Something About Stock Exchange (Part-1)????

Stock Exchange has always been a store house of interesting things. A few terms used there have always aroused interest in me as to their meanings. Here is an attempt to share some interesting facts about stock exchanges.

• Low grade investment quality issues of companies which have a poor record of earning and dividend payments are called cats and dogs in stock market parlance.
• The stock market operator who believes that the prices of securities will fall at a later date is a Bear and the one who believes that the prices of securities will raise at a later date is a Bull.
• The particular situation in which a particular types of securities are suddenly offered in large numbers in a stock market is known as Banging.
• Stag is an investor who subscribes to new issues of share to sell them off immediately at a profit.
• The convertible part of a partly-convertible debenture is known as KHOKA on dalal street.
• New York Stock Exchange is nicknamed Big Board.
• The market condition wherein the price of futures or forward contract(Forward or future contract refers to the contract wherein the the commodity being traded on is agreed to be delivered at a future date at the price determined at the time of contract.) is trading above the expected spot price at contract maturity is called Contango. It is called Seedha Badla in Dalal street slang.
• The carry over charge paid by the broker to the seller to carry over his transaction to the nest accounting period is called Badla. However Badla was banned by Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 1993.
• In Stock Exchange terms, unofficial market of dealers who deal in new issues of shares before they become officially available on stock exchanges is called Grey Market.

Diners club?????

The birth of a business need not always be planned. Some business ideas sprang up suddenly with the occurrence of some incidents. It's always been interesting to note the stories behind the setting up of businesses.

One of such interesting beginning is associated with Diners Club Credit Card.

Diners Club is the first multi-purpose credit card company in the world. It is direct banking and payment services company. It revolutionized how consumers made payments. It serves the payment needs of rich and affluent consumers.

It was established in 1950. Its co-founder Frank McNamara had been to a posh restaurant in US but unfortunately had left money in another suit. So he felt embarrassed and resolved not to be embarrassed again. It was in his determination to help others who could face such embarrassments was conceived the idea of a payment mechanism when money is not carried physically. It was how Diners Club Credit Card was born. Indeed Interesting!!!!!

Intel and its branding strategies?????

Intel, as we all know, is the market leader in microprocessors. The strength of Intel is reflected in the ingredient brand equity it has created for itself.

Ingredient Branding refers to the process of crafting a separate brand equity to the ingredient of a product. The ingredient brand equity must contribute to the brand equity of its master product. For example, Laptop is a product, of which microprocessor is a part. If microprocessor creates brand equity for itself and contributes to the brand equity of laptop, then microprocessor is said to have ingredient brand equity.

Intel has always striven to enhance its brand equity by positioning its new products very consciously.

Intel was naming its microprocessors as x86, like intel 386, intel 486 etc. But it did not continue this naming pattern for its next product but instead named it Itanium. Because it wanted to position it as the processor for the new millennium.

S&P's credit rating??????

Newspapers on August 6 carried the story of genesis of storm that has sent ripples across the financial markets around the world. Here is a sincere attempt to narrate, in simple words, what is this storm all about.

Before getting into the actual discussion, let us understand the meaning of a few required concepts.

Credit Rating - Credit rating implies rating the credit worthiness of a debt instrument (Corporate Credit Rating) or a national government (Sovereign Credit Rating). It is an index of the degree of risk of investing in the debt instrument or a nation. A better credit rating would mean higher creditworthiness and a lower risk of default and thus ensures the safety of principal invested. A lower credit rating would imply exactly the opposite. Credit rating is positively related to investor's confidence in investment.

Credit Rating Agency - Credit Rating Agency is an organization which assigns rating to the debt instrument or the nation, as the case maybe. It is to be noted that the credit rating is not the product of any mathematical computation but the outcome of long-standing experience of the agency. The credit rating agency evaluates the creditworthiness on the basis of qualitative and quantitative information gathered by the agency.

Example- Standard & Poor's (US), Moody's Investors Service (US), Fitch Ratings (US/UK), Japan Credit Rating Agency Ltd. (Japan), CRISIL (India) etc.

Fiscal Deficit - Fiscal deficit refers to excess of expenditure over income in the budget. A country with high fiscal deficit implies more of spending from the borrowed funds and vice versa. Investors would like to invest in those countries where fiscal deficit is low since the country, having less of borrowed funds is evaluated to have high credit worthiness.

The Issue-

Standard & Poor's is a high-ranked credit rating agency in the US. has downgraded the ranking it has assigned to US for the first time since 1917. US had been rated AAA, the highest of the ranking S&P gives to any entity. But now S&P has lowered the rating to AA+, one notch less than AAA.

The reason for the downgrade being the budget of US government. US govt proposed to reduce its fiscal deficit by $2.1trillion over 10 years. But S&P is of the opinion that the US govt should have proposed for the reduction of fiscal deficit by $4 trillion which is quite higher than the actual cut. This has made S&P feel that the US runs a high risk of public debt burden and downgraded the rating.

The downgrade has shaken the investor's confidence and given the focal point which US economy assumes in the world economy and the inter-linkage of financial markets, thanks to globalization, this downgrade has sent ripples across the financial markets around the world.

Friends for Ever!!!!

To everyone who made my life beautiful,

To everyone who have left sweet memories,

To everyone who made us laugh twisting abdomen,

To everyone who nick-named me,

To everyone who irritated me just to have fun,

To everyone who fought with me just to make me realize how important are they in my Life,

To everyone who get a smile on their face when they remember me,

To everyone who will not forget me in their life,

I wish a very very happy and prosperous Friendship Day.

Vim - energy???????

Branding a product is all the more important. The companies take utmost care to name its products. The names have to be meaningful, memorable.

VIM, detergent brand from HUL means Energy and Enthusiasm, signifying the energy and enthusiasm of the brand to remove dirt and stains.