In the Now

The Impossible Trinity

Very simple way to explain what an investor wants can be condensed into 3 things, namely, good return, quick return and less volatility: basically Jyaada (more), Jaldi (quick) and kam jhatka (less volatile).

Investing and Forecasting

In 1906 famous statistician Francis Galton attended a fair in Plymouth where participants had to guess the weight of an ox and the one who guessed it right, won a prize. Galton looked at each of the entries and deduced the average weight guessed by all participants came in at 1198 lbs whereas the actual weight of the ox was 1197 lbs and that the crowd was often right.

GDP Explained (with Idli)

Imagine there is an island called 'ABC' where only 4 people reside, a farmer, a grocery seller, an idli-wallah and a Fertilizer manufacturer. The farmer sells rice, methi (fenugreek) seeds and urad dal to the grocery man. The grocery man converts rice into flour and sources some other materials like cooking oil from the neighbouring island. The idli-wallah buys this stuff from our grocerier and makes some delicious Idlis which are bought by the farmer for a fair price. Remember, there is one more person on this island, a Fertilizer manufacturer who had sold Fertilizer to the farmer. The grocery man sells extra fenugreek to the neighbouring island.

RBI to support the bond markets for the next 3 years

The Indian Debt Market rallied in the current financial year due to comfortable liquidity in the system of around Rs 6 Lakh crores, net inflows in mutual funds debt schemes crossing the Rs 1.50 Lakh mark. RBI also nudge interest rates down, by buying cutting repo and reverse repo rates by 40 basis points and 65 basis points, doing TLTRO of Rs 1.13 Lakh crores, open Market Operations and operation twist of above Rs 1.5 Lakhs crores

Gender Parity in the Corporate World

“Gender Parity in the Corporate World” – While this has been a buzz word for quite some time now, a concrete change is still quite a way away.

The Marketing Metamorphosis: WIP @ Tata Mutual Fund

The last 6 months have been remarkable when it comes to an impetus to “change”. We achieved in 6 months what would have taken us 5 years of unhindered backing to the craft of Marketing. As much as that is a rare occurrence, the sharpened impact of marketing is becoming a norm. And it’s measurable. Over-night all marketing moved into the digital space, because our physical world fell apart. This held true for the purchases of products and booking of services too. My guess is that happened because customers naturally gravitated into the digital space not by marketing design but by their own needs. Marketing no longer impacting revenues with a lag BUT in near real-time. More efforts are being directed in guiding consumers on to digital assets, which are being built more aggressively by organizations, for they want to keep ahead of their Consumers, who have learnt a trick or two faster than the organization was ready for.

Need for Long Term Repo operations by RBI in the Ten year segment

In my previous article, I have said AAA corporate bond rally to sustain in the current financial year. AAA PSU bond minus government bond spread has come down to 40 to 60 basis points across maturities. The fall in the shorter end of the yield curve is largely due to RBI conducting, Long Term Repo Operations ( LTRO) and Targeted Long-Term Repo Operations (TLTRO)  for 3-year maturity.

RBI operation Twist and OMO, buying in secondary markets- will it take the ten year below 6 % levels.

After the RBI monetary policy minutes release, the bond markets entered into a bearish mode, with ten-year bond yield traded above 6 % levels. This is after RBI has taken measures to control bond yields. RBI has done Rs 40000 crores of operation Twist, increased HTM limits for Banks from 18 % to 22 % for approved Government securities. RBI has also devolved the ten-year bonds around 6 % levels on primary dealers, when ten-year yields was trading 10 basis points higher in the secondary markets.

Global Financial Crisis

Masks and Gloves. Never imagined myself, to be geared up so for my usual grocery shopping oung, but unfortunately this is the reality now. Covid is one more “Black Swan” event in our lifeme. The last one was the Great Financial Crises (GFC)of 2008‐09, which also had global ramificaons.

Navigating the choppy waters... By Rupesh Patel, Senior Fund Manager, Tata Mutual Fund

Markets have bounced back from extreme pessimism that we saw towards the end of March. Some sectors of the market have clearly stood out in the recovery phase. In many instances the stock prices and valuations of companies in the winning sectors have gone beyond pre-covid level. We have also seen market breadth widening and mid and small cap participation in the rally going up. 

Active Investing and Execution

Why do investors put their hard‐earned money in the stock markets? To make good returns over a period.

The Test Match of Wealth Creation!

A tale another March, that of 2001; India having bowled out for 171 runs chasing the first innings score of 445 put up by the formidable Australian Team. Having been asked to follow on Team India batted for 2 days and went on to score 657.

Water everywhere, not a drop to drink?

“Water Water everywhere not a drop to drink” is a very famous phrase used originally in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In his book a sailor was stuck on his boat deep inside the ocean without any drinking water.

Economy and Markets Current Context

1991 Redux @ 2020

Over the last couple of months, if there is one word which must have been mentioned zillions of times, it has to be ‘Unprecedented’. Every management interaction, speaker session, articles or even an informal talk that I have had, this word was never missed.  

Debt market attraction towards PSU Papers and Government Securities here to stay

Investors invest in Debt mutual funds to get stable returns. The return of debt portfolio is broken into two parts, the income which is the coupon/ Yield to maturity (YTM ) of the underlying securities in the portfolio and the price appreciation of securities in the portfolio.