Oracle Business Process Management Suite

Oracle Business Process Management Suite (Oracle BPM Suite) is a software suite that integrates the modeling, implementation, execution and monitoring of end-to-end business processes to support continuous optimization of the entire business process lifecycle.

Oracle released its BPM suite and is available for download now.

The suite improves process efficiency and quality by raising utilization and throughput. It increases visibility into process performance and simplifies compliance by providing transparent data. Ultimately, it increases corporate agility with flexible tools.

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BPM suite consists of the following products

1. Oracle BPM (Aqualogic BPM 6.5). Documentation

2. Oracle BPEL

3. Oracle Business Rules

4. Oracle BAM

5. Oracle WebCenter Suite

Read the Alex Toussaint's blog post here where he is written about "Ten reasons why you should look at Oracle BPM Suite 10gR3". Its good read to understand what it offers to you based on the role you play in your organization BPM strategy.

What next ?

1. 11g BPM Suite release in 2009

2. BPM on BPMN 2.0 specification

3. BPEL PM on BPEL 2.0 specification

4. BPM studio in JDeveloper

5. BPM and BPEL PM will use same human task service based on WS-Human Task and BPEL4People

6.Common process portal built on Oracle WebCenter

7.Common BAM/BI layer

8.Common BPM Server built on SCA, WebLogic Server, JRockit JVM, Oracle Application Grid, and Coherence distributed caching and Enterprise Manager

9.BPM Studio integration with an Enterprise Repository, which automatically creates dependency maps for all modeling/design components checked in.

Oracle TopLink 11g Released

Oracle released its next version of TopLink 11g(11.1.1.0.0) . This is the first release based on the open-source EclipseLink project. (EclipseLink is derived from a previous version of Oracle TopLink)

Features of 11g are

1.Object-Relational Persistence

TopLink 11g includes support for the native TopLink ORM API as well as the Java Persistence API (JPA) through EclipseLink

a. Java Persistence API (JPA) Support ( supports JPA 1.0 spec)

b. JPA Extensions

    • Mappings
    • Mapping Customization
    • Converters
    • Entity Caching
    • Optimistic Locking
    • Query Hints
    • Stored Procedure Query
    • Lazy Loading
    • Schema Generation
    • Returning Policy
    • Change Tracking

c.JPA Configuration

d.Performance Requirements

  • Change tracking for JPA entities
  • Read-only queries
  • Parameter binding: now enabled by default.
  • Joining: additional support for many-to-many, direct-collection, direct-map, and aggregate-collection mappings, and mapping level inner and outer join support
  • Inheritance: support for outer joining inheritance subclasses on queries, and support for joining classes with inheritance
  • Improved performance and concurrency
  • Dynamic Expression and JPQL parse cache

e.Oracle Spatial support

f.Stored procedure configuration in ORM Project.xml

g. Support for SDO (Service data objects) for Java specification version 2.1

JSR311 : JAX-RS : Java API for RESTful Webservices

This JSR provides an API for providing support for RESTful(Representational State Transfer) Web Services in the Java Platform.

This JSR : Final Approval Ballot is done on 22-Sep-2008.

You can find the details of this API here

Not heard of REST ? read it here.

Goals of this API are

POJO-based : The API will provide a set of annotations and associated classes/interfaces that may be used with POJO's in order to expose them as Web resources. The specification will define object lifecycle and scope.
HTTP-centric : The specification will assume HTTP is the underlying network protocol and will provide a clear mapping between HTTP and URI elements and the corresponding API classes and annotations. The API will provide high level support for common HTTP usage patterns and will be sufficiently flexible to support a variety of HTTP applications including WebDAV and the Atom Publishing Protocol.
Format independence : The API will be applicable to a wide variety of HTTP entity body content types. It will provide the necessary pluggability to allow additional types to be added by an application in a standard manner.
Container independence : Artifacts using the API will be deployable in a variety of Web-tier containers. The specification will define how artifacts are deployed in a Servlet container and as a JAX-WS Provider.
Inclusion in Java EE : The specification will define the environment for a Web resource class hosted in a Java EE container and will specify how to use Java EE features and components within a Web resource class

Oracle BPEL PM 10.1.3.4

New features in BPEL 10.1.3.4 includes

1.Improved visibility of Engine Threading Model

Current:

a. Dispatcher page is static

b.Difficult to use when monitoring messages under load

c.Needs to be manually refreshed

d.Lack of messages details in a queue

10.1.3.4:

a.Dynamic, updated in real-time

b.Shows information about

i.Running threads

ii.New invocations that are queued

iii.Incoming calls that are queued.

c.Drill down on each thread to get process id , to see which process messages are coming from

2.Improved Statistics Collection

Current:

a.Statistics collection aggregates the times across all requests, regardless of process or instance

b.Many users find the current statistics page difficult to use for pinpointing bottlenecks, due to aggregation

c.Users need to flip between audit trail and statistics pages

d.Intended to be used by engineering

10.1.3.4

a.Statistics are aggregated on a per-process basis

b.Statistics are displayed on the process map

c.Easy to identify bottlenecks

post 10.1.3.4 (10.1.3.5)

a.Overlay following on process map:

• Transaction boundaries
• XML payload sizes
• Service invocation times

b.Persist statistics

3.Minimize XML Coding Errors

10.1.3.4

a.Test compliance of payload with schemas defined in process/WSDL

b.Reduce debugging effort when incorrect payloads are received by BPEL

c.Only starting invocations in 10.1.3.4

post 10.1.3.4 (10.1.3.5)

a.Validate XML against other schemas from project

b.Test XML against XPath from process

c.Enable unit testing of custom XPath functions

4.Rescuing Lost instances

current

A BPEL instance was started. But nothing appeared in the BPEL
Console or audit trail.Caused by a transaction rollback in certain
circumstances.Analogous to a database rollback

10.1.3.4

a.Detect 3rd party manipulation of the JTA transaction

b.Move audit trail persistence to an asynchronous thread (to increase visibility of errors within the process)

5.Automated Recovery agent

10.1.3.4

a.Implement automated recovery agent for failed activities/messages

b.Improve visibility of errors encountered during recovery by writing them out to the instance audit trail asynchronously

c.Agent can be triggered manually or via schedule
• Schedule during non-busy periods

d.Allow batch limits for each recovery attempt

6.Collection of Support information

10.1.3.4

a.Cut down on round-trips between customer and support/development for debugging information

b.Make BPEL Console single tool admins need to consult

c.Bundles:
• JVM thread dump
• JVM heap statistics
• Dispatcher statistics
• BPEL domain logs
• Request statistics
• Dehydration statistics

d.Can also export BPEL process

7. Deployment Plan

Current

a. Deploying a BPEL project to a different environment (e.g.,
dev, test, production) requires various changes to the project.
For example:
• Location of services
• Port numbers of services
• Location of hosted WSDLs
• Location of hosted XSDs
b.Changes have to be made in various files

c.Changes have to be made manually

d.Often need a different BPEL suitcase for each environment

10.1.3.4

Deployment plan

a.allows users to develop in one environment and then - without touching the source code - deploy the suitcase to another environment

b.holds the configuration for one environment.Instead of managing separate suitcase files, the user generates a deployment plan from a suitcase and modifies the configuration for each environment

c.eliminates the need to provide customized suitcases for each environment

Things to Come in 10.1.3.5

a.BPEL debugger
• Set breakpoints
• Step-by-step
• Introspect and modify XML variables

b.Log viewer
• Search and filter on particular instance

c.Notification
• Engine events like startup, shutdown
• Auto-recovery agents fails to recover
• Process state changes (active to stale, etc)

d.Improve XML validation
• Validate XML against other schemas
• Test process or customer XPath expressions

e.Import/Export instances runtime data
• Offline re-creation

Oracle BPEL PM 10.1.3.4 : Bugs Fixed

Oracle BPEL PM 10.1.3.4 patch fixed some critical bugs . Few of which are of interest to most of us includes

1.When the console is used to clear the wsdlCache, in a load-balanced Clicking clear WSDL cache from the console will now propagate the message to the other nodes in the BPEL cluster. Previously, clicking the button would only affect the single node.

2.NULL POINTER EXCEPTION was thrown when we validate a xml which has null values inside it.

3.Under certain circumstances, when multiple callbacks are received at the same time, the first callback will be processed but the remaining callbacks will throw a "scope not found" error. Fixed by serializing the callbacks.

4.With this fix, Any unhandled exception during a sync call will be returned to the caller.

5.DOMAINS CREATED IN A CLUSTER GETS NOT PROPAGATED TO NEW OR EXISTING NODES

Webservices Versioning

We do versioning on almost everyday while developing various components, be it java, PL/SQL or JSP's. There are well known standards for maintaining these versions. In the SOA world, we often use and develop web services and versioning of these webservices becomes extremely important.

Oracle published an article on OTN with title "Webservices Versioning" written by Gabriel Bechara. You can read the full article here.

