FOR NOW FAILED- FACE BOOK!!!!

Should You Buy Facebook Shares? Read This FirstBy Alex Dumortier, CFA, The Motley FoolPosted 2:07PM 05/17/12 

"I would invest in Facebook; I don't care what the opening price is."-- Steve Wozniak, co-founder, Apple (NAS: AAPL)

"If you're a growth investor, you more or less have to own [Facebook] and hold your nose at the initial price." -- Lawrence Haverty Jr., Associate Portfolio Manager, The Gabelli Multimedia Trust

If you're the billionaire co-founder of the most successful tech company in history and you simply have to own some shares in the hot new technology company, go ahead and buy shares without any consideration for price. If you're a growth-fund manager and your primary concern is minimizing your career risk, it's "Damn the torpedoes -- full speed ahead!"; after all, unlike Admiral Farragut, you're not actually in the boat with your investors. If you're neither and you invest for profit rather than entertainment, I urge you to hear my appeal: Observe, don't participate, in Facebook's IPO. Climb aboard my bubble machine! Price matters. How did the bankers come up with their valuation for Facebook shares? They used three methods, but the one to which they assigned the highest weighting -- 50% -- simply amounts to looking at the most recent prices at which the shares changed hands in private markets open to qualified investors. This has produced a massive "greater fool" dynamic, as each round of "investors" anchors on the price paid at the preceding stage:

Stage one: Qualified investors are eager to buy shares in the private market. Why wouldn't they be? It's a nearly sure thing the stock will appreciate once it becomes publicly traded.

Stage two: Bankers award a favored group of investors shares in the initial public offering. The bankers' indicative valuation is largely based on the prices paid in private share markets. IPO investors expect that the shares will pop once they hit the secondary market.

Stage three: It's a stampede as investors (including numerous individual investors) who couldn't get in during stages one and two finally get the chance to get their hands on some shares, sending prices higher yet. At this stage, investors will need to find a greater fool (small "f," mind you) to realize a quick profit, but they risk running out of fools and becoming the greatest fool.................

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/05/17/should-you-buy-facebook-shares-read-this-first

How Facebook Could Be Worth Far More Than $100 Billion

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Posted 3:07PM 05/17/12

I've said before that I'm interested in buying shares of the Facebook IPO. I'm still interested, even though my earlier prediction -- that the social network would command a $50 billion valuation -- now appears to have been off by about 50%.

Some see that as a problem. How could Facebook's $4 billion in annual revenues be worth $100 billion when Apple (NAS: AAPL) nets just five times as much market value while producing 35 times as much revenue? Google's (NAS: GOOG) $40 billion in sales is worth just $200 billion in market cap. And don't forget Renren (NYS: RENN) , China's version of Facebook. The social-networking site is profitable and using Groupon-style tactics to milk revenue from its 147 million active user base, yet commands less than $3 billion in U.S. market value. There's virtually no precedent for Facebook's stunning valuation, but there is a theory.

It's called Metcalfe's law, which states that the value of a telecommunications network is equal to the square of the connected nodes. Credited to Robert Metcalfe, founder ofHewlett-Packard division 3Com and one of the originators of the Ethernet networking protocol we depend on as modern Internet users, the theory describes the geometry of network effects.  There's value to the idea. Network participants create value when they interact with each other. Thus, more participants create more value, as has been the case at eBay(NAS: EBAY) throughout its history. Facebook benefits from similar math. The larger the social network gets, the more valuable its data and advertising platform becomes. Enter Metcalfe's law. According to the formula, Facebook's 900 million active users compound to create a network worth 8.1 x 10 to the 17th power, or $8,100,000,000,000,000,000. Crazy, you say? Undoubtedly, especially since Metcalfe's law was originally intended to describe the value of fixed cost nodes rather than human participants with varying behaviors..............http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/05/17/how-facebook-could-be-worth-far-more-than-100-bill/

FACEBOOK- Zuckerberg, huge losses

Form May-17th to Aug-17, FACEBOOK investors lost nearly heavily close to 50 Billon Dollars, than any other high value stocks. The IPO price raised from $ 34 dollars to $ 38 dollars in the first place, made a huge $104 billion dollar IPO with fan fare. The hype was not continued any longer, lost half the value now trading at $ 19.57.
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Zuckerberg admits Facebook stock plunge ‘painful’ to watch

AGENCIES Posted: Saturday, Aug 18, 2012 at 1138 hrs IST

Zuckerberg admits Facebook stock plunge ‘painful’ to watch:Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly admitted that the firm’s stock market tumble has been “painful” to watch, while addressing a meeting to boost the morale of his staff.

He gathered the social networking site’s staff to discuss the issue ahead of the release of an extra 271 million shares this week, which cut Facebook shares to just 19.87 dollars, almost half their 38 dollar flotation price.

