2011
December 7, 2011
Investing Money in India right now is a very confusing matter given the large number of choices and the lack of attractiveness of different assets due to different reasons.There are hundreds of voices seemingly intelligent but who are selling their own books.If you turn on the finance new channels they will keep saying buy stocks for the long term as if a normal investor can make money by buying stocks for the short term.Gold proponents will say that it has been a great investment over the last several years and with the US,European systemic shocks it will remain so.However the rapid uptrend in gold prices has made it a somewhat risky investment.Investing in Gold is also not easy given the wide array of choices like Gold ETFs,physical or futures.So lets see each asset class with its pros and cons
November 4, 2011
The Bees lineup of ETFs was started by Benchmark Asset Management Company which was a unique Indian AMC in the sense that it focused on ETFs at a time when the major Indian AMCs did not care a hoot.However ETFs in India are starting to catch on rapidly as Indian mutual funds under perform despite their very high expense ratios.Recognizing this trend of growing AUM of ETFs,Goldman Sachs acquired the still small Benchmark.With effect from 14th July 2011, both Benchmark Asset Management Company Private Limited and Benchmark Trustee Company Private Limited became a part of the Goldman Sachs group. Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals. It was founded in 1869 & is one of the oldest and largest investment banking firms.
November 1, 2011
The Axis Gold ETF started in 2010 under the NSE Symbol AXISGOLD.The Scheme endeavors to generate returns that are in line with the performance of gold, subject to Tracking Errors. The corpus of the Scheme isinvested in Gold Bullion of fineness - 995 parts per 1,000 (99.5%) or higher. Further, the Scheme may also invest in gold related instruments (including derivatives related to gold) as per SEBI guidelines.
November 1, 2011
HDFC Gold ETF along with Kotak and Gold Bees are one of the best gold etfs to invest in India and provide a sharp contrast to the worst ETFs like SBI and Axis Bank.HDFC Gold ETF has the added advantage of being one of the largest Fund Houses and is a subsidiary of one of the largest private banks with a great distribution strenght and reputation.It is also one of the few mutual fund ocmpanies which is offering a SIP on the Gold ETF unlike many others.Expense Ratio is also one of the lowest in the industry at 1% . All in all HDFC Gold ETF is a good buy if you are thinking of putting money in gold through ETF.
October 27, 2011
SBI GETS is an open ended Gold Exchange Traded Scheme. Even though this is an open-ended scheme, investors need to buy & sell units of the scheme on the stock exchanges where these units are listed for liquidity at the market price, subject to the rules and regulations of the exchange. The Scheme opened on March 30, 2009.The investment objective of the fund is to seek to provide returns that closely correspond to returns provided by price of gold. However, the performance of the scheme may differ from that of the underlying asset due to tracking error. The benchmark is the price of the Gold. Special Products SIP, SWP, STP are not available. No dividend would be declared under the Scheme unlike Reliance Gold ETFThe SBI GETS Expense ratio is 2.5%.This is one of the highest expense ratios in the industry much higher compared to other Gold ETF Fund products like Kotak or Goldman.The reason of this expense ratio is not apparent since passive investment in gold does not require such high expenses.This is a deal killer from SBI Asset Management and I would strongly recommend never to buy SBIGETS unless SBI reduces this expense ratio
October 25, 2011
Kotak Mahindra which is one of the biggest private banks with operations in almost all aspects of Finance like Investing Banking,Wealth Management has launched a good Gold ETF products as well.It is an open-ended gold Exchange Traded Fund, which invests in physical gold and tracks the domestic spot price of gold as closely as possible. Units of the scheme listed on stock exchanges and can be easily traded in demat form. Each unit of the scheme is approximately equal to 1 gram of gold. Units of the schemes are backed by physical gold held by the Custodian - Scotia Macotta. All physical gold held with Scotia Macotta conforms to the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) rules for Good Delivery.
The investment objective of Kotak Gold ETF is to generate returns that are in line with the returns on investment in physical gold, subject to tracking error.