BPEL Process Design : Best Practices

Best Practices to be followed while designing BPEL processes.

1.

RBI : Annual Credit Policy

RBI has announced the annual credit policy. here are the quick highlights of the policy.

1. No change Repo rate

2. No change in Reverse Repo

2.CRR hike 25 bps

more to come soon.

BPEL DBAdapter : Using Oracle Native Sequence

Do you know , how to use DBAdapter to insert a record in the database ? Seem's very straight forward . isn't it ?

Yes, in fact it is straight forward. Just configure the database, select the operation (insert,update, merge and delete ) and then map the input's. run the sample and there you go, there is a record in the database. Bang!!!!!!!.

But , the real problem begin, when you have the table which has a primary key. Now either you need to generate a unique ID in the BPEL layer and map it to the DBAdapter message type variables or use a sequence created in the database. Best thing is to use the database sequence . But how to do it ? Is there a documentation or if it exists is it good enough ? For the benefit of this blog readers , here is how I made it to work after spending long hours on the internet and trial and error. I am sure , it will save you a lot of time and if so, just leave your comments.

OK, now the steps to make it work.

1. Create a table with a primary key

2. Create a sequence with start value as 1 and increment by 1

3. Configure the DBAdapter for an insert option.

4. After successful configuration of the DBAdapter, you will find the "offline objects" and toplink mapping created for you.

so far normal. nothing much.. here are the undocumented (not with proper documentation) steps

5. Configure the DBAdapter's oc4j-ra.xml with the following parameters

<connector-factory location="eis/DB/XE" connector-name="Database Adapter">
        <config-property name="xADataSourceName" value="jdbc/XEDataSource"/>
        <config-property name="dataSourceName" value=""/>
        <config-property name="platformClassName" value="oracle.toplink.platform.database.Oracle9Platform"/>
        <config-property name="usesNativeSequencing" value="true"/>
        <config-property name="sequencePreallocationSize" value="1"/>
        <config-property name="defaultNChar" value="false"/>
        <config-property name="usesBatchWriting" value="false"/>
        <connection-pooling use="none">
        </connection-pooling>
        <security-config use="none">
        </security-config>
    </connector-factory>

usesNativeSequencing : Set this to "true" to allow native sequencing

sequencePreallocationSize: This should be the counter that you use for your sequence. (eg : If we created a sequence with increment by 1, so the value of this should be 1). Please note , the default value is 50.

xADataSourceName : datasource name for connecting to the database in the oc4j.

The important steps to come..stay tuned.

Nifty Today : April 28,2008

The market opened on a firm note extending last week's rally. It soon declined into the red, amid mixed Asian markets. The market traded between positive and negative zone in choppy mid-morning trade and declined sharply to hit intra-day low in the mid-afternoon trade. Sugar stocks rose on reports the government may go in for total decontrol in sugar in one go. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 5089.65 down by 22.05 points

Top 3 gainers

1.REL

2.SUNPHARMA

3.TATACOMM

Top 3 losers

1.SIEMENS

2.CIPLA

3.SUZLON

Both FII and DII are the net sellers with Rs 38.33 crores and Rs 166.61 crores respectively.

Top Options contracts trades are

1.RCOM : 580 PA,580 CA and 600 CA

2.RELIANCE : 2600 CA,2700 CA

3.RNRL : 130 CA and 120 CA

IPL Standings after 1st week

Here are how, the teams are standing after end of first week of the inaugural IPL.

Most hyped team "Deccan Chargers" failed  very badly by loosing all the 3 matches played so far and least talked team with low profile of players of "Rajasthan Royals" emerged as surprise winner so far with 2 wins out of 3 played so far.

The next set of matches for DC becomes extremely important to get into semi's.

Here is the points table (source : iplt20

Team Played Won Lost Points Net R/R
2 2 0 4 +3.764
2 2 0 4 +2.988
2 2 0 4 +0.975
3 2 1 4 -0.419
3 1 2 2 -0.241
2 1 1 2 -3.423
3 0 3 0 -1.268
3 0 3 0 -1.339

US Markets Today : April 24th,2008

Very good day for US markets on the back of cooling commodities prices, good earnings and strong dollar. DOW was up by 0.7% and NASDAQ by 1% in today's trade.

Triggers

1. Very good earnings from Microsoft,Apple that topped the estimates.

2.Ford Motors earnings which posted a profit vs loss in the last  quarter, which surprised the Markets.

3.New home sales for March fell to 16 year low

4.US crude oil fall to settle at $116.06

5.Dollar rise vs EURO and YEN

Impact on India

With the start of MAY contracts and positive cues from US and Asian Markets, we could expect a gap up opening today. Nifty can touch 5100 levels and can trade above till at least afternoon.Its interesting to see if Bharti,Cipla and Siemens can post good Q4 numbers today or not. There is chance to play in F&O segment in Bharti today considering the good numbers from telecom major Idea Celular yesterday. Also one can buy PUTs in NIFTY for 5150,5200 contracts for a premium of 50,150 respectively to get good gains this month.

Nifty Today : April 24th,2008

The market had opened firm on positive global cues. However, it pared gains later. The market which oscillated in narrow range for a better part of the day, dipped into the red in mid-afternoon trade. Trading was choppy ahead of the April 2008 derivatives expiry today. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4999.85 down by 22.95 points.

Top 3 gainers

1.HEROHONDA

2.INFOSYSTCH

3.TATAPOWER

Top 3 Losers

1.ACC

2.NATIONALUM

3.POWERGRID

FII are the net sellers with Rs 759.16 Crores and DII are the net buyers with Rs 442.88 Crores.

Top Options Contracts traded are

1.DLF : 680 PA, 680 CA

2.ICICIBANK : 900 CA

3.RELIANCE : 2700 CA,2600 CA,2600 PA

4.RPL : 190 CA and 195 CA

Maruti Q4 numbers

Maurti Q4 numbers are out and they seem to be inline with the market expectations.

Here are the highlights.(Numbers are all in Crores of Rupees)

1. Q4 Standalone Net Sales at 4783.88 compared to 4429.76 in Q3

2. Q4 Standalone Net Profit at 297.68 compared to 448.56 in Q3

3. Depreciation at 311 compared to 71.8

4. Other Income at 286 compared to 206

5. Depreciation period is cut from 13 years to 8 years

6. FY08 Consolidated Net Sales at 18,104.1 compared to 14,768.4 FY07

7. FY08 Consolidated Net Profit at 1789.9 compared to 1588.3 FY07

8. FY08 EBITDA at 313

VIX - What is It and How to use It ?

source : Nse India

VIX - Volatility Index , is a measure of market’s expectation of volatility over the near term

Volatility Index is a measure, of the amount by which an underlying Index is expected to fluctuate, in the near term, (calculated as annualised volatility, denoted in percentage) based on the order book of the underlying index options.

Volatility Index is a good indicator of the investors’ perception on how volatile markets are expected to be in the near term. Usually, during periods of market volatility, market moves steeply up or down and the volatility index tends to rise.

India VIX is a volatility index based on the Nifty 50 Index Option prices.From the best bid-ask prices of Nifty 50 Options contracts, a volatility figure (%) is calculated which indicates the expected market volatility over the next 30 calendar days.

There are some differences between a price index, such as the Nifty 50 and India VIX. Nifty 50 is calculated based on the price movement of the underlying 50 stocks which comprises the index.India VIX is calculated based on the bid-offer prices of the near and mid month
Nifty 50 Index Options

How to use VIX

1.Investors could hedge their portfolios against volatility with an off-setting position in India VIX futures or options contracts

2.Investors could also use the implied volatility information given by the index, in identifying mis-priced options.

3.Short sale positions could expose investors to directional risk. Derivatives on volatility index could help investors in safeguarding their positions and thus avoid systemic risk for the market.

4.Based on the experience gained with the benchmark broad based index, sector specific volatility indices could be constructed to enable hedging by investors in those specific sectors.

US Markets today : April 23,2008

For US Markets its a Mixed today with DOW at the early part of the day up by more than 100 points , and then cooled down to settle at just above 43 points from yesterday's close. NASDAQ also up by 1.19%(28.27)

Triggers

1.Better than expected results from Boeing

2.Anticipated good news from Tech sector results which are due for tomorrow.

3.Apple reported growth in profit and sales which were above the market's expectations and so as Telecom company Qualcomm.

4.Crude oil rise to settle at $118.30

Impact On India

After good show from yesterday in spite of weak global cues, today Market's can get some investors confidence to do a gap up opening. Being the last day for April F&O contracts, there are chances of some volatality during the day. Indian VIX for 23rd April is at 32.37. I feel Markets can trade in the range of 5000 - 5100 till April 29, and take direction from there on either side based on the RBI policy.

Nifty Today : April 23,2008

The market opened on a firm note but soon slipped in the red on profit booking after six straight days of rally. Banking stocks saw selling pressure. It failed to sustain higher level after a strong rebound from lower level was witnessed in mid-afternoon trade. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 5022.80 down by 26.50 points.