According to a news report, witnesses said that at the meeting, the 28-year-old chief executive was asked if Facebook employees were allowed to talk about the firm’s troubles on Wall Street.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/zuckerberg-admits-facebook-stock-plunge-painful-to-watch/989960/

Judge rejects Facebook settlement over ad feature

AGENCIES

Posted: Saturday, Aug 18, 2012 at 1038 hrs IST

San Francisco: In an order on Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco listed several concerns with the proposed settlement, including a request for more information on why the agreement does not award any money to members.

Seeborg said the company and attorneys for the plaintiffs could try to modify their agreement to address his concerns.

"We continue to believe the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. "We appreciate the court's guidance and look forward to addressing the questions raised in the order."

Representatives for the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached for comment.

Five Facebook members filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against the social networking site, saying its Sponsored Stories feature violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of certain advertisers without paying them or giving them a way to opt out. The case involved 100 million potential class members.

As part of the proposed settlement, Facebook agreed to allow members more control over how their personal information is used. In the opinion of one economist hired by the plaintiffs, contained in a court filing, the value to Facebook members resulting from the changes is about $103 million.

Facebook had also agreed to pay $10 million for legal fees, and $10 million to charity, according to court documents.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/judge-rejects-facebook-settlement-over-ad-feature/989945/0

Standard Chartered pay PENALTY

Civil Penalty: StanChart pays $340 mn

AGENCIES

Posted: Wednesday, Aug 15, 2012 at 1211 hrs ISTNew York: Global banking giant Standard Chartered has agreed to pay USD 340 million to New York's top banking regulator, settling allegations that it hid thousands of transactions worth billions of dollars with the Iranian government.

Under the settlement reached with the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Standard Chartered will pay a "civil penalty" of USD 340 million and would have a monitoring system for a term of at least two years.

The monitors would report directly to DFS and evaluate the money-laundering risk controls in the New York branch and implementation of appropriate corrective measures.

The settlement came after StanChart was accused by the New York regulator of hiding about 60,000 secret transactions with the Iranian government, involving a whopping USD 250 billion, and exposing the US financial system to terrorists,

weapon dealers and drug kingpins.

New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky said DFS examiners shall be placed on site at the bank and StanChart would permanently install personnel within its New York branch to oversee and audit any offshore money- laundering due diligence and monitoring undertaken by it.

"The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least USD 250 billion," Lawsky said, adding that DFS would continue to work with its federal and state partners on matter.

In the wake of the allegations over Iran transactions, Standard Chartered's Chief Executive Peter Sands had flown to New York to take personal control of the bank's attempts to reach a settlement with the US regulators over allegations it

hid transactions involving Iran.

Last week, the New York banking regulator had in its order said that the bank must demonstrate why its state banking licence should not be revoked over the transactions.

The agreement now enables the bank to avoid having its licence to operate in New York revoked.

Lawsky had termed the bank a "rogue institution" for breaking US sanctions.

StanChart had "strongly" rejected the allegations made by DFS. It had said it was conducting a review of its historical compliance and was discussing that review with US agencies, including the state financial services department, Department

of Justice, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Federal Reserve Group of New York.

It said the New York order does not present a "full and accurate picture of the facts".

Since the allegations became public just over a week ago the firm's shares have lost around 15 per cent of their value.

Rs22,451 crore loss-IOC

IOC reports Rs22,451 crore loss, biggest ever by any listed company

Published: Thursday, Aug 9, 2012, 19:23 IST 
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today posted the nation's biggest quarterly net loss of Rs22,451 crore after the government failed to compensate it for capping auto and cooking fuel prices. Simultaneously, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), the nation's third largest fuel retailer, also posted a net loss of Rs9,249 crore in April-June, the second biggest quarterly loss by a listed corporate.

The government has in the year year not compensated oil firms for selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost this year as the Rs40,000 crore fuel subsidy it had budget has all been exhausted in paying compensation for last fiscal. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), India's second largest fuel retailer, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow and is likely to post over Rs9,000 crore of net loss. IOC, which like other retailers is living off borrowed money, warned that it may soon exhaust the limit to which it can take debt and sourcing crude oil (raw material for making petrol, diesel and other petroleum products) would become difficult as international sellers don't give credit.

The three state-run fuel retailers are losing about Rs710 crore per day on selling diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at government controlled rates which are way below market price. Besides, the government's "inflationary concerns" have not allowed them to raise price of petrol - a fuel that was deregulated in June 2010 - even though they are losing over Rs3 per litre. IOC Chairman R S Butola said the government should realise that oil firms are on the brink and fuel subsidies need to be addressed urgently.

The three fuel retailers are projected to lose a record Rs177,715 crore this fiscal as they sell diesel at a discount of Rs12.13 a litre to its cost, kerosene at Rs28.54 and LPG at Rs231 per 14.2-kg cylinder discount. The government, which is struggling to contain budget deficit and runaway inflation, has not just failed to compensate state-run retailers for selling fuel below cost this fiscal but also not provided about Rs10,000 crore of the promised subsidy for 2011-12.

