Investment in Equity
Numerous studies have shown that, over long periods of time, stocks generate investment returns that are superior to those from every other asset class. Stock returns arise from capital gains and dividends.
A capital gain occurs when you sell a stock at a higher price than the price at which you purchased it. A dividend is the share of profit that a company distributes to its shareholders. Dividends are an important component of stock returns.
A capital gain occurs when you sell a stock at a higher price than the price at which you purchased it. A dividend is the share of profit that a company distributes to its shareholders. Dividends are an important component of stock returns.
Equity shareholders are those individuals who trade in equities on stock exchanges in India. Regarding the stock markets in India, equities are offered at the NSE, or National Stock Exchange, the BSE, or the Bombay Stock Exchange. On these exchanges, shares of listed companies are purchased or sold. Most of these transactions are now done online, as this serves the purpose of speed and efficiency. Plus, you can trade from anywhere, taking advantage of purposeful time slots and opportunities they offer. Furthermore, you should know that equity brokers are simply brokers who facilitate the purchase and sale of shares. They have platforms that let you trade after you open a Demat account to store your equities
Stocks represent ownership equity in the firm and give shareholders voting rights as well as a residual claim on corporate earnings in the form of capital gains and dividends. Individual and institutional investors come together on stock exchanges to buy and sell shares in a public venue. Share prices are set by supply and demand as buyers and sellers place orders. Order flow and bid-ask spreads are often maintained by specialists or market makers to ensure an orderly and fair market. Listing on exchanges may provide companies with liquidity and the ability to raise capital but it can also mean higher costs and increased regulation.
"There are multiple ways to make money in stock market. One is directly buying a company share based on own judgemens or some analysts recommendations, and selling later at a profit.
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) refers to the process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance for the first time. An IPO allows a company to raise equity capital from public investors.
The transition from a private to a public company can be an important time for private investors to fully realize gains from their investment as it typically includes a share premium for current private investors. Meanwhile, it also allows public investors to participate in the offering.
How do investors benefit from IPO?
IPOs help companies raise money without seeking funds from banks or financial institutions, which may charge high-interest rates on their loans. IS IPO investing profitable? The short answer is Yes it is profitable. The long answer is It is profitable if you invest in right IPO. You should not invest in every IPO under the sun.
When a company decides to raise money via an IPO it is only after careful consideration and analysis that this particular exit strategy will maximize the returns of early investors and raise the most capital for the business. Therefore, when the IPO decision is reached, the prospects for future growth are likely to be high, and many public investors will line up to get their hands on some shares for the first time. IPOs are usually discounted to ensure sales, which makes them even more attractive, especially when they generate a lot of buyers from the primary issuance.
Initially, the price of the IPO is usually set by the underwriters through their pre-marketing process. At its core, the IPO price is based on the valuation of the company using fundamental techniques. The most common technique used is discounted cash flow, which is the net present value of the company’s expected future cash flows.
Underwriters and interested investors look at this value on a per-share basis. Other methods that may be used for setting the price include equity value, enterprise value, comparable firm adjustments, and more. The underwriters do factor in demand but they also typically discount the price to ensure success on the IPO day. It can be quite hard to analyze the fundamentals and technicals of an IPO issuance. Investors will watch news headlines but the main source for information should be the prospectus, which is available as soon as the company files its S-1 Registration.
The prospectus provides a lot of useful information. Investors should pay special attention to the management team and their commentary as well as the quality of the underwriters and the specifics of the deal. Successful IPOs will typically be supported by big investment banks that can promote a new issue well. Overall, the road to an IPO is a very long one. As such, public investors building interest can follow developing headlines and other information along the way to help supplement their assessment of the best and potential offering price.
The pre-marketing process typically includes demand from large private accredited investors and institutional investors, which heavily influence the IPO’s trading on its opening day. Investors in the public don’t become involved until the final offering day. All investors can participate but individual investors specifically must have trading access in place. The most common way for an individual investor to get shares is to have an account with a brokerage platform that itself has received an allocation and wishes to share it with its clients.