Top 3 Gainers in NIFTY

1.INFOSYSTCH

2.WIPRO

3.ACC

Top 3 Losers in NIFTY

1.SAIL

2.IDEA

3.HDFCBANK

FII are the net sellers in today's market with Rs 480.93 Crores and DII are the net buyers with 70.04 Crores

F&O segment

Most Active Options contracts are

1. RELIANCE 2600 CA , 2600 PA

2. RPL 190 CA,200 CA

3. RNRL 120 CA

IT and FY09 Guidance

The results of Biggies in IT are out and Market reacted positively after Infosys announced its quarter numbers and lifted the whole Market with it. But then TCS come out with the numbers and exact opposite thing happened as it dragged IT index by more than 5% .

Here is the quick comparison for you, which clearly states Infosys and Satyam as hot favorites for IT sector in the coming quarters

Company FY09e EPS P/E
Infosys 95.20 17.3x
TCS 60.90 16.3x
Satyam 30.40 15.1x
Wipro 26.90 16.8x
HCL 21.70 12.6x

 

P/E - Price/Earnings ratio

FY09e EPS - FY09 expected earnings per share

BlackBerry : DOT solution

If you are the BlackBerry services user in India, then may be soon DOT will allow you to do what you been doing all these days in India.

As per ET(Economic Times) Department of Telecom DOT, has proposed an interim solution where all data between BlackBerry users are stored on the servers of Tele companies like Bharti,Vodafone etc.

BlackBerry's maker RIM sought more time to respond to the DOT's request as it is hesitant to move the servers from Canada to India.

This solution is to allow the securities to monitor the traffic for the proposed 12 months and take the final call based on the monitoring results.

Read more here BlackBerry

US Markets today : April 22,2008

Once again, US markets traded in the red with the fears of bad earnings reports and every day new high crude oil prices. DOW lost by 100 points(0.82%) and NASDAQ by 31 points(1.29%) in today's trade.

Triggers

1. New high's of crude oil

2. Dollar slippage to new record low against EURO

3. Dollar fallen against YEN

Impact on India
With the negative cues which have come from US today, we can see almost a flat opening today and can trade in the same range as yesterday. I think , the next immediate trigger for Indian markets would be the policy announcement from RBI which is due for 29th of this month and till that time, it looks like NIFTY will stay above 5000 and can trade in the range of 5000-5100. As a whole , I am bearish for the month of MAY which can see major correction as seen in the  year of 2006 and plan to hedge my portfolio through PUT's in NIFTY. I strongly feel that 5300 PUT @ 150-200 can fetch you good profit for the month of MAY.

What's your strategy ? leave your comments ...

Nifty Today : 22 Apr 2008

The Market opened on a subdued note tracking decline in Asian markets. IT stocks were battered after TCS' Q4 March 2008 results fell short of market expectations. The market breadth was strong. It moved between positive and negative zone in mid-morning trade and held firm in early afternoon trade on the back of recovery in some Asian markets. The market clinched small gains to extend its rally for sixth straight session. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 5049.30 up by 12.30 points

Top 3 Gainers on Nifty

1.BHEL

2.UNITECH

3.IDEA

Top 3 Losers on Nifty

1.TCS

2.WIPRO

3.SATYAMCOMP

FII are net buyers with Rs 292.96 Crores and DII's are net sellers with Rs 119.54 Crores.

US Markets today : April 21,2008

Markets ended in negative territory following the trend of lows of first day of every week. Dow down by 0.2% where as NASDAQ up by 0.2%

Triggers

1. Weaker than expected earnings from Bank of America

2. record high for oil and gas prices

3. record low for dollar against EURO.

Impact on India 

Indian markets can test the levels of 5000 that established yesterday after many week's. With the negative cues coming from US, the Asian Markets are trading in red zone at the moment and India also might see similar treatment by investors and traders. There could be some profit booking in today's trade in IT and Commodities stocks.Interesting to see if markets can close above 5000.

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US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 16,2008

Its a big day on Walstreet. Dow up by over a massive 250 points and NASDAQ by 64 points. The indexes gained by 2.5% from yesterday's close price.

Triggers

1. Better than expected Quarterly numbers from Intel, JP Morgon Chase and Coca - Cola

2. IBM and eBay also reported higher quarterly sales and earnings , but after the close of the trading day. So already some positive triggers for tmrw.

3. New home construction fall to a 17 year low, which is more than expected .

4.March Industrial production rose 0.3% which is above the estimated

5. Oil set again new record by settling at $ 114.93

6. Dollar hit all time low vs Euro and rose against the YEN

Impact on India 

Indian Markets can open around 4950-5000 levels as there are very good cues coming from US Markets. At the moment , the Asian Indices like NIKKEI are trading higher from yesterday's close. Considering the reports announced by IBM and eBAY today after close of the trade in US, we can expect good cues when Indian Markets re open on Monday. So overall, we can see some upside move in NIFTY till atleast early next week.

Nifty Today : April 16,2008

source : Nse India

The Market opened higher, extending yesterday’s rally on positive cues from the global markets. However, it pared gains in afternoon trade on profit booking even as European markets started on a positive note. The market remained range bound in mid-afternoon trade. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4887.30 up by 7.65 points

Top 3 gainers in the NIFTY

1. HCLTECH

2. INFOSYSTCH

3. WIPRO

Top 3 losers on NIFTY

1.ZEEL

2.AMBUJACEM

3.BHEL

NSE Advance-Decline at 5:2 and Market turnover at Rs 61,251 cr

Both FII and DII are the net sellers in today's market with Rs 49.89 and Rs 90.08 crores

NIFTY_04_16

F&O segment

Top Options contracts traded are

1.RELIANCE : 2600 CA,2700 CA and 2600 PA

2.RPL : 190 CA,180 CA

3.INFOSYSTCH : 1500 CA

4. NIFTY : 5000 CA

Top Futures Contracts traded are

1.RELIANCE

2.RPL

3.RNRL

NIFTY Open Interest  Put-Call Ratio down to 1.24 Vs 1.29

Market turnover is around Rs.39646.97 cr

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 15,2008

Markets recovered from the losses today on account of some earnings and good NY regional manufacturing report. Both DOW and NASDAQ are up by around 0.5%

Triggers

1. Strong regional Manufacturing report

2. Day's upbeat earnings announcements from INTEL,Johnson and Johnson

3. Delta Airlines merger with Northwest airlines to becomes world's largest airliner.Deal is around $3 bn.

4.New record for crude oil which settled at $ 113.79 a barrel

5. Dollar fell against Euro and gained against YEN

Impact on India : Indian Markets can open today with positive gap up continuing from where it left off yesterday .Good cues are coming from US and Asian Markets.Today can become a good opportunity to buy PUT's at 5000 and 5100 levels for a premium of 150 to 200. Also Interesting to see if NIFTY crosses 5000 and stay above 4950 levels.

Nifty Today : April 15,2008

source : Nse India

The Market opened lower but soon pared losses, led by gains in key IT stocks after sector bellwether Infosys declared its quarterly results and said it has decided to increase the dividend payout ratio to up to 30% of net profits from the current year from 20% thus far. Positive opening in European markets and sharp recovery in Asian indices also aided the rally. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4879.65 up by 101.85 points.

Top 3 Nifty Gainers

1.RANBAXY

2.TCS

3.HCLTECH

Top 3 Nifty Losers

1.ZEEL

2.CAIRN

3.HDFCBANK

Top Option Contracts of everyone's interest

1.INFOSYSTCH : 1500 CA,1440 CA

2.RELIANCE     : 2500 CA,2600 CA,2500 PA

3.RPL : 190 CA,180 CA

FII are net sellers of 56.52 Crores and DII are net buyers of 13.27 Crores in today's Market

Infosys Results - Highlights

Infosys Technologies numbers are out for the fourth quarter and for the financial year 2008. Here are the highlights

1.FY09 revenues seen at Rs 19894-20214 crore

2.FY08 net profit is at 4659 crore as against 3856 crore in FY07

3.FY08 net sales at 16692 crore as against 13893 crore

4.Will recruit 25,000 gross people in FY09

5.Looking at reducing onsite business by 1% every year

6.Has Hedged positions of USD 760 million. The MTM operating losses are of USD 7 million on Hedging

7. To hike offshore salaries by 11-13% and onsite by 4-5%

8. Four large deals in FY08

9. Margins are likely to come down by 3% in Q1FY09

10.Dividends payout will be increased to 30% from 20% of the net profit

11.FY09 guidance is based on the polls conducted by Infosys for its top 100 clients, of which 76% have said that budgets are flat or slightly down, but will increase global delivery and so as the reason for a plan to add 25000 people for year FY09

12. From guidance , it seems that FY09 Q1 will be weak and growth will follow from Q2 FY09 onwards to support annual guidance

13. Infosys lost around Rs 2000 crore on topline and Rs 1000 crore on bottom line because of the 11% appreciation in the Rupee, but still able to maintain the operating margin.