October 23, 2011
I had written about the best way to invest in gold in India looking at the different ways of buying physical gold and gold etfs.There was also the option of investing in gold mutual fund which invest in gold mining companies as well as looking at whether to buy gold from banks or you were better off buying gold from your neighbourhood jeweller.Alll the options of buying gold have their advantages and disadvantages.Gold ETFs have become the fastest growing segment of buying gold in India with most people prefering teh convenience and ease of buying gold the demat way.Note only does it have the security and storage advantages,it is also easily saleable without a huge transaction costs.Its no wonder that most asset management companies in India have launched gold etf products to take advantage of the growing trend of buying gold Etfs in India.SBI and UTI,two of the oldest government owned mutual fund houses in the country too have started gold etfs besides the private companies.Benchmark Gold Bees remains the oldest gold etf in the country and is looking to gain marketshare after Goldman Sachs bougth the company.IDBI has joined the gold etf party becoming the latest AMC to start a gold ETF.There is little to distinguish these Gold ETFs from each other since they don't have any active management and are mostly linked to the price of gold.The best gold etf is the one which has the least tracking error and the lowest expense ratio.I don't have a favorable opinion of the mutual fund etfs in India since they charge very highly and there is lack of variety and liqudity in the Indian ETF market.
October 22, 2011
The world has so many beautiful places to visit & see. India itself is full of historical and tourists places. It has variety to offer starting from the adventurous activities in Himalayas such as mountaineering, trekking, skiing, etc. to beach holidays in Goa and Kerala, Jungle Safari through Gir and the water sports in the long stretches of coastline and the backwaters in Kerala. Earlier, it involved lot of stress to plan a trip for one's family, where one had take the pains for checking availability & making bookings by standing in long queues for travel tickets & hotel stay. Plus, with so much availability in the market, it was also difficult to compare prices & quotes and make a wise decision. But with the advent of online bookings made through these travel sites, the whole scenario changed. Now the whole process is less stressful & more fun. One can easily go online check availability of tickets according to his needs, compare prices, book tickets & enjoy a wonderful holiday time with family & friends. There are a number of online travel agencies which through their online portals in India that help in planning these holidays and booking travel & hotel tickets at suitable & reasonable prices. They manage to aggregate travel information and make it searchable and useful. These companies offer travelers the ability to select and book from a wide selection of hotel accommodation, flights and tourist attractions across the world. They use some technology that brings speed, usability and transparency to the travel world. It also means that travel planning is no more stressful and one can spend less time searching for tickets and more time on planning your holiday.
October 11, 2011
Sugar is produced by pressing out the juice from sugarcane & then boiling it into crystals. This process was developed in India around 500 BC. The sugarcane cultivation is believed to have originated in New Guinea, and was spread along routes to Southeast Asia and India. Brazil and India are the largest producer and producer-consumer of sugar respectively. India is the second largest producer of sugarcane next to Brazil. In 2008, the production in Brazil was 645,300,182 tonnes & India was 348,187,900 tonnes. India contributes about 12% of world sugar production and has annual sugar production capacity of 23 million tonnes with a total investment of $11000 million. Presently, about 4 million hectares of land is under sugarcane production. The average yield is around 70 tonnes per hectare. India now has 453 working sugar factories with an average capacity of 3500 TCD (tonnes crushed per day). There has been an increase in the volume of free international trade in sugar, which provides an excellent means of increasing exports. In India over 45 million tonnes of sugar is being traded each year. Sugar production is not the only business of the Indian industry, but it also has a diversified business of power generation and ethanol production. The country has been producing about 1.7 billion liters of alcohol utilizing 75-80% molasses, which is a by-product of sugar production in the country. In 1993, Molasses and alcohol-based industries were decontrolled, but currently are being controlled by state governments.
October 7, 2011
In the past ten years, cement consumption in India grew by approximately 7.5% per year. The building industry developed very dynamically, driven by the strong growth of population and the quick expansion of infrastructure. In 2005, India was after China the second largest cement consumer with around 135 million tonnes.
