Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Markets fall like nine pins

Its been nearly a year since i had blogged. Have been contemplating on when to start again. The last one yr has been quite entertaining and enterprising for me, barring a few instances here and there. Have had quite a few topics/experiences in the recent past that made me think i can blog again. But looking at what has been happening to the stock markets in the last few days, i decided to blog one this time before i start thinking on whether i can blog.
The last 2 days have been really bad for many investors. Especially for ppl who had a stake in f&o, expecting the market to go up. The midcap segment saw a crash of 50-70% in the past few days. Stocks that ppl expected would make them a fortune have instead made them paupers. We normally use the phrase 'Rags to Riches' but out here it has been a different story for many people. Many could still not recover from this particular shock. Quite a few suicide attempts have been reported. Few people have started disposing their properties to cover the loss they have made by investing in f&o. If we were observing the global markets, we could have taken a cue or two. The asian markets were weak even before the indian market started falling. People who had invested in mutual funds have lost almost 30% in the last few days because most of the MF's have invested mainly in mid caps and small caps. I am lucky enough that my portfolio still hangs on to the positive side, though it was very very healthy a few weeks back(thanks big bro).... For new investors, they can look at entering the market by picking good blue chips. For people who have already invested can still look at averaging the price by accumulating few more. The prices might dip further, but still it looks good for buying. I am particularly happy that the market has crashed, because i was waiting for this for quite some, though quite a lot of money stay locked in ipo's like future capital and reliance power. Lots of money from the secondary market has gone into the REL Power ipo. All investors who had invested in REL Power expecting high listing gains, might have to settle for something less.
As it is always with the stock markets, we never know what is in store. Lets hope for the best. :-)

P.S. This blog was written yesterday and posted today after the market had seen a decent recovery.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Retire in Style :-P

Its better that all the senior players in our side retire when they are in prime form. I know that none of our senior players are even in a reasonably good form. I have a suggestion to make here. This suggestion when incorporated will help our senior players get back their golden touch. The suggestion is nothing but bring teams like Bermuda, Zimbabwe, Kenya to our home soil. Make them play against our team. These matches will make the our players look like the best players in the world(atleast they can make up as if they are the best). The seniors should then call it a day after these matches. They can easily announce that they would like to retire when they are in prime form and that they would like to see the youngsters performing for the team.

Welcome Exit

I dont know what made me write about Bangladesh in my previous blog. I never expected, for that fact noone had expected that Bangladesh would hand over the same treatment to us like what they did to NZ. It was pathetic seeing the Men in Blue perform in the middle. It was like a fashion show, with each and every member of the team coming and going back in a jiffy. Ganguly though not in prime form took the pain of staying in the middle and gathering some runs for the team.

The next match against Bermuda was a cakewalk for Team India. Atleast there should be one team like this, else we can never create records like what we did against Bermuda. Virender Sehwag made a mincemeat of the Bermudan attack and informed the team that they should not expect him to score for the next few years. After all he has scored against Bermuda and now nobody can question about his presence in the team.

The next match against Sri Lanka was a do-or-die match for the Indians. But it seemed that the Indians were more interested in joining their pakistani counterparts. Dravid, it seems has asked Inzy to wait for them, so that they could go home together.

It was heart breaking watching India perform against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And I dont have a strong heart to see India perform the same way in the coming matches. Thankfully India is now not into Super 8's and I could spend some time on my work instead of pondering about India's performance.

Indians were not thrown out of the world cup by their opponents. They threw themselves out of the league. And we should appreciate our team for this particular collective team effort. Long live the Indian team.

I would not be complaining if our men had fought till the end, but they never seemed to take the charge to their opponents. Winning is not important, but making the opposition fight for their win is more important. Indians never seemed to understand this.

Their exit in this world cup is a welcome one. They have saved the lives for plenty of fans who could not have tolerated if India had performed the same way in the semis or finals...

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Shocking win for Bangladesh


With less than a week left for the world cup to start, Bangladesh has made everyone sit back and take note of them. Yes, it was a crushing defeat for the Black Caps in the warm up game. The confidence of the Bangladesh team will definitely be soaring now. Though it would not be affecting the kiwis to a greater extent, they certainly would have never expected this after their 3-0 win against the Aussies.







Our own Men in Blue started of their world cup campaign in style by thrashing the Dutch team by a huge victory margin of 182 runs. Thanks to Sachin, Rahul and Yuvraj. The only saving grace for the Dutch was the performance of ten Doeschate who nailed 5 of the wickets that fell for India. Sehwag once again failed to impress us with his performance. He was expected to spend some time in the middle and get back his lost touch. Lets pray that he strikes back in time and guide our team to world cup victory that's been eluding us for the last 24 yrs.

Keep visiting for more info in the coming days :)

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Clean Sweep by BLACKCAPS :-)


Its another victory for the Black Caps... A depraving loss for the Aussies...
3-0 whitewash by NZ or complete blackwash on the aussies....
Though the aussies were not fielding their main strike bowlers today, this should not take away the credit from the mighty Blackcaps who showed character eventhough they were missing the services of Bond and Vettori... Hayden rewrote the Australian record for the highest ODI score by an Australian, but it was the innings of McMillan and McCullum that made the difference. A dashing innings by McMillian and a rock solid innings from McCullum saw the kiwis romp back home in the last over of a thrilling encounter. Needing close to 8 runs an over in the last 5 overs, McCullum and Gillespie played the right cards at the right time.

And we should also note that, this is not the first time that the Aussies have lost after scoring 325+ runs in a match in the last few months. With Australia having played their last official ODI before the WC, they would definitely be not happy entering the WC with this mindset.

Lets hope that we get to see some nail biting finishes in the coming world cup :-)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

VALENTINES DAY


Its been ages since my brother asked me to start blogging.
Was waiting for one controversial topic to start with.
And finally got one debatable topic.
"Do we really need Valentines Day"
Well, its the same question that is being raised every year.
I would say it a question that needs a multifaceted approach and I would like to be a devils advocate.

I would say YES, if i express my love only once in a year.

I would say YES, if i have an orchid.
I would say YES, if i own Archies.
I would say YES, if i own De Beers.
I would say YES, if i am a telcom service provider.
I would say YES, if i run any other business that would help me make more money on this particular day.

Why is it that, we find so much importance associated with this particular day?Its basically a hype created by the business people for running their business.Its just like Akshya Trithiya wherein we find the gold sales on that particular day matching the sales of one full month or probably a year.Were we not expressing our love before Valentines day got popular in our country.We could trace love even before we could trace our ancestors.

Every day is a valentines day for someone who enjoys every moment of their life.Any day is an auspicious day to say "I love you" to someone whom we truly love and every day is a really horrifying day if we don't love someone truly.

This particular day can be used as a day to patch up with our friends and/or beloved ones.This day could be used to break the ice and settle things down.At this juncture something else strikes me.Why don't we call it "Patch Up Day" rather than "Valentines Day".

But something inside tells me that we need this day, for some people who are generally introverts. May be this particular day would give them the courage to open up what they feel.
I am basically a person who goes by instinctive feelings, so I feel that, Yes, we do need 'Valentines Day' though not fully justifiable by me.

And, finally I think that my brother would be cursing me for asking me to blog. Sorry bro. Happy Valentines Day to 'U'.