Sensex gains 72 points in opening trade

MUMBAI: The BSE benchmark Sensex rose by over 72 points in opening trade on Wednesday on sustained buying by funds, with Tata Steel attracting the most interest after it posted strong earnings results for the third quarter.

The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange rose by 72.30 points, or 0.40%, to 18,346.10 points in opening trade today. The Sensex gained nearly 812 points in the previous three sessions.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index gained 10.70 points, or 0.19%, to 5,491.70 in opening trade today.

Traders said in addition to the strong corporate earnings posted by Tata Steel, continued short-covering by speculators also buoyed the sentiment, helping the Sensex maintain its upward journey.

Stocks of Tata Steel rose by 2.19% to Rs 630.05 after the company posted an over two-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,003.02 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010.

Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei Index was up by 0.11% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 0.12% in early trade today.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Index ended 0.34% lower on Tuesday.

TOI

How Refrigerator Buying

Refrigerator is truly an integral part of every home.

The choice of refrigerator brand and model you want to buy will depend on the number of people in the house as well as your food habits. Roughly a two member family would require a fridge anywhere between 50 to 200 litres. However, if you like your steak and chilled beer you might want a higher capacity refrigerator. Also if you do only a weekend shopping, a higher capacity fridge is what you should look at.

TYPE OF REFRIGERATOR
Refrigerator types are simple - direct cool and frost-free refrigerator. Direct cooling ones are mostly single door refrigerators and frost-free refrigerators are mostly double and multiple doors. The abundant variety comes in the form of capacity. You can choose from mini, small, medium and large refrigerators.

* Mini (50 to 100 litres) : perfect for your studio apartment or bachelor pad; just enough for one person to store the occasional can of beer and juices along with bare food items. These are really small, single door refrigerators.

* Small (170 to 200 litres) : just right for a couple or even a small kitchen. This one is small and wont take too much space while giving you just enough to store your weekly groceries. You would go for this if you were on a tight budget. These are single door refrigerators.

* Medium (200 to 450 litres) : This is for the nuclear household. Not too small yet not too big. Reasonably priced these provide ample storage with enough features that are value for money. These could be single as well as double door refrigerators.

* Large (450 to 800 litres) : For the big home and big budget. These refrigerators are right out of the lifestyles of the rich and famous catalogue. You would go for this if you have a large household and are really fond of throwing elaborate dos. The large sized could be double door, three door, bottom mounted, side-by-side.

REFRIGERATOR BRANDS

BPL

Electrolux

Akai

GE

Kelvinator

Siemens

Videocon

Whirlpool

Godrej

LG

Samsung

Sharp

Voltas

Indesit

Gem

Hitachi

Haier

Kenstar

LG

Panasonic

Toshiba

White Westinghouse

Miele

Z line

NIFTY

NIFTY is an Index computed from performance of top stocks from different sectors listed on NSE (National stock exchange). NIFTY consists of 50 companies from 24 different sectors. NIFTY stands for National Stock Exchange’s Fifty. The companies which form index of NIFTY may vary from time to time based on many factors considered by NSE. NIFTY is for NSE similarly SENSEX is for BSE

Some mutual funds use NIFTY index as a benchmark meaning the mutual funds’ performance is compared against the performance of NIFTY. On NSE there are futures and options available for trading with NIFTY as underlying index.

India Index Services and Products Ltd. (IISL) owns NIFTY. IISL is a joint venture of NSE and CRISIL. CRISIL is a subsidiary of Standard and Poor (S&P). And so NIFTY is also called as S&P CNX NIFTY.

Sensex

SENSEX is the short term for the words "Sensitive Index" and is associated with the Bombay (Mumbai) Stock Exchage (BSE).

The SENSEX was first formed on 1-1-1986 and used the market capitalization of the 30 most traded stocks of BSE. The base was 1979 and taken as 100. The 30 scrips of 1986 and no more the same - some have been removed while some have been added. At irregular intervals, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) authorities review and modify its composition to make sure it reflects current market conditions.

Today the Sensex constitutes of the following companies:

Company Name (Industry)

1. ACC (Cement - Major)
2. Bharti Airtel (Telecommunications - Service)
3. BHEL (Engineering - Heavy)
4. DLF (Construction & Contracting - Real Estate)
5. Grasim (Diversified)
6. HDFC Bank (Banks - Private Sector)
7. HDFC (Finance - Housing)
8. Hindalco (Aluminium)
9. HUL (Personal Care)
10. ICICI Bank (Banks - Private Sector)
11. Infosys (Computers - Software)
12. ITC (Cigarettes)
13. Jaiprakash Associates (Construction & Contracting - Civil)
14. Larsen & Toubro (Diversified)
15. Mahindra and Mahindra (Auto - Cars & Jeeps)
16. Maruti Suzuki (Auto - Cars & Jeeps)
17. NTPC (Power - Generation/Distribution)
18. ONGC (Oil Drilling And Exploration)
19. Ranbaxy Labs (Pharmaceuticals)
20. Reliance Communications (Telecommunications - Service)
21. Reliance Industries Limited (Diversified)
22. Reliance Infrastructure (Power - Generation/Distribution)
23. State Bank of India (Banks - Public Sector)
24. Sterlite Industries (Metals - Non Ferrous)
25. Sun Pharma (Pharmaceuticals)
26. Tata Motors (Auto - LCVs/HCVs)
27. Tata Power (Power - Generation/Distribution)
28. Tata Steel (Steel - Large)
29. TCS (Computers - Software)
30. Wipro (Computers - Software)


Click here for a history of Sensex companies.