August 16, 2011
Sharp is the largest solar company in the world by revenues and has been so for the last few years despite massively increasing competition from Chinese Solar Panel Producers.While other Japanese conglomerates like Sanyo,Mitsubishi and Kyocera have substantially lost solar panel marketshare ,Sharp has managed to retain its leadership position.Though companies like First Solar and Suntech have shipped more solar modules than Sharp,in terms of total dollar sales Sharp is still on top.Sharp which used to make polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar panels has diversified into producing thin film amorphous silicon solar panels.The company has also entered the solar IPP and solar development business in collaboration with Enel Green Power and by acquiring a US Solar Developer Recurrent Energy.However in core solar panel production,Sharp has much higher costs and has lost money consistently.Sharp sells Solar Systems and Solar Inverters as well as Solar Modules.However the challenges in the solar market are considerable with well funded low cost competitors from China and South Korea.Sharp faces the toughest years of its solar history as it fights to survive in this cut throat Solar Market
August 14, 2011
Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is integrating of photovoltaic modules into the building envelope such as roofs or windows.These solid-state devices are used to replace conventional building materials to generate electricity out of sunlight with no maintenance and help in fighting global warming as the produce no pollution.BIPV products are most useful in construction of new buildings as an ancillary source of electrical power, although existing you can retrofit old buildings with BIPV proudcts as well. The advantage of BIPV over normal standard PV panels is that they integrate into the buildings instead of sticking out leading some people to call it ugly.ALso they help in saving the amount of money spent on building materials and labor that would normally be used to construct the part of the building . These advantages make BIPV one of the fastest growing segments of the photovoltaic industry with some people estimating that the use of BIPV will increase at more than 50% annually over the next few years with more than 1 GW of BIPV modules installed in the last year.
August 1, 2011
BIPV is the acronym for Building Integrated Photovoltaics which means the integration of photovoltaic materials into building structures such as roofs,windows and facades.It not only replaces the building supplies but also generate electricity creating a killer green product.This is one of the fastest growing segment in the solar industry and it has been estimated that almost 6-7% of the solar industry is made of BIPV products.A wide variety of technologies and products are being used in creating BIPV products.Though a large number of big solar panel manufactures like Suntech,Yingli,Canadian Solar have come out with BIPV Panels and Products,the segment has not become as big mainly because of higher costs vis a vis the standard crystalline solar systems.There are also specialized BIPV suppliers such as Ascent Solar and Konarka whose products are more suited to the BIPV Industry than the normal module industry.Some of these suppliers have no option as their technology is no longer competitive with the Chinese solar panel producers.Solyndra had a niche product which could be used in rooftops with ease of installation and low weight.However the high costs drove it to bankruptcy.The next leg up to the BIPV industry should come up with more BIPV products from the Major Solar Companies and as cost of solar silicon decline further with scale and innovation
July 22, 2011
CEEG or China Electric Equipment Group Corporation is based in Nanjing, China and is a China state owned company.Chinese Solar Panels have captured more than 50% of the global market for crystalline solar panels and the biggest solar panel producers are from China.CEEG is one of the top 15 Chinese solar module manfacturers and sells solar panels under the CEEG Brand.Like its name implies the CEEG Group has a major presnse in the electrical equipment market and 3 of its 4 divisions operate in this segment.The company is also listed on the NASDAQ under the CSUN symbol alongwith a host of other Chinese panel producers like Trina,Yingli,Suntech,Canadian Solar and others.CEEG’s power transformers and PV products have been qualified for CCC, UL and EU certifications.It recently lanuched the Quasar range of high efficiency solar panels.In 2004, CEEG got engaged in the PV industry and established China Sunergy (formerly CEEG Nanjing PV-Tech Co., Ltd).CEEG has 4 solar panel production factories and 600 MW of production capacity.CEEG was originally a solar cell producer and seller before getting into the manufacture of solar panels in 2009 though acquistions of 2 small solar module producers.
July 15, 2011
Phono Solar is a JV between Phono Technologies Switzerland and Sumec Group of China.Phono’s parent company SUMEC Group has been in the PV industry from early 2004. Sumec and Sinomach family of companies claim to have $15 billion in revenues each year.SUMEC Group Corporation (SUMEC), founded in 1978, is a key member of China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH).SUMEC’s core business consists of shipbuilding and project contracting of complete equipment and engineering; the R&D, manufacturing and export of machinery and electric products including power tools, garden tools, power machinery
Phono Solar’s three production facilities will produce more than 500MW of PV Modules in 2011.The products are widely used in many fields such as power station, telecom, transportation, lightening, broadcasting, civil defense, marine etc.The company's products are made in China and marketed by the Swiss company under the Phono Solar Brand.The Company also sells micro wind turbines which are used in small residential installations.
