Archive for February, 2007

New place, same blog

8 comments Written on February 2nd, 2007 by
Categories: Uncategorized
I've moved my blog's location - you will now see that this blog is hosted at:

http://blog.investraction.com

Nothing's changed, and the old links will still work. But just a new place that I can really call my own blog!

You might ask - what's Investraction? Frankly, it is going to be a web site. A comprehensive web site that will host my blog, further articles that I will write and eventually, a complete package of tools that will help you become a smarter investor.

But its not yet ready and right now nothing's been remotely done. But I expect to get some work done slowly (and steadily) and eventually will announce it here.

Tell me what you would like in a financial web site - yes, we will have stock quotes and mutual fund NAVs. But we'll have a LOT more than that! We'll allow you to compare funds based on annual expenses, entry loads, and load adjusted returns. We'll allow you to build portfolios online and see how you have fared. We'll even set up mock trading so that you can see how to buy, sell and trade online.

When will this be ready? Very soon. I'll post a progress map and will add features as more and more people request them.

I hope that this way I will help build smarter investors. And at least for the near future, everything will be free.

Firstsource IPO Update

12 comments Written on February 2nd, 2007 by
Categories: IPO
An update on the Firstsource IPO: Today's Feb 2, the last date to apply for the IPO. What's the situation?

From NSE's Firstsource IPO page, it seems that the issue is already oversubscribed 6.7 times. Most of the subscription is by QIBs (Mutual funds, FIIs and the like) which have already asked for 10 times their quota. The retail individual buyer quota (Less than Rs. 100,000 invested) has been oversubscribed 1.1 times.

But the "non institutional investor" quota has not yet been oversubscribed. So if you have more than 100,000 to spare, you can apply in this quota.

If you are going to apply in the retail category, go ahead anyhow. It seems to me that you may only get about 1/3rd of your request, but there may be enough shares available after the shares are listed as well. I don't expect a phenomenal listing gain on this, so invest only for the long term.

Update @ 1 PM: Issue is 16 times oversubscribed. Retail (looking at "cut off") is oversubscribed 2 times. I think the way it is going, it will be oversubscribed at least four times by the end of the day. So applying for Rs. 40,000 you will get a max of shares worth Rs. 10,000. The remaining money comes back as a refund, after around 1 month or so. Even if listing is 40% higher, you will make only Rs. 4,000 - which is only 10% of your capital. Is it worth the effort? with a maximum gain of Rs. 10,000 (at the full application of Rs. 100,000) it's probably not going to work out. (I personally am choosing to buy in the secondary market)

Update @ 2 PM: 19.5 times oversubscribed. Retail is nearly three times over.

Update @ 3 PM: 25.6 times oversubscribed, and retail 3.36 times. This is pretty much the exit point now - it looks like the retail portion will be oversubscribed 5 times or so.

Final Update: 50 times oversubscribed. The retail portion was oversubscribed 11.53 times, and the employee portion was also oversubscribed twice! The allotment will be on lottery - meaning lots will be picked to allot a certain number of shares - which will also be less than 1/5th of the shares bid for. This is not good for those who don't get allotment - their money is gone for around 15 days at least. But even those that do get allotment will get a piddly number of shares. For subscription of 1 lakh, you would possibly get alloted only Rs. 20,000 worth of shares (or less) and gains of 40% on that will be Rs. 8,000. Good money, but not enough really - you could have got that perhaps if you invested in the shares directly.

I'm choosing to buy on listing - let's see what it gets priced at. Anything under Rs. 75 is reasonable.