What has made matters worse is rupee's slump against the US dollar, making import of crude oil costlier. The nation relies on imported crude to meet is almost 80% need. "We had a net loss of Rs22,450.95 crore in April-June quarter as compared to Rs3,718.70 crore loss in the same period a year ago," Butola said.

This was primarily because IOC was not compensated Rs17,485 crore for selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at a discount to its cost and another Rs950 crore lost on selling below its cost. The delay in getting compensation has increased PSU oil firms' interest payments on debt they have taken for buying crude oil among other things. IOC's borrowings have gone up by a masive Rs15,000 crore in the April-June quarter to Rs90,923 crore.

The company can borrow a maximum of Rs110,000 crore and if losses on fuel sales continue that borrowing limit will soon be reached, after which it will not get any finances impacting the company's ability to buy crude oil from international markets, he said. The company's debt-equity ratio has deteroriated ato 2.57:1. Also, its capital expenditure will have to be pruned.

"As of now capex funding has been tied-up. Overall, if financial constraints continue to play in remaining part of the year, there is bound to be impact," he said. Shares of IOC fell 1.8% to Rs251.60 at the close on BSE, the lowest level since June 19.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

ECONOMY AND MARKETS WILL RISE- RISE-- RISE---WISH GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO ALL.

BELIEVE IN THE INDIA GROWTH A NATURAL PROCESS GETS MOMENTUM WITH OUR RESOURCES PUT TO USE.

WE SCALE NEW HEIGHTS
GOODLUCK TO EVERYBODY.

Education - HUGE BUSINESS!! GRAB...!!!!!

HYDERABAD, AUG. 13: 

Next Education India Pvt Ltd, a digital learning technology company, will raise Rs 150 crore from private equity players by December end.

“We are in talks with them. We hope to conclude the deal by the year-end,” Beas Dev Ralhan, Chief Executive Officer, Next Education, has said. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said the company had so far invested Rs 250 crore, including Rs 60 crore on research and development of content. It raised the money from internal accruals and some debt from Kotak. It clocked revenue of Rs 100 crore in the last financial year.

While the Indian education market (including higher education) is put at $40 billion, digital education market is pegged at $2-3 billion. The company has tie-ups with 4,000 schools (in CBSE and ICSE streams) across the country and claims a student user base of eight lakh.

“Of this, 50,000 are paid customers, with 60 per cent of them coming back to us for content in renewals,” he said. “The State board student population is 10-15 times bigger than the Central education streams. We are expecting a growth of 30 per cent in business from this arm,” said Ankur Agrawal, Executive Vice-President (Operations), Next Education.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article3764992.ece

SUGARS - BUY BUY!!!

AT ONE TIME BYE BYE SUGARS IS NOW BUY BUY SUGARS.
I RECOMMENDED SUGARS IN JUNE-JULY PERIOD. I AND MY FAMILY HAD SOME POSITIONS. I RECOMMENDED DALMIA AT 12-12.50 RANGE IN JUNE. IN THAT PERIOD ALL SUGARS ARE AT THEIR YEARLY LOWS. SO I SUGGEST TO BUY FOR DOUBLE OR TRIPLE RETURNS FROM THEIR LOWS. WHEN THE MARKETS TAKE AS DIP, FOCUS TO BUY SUGARS. THE MORE THE INVENTORY, THE MORE PROFITS TO POUR. GOOD LUCK...----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moneycontrol » News » Stocks » Expert Advice Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 09:50 Dalmia Bharat Sugar can test Rs 24-25: SP Tulsian Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries can test Rs 24-25 in next six months, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com.

Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries  can test Rs 24-25 in next six months, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com.

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, "Dalmia Bharat Sugar has three sugar mills with a capacity of 22,500 tonne crushing per day with matching co-gen facility and & distillery of 80 KLPD. If you see the sugar performance of all the companies, the inventory gain in some of the cases, we have seen that happening though, that has not got reflected into the financial results of the Q1 of this company as well as of Balrampur Sugar."

He further added, "The main point or the triggers for these companies are the kind of inventory they are carrying in their books and the unrealized gain they are sitting on. In this case the company is having an inventory of close to about Rs 450 crore as on 30th June after they have declared the results for quarter ended June which has been quite good with PAT of close to about Rs 10 crore. So the inventory of Rs 450 crore has an unrealized gain of close to about Rs 45 crore."

"If you see the financial performance or the expected output from the UP it is estimated that probably the UP based sugar mills are going to perform the best because of the drought situation prevailing in the Maharashtra and Karnataka and more specially in the Eastern UP where the monsoon has been quite good. Because if you take a call on the Western UP and the Central UP the monsoon is slightly inferior than what the Eastern UP region has seen."

"The companies overall are likely to perform better in terms of the performance going ahead in view of the firm sugar prices now prevailing at about Rs 34-35 per kg. So, the crux for the recommendation that the whole of FY13 is likely to see an EPS of close to about Rs 6 for this stock. If you go by the book value parameter also the share is looking on fundamental basis quite cheap with book value of close to about Rs 54-55 and with expected EPS of close to about Rs 6 for FY13 as I said partly because of the inventory gain and partly because of the better working."'