July 10, 2011
Goldman Sachs Liquid Exchange Traded Scheme (GS Liquid BeES) is an open ended liquid scheme & was previously known as Liquid Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme (Liquid BeES). GS Liquid BeES is the first Liquid ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) in the world. It is a unique liquid fund that is listed and traded on the stock exchange just like a share.
The investment objective of GS Liquid BeES is to enhance returns and minimize price risk by investing in a basket of call money, short-term government securities and money market instruments of short maturities while maintaining safety and liquidity. It seeks to provide current income, commensurate with relatively low risk while providing a high level of liquidity, primarily through a portfolio of treasury bills, Government Securities, Call Money, Collateralised Lending & Borrowing Obligation (“CBLO”) /similar instruments, Repos and Reverse Repos, and other Money Market Instruments.
July 10, 2011
Nuclear Power has come under assault in the aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident with Nuclear becoming a four letter word.However Nuclear Energy cannot be ignored because its nuclear energy uses are unique in some applications and cannot be substituted by any other means.Nuclear Energy is responsible for generating almost 1/6th of the global production of electricity with Developed Countries like Japan,Europe and USA having 20% or more of their electricity being generated by Nuclear Fission.Currently 31 countries in the world have nuclear reactors producing electricity.The total installed nuclear generating capacity in the world is around 375 GW (WNA) with another 170 GW in planning g state and another 170 GW being proposed.Despite the massive opposition that nuclear power has run into,nuclear companies and nuclear power stocks are not going away soon.This is because of the massive installed base and the nuclear plans of emerging countries.For example Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia,UAE are going ahead with their nuclear power plans as are countries like India and Vietnam.
July 10, 2011
Mutual Fund Companies have seen a steady growth driven by the growing financial assets being generated by the fast growing Indian economy.But the Mutual Fund Industry like other sectors such as Real Estate and Telecom too has come under the spotlight for some illegal activity.While you can't call the industry corrupt because of some fraudulent activities it does raise questions on the industry ethics.Top Mutual Funds in the country like HDFC and L&T have been fined by the stock market regulator SEBI for front running.For those who don't understand what the term means,front running is an illegal activity whereby a fund manager or fund official makes personal gains by making trades on his account before doing a trade for the fund.This causes losses for the fund investor and is akin to stealing.However like other corrupt practices in the stock market industry,SEBI lets them go with small fines which don't deter more such frauds.It is also not unknown that some fund managers connive with company promoters and market operators to rig and do circular trading.Not only is this a problem,another massive problem with the industry is its underperformance as compared to the benchmarks.While earlier mutual funds were known to outperform the benchmarks like the Nifty,a recent Crisil study has dispelled this myth.Given these disadvantages of mutual fund ,it is time to invest in Indian ETFs though not a lot of variety exists in the Indian stock market yet.
July 10, 2011
Wave Energy is one of the niche Water Energy Technologies that is still in its infancy stage in terms of technology maturity.Wave Energy has been around a long time with around 350 patents being granted for this technology and around 200 startups working on this renewable energy form.Wave Energy basically derives power from the movement of waves to generate electricity or power.Wave Power exists due to the differences in the speed of ocean water and wind power.The energy is transferred by the Wind Energy to the Waves which can be utilized to generate power.A wide variety of wave energy generators like buoys,underwater devices are being developed to harness the power of the waves in a cost efficient manner.Wave Energy Research is concentrated mainly in the United Kingdom which has made tidal and wave power central to meeting its 2020 European goal for renewable energy.Edinburgh in UK has become a center of wave energy development and EMEC has developed Cornwall as an important site for demonstration of wave energy projects.Some of the wave power companies are listed on the stock market as well.Due to the technology immaturity ,most of these stocks are micro cap and not an investible class for big investors.
