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FMCG companies continued to ride a robust growth trajectory in September 2012 quarter. However, there has been a divergence in the performance between pure food based and other FMCG companies.

Is modern trade future growth driver for FMCG?

Modern Trade (MT) consists of supermarkets and hypermarkets that retail Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) goods. Also known as organized retail, this retail format started in India in the early 1990s, and since then has slowly been gaining in importance.

How to go about short listing stocks

The Bombay Stock Exchange has over 5,000 listed companies on the exchange, making it the largest exchange in the world in this aspect. The market capitalization of the exchange is well over US$ 1 trillion (Data as at the end of December 2011.

IT Sector: Q1FY13 revenue analysis of the big 4

Background: In light of the recently announced 1QFY13 results, this article compares the quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) revenue drivers of the Big 4 Indian IT companies, with a view to understand which of these drivers were sector specific versus company specific. The Big 4 are, of course, HCL Tech, Infosys, TCS and Wipro.

How many stocks should you have in your portfolio?

The 2007-08 financial crisis proved to be a heartbreak for many an aspiring investors. In fact, it was not just the average investor who suffered badly. Even the so called experts found the going extremely tough. And amongst the ones that prevailed, they were nothing but a pale shadow of their earlier selves.

Can gold give 400% returns in 3 years?

Did you ever get the feeling that most things in life are not uniformly distributed? If you did then let us tell you that you are not alone. A gentleman by the name of Pareto got a similar feeling when he observed that around 80% of Italy's wealth belonged to only 20% of its population.

Consumer spending: Leading indicator for stock markets?

We all know that consumer spending is directly related to the economy. When a country's economy is doing well, consumers have more disposable income to make purchases. Similarly, when there is an economic slowdown, consumers are likely to defer or cancel their major purchases.

Are `AAA` ratings a joke?

The US lost its AAA rating for the first time in its history in August 2011; post a downgrade by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P). The agency asserted a negative outlook on long term US debt and cut its rating from AAA to AA+.

The basics of price to book value (P/BV)

The price to book value (P/BV) ratio is a widely used valuation parameter used for valuing stocks. But what does P/BV mean and how can investors use this parameter to value their investments? In this article, we will try and simplify this concept.

Should one always avoid high debt companies?

The financial crisis that occurred a few years ago made a lot of investors wary of companies with high debt levels. This, because the uncertain future made it difficult for them to ascertain whether such companies would be able to service the debts.

Insider trading: Where is the system lacking?

Time and again you must have heard of securities frauds such as price rigging, front running, circular trading and insider trading. And this is the last thing a genuine investor would like to see happening in the stock markets. But securities frauds do happen.

Would you buy the world`s most expensive paint stock?

Investing in stocks is about getting two things right. The first is to identify a company that has proactive management with good governance, sound fundamentals, and a clear and robust business model. In the long term this is the best recipe for maximizing returns.

Infosys versus Wipro: The final frontier

While doing comparative analysis of Infosys and Wipro, in the first article of the series, we talked about the revenue distribution of the two companies. We also talked about the difference or similarities in client focus

Procter & Gamble: Will the gamble pay off?

US based P&G; worth $ 80 b in revenues is the world's largest consumer packaged goods (FMCG) company. But its association with India has been relatively recent when in 1985 it acquired Richardson Hindustan Limited along with its popular Vicks range of products.

Understanding Balance Sheet components

In the previous article of this series of basics of investing in equities, we took a look at one of the components of a balance sheet - 'Source of funds' and what its key constituents are. In the next few articles, we will take a look at the other component of the balance sheet - 'Application of Funds' and some of its key constituents.

Sensex: Are the BUY screams getting louder?

Over the past few months a lot has been written about investing in equities as an asset class. While some investors are finding value in the markets at current levels, others are completely staying away or have been reducing their exposure to equities as an asset class on the whole.

Key things to watch out in a balance sheet

A lot of emphasis was given on companies' revenues and profits during the high growth phase (FY04 to FY08) as virtually every company was growing at a strong pace.

Lessons from Coca-Cola

The Indian economy is facing tough times as the industrial activity has slowed down, impacting the revenue collection. On the other hand, the government borrowing is rising. Fiscal deficit has widened to a worrying 5.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Larsen & Toubro: An engineering behemoth

Infrastructure is a pillar to any economy's growth. It helps build a nation. Therefore, companies engaged in infrastructure creation are effectively wealth builders of the nation.

Do all dividend paying companies make a good investment

In the previous article of this series, we had discussed about items that are found at the bottom of the profit and loss account - taxes, net profits and appropriation. In this article, we shall discuss about dividends and its impact on retail investors.

Warren Buffett`s best metric for market valuation

Legendary investor Warren Buffett calls this ratio as "probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment". His disdain for macroeconomics is legendary.

Bharti vs. Idea: How the valuations stack up?

In our previous articles we went through the market share of Bharti and Idea and realized that Bharti is the undisputed market leader in the Indian mobile markets. In the next article we compared the operational numbers for both the companies.

How to evaluate taxes, net profit, appropriation of cos

In the previous article of this series, we discussed about depreciation and interest expenses. In today's article, we will take a look at the items that fall below these expenses – taxes, net profits and appropriation.

Are shareholders riding on Dabur growth wave?

During the past decade, the FMCG industry has witnessed robust growth averaging 11%. Multinational FMCG companies have been expanding their distribution reach in the country. - Whereas, the homegrown FMCG companies have been on an inorganic growth trajectory acquiring domestic and international brands.

`Our revenues doubled this year` ... so what?

Many a times you will find managements boasting about revenue growth in their respective companies' annual reports. Looking at annual reports of many companies during the high growth period a few years ago, you would have been astonished by the growth numbers.