"I think this looks a good midsize sugar mill, if you take a call on the Avadh Sugars, Upper Ganges or Simbhaoli Sugars or for that matter even Dhampur, Dhampur though have a higher capacity. So taking a relative call on all the sugar stocks and more specially if I focus on the UP based sugar mills this stock looks quite good and one can expect a price of Rs 24-25 in next six months or so."

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/stocks-views/dalmia-bharat-sugar-can-test-rs-24-25-sp-tulsian_744159.html

VERITAS- DLF. ROCM AND INDIABULLS....

Indiabulls accuses Veritas of helping short-sellers

Indiabulls alleges that report was released to select few before wider publishing

N Sundaresha Subramanian / New Delhi Aug 10, 2012, 00:21 IST Under attack from Canada-based Veritas for alleged governance lapses, the IndiaBulls group today accused the firm of profiteering by helping subscribers to enter into short positions ahead of the wider release of the report. In a police complaint, the company has alleged that Veritas analyst Neeraj Monga demanded money and offered to delay the wider release of the report. “Indiabulls officers filed a complaint to the police against the malafide Veritas report, along with an email evidence where Neeraj Monga has demanded money through his personal email and that if monies are given in time, then he would hold back the report,” the group said in a statement. According to a senior group official, “Heavy short positions were built up in the stock ahead of the release of the report on Wednesday, enabling people to take home profits by squaring off when the prices fell.” Data from the exchanges seem to suggest there was a build-up of shorts in IndiaBulls Real Estate, the only group stock in the F&O segment. According to data from the exchanges, open interest in IndiaBulls Real Estate shot up from 11.9 million on August 1, the date of the latest report to 16.2 million on August 8, when the report was widely circulated among brokers and market players. Short selling refers to selling stocks that one does not own, with a view to buy these later when the prices fall. In India, direct short sales is not allowed. However, traders use the futures and options (F&O) segment, where such transactions are allowed, to execute short sales. Among the three stocks covered by the latest IndiaBulls report, only IndiaBulls Real Estate is available for trade in the F&O segment. The increase in open interest coinciding with a fall in the share price indicated that the shorts were building up in the counter, said brokers. Between August 1 and August 8, the stock fell by 4.4 per cent as against a two per cent gain in the Sensex. Similar build-up in open interest accompanied by a fall in the share price was noticed in the earlier reports by Veritas this year. On March 2, a damning report by Veritas on the largest real estate player, DLF, was circulated. Between February 24 and March 2, the open interest had gone up from 22 million shares to 30 million, while the stock price fell 10 per cent. The broader market fell 1.6 per cent. On June 19, a Veritas report on Reliance Communications setting the target price of Rs 15 surfaced. Over the preceding week, open interest in the counter went up from 57 million to 68 million as the stock shed nearly five per cent. The Sensex was flat during the period. The Indiabulls statement further added that the Veritas report dated August 1, 2012 was released to certain select group of people before being released to the media and institutional shareholders after seven days on August 8, 2012, along with a TV interview on August 8 by Neeraj Monga. Monga openly tried to distort facts and presented erroneous data in his answers for fulfiling his personal agenda of profiteering, the statement alleged. In the email sent to a London based hedge fund Altimas Partners on August 7, Monga allegedly demanded $40,000 for subscription to Veritas reports for the current year. He is also said to have offered to delay wider circulation of the Indiabulls report if the fund officials promised to subscribe. "Our first year subscription price is $50K. For the remainder of the current year we are signing up for $40K. We plan to publish at least two more reports for the rest of the year. We have published on five stocks so far this year. The report on DLF was published in March and that on RCom in June. Our other report covering an additional three stocks is not public yet. If you sign today we can hold the wider release of the third report back by one day for you to read it and take action if you so desire," Monga allegedly wrote in this email. In an email response Naresh Monga of Veritas said, “Indiabulls appears to be basing its complaint on an email from Prashant Periwal, a fund manager from Altima Partners in London, who is a fund manager who owns Indiabulls group stock and who contacted us for our research. Veritas’ commercial practices are of the highest standards and integrity. We are disappointed that Indiabulls is attempting to discredit our company and us individually, rather than addressing the issues outlined in our research.” Monga added that Veritas stands by its research, which is based on publicly available documents . “We have not contacted Indiabulls before or after our research was published. We are an independent research company servicing institutional investors and funds. We sell research for a subscription fee, as is the industry practice in India and the world over. We are regulated and licensed by the relevant financial service authorities to do so.” Veritas also pointed out that it does not have any proprietary trading positions and referred to its clean track record. Monga, however, added that “If there are any factual errors we will correct those.” http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/indiabulls-accuses-veritashelping-short-sellers/482846/

MISTAKES ...KNOWINGLY..!!!

Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 23:26

Govt slaps notice to BHEl asking to pay Rs 25 Cr as penalty

Karnataka government has slapped a notice on BHEL asking to pay Rs 250 crore as penalty for supplying faulty power generating equipments at the Raichur Thermal Power Station, Minister for Energy, Shobha Karandlaje said today.