July 8, 2011
Solar Panels are fast becoming one of the fastest growing products for homes in the western world driven by the 75-80% reduction in the costs of solar panels in the last 3 years.The sharp reduction in the costs of solar panels has been driven by the improvement in efficiency of solar panels,increase in scale by Chinese solar panel manufacturers,solar equipment sophistication and advancements in the learning curveAlso the importance of Solar Energy keeps growing with the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster,Coal Mine Deaths,BP Oil Spill constantly reminding us the dangers of Coal,Oil and Nuclear Energy.On the other hand Solar Panels lead to no deaths directly or indirectly and are incapable of causing large scale disasters..Solar Panels these days are being made by a wide variety of manufacturers in different shapes and sizes.Different types of solar panels are also being made from different materials like silicon,CIGs,CdTe etc.Solar Panels are also finding uses in outdoor camping,boats,swimming pools,solar carports etc.Besides solar panels are also being used to power off grid systems in far off areas plus mobile phones and laptops.The advantages and uses of solar panels are growing by the day.Solar Power's greatest advantage is the declining cost which had made solar electricity from panels on par with grid retail electricity prices in places like Italy and Germany.With costs continuing to go down,its easy to see that solar panel generated power will reach the electricity prices in most places in the world in 2-3 years.
July 8, 2011
Reliance Gold ETF is an open-ended Gold Exchange Traded Fund. It started on 22nd November 2007. The investment objective is to seek to provide returns that closely correspond to returns provided by price of gold through investment in physical Gold and Gold related securities .The prices of Reliance God ETF is affected by several factors such as global gold supply and demand, investors’ expectations with respect to the rate of inflation, currency exchange rates, interest rates, etc. Minimum of one unit can be traded by the investors.The Creation Unit is 1000 units that is if you have 1 kg of gold ETF that is about Rs 26 lakhs you can exchange your paper gold into physical gold from the AMC.
July 8, 2011
GE is one of the biggest companies in the world and has one of the biggest Green businesses as well.GE is the most profitable wind turbine manufacturer and is one of the largest renewable energy developers in the globe as well.GE like other electrical and power conglomerates like Siemens has decided to invest billions of dollars into Green Energy.Till recently Solar Energy had gotten scant attention from GE just like Siemens too has not invested a lot.However the 50% CAGR rates of Solar Energy,the fast declining costs have made it imperative for GE to have a presence in this market.GE had bought a thin film solar company Prime Solar a few years ago to acquire the Cadmium Tellerium Technology which First Solar uses in its Solar Panels.
July 8, 2011
Sunlink Solar Panels are manufactured by a small company Jiangsu Sunlink PV Technology Co,.Ltd based out of China with module production capacity of 200MW.Note there are many Chinese companies of this size and a major shakeout is occuring in the industry with a number of smaller companies shutting down their production solar panel lines as prices have gone down by 40% amidst a solar module inventory glut.Some US based solar panel producers like Evergreen and Solyndra have gone out of business and many others are on the verge like Arisa Technologies.SunLink PVwas founded in 2004 and they sell 5W to 300W both monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels.They have IEC61215 Ed.2, IEC61730, UL1703 certificates.
July 8, 2011
Xantrex Inverters are one of the most popular brands of solar inverters used in residential installations and come in a wide variety of models.Xantrex was one of the first companies to exclusively manufacture inverters for the photovoltaic market.The company was originaly based out of Canada and listed on the Toronta Stock Exchange.The company has offices in in the United States, Germany and Spain and China.The fortunes of the company changed when it was bought over by one of the biggest power equipment companies Schnieder Electric.However the solar inverters from Xantrex have retained their brand name even after the acquistion.Note Xantrex also manufactures solar inverter chargers and solar battery chargers .Xantrex focuses on the power electronics for boats, recreational vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, utility and automobiles.
