realized we had long way to go. The history needs to be looked and analyzed as one of the question in you interview would be where you see market from here by the turn of this year. Your insights and findings might get you a placement in one of those finance companies that comes for placements? Isn't it worth thinking from placement perspective if not otherwise!!!!

Send your findings to splconquest@gmail.com

Wow God- A new Market!

As India continues to ape the West, does mythology have a market in India? Or does mythology appeals to only senior citizens? We say that global meltdown has rocked economies, then why is it that amount in the Hundi in Tirupati has been increasing at a rate of around 30-40% y-o-y?

Have you ever tried to probe into TRP of “Shri Krishna”, or the ROI on Ramanand Sagar’s “Ramayan” and B. R. Chopra’s “Mahabharat”? Or did you ever thought the amount of revenue that the channels like Aastha, Sanskar, Zee Jagran and Sadhna are garnering out of commercials? One would be surprised to know that almost 70% slots on Aastha TV are pre-booked by advertisers at any given time. In which direction are we heading? Yes, my friends Search for God is the buzz word in market.

Apart from these religious channels, even the demands for mythological books are growing rapidly at about 30% every year. Even India’s leading VAS content developers like Mauj Telecom, IndiaGames and Cellebrum have started focussing on religious content, ranging from the frivolous (like astrology, numerology et al) to the profound as it accounts for 12-15% of the total Rs. 60 billion VAS industry.

Even deity statue makers are carving their own special niche in this godly industry, and you would be surpised to know that Indian mythological and religion inspired arts and sculptures contribute 20% of the Llardo’s entire turnover, an organised player in this industry and they sell Lakshmi wares at Rs. 7.5 lakh a piece today. What would you call it – a lifestyle statement?

How could one forget the travel companies? Of the estimated 400 million journeys undertaken by the Indians every year, close to 25% journeys are to pilgrimage centres, and numbers are swelling. And leading the race are the Gurus that claim to take you a step closer to spirituality and well being, offer peace of mind for battered soul from places like ISKON, OSHO world, Patanjali Yogpeeth and Art of Living Centres. And you would better find out the price that is being charged at these places.

Hats off to Technology! It has allowed people to e-donate, online puja, e-Seva, e-Accomodation at temples. Good news for Sachin Tendulkar fans! You could see him in a movie titled Vighnaharta Shree Siddhivinayak that the Siddhi Vinayak temple is making and marketing with the help of Vistaas Media and Eros International. And in this whole discussion how could you forget the animated myhthological market, where Hanuman Returns earned 320% return for Toonz Animation Pvt. Ltd.?

So what do you think: Is God on Sale or is it a new organized market opening up in India in a big way?

Share your views!