Karnataka government has slapped a notice on BHEL asking to pay Rs 250 crore as penalty for supplying faulty power generating equipments at the Raichur Thermal Power Station, Minister for Energy, Shobha Karandlaje said today.

The eighth unit of the RTPS, the contract of which was awarded to BHEL, developed technical snag since about a year ago and the company has not been able to rectify it, she told reporters here. The government had also decided to recover the losses caused to the state following failure to generate power by BHEL in the last one year, she said.http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/govt-slaps-notice-to-bhel-asking-to-pay-rs-25cr-as-penalty_743990.html

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Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 12:22

CNN, Time magazine suspend Fareed Zakaria for plagiarism

Noted Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by his employers CNN and Time magazine after he admitted to plagiarism and apologised for the ethical lapse.

Noted Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by his employers CNN and Time magazine after he admitted to plagiarism and apologised for the ethical lapse.

Zakaria, was suspended by CNN and Time magazine after he admitted that he had plagiarised portions of an article he wrote on gun control for Time, from the New Yorker magazine.

He issued an apology saying he had made a "terrible mistake" and his lifting a paragraph from the article by Harvard University professor of American history Jill Lepore was an "ethical lapse".

Zakaria, 48, a Yale and Harvard graduate, had written the column on gun control that appeared in the August 20 issue of Time magazine.

Cognizant D'Souza story

Newsmaker: Francisco D'Souza The 'Kid' reinvents Cognizant - and himself T E Narasimhan /  August 10, 2012, 0:39 IST A few days ago, US-based Cognizant overtook Infosys to become the second-largest information technology (IT) company in India, an important milestone that saw the baton being passed from an iconic pioneer in the Indian technology space to a future contender. The man steering Cognizant today is boyish-looking, 44-year-old Francisco D’Souza, who could easily pass for an energetic student at a management school, than for the CEO of a top-flight technology company. Much of Cognizant’s success is thanks to D’Souza, who, in the past five years as the CEO, has propelled the company’s revenues from $1.4 billion, when he took over, to almost $7 billion today, at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 35 per cent. D’Souza attributes much of his and Cognizant’s success to his peripatetic childhood. His father, Placido D'Souza, an Indian Foreign Service diplomat, had to move to a new country every few years, and he made sure his son attended a local school wherever they went: Whether it was Panama, Zaire, Trinidad, New Delhi, New York, Hong Kong or Pittsburgh. This resulted in the need to learn new languages, make new friends, explore different cuisines, and soak up diverse cultures. "If there is one thing in my personal life that has made a decisive impact on business in Cognizant, it is the multi-cultural experience that I have gained and cherished,” says D’Souza. “From the beginning, we have consciously built the organisation with this 'multi-cultural' flavour, because to serve the global marketplace, you need to be global. What I learnt growing up in a microcosm, is very much alive in the DNA of Cognizant," says Francisco. Born in Nairobi, D’Souza grew up in three continents. He attained a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of East Asia, and a master of business administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, where he reportedly was the youngest in the class. This won him the moniker, ‘the kid’. When D’Souza took over in 2007, Cognizant was a late entrant in the IT services sector, dominated by giants like Wipro and Infosys. Playing catch-up was not easy. But D'Souza had a clear game plan— focus on a few areas and expand into adjacent ones, be it new geographies, solutions, or industries. Within Cognizant, D'Souza had many roles to play — from the Director of the US operations, to the vice-president (North American operations), to COO, and now, CEO. During these stints, D'Souza set up and incubated the North American operations, European operations, and newer industry practices and solutions. Yet, D'Souza isn’t satisfied. He recently announced that his ace team of Gordon Coburn, R Chandrasekaran and Rajeev Mehta would take over the ownership for over 95 per cent of the company's business, allowing him to focus on new business models, geographies, and technology architectures, somewhat akin to the decision Bill Gates took many years ago, when he handed over the reins of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer. According to analysts, these new ideas, models and technologies may not have opportunities today. However, in the next three-five years, this strategy would germinate, especially in areas like social media, cloud and mobile analytics. D’Souza refers to these as emerging business accelerators (EBAs), and expects those to be the material drivers of Cognizant's future growth. The EBA segment comprises 18 new businesses, with D’Souza heading four. In effect, D’Souza has created a venture capital organisation within his IT enterprise and appointed ‘mini’ CEOs from Cognizant’s work force to head these verticals. At this rate, D’Souza, at the age of 44, has a good chance of eclipsing the luminaries of an older generation of IT entrepreneurs, who set the bedrock for Cognizant’s success. http://www.businessstandard.com/taketwo/news/newsmaker-francisco-dsouza/482863/

Cognizant pip Infosys

6 AUG, 2012, 10.36PM IST, N SHIVAPRIYA,ET BUREAU 

Five reasons that helped Cognizant pip Infosys             

Cognizant Technology Solutions beat Infosys by a whisker with a revenue of $ 1,795 million as compared to Infosys' $ 1,752 million in the June 2012 quarter, although it still lags Infosys in profits. Indications are Cognizant could continue grow faster than Infosys even in the coming quarters. Five reasons that helped the company pip Infosys: 

* Good growth in financial services vertical, the vertical contributing the largest chunk to revenues for both firms. Cognizant's revenue from financial services clients grew 6% sequentialy, while Infosys saw a sequential decline. Cognizant's market share in financial services is also growing. 