14. For FY09 expecting to maintain same operating margin as that of FY08 with variation of 40-50 bps (0.04% - 0.05%)

15. Infosys gives guidance in Dollars (I don't know about this earlier) and then it converted to Rupees , which is what you see in the point(1) above. The Rupee conversion is seen at 40.02 per dollar

16.SG&A is about 14% of the revenues.

17.Q4 FY08 utilization is 76%

18. 19-21% guidance growth for FY09 year

19. Revenue productivity (Pricing) up by 0.2% for Q4 FY08 and 6% YOY. The same is expected for FY09 also.

20. In Q4 FY08 , closed 4 major deals of which one deal is between USD 200-300 million.

21. Cash holding is USD 2 billion

22. Announced special bonus of Rs 20 as it reached USD 1 billion net profit this year.

23. Increased the dividend pay from 20% of net profit to 30% of net profit.

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 14,2008

US markets are down again for the week starting today on account of weak expected earnings season. Dow lost by 0.2% so as NASDAQ which closed the day with 0.6% down

Triggers

1. better than expected March retail sales report

2. Wachovia quarter loss of 20 cents per share vs a profit of $1.20 a year earlier

3. Blockbuster bid for circuit city

4. crude oil rise , to settle at $111.76 per barrel

5. Dollar fall vs Euro and YEN

Impact On India : With the weak cues coming from Market, today Indian markets can open with slight negative and follow-up for the day would be based on kind of guidance Infosys provides to Market. Asian Markets are mixed with NIKKEI in positive territory and HANG SENG in negative territory. Whole IT sector will take cues from today's results from IT major Infosys Technologies Ltd

Blogging from Windows Live Writer

After my first post on 6th March, I published around 90 odd posts in the span of just over a month.

I have seen the pains of blogging from blogger interface like adding a table, formatting text, uploading images and so on. Is it just me or everyone else out there ?

There must be something that all the blogger's use to publish their content. So As usual I Google'd and found that many of the professional blogger's use some or the other offline blogging tools.

OK, now what are those blogging tolls which are famous , supports Blogger and most importantly free. Here is the list I got

1. ScribeFire - Firefox extension

2. w.bloggar - Windows

3. Microsoft Windows Live Writer - Windows

I tried all the 3 above before deciding on Windows Live Writer which is awesome for the reasons

1. It gives the editor with same template as what you use for blogging

2.Very easy to configure - just give your blog URL and username/password to login.

3.Support for images,videos, tags and ability to add custom plug-ins

4.Most important, its UI, which is far better than anything else out there including the shareware's like Ecto,BlogJet etc

5.All the features of Word famous editor - MS Word.

Here after I blog using Windows Live Writer. What about you ? Do you use something else ? If so write to me through comments.

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 10,2008

Its all tech related news which brought smiles on Walstreet. DOW up by 0.4% (55 points) and NASDAQ(29 points) by 1.3%.

Triggers:
1. Talks of Yahoo-AOL deal
2. Mixed march Retail sales
3. Improved earnings forecast of Wal-mart retailer and Dupont, the chemical maker
4. Lower commodity prices (Crude fell 76 cents to settle at $110.01)
5. Dollar gain vs EURO and YEN

Impact on India : With the way , the Asian markets are reacting at the moment by taking cues from US, we can expect a positive gap up opening.NIFTY can test 4900 levels but need to see if it settles above 4800 or not ? Today, when NIFTY reaches above 4900 levels, then one can buy 5000 PUT options for Rs:100 premium. Lets see if I can close 4500 CALL and move to 5000 PUT. Being the last day for this weekend and expected earnings report by IT major, we all are set for big break on either ways.

Nifty Today : April 10,2008

source : Nse India

The market opened lower following a decline in US and mixed Asian markets. But strong demand for oil & gas stock pulled the index in positive territory shortly. The market moved between positive and negative territory due to lack of strong participation from investors ahead of industrial production and inflation data on Friday, 11 April 2008. Key indices, which had soared in mid-afternoon trade, fell sharply in the last hour of trade led by sharp decline in banking stocks. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4733.00 down by 14.05 points.

Top 3 gainers on Nifty
1.REL
2.CAIRN
3.RPL

Top 3 losers on Nifty
1.RANBAXY
2.SUZLON
3.ICICIBANK

Top Active Options Contracts are
1.RELIANCE : 2500 CA,2400 CA and 2400 PA
2.RPL : 180 CA,170 CA and 190 CA
3.INFOSYS : 1500 CA
4.SAIL : 170 CA
5.NTPC : 190 CA

FII are net sellers in today's market with 462 crs and DII are net buyers with 594 crs.

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 09,2008

US Markets ended lower today with anticipation of bad first quarter earnings season after delivery gaint UPS lowered the profit expectations. DOW down by nearly 0.4% so as NASDAQ by 1%.

Triggers:
1. expected low first quarter earnings season supported by UPS comments.
2. All time high of crude prices which settled at $110.87 per barrel
3. Dollar fall vs YEN and EURO

Impact on India : Indian Markets might be under pressure today with rest of the asia. Financial,IT sectors can see selling pressure as a result of what seen in US. If Indian markets can hold the gains of yesterday, then there is a chance of NIFTY moving to 4900 levels this month. Also there are high chances of volatality owing to the earnings season and weak global markets with downside seen at 4600 levels

Nifty Today : April 09,2008

source : Nse India

The market edged lower on opening bell tracking subdued-to-weak trend in Asian markets before bouncing back shortly. It remained range bound in afternoon trade after it pared most of its earlier gains. Capital goods stocks rose on reports Finance Minister P Chidambaram met representatives from auto and capital goods industries to discuss industrial slowdown after recent weak Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers. S&P CNX NIFTY closed at 4747.05 up by 37.40 points.

Top 3 gainers in NIFTY
1.HDFCBANK
2.SUZLON
3.TATAPOWER

Top 3 losers in NIFTY
1.UNITECH
2.TATACOMM
3.HINDUNILVR

The Most active Options contracts in some of the stocks of interest
1.RELIANCE : 2400 CA,2400 PA and 2310 CA
2.RPL : 170 CA
3.SAIL : 160 CA
4.INFOSYSTECH : 1500 CA
5.RPOWER : 360 CA

FII are the net sellers on today with 307.27crs and DII are the net buyers with 475.81 crs.

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Do you understand Recession ?

A Recession , is a prolonged period of time when a nation's economy is slowing down or contracting usualy for 2 quarters consecutively.

The following are some of the trends that you see of such a slow-down in economy
1.People buying less stuff
2.Decrease in factory production
3.Growing unemployment
4.Slump in personal income
5.An unhealth stock Market

One can define nations economy as "the production and cosumption of goods and services in that nation".

If there are signs of slowdown in production and consumption of goods and services , then one can say the nation is showing signs of recession. This is what we see nowday's in US.

Its normally measured by economists in terms of GDP (gross domestic product). The GDP is the value of all reported goods and services produced by people and institutions operating in a country.

An overall decrease in GDP indicates that there is a decresed demand and chances that companies producing these goods and services might have reduced their volume which further means, companies laid off people effecting increasing in unemployment.

Keep watching this space for a detailed write-up on recession and ways to control the recession and different controls that US government has.

Interesting ? subscribe to the feed so that you get notified when I update this article.

Also Leave your comments on this and topics that you want to see further in this series "360 basics"

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 08,2008

US markets are down on the second consecutive day this week with minutes from last federal reserve policy meeting. DOW lost 0.3% and NASDAQ by 0.7%

Triggers :
1. expected weak first-quarter earnings reporting period
2. minutes from federal reserve policy meeting which indicated the signs of recession
3. Feb pending home sales index fell by 1.9% vs 1% expected
4. crude oil fell by 59 cents to reach $108.50 a barrel
5. dollar gain versus euro but fell against yen

Impact on India : With the bad cues coming from US, the markets can do gap down opening and can be range bound b/w 4650 - 4800 levels.At the moment, asian markets are almost flat with NIKKEI down by 0.04%

Nifty Today : April 8,2008

Markets closed the day in negative zone with Nifty losing 52 points to settle at 4709levels. Monday gainers like IT,capital goods,realty and metal counters seen selling pressure while banking stocks shown some positive moves. Declines outperformed the advances with 40 : 9 on NIFTY 50 with 1 being settled as neutral.

Top 3 gainers on NIFTY

1.BHEL
2.STER
3.BHARTIARTL

Top 3 losers on NIFTY

1.TATACOMM
2.SAIL
3.LT

Interesting thing to see both FII and DII are turned out to be the net buyers with 7.27 crs and 447.79 crs respectively.