How is the Sensex calculated?
Sensex is calculated using the "Free-float Market Capitalization" methodology. As per this methodology, the level of index at any point of time reflects the Free-float market value of 30 component stocks relative to a base period.

The market capitalization of a company is determined by multiplying the price of its stock by the number of shares issued by the company. This market capitalization is further multiplied by the free-float factor to determine the free-float market capitalization.

The base period of Sensex is 1978-79 and the base value is 100 index points. This is often indicated by the notation 1978-79=100. The calculation of Sensex involves dividing the Free-float market capitalization of 30 companies in the Index by a number called the Index Divisor.

The Divisor is the only link to the original base period value of the Sensex. It keeps the Index comparable over time and is the adjustment point for all Index adjustments arising out of corporate actions, replacement of scrips etc.

What is IIP Growth (Index of Industrial Production)

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP), an indicator of industrial activity in the country,

IIP growth encouraging; will boost GDP: FM

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday described the industrial output in December as encouraging and said it would have a positive bearing on the economic growth figures for the current fiscal.

"It (IIP growth rate in December) is quite encouraging and I do hope that third quarter GDP figures will also be encouraging... it will get reflected in the overall GDP," he said.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP), an indicator of industrial activity in the country, zoomed 16.8 per cent in December against the contraction of 0.2 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

Higher than anticipated industrial growth rate in December may also have a reflection on the over all Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which was pegged at 7.2 per cent for the current fiscal by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) earlier in the week.

The advance growth estimate by the CSO, was lower than 7.75 per cent projected by the Finance Ministry and 7.5 per cent predicted by the Reserve Bank of India [ Get Quote ].

Mukherjee, who is gearing up to present the Budget 2010-11 on February 26, suggested that the higher industrial output during the month might push up the GDP for the third quarter and subsequently for the fiscal.

PTI

What is Inflation?

What is Inflation?


Inflation is defined as an increase in the price of bunch of Goods and services that projects the Indian economy. An increase in inflation figures occurs when there is an increase in the average level of prices in Goods and services. Inflation happens when there are less Goods and more buyers, this will result in increase in the price of Goods, since there is more demand and less supply of the goods.

CRR Rate in India

What is CRR Rate:


Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with RBI. If RBI decides to increase the percent of this, the available amount with the banks comes down. RBI is using this method (increase of CRR rate), to drain out the excessive money from the banks.

The cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio determines the amounts banks have to retain in liquid assets, gold and government bonds against deposits, and form a part of traditional instruments that help in checking liquidity in the system.

What is Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate

What is a Repo Rate?

Repo Rate
Whenever the banks have any shortage of funds they can borrow it from RBI. Repo rate is the rate at which our banks borrow rupees from RBI. A reduction in the repo rate will help banks to get money at a cheaper rate. When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive.

The repo rate, often referred to as the short term lending rate, is the interest charged by the central bank on borrowings by commercial banks.
Repo rate is the interest rate at which the reserve bank of India lends mney to other banks.

What is a Reverse repo Rate?

Reverse repo Rate:

Reverse repo rate is return banks earn on excess funds parked with the central bank against Government securities. The reverse repo rate, referred to as the short term borrowing rate, is the rate at which the central bank borrows money from commercial banks.

GDP

GDP
The India GDP is a combination of all the differential factors, contributing to the welfare of the India economy. India GDP gives us a combined report of the performance of the Indian economy. 'Cost factor' or 'Actual price' method - these are the two methods to calculate Indian Gross Domestic Product. The main factor that contributed to the growth of India GDP post 1990s was the opening-up of the Indian economy.


Definition of GDP

GDP (the measure of an economy adopted by the United States in 1991; the total market values of goods and services produced by workers and capital within a nation's borders during a given period (usually 1 year))

What is GDP?

GDP – or Gross Domestic Product – is a measure of the overall economic output within a country’s borders over a particular time, typically a year.

GDP is calculated by adding together the total value of annual output of all that country’s goods and services.

GDP can also be measured by income by considering the factors producing the output – the capital and labour – or by expenditure by government, individuals, and business on that output.

* Real GDP is the gross domestic product adjusted for inflation
* Nominal GDP is the gross domestic product without taking into account inflation.


What is the GDP growth rate?

The change in GDP from one year to the next (or from quarter to quarter) can be given as a percentage. This is called the GDP growth rate.

The real GDP growth rate is a much more useful measure of economic growth than the nominal rate.

If a country’s GDP is growing at a nominal rate of 5% but inflation is running at 4%, only 1% of the growth is down to improved economic output. The rest is just because prices of