* Higher investment in sales and marketing. The company follows a policy of keeping its margins at 19% - 20% and investing the rest in sales and future growth areas 

* More flexible on margins and pricing, giving Cognizant more opportunities to win projects and grow in verticals such as financial services, where players have become more cautious and are facing uncertanity because of specific events. 

* Cognizant has invested signficantly in building consulting capability in the last few quarters. Benefits from some of those investments could be kicking in by providing more downstream revenue for IT services. 

* Additonally, management commentary indicates that Cognizant may have been able to capture the spends in areas like mobility, big data, social and cloud more successfully. 

Cognizant has given a guidance of at least $ 1,875 million for the September 2012 quarter. Infosys has not given a quarterly guidance for the first time, citing the uncertain environment and project postponments. If Infosys' revenues drop, as it did in the June quarter then Cognizant could end up with bigger and more distinct lead over Infosys. 

Cognizant has given an annual revenue growth guidance of 20% for its financial year ending December 2012. Infosys, which has a financial year ending March 2013, has given a growth guidance which is a fraction of it at 5%. Unless Infosys revises its guidance dramatically, Cognizant could end the year bigger than Infosys and capturing the second largest IT exporter status, which Infosys currently holds.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/earnings/earnings-analysis/five-reasons-that-helped-cognizant-pip-infosys/articleshow/15377419.cms

BUY SUGARS

I BELIEVE PEOPLE CLOSE TO ME KNOW WHEN I RECOMMENDED SUGAR STOCKS TO BUY, ESPECIALLY BALRAMPUR AT 48-50 LEVEL. I EVEN SUGGESTED TO BUY ANY SUGAR STOCK OR A SCRIP NAME HAVING "SUGARS". ...

Balrampur Chini Mills (Rs 64.1)

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We recommend a buy in the stock of Balrampur Chini Mills from a short-term perspective. It is apparent from the charts of the stock that it has been on an intermediate-term uptrend since it registered its 52-week low of Rs 32.7 in December 2011. Its key support base at around Rs 48 provided support in May and June this year. The stock subsequently resumed its up-move and is in a medium-term uptrend. Reinforcing its uptrend, the stock gained 10 per cent last week. On Monday, this upward momentum continued and it surged 6.7 per cent breaching a key resistance at Rs 62. We notice that there is an increase in volumes over the past five trading sessions. The stock is hovering well above its 50 and 200-day moving averages. Both daily and weekly relative strength indices are featuring in the bullish zone. Likewise, daily as well as weekly moving average convergence divergence indicators are hovering in the positive terrain implying upward momentum. We are bullish on the stock from a short-term perspective. We expect its up move to prolong and reach our price target of Rs 66.5 or Rs 68.5 in the ensuing trading sessions. Traders with short-term perspective can buy the stock while maintaining stop-loss at Rs 62.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated August 7, 2012)

Operators GAME- Manipulate Stock prices

6 AUG, 2012, 04.38AM IST, APURV GUPTA,ET BUREAU 

Operators used front companies to manipulate stock prices: Sebi

Market regulator Sebi's interim order restraining 19 entities on Friday shows that significant market activity in certain stocks continues to emanate from front entities, which seem to be acting on behalf of operators or financiers. 

The initial probe has thrown forward certain interesting facts on the trading concentration by a handful of entities and mismatch in the trading activity of these clients vis-a-vis their disclosed income in the knowyour-client or KYC form. 

On July 26, these entities sold large chunks of shares in Tulip Telecom, Pipavav Defence, Glodyne Technoserve and Parsvnath Developers leading to a crash in their share prices. Sebi says these cannot be passed off as normal trades. 

Market analysts say that the data gives an impression that some of these entities were possibly acting as fronts of some operators or promoters for the purpose of maintaining prices artificially high. 

Arun Kejriwal, founder of information and research firm KRIS, says that a large part of the volume in the markets is not genuine. "In this case, only a handful of suspicious entities were actively trading in certain stocks. Most of them were operating in tandem with each other and had no other major trading pattern other than a few stocks. It seems that most of them were acting as fronts for somebody." 

Sebi, in its order, says that the trading pattern does not appear to be commensurate with the income shown in the KYC records. Take the case of Neelanchan Mercantile, a company which has not provided its income details. It has done a gross trading of around Rs 1,508 crore this calendar year so far. Almost 91 per cent of this was confined to the four aforementioned stocks. The data also shows that many entities have a common address and telephone number or an address in Kolkata. In a specific case, the address is shared with another company barred by Sebi from trading in the securities market for creation of artificial market and price manipulation. 

