KEL Media Release
Dubai, Sep 21: On a day when the Indian Sensex scaled new heights and had its highest day gain, two experts on the Indian stock market were inspiring a packed audience at the India Club on how to benefit from the growth of India. Obviously these two experts are none other than Vivek Mahajan – General Manager – Training at the Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange and Norbert Morris Shenoy, an seasoned stock broker with a tremendous record with the Reserve Bank of India.
The event was KEL’s third event of the year titled ‘Investments in India – Financial Strategies’. For over two hours the two speakers caught the concentration of the entire audience on why investments in securities and commodities are great opportunities to any serious but disciplined investor.
The event started with Ivan Fernandes, President of KEL welcoming the speakers, guests and members. Ivan set the stage for the day recalling the greatest moment for the Indian stock markets. He mentioned that just in the last five years the BSE Index has jumped over 480% or nearly doubling your investment year on year.
Vivek Mahajan, past vice-president of the Calcutta Stock Exchange and an expert on commodity futures provided the audience with the opportunities and risks in trading commodity futures. He said that commodity futures are easy to track and trade, they provide a hedge against inflation, leveraged and are highly liquid. He showed the performances of several key commodities in the last year with copper providing a 67% gain which is in line with the growth of the BSE sensex during the same period. He provided several scenarios to the audience on buying a future contract and compared it with a physical trade.
He then provided a glimpse of Currency Futures and described the difference between a spot, forward and future contract. He mentioned that the key to currency trading is that all currencies do not rise and fall in unison like stocks. Compared to stocks, currencies are easy to track and it provides the opportunity to profit when the market moves up or down. With examples of various currency future contracts, he demonstrated how the volatility in these markets provides opportunities for disciplined investors. Mahajan stressed on the principals of trading mathematics and stressed that unless the basic probability is strictly followed both on the upside as well as downside, you cannot win.
This was followed by an inspiring talk from Norbert Shenoy on how to take advantage of the Indian markets. He started with examples of certain stocks like BHEL and Tata Motors where an investment of Rs. 10,000 in 2001 would give you a return of over Rs. 1,20,000 today. With India growing at over 10% YOY, he said that according to a recent report India will be the fastest growing economy in 3 years time. While he admitted that the current P/E is a bit stretched at 23, he said that even at a reasonable P/E of 17.5 and an EPS growth of 18 – 20%, the sensex should easily cross 20K by 2010. However he cautioned, that any investor getting into the Indian stock market must look at a 3 – 5 year time horizon.
The investor must build his portfolio with carefully select stocks that are fundamentally strong – especially those that have significant weights on the various indices. He also stressed on the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) where you buy more when the prices are low and less when the prices are high and over a period of time build a very enriching portfolio. He ended by saying that today we have two avatars of India. One India wants. The other India Hopes. One India Leads. The other India follows. It is up to you he said which India you want to be part of.
Both speakers responded to several questions raised by the audience.
Anand Shenoy, Director of Deca proposed the vote of thanks.
There was tremendous content on a day when the stock market as well as the Indian Cricketers rained sixers. The event concluded with a sumptious dinner arranged by the India Club.