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 07,2008

US markets ended almost flat in today's trade with NASDAQ up by 0.3% and DOW down by 0.13%


Triggers:
1.News on Washington Mutual which could see a $5 billion investment
2.Conerns about the earnings which will start from this week
3.Possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger which later denied by Yahoo
4.Crude oil rose $2.86 to reach $109.09
5.The dollar rose versus the euro and the yen
6.Huge sell of in technology pack

Impact on India : Indian Markets can open with marginal negative as a result of bad cues from US. We can see some sell off in IT and banking pack today after phenominal rise yesterday. Its interesting to see if we end on either positive or flat following the US markets.

Nifty Today : April 07,2008

source : Nse India

The market opened firm tracking strong Asian markets but pared gains later to trade in red for a brief period. Healthcare, IT and FMCG stocks rose. The market extended gains in mid-morning trade and remained firm in afternoon trade. The market breadth which was negative earlier turned positive. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4761.20 up by 114.20 points

Top 3 Nifty Gainers
1.ICICIBANK
2.SUZLON
3.RANBAXY

Top 3 Nifty Losers
1.SIEMENS
2.HEROHONDA
3.BPCL

Top 3 Futures Contracts
1.RELIANCE
2.BHEL
3.RELCAPITAL

Most Active options
1. RELIANCE : 2500 CA,2400 CA,2310 CA ,2400 PA,2310 PA
2. RPL : 170 CA
3. SAIL : 170 CA
4. ICICIBANK : 800 CA


FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Buy Value : 3166.17
Sell Value : 2820.13
Net Value : 346.04

DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value : 906.1
Sell Value : 660.17
Net Value : 245.93

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 03,2008

US Markets ended today with almost flat gains. Dow up by 20 odd points and NASDAQ up by 1. Now all the eyes on employment report which will come out tmrw and market will take further cues from there

Triggers:
1. Senate hearing on Bear Stearns collapse and its rescue by Fed and Morgan Stanley in the last month
2. Stroger than expected numbers from services sector
3.U.S. light crude oil for May delivery fell $1 to settle at $103.83 a barrel
4.COMEX gold for April delivery rose $9.80 to settle at $905 an ounce
5.The dollar rose versus the euro and the yen

Impact on India:
Indian Markets also can see flat opening today and can slide down further. Right now, the asian markets are trading in negative territory with Nikkei losing 90 odd points.

My Portfolio











Ahmedabad: 2nd Test : Ind vs SA : India Won the toss : Live Links MMS : SOPCAST

India won the toss and elected to bat first against SA in the second Test. Irfan Pathan is included in the playing IX. Kumble declared fit but ishant is ruled out. Also there is no place for Kaif and Yuvraj.

The pitch seems to support pacers on the first day.

Watch Live here(works only in Windows media player)
rtsp://indianntv.homeip.net/livecric1@forfree

some more for your testing...

http://www.myindianpad.com/cricket.html
http://www.myindianpad.com/cricket3.html
http://www.myindianpad.com/cricket2.html
http://free-live-cricket-sopcast.blogspot.com/
http://www.niharsworld.com/cricket.html
http://www.bhejacricket.com/sop2.htm

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : April 02,2008

US markets fell marginally for the first time in the month of April on account of recession comments made by Bernanke.Dow closed by 48 points down and NASDAQ by 1.35 points down.

Triggers:
1. Fed chairman, Bernanke says GDP will not row much in first half of the year
2. Crude inventories rise unexpectdly
3. US Economy data watch
a. 8000 jobs added in pvt sector
b. Mortgage application fell last week
c. Factory orders down 1.3%
4.U.S. light crude oil for May delivery soared $3.85 to $104.83 a barrel
5.The dollar fell near an all-time low against the euro but posted slight gains versus the yen

Impact on India : With the bad cues from Global markets in addition to the bear sentiment from yesterday's trading, the markets expected to open flat and can slide downwards. There are chances of NIFTY touching 4600 levels and end at that level or flat in 4700 levels.

How to generate Debug Log Files for Oracle iStore R12?

Source : Metalink : Note : 459892.1

This creates separate user log files for both the Java Layer (middle tier) and PL/SQL (database tier) layers.


I. Generate Debug Log Files From iStore Catalog (Customer UI)

1. Set required profile options

1.1. Set the 'OM: Debug Log Directory' profile at the site level to a directory that is writable by the database server. The profile value must be one of the directories listed in the utl_file_dir parameter.

Note: To find the utl_file_dir value set, the following query may be executed:
select value from v$parameter where name = 'utl_file_dir'

1.2. Set following profiles:

Profile NameLevelValue
OM: Debug LevelSite5
IBE: Enable DebugUserYes
ASO : Enable ASO DebugUserYes
FND: Debug Log EnabledUserYes
FND: Debug Log ModuleUser%
FND: Debug Log LevelUserStatement
FND: Debug Log FilenameUser/ibe_fwk.log

Note:
- If the 'FND: Debug Log Filename' and' OM: Debug Log Directory' profiles are set to the same directory, be sure to specify a unique file name identifier for the value entered in the 'FND: Debug Log Filename'. By default the log file created in 'OM: Debug Log Directory' will have filename format of IBE_.log. Need the filename in 'FND: Debug Log Filename' to be a different name to generate complete logging.
- Replace with complete path of directory located in Middle Tier.

2. Open a new browser window and replicate the issue in iStore.

3. Unset profiles 'OM: Debug Level', 'IBE: Enable Debug', 'ASO : Enable ASO Debug' and FND: Debug Log Enabled' to stop the debugging.

4. Upload the following log files:

The iStore pl/sql log file will be generated in the directory (located in the Database Tier) specified by the 'OM: Debug Log Directory' System Profile and has the syntax of IBE_.log. Note that the iStore pl/sql layer log file is accumulative.

The iStore java layer log file will be generated based of value specified by the 'FND: Debug Log Filename' system profile (located in the Middle Tier).

II. Generate Debug Log Files For GUEST User

To generate the iStore debug log files while you are accessing the iStore Catalog (Customer UI) as the "GUEST" user, you will just need to append '?&log=t' (without the single quotes) to the end of the URL before the step you want to debug while you are the guest user.
There is no need to set all profiles from section II.

For example: http://:/OA_HTML/?&log=t

This will generate both log files for any actions done in the browser after that. It is not necessary to append the parameter again for that session.
Once you close the browser, it stops the debugging. If new browser is started and append the parameter again, it starts a new set of log files.

See section I step 4. for location of the debug log files. The username will be GUEST

III. Generate Debug Log File From the iStore Administration UI

A debug log file can be generated from the iStore Site Administration User Interface.

1.1. Login to the Application Forms and set the following System Profiles at the user level to the following values:
Profile NameLevel
FND: Debug Log EnabledYes
FND: Debug Log Module%
FND: Debug Log LevelStatement
FND: Debug Log Filename/ibe_admin.log


2.2. Replicate issue in iStore Administration UI

Nifty Today : 2nd April,2008

source : Nse India

Strong global cues boosted the market at the onset of the trading session but pared gains by afternoon trade on profit taking. The market breadth was strong. Banking and IT stocks were in demand. The broader based S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4754.20 up by 14.65 points.

Top 3 Gainers in NIFTY
1.HEROHONDA
2.HDFC
3.INFOSYSTCH

Top 3 losers in NIFTY
1.REL
2.SAIL
3.TATASTEEL

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value :2792.79
Sell Value :2928.44
Net Value :-135.65

DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value : 1097.88
Sell Value : 833.51
Net Value : 264.37

Net net, DII are the buyers and FII are the sellers in the market.

The volumes on the whole are very pathetic like yesterday.

Shoib banned for 5 years

Shocking decision by PCB on April 1st 2008, which banned Shoib Akhtar for 5 years for violating the players "code of conduct".

As per reports, Shoib critisized PCB publicly for offering him a retainership instead of a contract, but later apolozized to the board and the public.

PCB announsement : "The board has lost confidence in Shoaib Akhtar and therefore felt his presence in the field was damaging to the Pakistan team, for Pakistan players and for the image of Pakistan cricket," the PCB chairman, Nasim Ashraf, told AFP. "The committee has recommended a five-year ban for Shoaib Akhtar. He will be ineligible to play in Pakistan or to play for Pakistan anywhere else in the world. [It is] a sad day for me and for Shoaib Akhtar. He is such a talented player."

Shoib said : "deeply disappointed and hurt by the decision. I will go to court and fight against the ban.

Imran said, he has not heard of such ban ever and is shocked with the decision. He didn't support Akhtar, but said such a ban is meaningful if Shoib kills somebody on the field.

Shoib Statistics

Tests

Matches : 46
Wkts : 178
5 W haul : 12 times
10 W haul : 2
Average : 25.69

ODI's

Matches : 138
Wkts : 219
5 W haul : 4 times
Average : 23.20

He represents "Kolkata Knight Riders Squad" in IPL. Interesting to see if he continues to play for Kolkata and how well Saurav & Sharukh handle this situation.