When Amazon.com Inc. floated an IPO in 1997, each share was priced at $18. Had you invested $5,000 in Amazon’s IPO, your shares would have been worth $2.5 million in April 2018. IPOs don’t just help private businesses. They can help your investment grow too. In fact, IPOs can be a great way to make quick profits as well as earn over the long-term. IPOs have woven a tapestry of riches tales in the last few years alone, ranging from Amazon to General Motors and DLF back home.
But there’s a cautionary tale too. Not all IPOs strike gold. So, be cautious, do your research and avoid getting caught in the IPO frenzy. The world of IPOs can be exciting, much like driving a supercar. But you need to know to pull the brakes and control the steering wheel.
ETFs
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of pooled investment security that operates much like a mutual fund. Typically, ETFs will track a particular index, sector, commodity, or other assets, but unlike mutual funds, ETFs can be purchased or sold on a stock exchange the same way that a regular stock can. An ETF can be structured to track anything from the price of an individual commodity to a large and diverse collection of securities. ETFs can even be structured to track specific investment strategies.
An ETF is called an exchange-traded fund because it’s traded on an exchange just like stocks are. The price of an ETF’s shares will change throughout the trading day as the shares are bought and sold on the market. This is unlike mutual funds, which are not traded on an exchange, and which trade only once per day after the markets close. Additionally, ETFs tend to be more cost-effective and more liquid compared to mutual funds.
An ETF is a type of fund that holds multiple underlying assets, rather than only one like a stock does. Because there are multiple assets within an ETF, they can be a popular choice for diversification. ETFs can thus contain many types of investments, including stocks, commodities, bonds, or a mixture of investment types.
Mutual Funds
Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have a lot in common. Both types of funds consist of a mix of many different assets and represent a popular way for investors to diversify. While mutual funds and ETFs are similar in many respects, they also have some key differences. A major difference between the two is that ETFs can be traded intra-day like stocks, while mutual funds only can be purchased at the end of each trading day based on a calculated price known as the net asset value.
We help you choose the right funds that meet your long term financial objectives. They assess your risk profile, examine the fund’s track record before shortlisting the funds for you.
Open-Ended Funds. These funds dominate the mutual fund marketplace in volume and assets under management. With open-ended funds, the purchase and sale of fund shares take place directly between investors and the fund company. There's no limit to the number of shares the fund can issue. So, as more investors buy into the fund, more shares are issued. Federal regulations require a daily valuation process, called marking to market, which subsequently adjusts the fund's per-share price to reflect changes in portfolio (asset) value. The value of an individual's shares is not affected by the number of shares outstanding.
Closed-End Funds. These funds issue only a specific number of shares and do not issue new shares as investor demand grows. Prices are not determined by the net asset value (NAV) of the fund but are driven by investor demand. Purchases of shares are often made at a premium or discount to NAV.
BONDS
Bonds represent the debts of issuers, such as companies or governments. These debts are sliced up and sold to investors in smaller units. For example, a $1 million debt issue may be allocated to one-thousand $1,000 bonds. In general, bonds are considered to be more conservative investments than stocks, and are more senior to stocks if an issuer declares bankruptcy. Bonds also typically pay regular interest payments to investors, and return the full principal loaned when the bond matures. As a result, bond prices vary inversely with interest rates, falling when rates go up and vice-versa.
The bond markets are a very liquid and active, but can take second seat to stocks for many retail or part-time investors. The bond markets are often reserved for professional investors, pension and hedge funds, and financial advisors, but that doesn't mean that part-time investors should steer clear of bonds. In fact, bonds play an increasingly important part in your portfolio as you age and, because of that, learning about them now makes good financial sense. In fact having a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds is advisable for investors of all ages and risk tolerance.