ET, in its edition on July 27, reported that most of the sellers were fronts of a Kolkata-based operator, who was involved in the 2001 payment crisis on the Calcutta Stock Exchange.
Curiously, the order says that the share sales happened at a discount and were done to lower the share prices. While the order does not give any reason, brokers say that the sales at a discount will happen only if the seller is expecting a default, making it difficult to recover their investment. 

"The investors seem to be desperate to sell the shares irrespective of the price. It seems that they resorted to selling after the financier raised his hands. Sebi should go beyond these entities and find out if all the disclosures made by the companies are proper. One should also find out how these entities have shown small amount of income and traded shares worth hundred of crores," adds Kejriwal.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/operators-used-front-companies-to-manipulate-stock-prices-sebi/articleshow/15369432.cms

YEAR LONG CONSOLIDATION - WAIT UPTO SEPTEMBER!!!

Index outlook: The bulls get going

LOKESHWARRI S K

The week began with an inexplicable burst of buying on Monday. Stocks managed to hang onto higher levels in the following sessions despite the RBI’s gloomy prognosis on the economy in the monetary policy and drought in many regions of the country.

The US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank also refused to pander to investors’ expectations. But the benchmarks did not react too adversely to this stance and the Sensex ended the week 359 points higher. Gain in the Nifty was 116 points.

Resilience of stock prices to the slew of adverse developments means that the stock prices have reached a saturation point as far as their ability to absorb further bad news goes. Clearly, the path of least resistance is now upward.

Investors continued their indifferent attitude to stocks resulting in lacklustre volumes in both the cash and derivative segment. FIIs were net buyers in most sessions. Investors will look closely at the next batch of quarterly earnings to decide about stock-specific strategy.

Rain clouds will also do their bit to cheer or dampen the market mood.

Weekly oscillators are beginning to turn positive indicating that the medium-term trend could be on the verge of reversing higher. Weekly rate of change oscillator has moved above the zero line and the weekly relative strength index is also in the bullish zone after displaying positive divergence. Daily oscillators are also beginning to move up.

The Sensex has moved in a 1,000-point range between 16,500 and 17,500 in July and ended with a star formation with a long lower shadow. It is also interesting to note that the Sensex recovered from intra-day lows to close near the day’s high on both Thursday as well as Friday. This denotes demand for stocks at lower levels.

Sensex (17,197.1)

The short-term trend is looking more promising after last Monday’s rally. The count that we are right now following is that a corrective sideways consolidation is in motion since the December low of 15,135 in the Sensex. Third leg of this move that is currently in motion has the targets of 17,842 and then 19,136.

It is possible that this leg further sub-divides into three smaller parts. The Sensex could then be expected to rise to 17,761 or 18,480 in the weeks ahead. We will retain a positive medium-term view unless the index goes on to close below 16,467.

Strong close below this level will mean that the third leg has ended at 17,631. Downward targets in this scenario would be 15,916 and 14,857.

The short-term trend in the Sensex is up. That the index bounced above its 50 and 200 day moving averages is also a positive. It can now attempt to move to 17,595 or 17,719 in the days ahead. Short-term trend will turn negative on a close below 16,870.

Nifty (5,215.7)

The Nifty too is in a short-term uptrend since the trough of 5,032 formed on July 26. Traders can hold their long positions as long as the index trades above 5,113.

Reversal from the current levels can take the index higher to 5,296, 5,378 or 5,516 in the days ahead.

But a close below 5,113 will mean that the index can lose further ground sliding to 5,049 or 4,928 in the upcoming sessions.

The medium-term trend in the index is sideways. Movement last week suggests that the C wave of the consolidation phase that began at 4,770 can further sub-divide into smaller waves. Minor C of this wave can take the Nifty higher to 5,389 or 5,610 in the weeks ahead.

But close below 5,100 will imply that the C wave has ended at 5,348 and the long-term down trend has now resumed.

Global benchmarks managed to move slightly higher last week despite both the Federal Reserve and the ECB disappointing investors. European indices including the CAC, DAX and the FTSE closed around 3 per cent higher last week.

CBOE Volatility index declined further to 15.6 to close at the lowest level since this March.

The Dow closed in the red in the first four sessions of the week. But it made up on Friday as strong jobs data helped the index close 218 points higher with a giant bullish engulfing pattern in the daily chart.

This maintains the sequence of higher troughs since June low of 12,452.

We maintain the short-term target at 13,338 for the index. Medium-term targets remain at 13,848 and 14,198. Close below 12,700 is required to reverse the positive short-term view in this index.

Nymex light crude is moving higher once again after testing the support zone between $75 and $78. It could now move towards the $100 or even $115 mark again.