Mr . Chidambaram and CTT

Another invention from Finance Minister Mr. Chidambaram to collect more taxes from Indian Market participants. The invention is named as CTT.

CTT is Commodity Transaction Tax. This is the tax levied on Commodities Derivatives Market(CDM). This is supposed to be active from 1st April, but is deferred for the moment as exchanges and participants opposed CTT citing higher transaction costs.

source : rediff.com

Commodities bourses sent a memorandum to Finance minister stating the below to support their argument.

1.Commodity Transaction Tax (CTT) should not be levied on Commodities Derivatives Market (CDM) just because there is Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on Securities Derivatives Market (SDM)
2.800% increase in the cost of transaction will kill the Indian CDM
3.Cost of transaction has to be in line with global peers as Commodity is Global Asset Class unlike equity which mainly is a Local Asset Class
4.CDM is at a nascent stage. It is only 4 years old
5.Participation of banks, mutual funds, FIs, FIIs is still not allowed. Options contracts, index futures and futures based on intangibles are still to come
6.The correct approach would be to let the market grow properly after enabling all types of instruments and participants, let the market attain its full potential and then tax it, rather than taxing the market before it properly takes off.
7.Stock derivative is on local underlying assets, while commodity derivatives is based on global underlying asset, e.g. gold, soya, cotton, etc. and hence commodity derivatives market cost of transaction should have to be in full convergence with its international peers, otherwise it becomes inefficient and will self-kill
8.Cost of transaction will increase almost by 800 %. Out of the total transaction cost, 85 % will be towards CTT and balance will be towards Exchange fee, service tax, stamp duty, etc. Indian exchanges will become costliest exchange in the world losing their global competitiveness
9.CTT is nowhere in the world & STT is only applicable for the cash segment of equity in the global market. It is not there in the derivatives segment of equity in USA

These arguments make sense to me , as CDM is developing just now and imposing tax on these transactions will hinder the growth of Indian economy.

What do you say ? leave your comments.

STT amendment impact on Futures

STT - securities transaction tax from APRIL 1st onwards will be treated like any other deductible expenditure against business income.

Before 1st of April 2008, it is allowed as rebate against tax liability since the time it was introduced by finance minister chidambaram in 2004.

Market view of this change
1. It means shelling out more tax; increases the cost, spread reduces for arbitrageurs
2. Negative for the arbitrageurs
3. Volumes will see significant reduction.
4. Mispricing of spread will be reduced
5. With this amendment , minimum 90-95% of total market likely to be directly affected
6. It only impact arbitrageurs and prop book
7. Prop book accounts for around 25% of arbitrage volumes
8. No material impact over the long term but sentimental impact in short term
9. Arbitrage return are very high earlier, but with this amendament , it will be moderate in future.

When STT is introduced first time , it was taken negatively by Market but was no impact on F&O volumes. The average daily volumes in NSE F&O were 19,000 crs in 2005 but grew to 29,500 crs in 2006 and 52,000 crs in 2007. This will take downturn in 2008 because of this amendament. Also with this amendament , experts on the view that the arbitrage mutual funds will reduce to 8% per annum(close to other income sources like bank fixed deposits) from an earlier 12-13%.

Because of this change, yesterday (1st April,2008) most arbitrageurs and jobbers went on strike, which seen deep cut in F&O volumes.

AAA series: A day , An Abbreviation : STT

STT :
Securities Transaction Tax.

This is the tax introduced in the Indian Markets by Finance Minister Chidambaram when presenting the budget in 2004.

Every transaction in securities in a recognized stock exchange in India like BSE,NSE etc , would attract a turnover tax called STT. Only buyers need to pay this tax. STT initially is set at 0.15%

Its introduced with a view to
1.To slow down the flow of speculative money, as it would be taxed each time a transaction takes place
2.To curb purely short-term speculation by day traders, “noise traders,” arbitrageurs and big operators
3.To reduce the speculation in Indian financial markets, which are amongst the most speculative markets in the world

Is US Markets making Fool on Fool's day : April 1st 2008

source : CNN

Is US markets making fool of everyone ? Not sure, but today its green everywhere on walstreet. Dow up by close to 400 points and NASDAQ up by 83 points on Tuesday, which is 1st day of the second quarter.

Triggers:
1.stronger U.S. dollar
2.better-than-expected readings on manufacturing and construction
3.signs of recovery for the hard-hit financial sector from credit crisis
4.Lehman Brothers is raising cash and the fact that both UBS and Deutsche Bank announced writedowns
5.U.S. light, crude oil for May delivery fell 60 cents to settle at $100.98 a barrel
6.COMEX gold for April delivery fell $33.30 to settle at $882.90 an ounce
7.The dollar rose versus the euro and the yen.
8.UBS subprime woes
a. writes off $19 bn
b. Q1 loss at $12.1 bn
c. Chairman resigns after loss announcement
d. to raise $15 bn via rights issue
e. to hive off ailing biz into separate unit
f. The syndicate of banks that are going to back the rights issue have put an end to stock lending

Impact on India : With these good cues from US, Indian Market should open with a gap up. We might see 200-250 points up in NIFTY, which can become another opportunity to sell few of the stocks for a re-entrant at the later stage. Also, we might get a chance to buy PUTs on either 5000 or 5100 levels for a decent premium. The sector to watch out today is STEEL on account of news related to price cut upto 20%.

Nifty Today : April 1st, 2008

source : Nse India

The market opened on a firm note on positive cues from global markets but slipped in the red in early afternoon trade due to selling pressure in index pivotals. The market breadth which was positive till mid-morning trade turned negative. Trading was choppy. Markets recovered again owing to buying in Index heavy weights. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4739.55 up by 5.05 points

Top 3 gainers on the NIFTY
1.RPL
2.SUZLON
3.TATACOMM

Top 3 losers on the NIFTY
1.BHEL
2.M&M
3.SAIL

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value : 2609.05
Sell Value: 3247.91
Net Value : -638.86

DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value : 715.07
Sell Value : 1004.63
Net Value : -289.56

Net net, both FII and DII are net sellers in today's market.

IPL Schedule

April 18: Bangalore v Kolkata at Bangalore
April 19: Mohali v Chennai at Mohali and Delhi v Jaipur at Delhi
April 20: Mumbai v Bangalore at Mumbai; Kolkata v Hyderabad at Kolkata
April 21: Jaipur v Mohali at Jaipur
April 22: Hyderabad v Delhi at Hyderabad
April 23: Chennai v Mumbai at Chennai
April 24: Hyderabad v Jaipur at Hyderabad
April 25: Mohali v Mumbai at Mohali
April 26: Bangalore v Jaipur at Bangalore; Chennai v Kolkata at Chennai
April 27: Mumbai v Hyderabad at Mumbai; Mohali v Delhi at Mohali
April 28: Bangalore v Chennai at Bangalore
April 29: Kolkata v Mumbai at Kolkata
April 30: Delhi v Bangalore at Delhi.
May 1: Hyderabad v Mohali at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Kolkata at Jaipur
May 2: Chennai v Delhi at Chennai.
May 3: Hyderabad at Bangalore at Hyderabad; Mohali v Kolkata at Mohali
May 4: Mumbai v Delhi at Mumbai; Jaipur v Chennai at Jaipur
May 5: Bangalore v Mohali at Bangalore
May 6: Chennai v Hyderabad at Chennai
May 7: Mumbai v Jaipur at Mumbai
May 8: Delhi v Chennai at Delhi; Kolkata v Bangalore at Kolkata
May 9: Jaipur v Hyderabad at Jaipur
May 10: Bangalore v Mumbai at Bangalore; Chennai v Mohali at Chennai
May 11 : Hyderabad v Kolkatta at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Delhi at Jaipur
May 12 : Mohali v Bangalore at Mohali
May 13 : Kolkatta v Delhi at Kolkatta
May 14 : Mumbai v Chennai at Mumbai; Mohali v Jaipur at Mohali
May 15 : Delhi v Hyderabad at Delhi
May 16 : Mumbai v Kolkatta at Mumbai
May 17 : Delhi v Mohali at Delhi; Jaipur v Bangalore at Jaipur
May 18 : Hyderabad v Mumbai at Hyderabad; Kolkatta v Chennai at Kolkatta
May 19 : Bangalore v Delhi at Bangalore
May 20 : Kolkatta v Jaipur at Kolkatta
May 21 : Mumbai v Mohali at Mumbai; Chennai v Bangalore at Chennai
May 22 : Delhi v Kolkatta at Delhi
May 23 : Mohali v Hyderabad at Mohali.
May 24 : Delhi v Mumbai at Delhi; Chennai v Jaipur at Chennai
May 25 : Bangalore v Hyderabad at Bangalore; Kolkatta v Mohali at Kolkatta
May 26 : Jaipur v Mumbai at Jaipur
May 27 : Hyderabad v Chennai at Hyderabad
May 28 and 29 : Rest days
May 30 : First semi-final at Mumbai
May 31 : Second semi-final at Mumbai
June 1 : Final at Mumbai

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : March 31,2008

Source : CNN

Walstreet end higher today, which is the last day of the 1st Quarter. The 1st Quarter is terrible for the walstreet. Dow closed with 46 point up and so as NASDAQ with 0.79%.

