Techno Finance and Executive Diary...

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Best way to Invest in India-Indian stocks

Best way to invest in India- Indian Stocks

Indian Economy is booming greatly. Most recently it is heard that it will grow at the rate of 10%. Resultants may be the growth in the operations and great performance showed by the Indian companies’ quarter over quarter. Stocks may be treated as one of the best investments in India from anywhere in the world. I would like to present my views on the investment strategy and the stocks

View One-Sectoral View-Isn't the software sector too good to miss?

Too many times, we hear that an industry, say biotechnology or software, has a bright future. That makes some investors think that they have to have a biotechnology or software stock in their portfolio. They end up buying one, regardless of what its financials are like. The future is not guaranteed for any company just because it operates in a particular industry that has a strong growth potential. It still comes down to the quality of management and how effectively the management team can direct the future of the company

View 2-The magic number: 20 and no more.

Once it has been decided to Invest in a stock, which brings us to the percentage of the portfolio that should be in any one stock or industry. There may not be an exact answer, but in a large portfolio, a prudent approach might be to have no more than 20% of the portfolio's total value in one single stock. As a portfolio is being built, that percentage might go as high as 25%. At the same time, I don't think there should be a formula to sell stocks just because they have performed well and exceed the said guidelines.

I found the Indian stock market very interesting. A way to invest in India is to purchase Indian companies listed on US stock exchanges. Below is a list of Indian stocks listed on the US market.

DR REDDY (RDY)
HDFC BANK (HDB)
ICICI BANK (IBN)
INFOSYS TECH. (INFY)
MTNL (MTE)
REDIFF.COM (REDF)
SATYAM COMP (SAY)
SATYAM INFOWAY (SIFY)
SILVERLINE TECH. (SLTTY)
TATA MOTORS (TTM)
VSNL (VSL)
WIPRO (WIT)

View3-"Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Good advice like no other. When it comes to investing, diversification - putting your money into a variety of stocks that have different return potentials and risk levels - means not putting all your eggs into one investment basket. Since market cycles vary, diversification will allow you to offset possible losses in one investment with potential gains in another and, as a result, help reduce your overall exposure to risk.

So, from now on, every morning when you wake up and look in the mirror, ask yourself this: Have I diversified my portfolio today?

Labels: Stock Market

Posted by "CPerformance" :: 12:07 AM :: 2 comments

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Attractive locations for "offshoring"

While India, China and Southeast Asia continue to dominate A.T. Kearney's annual ranking of the most attractive locations for "offshoring" of service activities such as IT, business processes and call centers, the United States ranks surprisingly well in a new version of the index released today.

Additional findings from this year's Index include:
• India remains the best offshore location by a wide margin, although wage inflation and the emergence of lower-cost countries decreased its overall lead.
• Improved infrastructure and relevant people skills have increased the attractiveness of China as a low-cost option for servicing Asian markets.
• Thailand jumped from 13th to 6th in this year's Index and Southeast Asian countries now make up four of the top six locations on the Index.
• Offshore attractiveness in Europe continues to migrate eastward as Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania all enter the Index for the first time.
• The Middle East and Africa appear to be the next frontier in offshoring as countries such as Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Ghana perform well.

Highlights: Global Services Location Index

Beyond the interest in the relative rankings of these "on-shore" locations, the Index remains dominated by lower-cost countries. The complete results can be viewed at www.atkearney.com.

India and China: still dominating

India still leads by a wide margin. The gap between India and the second-ranked country, China, is larger than the gap between the next nine countries combined. Nevertheless, India's lead has shrunk slightly compared to past years. This is mainly due to a slight reduction in India's financial attractiveness, the result of wage inflation in India and the emergence of new even lower-cost contenders such as Ghana and Vietnam.

China maintains its second place ranking and partially closes the gap with India, thanks largely to continued improvement in its infrastructure quality and the availability of relevant people skills. For example, the number of development centers in China with CMM or CMMI certifications (an industry standard for rating the process-quality of IT development centers) showed the largest increase of any country in the Index, jumping from 108 in 2004 to more than 277 in 2005. For a growing number of Asian and Western multinationals, China remains the best choice for serving their growing operations throughout the East Asia region - the logical location for IT and back-office support and call centers for China itself, but also a low-cost option for servicing established markets in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

ASEAN: still rising

As a region, Southeast Asia is the biggest winner in this year's Index. Malaysia maintains its 3rd position Singapore stays at 5th, the Philippines rises from 6th to 4th, Thailand jumps from 13th to 6th, and Indonesia leaps into the Index at 13th. Even Vietnam, at 26th in this year's Index, sees its ranking rise from 20th to 16th position among the original 25 countries included in both the 2004 and 2005 Indices.

In Malaysia and Singapore, government promotion policies continue to pay off. Given its high-wage levels, Singapore has deliberately positioned itself as a safe location for sensitive high-end activities, with a particular emphasis on business continuity, IP protection and data privacy. Malaysia has augmented continued investment in world-class infrastructure along the Multimedia Super-Corridor, with further incentives for corporations choosing to locate in Malaysia and additional policies to open up the labor pool and deepen English language and technical skills throughout the population.
The Philippines, despite continuing political instability and infrastructure weaknesses, continues to benefit from the global exposure and English language skills of its workforce. Thailand enjoys the biggest rise in this year's Index. This seems to be due largely to improvements in educational outputs, plus some improvements in infrastructure quality and the overall business environment. While still challenged by weak English-language capabilities, Thailand has the potential to emerge as key low-cost challenger to the Philippines in South East Asia.

About The Global Services Location Index

1. India
2. China
3. Malaysia
4. Philippines
5. Singapore
6. Thailand
7. Czech
8. Chile
9. Canada
10. Brazil

Posted by "CPerformance" :: 12:36 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------

Monday, October 30, 2006

FROM CHIEF ACCOUNTANT TO CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER (CFO)

Due to increased governance requirement there arises a need to empower the chief accountant and to make him responsible by requiring him to sign the accounts. There comes the code of corporate governance, which makes the chief accountant powerful and more responsible. With the new role, Chief Accountant becomes Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Chief Financial Officer now has extensive responsibilities for internal and external reporting. All the information required for decision-making by the Board of Directors and Chief Executive is processed and furnished by the Chief Financial Officer. Apart from this, external reporting requirement is fulfilled by Chief Financial Officer, the accounts and financial statements are signed by the Chief Financial Officer before they are sent to concerned authorities. Major responsibilities include:

• Annual business planes, cash flow projection, forecasts and long term planes.
• Budgets include capital, manpower and overhead budgets along with variance analyses.
• Quarterly operating results of the company as a whole and in terms of its operating divisions or business segments.
• Details of joint ventures or collaboration agreements or agreements with distributors, agents, etc.
• Default in payment of principal and/or interest, including penalties on late payments and other dues, to a creditor, bank or financial institution, or default in payment of public deposit.
• Failure to recover material amounts of loans, advances, and deposits made by the company, including trade debts and inter-corporate finances.
• Significant public or product liability claims likely to be made against the company, including any adverse judgment or order made on the conduct of the company.

The performance of any organization is reflected by the financial statements. Any ambiguity if remains there, makes the reflection of the performance doubtful. Therefore, the role of CFO becomes very important as he controls the reflection of performance, which is reported to different authorities and the organization is assessed by them, and they must perform their job with professional competency and integrity, so that the financial statements give credible information to its users. The code of corporate governance provides the guidelines and opportunity to do this.

Labels: stories

Posted by "CPerformance" :: 12:15 PM :: ---------------oOo---------------