The point of concern is that a three-wave correction appears to have been completed at $77 on June 29. If the third leg of the move from 2009-low takes off, it can lift crude prices towards $147 again.

lokeshwarri.sk@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: CBOE Volatility index, Sensex, Nifty, stock and shares, Nymex light crudehttp://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/investment-world/market-strategy/article3727488.ece?homepage=true

FACEBOOK HYPE FADED

5 AUG, 2012, 11.06AM IST, PTI 

Facebook's per user valuation dips below $50-mark

.....................

Facebook's India user base has also grown to 59 million from 45 million during this period. However, a sharp plunge in the company's share price has led to total valuation of Facebook's India users nearly halving to $2.8 billion, from more than $5 billion at the time of IPO. 

The total market valuation of the world's largest social network now stands at $45 billion, down from a value of $104 billion it commanded at its Initial Public Offer (IPO) price of $38 each. The shares are currently trading near $21 level and had dipped below $20 last week. 

As per its current market value, users of Mark Zuckerburg-led Facebook would be valued at about $47 each, down from $115 each based on the company's IPO valuation. .............http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/facebooks-per-user-valuation-dips-below-50-mark/articleshow/15360673.cms
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NEW DELHI, AUG 5: 

Mauritius-based entities seem to have gone on a selling spree in the Indian stock market and have off-loaded shares worth about Rs 3,000 crore in about 24 companies since the beginning of this fiscal.

The companies whose shares have been sold by various Mauritius-based entities, many of which are units of large global investors, include companies like Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Hindusthan and state-run MTNL.

These shares have been mostly sold through large open market transactions in the past four months.

As per the data available with the stock exchanges, various Mauritius-based entities have sold shares worth close to Rs 3,000 crore, while the total stock purchase made by them since April 1, 2012 amounts to just about Rs 600 crore - translating into a net outflow of over Rs 2,200 crore.

This large-scale selling has come at a time when many Mauritius-based entities have come under the regulatory scanner for possible routing of illicit wealth of Indians and NRIs back into the country.

Market regulator SEBI has come across numerous Mauritius- based funds during its stock-specific probes in cases of market manipulation, as also irregularities related to IPOs, GDRs, takeovers and insider trading, sources have said.

There are fears that many of the Mauritius funds could be related to each other, as SEBI has found some common threads between different entities based out of the island nation.

Mauritius-based entities form a major chunk of foreign investors in the Indian market, but most of them have either stopped infusing fresh money or have been selling their investments in recent months amid fresh taxation proposals.

This has further raised the hackles of the regulatory agencies, as the proposed changes in the tax regime are supposed to check flow of black money, among others.

The market experts are, however, of the view that the recent sell-off by Mauritius based entities could be just a normal churn in their portfolios.

Destimoney Securities’ Sudip Bandhopadhyay said that “most of the India-registered FIIs are based in Mauritius and they prefer buying or selling through open market transactions mainly on account of price fluctuation.”

CNI Research Head Kishor Ostwal said: “It seems that one of the big clients has offloaded its holdings in the open market, while another one has bought it. It may also be that the client has changed its fund house.”

Keywords: Mauritius-based entities, sell in Indian stock market, off-loaded shares, Rs 3, 000 crore in, 24 companies, beginning, fiscal

Promoter Group Entities- RELIANCE, BAJAJ AUTO...

Sun, Aug 05, 2012 at 11:25

RIL streamlines promoter holding; pares nos of firms to 55

Top private sector firm Reliance Industries has streamlined its promoter holding by bringing down the total number of promoter group entities to 55 -- still the third highest for any Sensex-listed company.

Top private sector firm Reliance Industrieshas streamlined its promoter holding by bringing down the total number of promoter group entities to 55 -- still the third highest for any Sensex-listed company.

As per the latest data available with stock exchanges, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) now has a total of 55 entities forming part of its promoter group -- down from 62 at the start of the current financial year 2012-13.

Prior to this, the total number of promoter entities of RIL had declined from 65 at the end of December 2011, while it stood at 68 at the close of fiscal ended March 31, 2011.

Ever since the listed companies started disclosing the number of their promoter group entities to the stock exchanges in June 2006, the number of RIL's promoter group firms has been lowest at 41 at the end of fiscal ended March 31, 2010.

However, it rose sharply to 74 in the very next quarter and remained the same for three consecutive quarters before beginning to decline in January-March period of 2011.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, the number of promoter entities is largest for Bajaj Auto (81), followed by Jindal Steel (56) and RIL (55).

While this number has remained unchanged for Jindal Steel for many quarters, Bajaj Auto had a higher number of 84 promoter group entities at the end of December 2011.

RIL's 55 promoters currently comprise of six individuals, including its chief Mukesh Ambani and his family members, one trust and 48 corporate bodies.

The family members include Mukesh Ambani's mother Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani, wife Nita Ambani and children Isha, Akash and Anant, although their holdings are minuscule.

Almost three-fourth of the total promoter holding is owned through LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) firms, which are globally considered as among the most tax-efficient corporate structures for holding companies.

Out of the total of 48 corporate bodies forming part of RIL's promoter group, as many as 29 are LLPs. All the promoters together hold about 45% stake in RIL, out of which more than 33% are held through these LLPs