Triggers & highlights :
1. Falling crude oil prices and other commodities
2. The Bush Administration's proposed financial regulation overhaul
3. The dollar rose versus the euro and the yen.

Critical for This week :
1.Tuesday : report on ISM manufacturing index
2.Thursday : report on ISM services sector index
3.Friday : The monthly jobs report.

It was the worst quarter for the major indexes on Walstreet since the third quarter of 2002.

Impact on India : India should open up in the green after a major sell off by FII in yesterday's session. Asia is doing good at the moment with Nikeei gaining by more than 1.5%. But interesting to see, if today's up move will stay and market can sustain above 4800 levels.

Nifty Today : March 31,2008

source : Nse India

The market opened in negative territory tracking week global cues and extended losses in mid-morning trade on fresh selling in index pivotals. The sentiment was also hit by reports that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has asked companies to disclose losses on a mark-to-market basis incurred due to derivatives trades from the current financial year onwards. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4734.50 down by 207.50 points.

Banks and IT have dragged the NIFTY from high levels in today's trade.

Top 2 gainers on NIFTY
1.CIPLA
2.M&M

Top 2 Losers on NIFTY
1.HDFC
2.ICICI BANK

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Buy Value : 2959.05
Sell Value : 3824.84
Net Value : -865.79

DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Buy Value : 1880.72
Sell Value: 1314.69
Net Value : 566.03


From the above provisional numbers by NSE, its clearly the FII who dragged the market. They taken a net of 866 cr's from the Market where as Domestic Instituional investors are net buyers with 566 cr's.

There is huge shorting in Nifty, contributing almost 60% of the trade happended today. There is also big call writing happened at 5000,4900 and 4800 levels, which also meant for the next couple of weeks there is a strong resistance at 4800 and above levels.

Nifty Today : March 28,2008

source : Nse India

The market opened higher tracking a rebound in Asian markets and swayed between gains and losses in the mid-morning trade. Banking shares declined. Consumer durables and metal stocks were in demand. The Market declined in the early afternoon trade after data showed a surge in inflation but Positive signals from the Asian markets pulled in the positive territory. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4942.00 up by 111.75 points.

Top 3 gainers on NIFTY
1.SUZLON
2.TATASTEEL
3.CAIRN

Top 3 losers on NIFTY
1.ONGC
2.HDFC
3.HDFCBANK

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value : 3062.5
Sell Value : 3464.45
Net Value : -401.95

DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value : 1643.62
Sell Value : 914.12
Net Value : 729.5

Neck story, not the Nifty

Readers, here is a guest post from my lovely wife. She share's her Neck story, which started last year July and still looking for a climax.Ok, lets here from her own words

I came to US in July,2007 on H4. This is my first visit. Being new to USA, not much to do here, which forced me to look for laptop for entertainment. Having internet at finger tips and lot of time once hubby starts to office, I begin to explore WWW. Soon I realized the power of internet and started exploring in areas of my interest which is none other than Music. I started enjoying audio songs online and at the same time collecting the lyrics of my favourite numbers. I was so deep into this that in a day started collecting more than 30-40 numbers from various movies . I am happy, but there is something else happening without my knowledge . Yes , thats none other than the nerves around the neck which are getting hardened because of same posture of the neck.Within a week it hit hard on me and caused severe pain in the Neck.

I intially thought , its just like another neck pain and started applying few ointmnets got from India. No improvement seen, then moved to american medicines available over the counter like icepacks. Weeks gone there after by applying similar techniques,but of no use. Finally decided to visit the doctor and forced my Husband to get an appointment. We don't have a car at this time, so took help of my neighbour. Doctor conducted few tests like 'X-ray' and then told me that, the neck is tested severly without major motion for long hours and also root caused the reason .To my surprise it turned out to be the heavy usage of the LAPTOP

Doctor prescribed few medicines , some US top selling ice patches and then massage sessions (PT) thrice a week. Everything costed the insurance and so as me in the form of co pays.Now I am going through these and slowly recovering without knowing when will it come to an end.

Here is what i learnt during this time.

1. Do spent only limited time on laptop if you are not working in IT
2. Make sure to arrange ergonomics right ( seat position,height, vision etc)
3. Take small small breaks b/w the work and don't stare at laptop for long hours continuously
4. Do some neck exercises everyday if you are an IT engineer.
5. Last, but not the least, drink lots of lots of water

Make sure , you follow these before the similar story repeats for you.

Do you also have a similar story then share your thoughts and learnings in the comments.

enjoy the reading and benefit from it.

Futures & Options Trends in India for April

source : CNBC-TV18

Please note that this is just the running notes on CNBC-TV18 and not validated.

1. Fresh Contracts for APRIL starts today with expiry date on 24th
2. Initial Open Interest compared to March are considerably low

Total F&O : 42245 cr(APRIL) compared to 58289 cr(MARCH)
Stock Futures : 20219 cr(APRIL) compared to 30556 cr(MARCH)

Nifty Futures : 14307 cr(APRIL) compared to 20232 cr(MARCH)
Nifty Options : 7370 cr(APRIL) compared tp 7133 cr(MARCH)

3. The rollovers are weak compared to March

Market rollover : 79% (APRIL) vs 84%(MARCH)
Nifty rollover : 63% (APRIL) vs 75%(MARCH)

4. Nifty futures add 58 lakh shares in net Open int
5. Nifty Open Interest PCR(Put Call ratio) at 1.31 (APRIL) Vs 1.55 (MARCH) at the beginning of the series
6.Nifty 4500 put adds 11.6 lakh shares in OI(Open Interest) and Nifty 4800 put adds 8.4 lakh shares in OI where as Nifty 4800 call adds 7 lakh shares in OI
7. Rollover percentages in Individual Stocks

RPL : 82%
NTPC : 73%
IFCI : 83%
SAIL : 61%
POWER GRID:77%
UNITEC : 56%

US Markets (DOW and NASDAQ) Today : March 27,2008

Source : CNN

Another bad day on Walstreet today. Continuing the trend from yesterday on account of subprime and economy fears , today DOW lost around 120 points(0.97%) and NASDAQ by 45 points (1.87%).

Triggers
1.Better than expected economic report ( stocks rise in the early part of the day)
2.Federal Reserve auctioned off another $75 billion in credit to investment banks. (part of $200 billion released in the first week of March)
3.Lehman Brothers analyst cut estimates on Citibank , Bank of America , UBS and other large-cap banks.
4.Google,the search leader saw slowing growth in clicks on the company's text ads in February, the second consecutive month of slowing traffic.
5.Lehman Brothers cut its first-quarter and 2008 earnings estimates and its 12-month price target on the search leader
6.The number of Americans filing new jobless claims were lower than expected last week
7.The economy grew at a tepid 0.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter of last year, the Commerce Department reported
8.crude oil for May delivery settled up $1.68 to $107.58
9.COMEX gold for April delivery settled down 40 cents to $948.80 an ounce

Tomorrow on Walstreet
1. reports on presonal income,personal spending
2. reports on inflation
3. reports on consumer confidence

Impact on India : Market can expect a gap down opening. Financial and IT stocks will be in presuure today. Interesting to see if Indian Markets can absorb these bad cues coming from US like it did yesterday.

Fingers crossed.

Nifty Today : March 27,2008

source : Nse India

The Market Opened Lower tracking weaker Asian markets that were dragged down by renewed worries about the US economy. Banking and IT stocks declining the most. S&P CNX Nifty closed in the green amid high volatile session owing to expiry of March 2008 derivatives contracts. The S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4830.25; up by 1.40 points.

Top 3 Gainers on Nifty

1. HINDALCO
2. SUZLON
3. HINDUNILVR

Top 3 Losers on Nifty

1.HCLTECH
2.SATYAMCOMP
3.TATACOMM

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
4806.56 4558.58 247.98

DII(Domestic Institutional Investors) trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
1785.81 1445.97 339.84

Tata Deals and its Stock Prices

source : CNBC-TV18

Do you know, when Tata group makes any deal , its stock prices goes down ?
Deals like TATA STL-CORUS, TATA TEA-TETLEY and now TATA MOTORS - FORD JLR have seen the stock prices beaten on the SENSEX and NIFTY.

TATA STEEL - CORUS deal :
Tata Steel, acquired CORUS on Jan 31st,2007 for $14 bn and stock fell 9.7% on the same day.

TATA TEA - TETLEY deal :
When this deal is announced on Feb 26,2006 , Tata Tea stock is down to Rs 525

TATA Chemicals deal :
Acquired soda ash business of General Industrial Products for $1 bn on Feb 1st and the stock price on the same day fell to Rs 290

TATA MOTORS - FORD deal :
Tata Motors , acquired FORD's Jaguar and Land Rover for $2.3 bn and the stock is trading now at 649 down by 4.9%.

