We all recently read this bit of information in newspapers on sale of medicines at Jan Aushadhi Kendras all over the country. To those unaware, these JAK offer a wide range of medicines in their generic form at low affordable prices. There are over 7,800 JAK in India at present. This data gives us insight […]

The sudden drop in growth rates for multiple consumer focused companies for the Mar 19 quarter has come as a shock for investors and analysts alike. Yet the reasons for this slowdown were neither unknown nor difficult to understand, which were: a) rural distress and b) NBFC liquidity crisis. Several companies in the consumer non-durables […]

All of us are aware of the famous American Express episode with Warren Buffet. To recount in brief, a company called Allied Crude Vegetable Oil, had a great idea.  Buy up the entire soybean oil surplus, which was used to make everything from salad dressing to paint, and ship the oil abroad using government aid […]

“If you can do no good, at least do no harm.” ― Kurt Vonnegut Apparently the HDFC board has never heard this. When it met on Monday, 7th Jan to decide on the planned merger with Bandhan Bank this thought never crossed their mind. The apparent reasons for this deal were thrown up in typical investment-banker-double […]

On 21st September, 2018, price of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) fell almost 50%, wiping out close to 12000 crores of market cap. The management of DHFL was dumbfounded –it seemed they had been hit by a speeding truck. What had really happened? One of the DSP mutual fund debt schemes sold a bunch of […]

Two 13-year-olds going ballistic with their bats, smashing the opposition to a pulp, on their way to a then world-record 664-run unbeaten partnership. That knock in the Harris Shield Trophy is what first brought Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli into the limelight. Everyone’s heard that story. But what many people haven’t heard is that Kambli […]

Last October, I was reflecting on the runaway stock prices and trying to figure out why it was so. I noted down the following points in my diary as to what the equity prices for the day reflected: Optimism about the future; High amount of domestic liquidity flowing into equity funds; Pessimism about other asset […]

Fundamentals Based Investing Momentum Investing Takes a long time to deliver returns; Can deliver returns in a short time; Well thought out and researched trade; Opportunistic trade, unlikely to be researched; Based on business fundamentals of the company; Business fundamentals of the company do not matter; Current valuation of the company is relevant to the […]

Recently there was a war of words on Twitter between two stalwarts in the field of financial services in India. One bemoaned the fact there is no home grown giant in the e commerce or social media field unlike in China such as Alibaba, Didi, WeChat, etc. He complained about lack of vision and support […]

As is de rigueur, let me start with a quote by Warren Buffett: “If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” When you intend to be a long term investor, you are not merely a shareholder, you are part and parcel of the […]