PrimeInvestor - Articles and Reports

General
Srikanth Meenakshi

โ€œRetire Richโ€ by P V Subramanyam โ€“ A handbook for your golden years

World over, planning and investing for retirement in a disciplined fashion is not the norm. However, western countries have a healthy social security net that would keep people out of really bad situations, and many such countries would have state-sponsored health coverage that would take care of the inevitable big bills in old age.

India has neither, at least not in a manner that will cater to a middle-class life-style and care aspirations here. Hence, planning, saving, and investing for retirement becomes a must-do activity during the earning years of an individual in India.

P V Subramanyamโ€™s book โ€“ โ€œRetire Rich โ€“ Invest Rs 40 a dayโ€ was the first book on this topic. The original version was published in 2011 and sold more than 150,000 copies, and is now available in a new edition (since 2019).

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buy gold
Gold
Aarati Krishnan

Goldโ€™s in a bear market – What to do now

A cocktail of factors – from the rollout of the Covid vaccine across the world, to optimism about economic recovery to a spiking of US bond yields – has had a dampening effect on gold, pushing it into an official bear market. (A bear market is roughly defined by a 20% decline in any asset from its peak).

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Nifty target
Markets
B Krishnakumar

Where’s the Nifty headed? A technical analysis

This is an update to the Nifty outlook that was posted on January 9 2021. The Nifty 50 index has achieved the first upward target of 14,600 that was mentioned in the earlier post. And the index also got within striking distance of the second target of 15,900. The Nifty 50 index registered a high of 15,371 before the recent slide.

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shoe dog
Short Takes
Srikanth Meenakshi

Just doing it

When I read non-fiction books, I keep myself daily minimum targets to get through it in reasonable time – at least 100 pages a day, or in some tough reads, 50 pages a day.

With Phil Knightโ€™s โ€˜Shoe Dogโ€™, I had to set for myself daily maximum reading targets – not more than 150 pages a day – so as to not let my other work suffer.

I could not, however, hold myself to the target – I finished the 400-page tome in a day and half flat. In one word, itโ€™s โ€˜unputdownableโ€™.

My partner from FundsIndia Chandra gave me the book 2 or 3 years ago and exhorted me to read it, and Iโ€™m ashamed I just got around to it. Of course, as with the other books I am reading these days, I am wishing this book existed and I read it, 15 or 20 years ago.

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US Yield
Bonds & Deposits
Aarati Krishnan

What you should do about the US bond yield spike

Suddenly everyoneโ€™s talking about US bond yields surging. I see that the 10-year US government security is up by some 0.02 % to 1.57%. Why is this such a big deal?
While yesterdayโ€™s move isnโ€™t big, whatโ€™s big is the US 10-year Treasuryโ€™s 43 basis point rise in the last one month. This means that, a month ago, investors in long term bonds issued by the US government were getting 1.13% by way of interest and now theyโ€™re getting 1.57%. Thatโ€™s a 40% jump in returns from an asset that is regarded as one of the safest parking grounds for money in the world.

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coffee can
Short Takes
Srikanth Meenakshi

Wealth in a Coffee Can

Few books have caught the interests of the Indian investing public as well as the book โ€˜Coffee Can Investingโ€™ by Saurabh Mukherjea and others. Fewer still investment methods have found a fan following as the stock picking process recommended in this book.

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compound effect
Short Takes
Srikanth Meenakshi

Everything Compounds – “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy

โ€œThe Compound Effectโ€ by Darren Hardy explores the power of compounding in our everyday lives – our habits, our goals, our routines, our successes, and failures. The central premise of this book is simple enough – โ€œEverything compounds. It is up to us to choose the direction that it happens in our livesโ€.

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Recommendations
Vidya Bala

Prime Recommendation: 2 Debt funds to limit current market volatility

For those of you spooked by the continuing volatility in debt funds, our earlier article would have explained why these ups and downs prevail now. If you have money to be deployed or profits booked out of equities and waiting in the sidelines, you may hesitate to deploy it in this debt market condition.
To speak the truth, there are no categories other than overnight and liquid that are spared from the current volatility. However, if one looks at it on a relative basis, select funds from ultra-short, low duration and money market have held on, notwithstanding the see-saw.

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Markets
R Balakrishnan

The many roads to mis-governance

Many investors think of corporate governance as an esoteric concept that is good to have. But if is a little dodgy, they think it can be safely ignored, as it doesn’t affect them directly. They couldn’t be more mistaken.

Having discussed the origins of the concept of corporate governance, here are some key ways in which mis-governance at companies you own shares in can directly impact your returns.

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reliance industries
Stocks
Vidya Bala

8 things you need to know about Reliance Industriesโ€™ demerger plan

Reliance Industries (RIL) put out more details of the proposed demerger of its Oil to Chemicals (O2C) business that it announced earlier in 2020. The company now seeks approval from shareholders, creditors, regulatory authorities, Income Tax authority, and the NCLTs in Mumbai and Ahmedabad to demerge and set up a fully owned subsidiary for the O2C business.
This article will simply seek to explain the contours of this demerger and any immediate impact if you are a shareholder in the company, in the form of a Q&A.

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