July 8, 2011
Renewable Energy Corporation (REC ) is one of the biggest European solar companies and is completely vertically integrated.What that means is that REC makes all the components in the crystalline silicon supply chain from polysilicon to wafers to cells and modules.REC was earlier primarily a polysilicon and wafer producer but it is not becoming more active in the solar panels area.REC Silicon and REC Wafer are among the world's largest producers of polysilicon and wafers, respectively, for solar applications.This is the reason that REC solar panels are in general cheaper than other European and Japanese solar panels like Solarworld,Sharp,Kyocera and others.Due to the high cost of production,REC has shut down its factories in Norway and is mainly producing solar cells and solar modules at its new solar complex in Singapore.REC Solar has production facilities around the globe but it is concentrating its production in Asian factories.Despite stiff competition from Chinese solar panels which has led to bankruptcy of numerous solar companies in the West,REC is well capitalized and should be one of the survivors of the current solar price wars.As such the warranty on the solar panels from REC should hold good for the 25 years.
July 8, 2011
Life Insurance is one of the most widely available and used financial products being used by people.But before buying various types of life insurance such as variable,term life insurance not many people do a pros and cons analysis.This is quite sad since it is one of the biggest yearly expenses and is one of the most important security assets for our family in case of death or serious injury.Life Insurance has different meanings in different countries as well.In India Life Insurance is mostly looked upon as an investment product.Most people buy insurance as an investment product leading to the wide prevalence of hybrid insurance investment products like ULIPs ,Child Plans etc.It is easily found that these hybrid products are wasteful since it would be cheaper to buy separate investment and insurance products.The main reason for the misselling is the financial illiteracy and ignorance about the advantages and disadvantages of life insurance and its products.Life Insurance Companies also don't do a very good job in educating people about the right type of product as it is more profitable for them to sell the products which are disadvantageous to the customers.So we have a case where Life Insurance products advantages and disadvantages are not known and understood by most people around the world.
July 8, 2011
Nuclear Weapons are a massively controversial topic with the opposition towards Nuclear Weapons handily beating the supporters of these arms of mass destruction.Nuclear Weapons have been foretold as humankind killers since their development during the Second World War by USA.With the erstwhile USSR developing these nuclear weapons as well,a Cold War developed between the 2 superpowers.The War was Cold as both sides possessed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over.Despite strong arguments against nuclear weapons,most of the developed nations including the most powerful ones like USA,Russia,UK,France and China have refused to abandon nuclear weapons.There have been many movements for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons which can destroy mankind as we know it.However except for the START reduction of nuclear weapons by USA and Russia nothing much has been achieved.In fact new unofficial nuclear weapon powers like India,Pakistan and Israel have joined the Nuclear Club.South Africa too had developed nuclear weapons before abandoning the idea.Rogue nations such as North Korea are said to have developed nuclear bombs while Iran too is trying to make nuclear weapons to counter USA domination of the Middle East.
Most of the arguments against nuclear weapons are too vehement and extremist to get an idea whether nuclear weapons have any advantages if at all.A listing of facts about nuclear weapons is necessary for kids to get an idea about the dangerous cons of nuclear weapons.While there is no doubt that everyone would like to completely remove nuclear weapons from the world,there are benefits which nuclear power see in them so we need to examine them also.Unless we can analyze and correct the pros of nuclear weapons we are unlikely to get a correct solution to the these Armageddon weapons
July 8, 2011
Solectria Renewables LLC is a US based solar inverter company that was founded in 2005 in Massachusetts by a group of MIT engineers.The company has expanded quickly to 1 GW of grid tied pv inverter capacity in USA alone and is looking to set up smaller solar inverter factories in China and India which are looking to be the next high growth solar markets.Solectria Renewables specializes in large sized grid tie solar inverters ranging from 1.8 kilowatts to 500 kilowatt sizes.The company sells its solar inverter solutions to residential,commercial as well as utility customers.The company also sells a String Sizing Tool and SolRen monitoring software.The company received a grant to develop Smart Grid capable solar inverter from DOE.Note Solar Inverter Manufacturers are currently facing increased competition from Chinese low cost players as well as new companies.Satcon,AEIS and Power-One which are the biggest US Solar Inverter companies have already seen their revenue and profit growth go down due to decreased demand growth and falling prices.However there is greater differentiation and technology barriers in high end solar inverters than in solar panels in which Chinese are dominating currently.Solectria is differentiating itself by its decently priced solar inverters which are high efficiency pv inverters as well