Tata Motors Drive Away JAGUAR and LAND ROVER



Another big acquistion for the year 2008. This time its turn of TATA's. Tata Motors deal is confirmed with Ford's JAGUAR and LAND ROVER (JLR) on Wednesday.

Here are highlights of the deal

1. Total Deal value is $2.3 bn
2. Waiting for the regulatory approvals from EU, US & other countries
3. Plans to run JLR as two separate companies.
4. Plans to operate JLR as co's subsidiries
5. Tied-up $3 bn as bridge finance for JLR deal
6. Raising the bridge finance from syndicate of banks
7. bridge finance to be replaced
8. to divest stake in group co's to finance JLR buyout
9. SBI likely to be lead financer
10.Intl banks have approached SBI to finance Tata Motors
11.Ford will provide financing for 12 months
12.Deal likely to be closed by end of next quarter
13.Deal is subject to regulatory clearances
14.Deal includes brands,manufacturing plants and IPR
15.Identities of Jaguar and Land Rover would be kept intact
16.Ford to continue to provide engineering and R&D support
17.Agreements between Ford and Tata Motors for various engine technologies
18.Top Management including CEO to continue to stay with the company

Right now, TATA Motor's stock is trading in red. As per the various analyst's view, the best time to buy this stock is when it reaches the support level which is seen at 520-570 levels with an up move for 920-950 levels

Walstreet Today : March 26,2008

Source : CNN

Bad day again on Walstreet today. Dow jones lost around 110 points (0.9%) and S&P also lost 0.9% and NASDAQ (0.7%)

Triggers
1.Weak Economic news
2.High Commodity prices ( oil and gold). Oil raised 4$ per barrel
3.Bearish analyst note on investment firm earnings.
4.Oracle results which met estimates on sales but missed in forecasts.
5.Orders for manufactured goods slumped 1.7% in February versus forecasts for a rise of 0.8%
6.January's drop in durable goods was revised to 4.7% from an initial read of 5.3%
7.Ford Motor said that it will sell luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors Ltd. in a deal worth about $1.7 billion
8.The dollar fell versus the euro and the yen

What tomorrow on Walstreet
1. Homebuilder Lennar quarterly earnings report
2. Weekly jobless claims report
3. reading on GDP growth

Impact on India :
Indian Markets are under pressure for today based on the cues from US. The market will open with a gap down and can undergo servere selling pressure . Already Asian markets are witnessing this with Nikkie down by 200 points (1.64%) and Hang Seng by 374 points. I assume , NIFTY will retest its recent lows and interesting to see if it breaks 4600 levels or not. Also today is the expiry date of the F&O segment.

Bookmark this blog , keep reading and benefit from it

Nifty Today : March 26,2008

source : Nse India

The Market was range bound in the mid-morning trade with derivatives expiry underway. Metal and realty stock were in demand. IT stocks slipped after rising for two consecutive sessions.The market drifted lower in afternoon trade as investors chose booking profits after the previous day's 5.81% jump. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4828.85 down by 48.65 points

Top 3 gainers on Nifty
1.TATASTEEL
2.IDEA
3.HDFC

Top 3 losers on Nifty
1.NATIONALUM
2.HINDUNILVR
3.ICICIBANK

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Category : FII
Buy Value : 3133.5
Sell Value : 2739.59
Net Value : 393.91

Domestic Institutional Investors trading activity on NSE and BSE on Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)

Category : DII
Buy Value : 1063.92
Sell Value : 1172.57
Net Value : -108.6

So, the net sellers in the market are Domestic Mututal Funds mostly.

AAA series: A day , An Abbreviation : ADRs

ADRs:
American Depository Receipts

Did you hear about the Indian ADRs like Infosys,Satyam,Tcs,ICICI Bank etc in the market reports and news ? What are these ADR's ? How are they different from stocks that we trade regularly ?

Continue reading below to find answers to the above.

ADR is a stock that trades in the United States but represents a specified number of shares in a foreign corporation.

ADRs were introduced as a result of the complexities involved in buying shares in foreign countries and the difficulties associated with trading at different prices and currency values.

ADRs were first introduced in 1927.

Two banks are generally involved in maintaining an ADR on a US exchange: an investment bank and a depositary bank.The investment bank purchases the foreign shares and offers them for sale in the US.The depositary bank handles the issuance and cancellation of ADRs certificates.The depositary bank sets the ratio of ADRs per home-country share. This ratio can be less than or greater than 1.

ADR's carry basically 3 levels of risks

1.Political Risk
2.Exchange Rate Risk
3.Inflationary Risk

Its Cricket Time : SA vs IND : MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai

YO YO, cricket fever is back.

1St test started b/w IND vs SA. SA won the toss and elected to bat first.

Here are some of the links, which I searched in google.
Please note, none of these links I own and none of them is tested

MMS

http://free.streamsmania.com/mms.php (Excellent)

TVU Player

http://free.streamsmania.com/tvu.html

Sopcast

http://free.streamsmania.com/sop.html
http://free.streamsmania.com/sop2.html
http://free-live-cricket-streams.blogspot.com/


Mixed
http://indialive.freehostia.com/cricket.html
http://www.tariksworld.com/2007/11/cricket.html
http://www.myindianpad.com/cricket.html

Walstreet Today : March 25,2008

Source : CNN

Walstreet almost ended flat today with minimal gains in Nasdaq,S&P and minimal loss in Dow Jones. Dow down by 16 points ( - 0.13%) , NASDAQ up by 14 points (+0.61%) and S&P up by 3 points( 0.23%).

Triggers :
1. Weaker than expected on new home prices. The prices dropped by 10.7% in Januaray in 20 Key markets
2. Weaker report on consumer confidence which slumped to 64.5 in March from 75 in Feb
3. Treasury Secretry comments on Social Security System that "the current system isn't sustainable financially and will run dry in 2041 unless quick action is taken to fix it."
4. Valero Energy, the oil refiner warned that first-quarter earnings won't meet forecasts
5.Crude oil for May delivery rose 36 cents to settle at $101.22 a barrel
6.COMEX gold for April delivery rose $16.30 to settle at $935 an ounce
7.The dollar gained versus the euro and fell versus the yen

Impact On India : Indian Markets should open flat today and can lose all the gains becasue of profit booking. Also thing to watch out is F&O expiry. Lets see if Nifty can stay above 4700 levels or not by end of the day!

Nifty Today : March 25,2008

source : Nse India

The market surged in opening trade on reports of JP Morgan raising Bear Stearns acquisition price by 5 times and US economic data that showed US new home sales had risen 3% in February 2008. All the sectoral indices were in the green. Banking and IT stocks lead the rally. The market breadth was strong. S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4877.50 up by 267.65 points

Top 3 Nifty Gainers
1.DLF
2.REL
3.UNITECH

Top Losers includes
1.SUNPHARMA


FII(provisional) trading activity on NSE and BSE on Capital Market Segment

Category Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
FII 5020.45 3774.33 1246.12

Domestic Institutional Investors(provisional) trading activity on NSE and BSE on Capital Market Segment

Category Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
DII 1413.7 1013.73 399.97


Coming up Next : Report on Walstreet Today : March 25,2008

Know your Stock : Infosys

One more new series "Know your Stock". I will go over the Nifty stocks one by one in this series and will conduct deep dive to provide you all the information that every investor need to know. Enjoy the reading and benefit from it.

Asusual , leave your comments and feedback.

INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LTD

Industry : IT - Computers & Software
BSE Code : 500209
NSE Code : INFOSYSTCHEQ

website : http://www.infosys.com

Management Team :

N R Narayana Murthy - Chairman & Chief Mentor
S Gopalakrishnan - Managing Director & CEO
Parvatheesam K - Company Secretary & Compliance Officer

Links of Interest:

1. Infosys to announce Fourth Quarter and Annual results on April 15,2008

2. Quarterly and Annual Reports

3. Balance Sheet

4. Cash Flow Statement

5. Guidance Vs Actuals


Stay tuned for more..

AAA series: A day , An Abbreviation

Welcome to this new AAA (A day, An Abbreviation) series , which will take one financial domain abbreviation a day and explain it in detail. Hope you enjoy reading this series and benefit from it. You can leave your comments and suggestions if any.

ADB :
Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral development finance institution, promotes economic and social progress by fighting poverty in Asia and the Pacific.

Website : Asian Development Bank
Head Quarters : Manila
Established : 1966
Member Countries : 67

It contributes low interest loans, guarantees, grants, private sector investments, and knowledge and advice to help build infrastructure and improve essential services such as health and education to boost quality of life

ADB's focus is on encouraging economic growth, social development, and good governance, while promoting regional cooperation and integration in partnership with governments, the private sector, and nongovernment and international organizations.