Infosys finds a berth in Nasdaq-100

Infosys Technologies, the country’s second biggest software services exporter, just clinched yet another unique distinction.

It became the first Indian corporate to be included in a global index when NASDAQ announced that it had chosen the company to be a part of the NASDAQ-100 Index effective market opening on Monday, December 18, 2006.

This comes at a time when Infosys is celebrating its silver jubilee anniversary. It now joins the ranks of Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Intel and Yahoo which form part of the NASDAQ-100.

On the NASDAQ, the Infy scrip closed at $55.03 (up 0.7%) on Friday with volumes of 2.07 million shares although on the National Stock Exchange(NSE) in India the scrip closed lower by 1.27% at Rs 2,195.55. At the time of ranking, Infosys ADS had a market capitalisation of $5.6 billion on the NASDAQ. On the NSE Infy ended on Friday with a market capitalisation of Rs 1.21 lakh crore.Besides Infosys, the other two stocks to be added to the NASDAQ-100 include Level 3 Communications Inc and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

The NASDAQ-100 comprises of the 100 largest non financial stocks listed on the NASDAQ. Infosys, Level 3 and Vertex come in place of JDS Uniphase Corporation, Lincare Holdings Inc and Urban Outfitters Inc.

“The NASDAQ-100 Index is one of the world’s most recognised benchmarks that owes this distinction to its components-companies that are leaders in a diverse range of industries,” said John L Jacobs, executive vice-president of NASDAQ.
The inclusion of stocks into the NASDAQ-100 happens on the basis of a re-ranking exercise which is carried out each December.

“We are delighted to hear about the inclusion in the NASDAQ-100 Index. Companies like ours are helping corporates worldwide to effectively compete in a flat world,” said V Balakrishnan, CFO.

The Infosys inclusion comes after the company launched its third sponsored ADS issue which saw the floating stock increase in the international market (NASDAQ). Currently close to 20% of the Infosys stock is available on the NASDAQ.

As a part of the index, the Infy scrip will now be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock, an exchange traded fund (ETF). The NASDAQ-100 along with NASDAQ Financial-100 Index were launched way back in January 1985.

I-FLEX INSIDERS MUST BE REPENTING BIG TIME

The following names are iflex insiders who sold before enjoying humongous rise in iflex stock price (missed the bus)


I-Flex Solutions Ltd
Mr. Deepak Ghaisas CEO India Operations 377,3 30-Oct-06
Mr. Deepak Ghaisas CEO India Operations 5,000 23-Nov-06
Mr. Deepak Ghaisas CEO India Operations 11,623 14-Nov-06
Mr. Deepak Ghaisas CEO India Operations 6,795 13-Nov-06
Mr. P Prasannavadanan 1,100 29-Nov-06-24-Nov-06
Mr. P Prasannavadanan 400 23-Nov-06
Mr. P V Jambu Natarajan 900 09-Nov-06
Mr. S Hariharan Senior Vice President 150 15-Nov-06
Mr. Sachin Joshi Key Management Personnel 1,000 05-30-Nov-06-Dec-06
Mr. Sridhar Padmanabhan Employee 2,000 28-Nov-06-05-Dec-06
Mr. V Shankar Employee 1,000 01-Dec-06-05-Dec-06
Mr. V Shankar Employee 3,000 24-Nov-06-29-Nov-06
Mr. V Shankar Employee 2,000 23-Nov-06
Mr.R Ravisankar 20,000 29-Nov-06(22-Nov-06 to 24-Nov-06)
Mrs. Meenakshy Iyer 700 09-Nov-06
Mr. V Shankar Employee 1,750 07-Dec-06-06-Dec-06
Mr. Avadhut Ketkar 500 07-05-Dec-06-Dec-06
Mr. Deepak Ghaisas CEO India Operations 5,493 07-Dec-06(04-Dec-06 & 05-Dec-06)
Ms. Swati Srinivasan 5,000 07-Dec-06(27-Nov-06 & 01-Dec-06)
Mr. V Srinivasan 7,000 07-01-Dec-06 -Dec-06

This proves again timing market is like sweating in Antarctica :-)
cheers
rish

Rules of a Wall Street Master

The critical success factors in trading.The following rules taken from Vic Sperandeo's outstanding book Methods of a Wall Street Master, as he talks in detail about some of the more subjective success factors needed in this business.

1. Trade with the Plan. Stick to it. Every rationale, target, stop, and scenario should be thought out before the trade is entered. As Vic says, "confusion is your biggest enemy." The biggest thing you need to consider is your intended timeframe for the trade. If you know how long you want to hold the trade, the goals, stops, and volatility allowances will be easier to establish. But the bottom line is, plan your trade before you enter it.

2. The Trend Is Your Friend - Trade with the Trend. It's great to catch a reversal, but it's also very difficult. At least when taking a position with the market rather than against it, you can get off on the right foot. It all may change the next day, but you'll have at least a day's worth of cushion/gain. Taking a contrary position and praying for a reversal rarely works out well enough to make it worth doing.

3. Let Profits Run. Cut Losses Short. The second half (cut losses short) is the tougher part of this rule. It involves admitting that you were wrong. But in trading, rare is the case where you will eventually be proven right after being proven wrong. It's just not worth trying. If you struggle to cut losses short, you can counter-act that psychological devastation by letting your profits run (once your target is hit), and then telling yourself that not only were you right, you were really right, in that your target exit point was surpassed and you made a little more than originally planned. To do this, keep ratcheting up your stop-loss with each incremental gain above your original target.

4. Buy Weakness and Sell Strength. If you're waiting till the very end of a rally to make your exits, you've waited too long - you and about a million of your best friends are all thinking the same thing. Rarely does the end of a rally announce itself, and it never happens slowly enough to actually do anything about it (i.e. until it's basically too late). The same is true for bearish trades. This may seem contrary to # 3, and maybe in some ways it is. But the more important point of both of these rules is to maintain a trading discipline. The pros do, and so should you.

5. Don't Trade Off of Tips. A tip is rarely more than opinion, and frequently a bad one at that. Even if the tip comes from a friend, don't take it. If you have a hard time with this, go back to #2 - the trend is your friend. Burn this into your head! Unfortunately, in trading, a friend is not always a friend.

6. Never Trade If Your Success Depends on a Good (Lucky?) Execution. If getting a fill that is not currently marketable is critical, you may want to go back to #1 and make sure you're trading your plan. Great trade set-ups will always be great, even if you have to pay a little more to actually get into the trade. If you (or your broker) have to fight hard to get filled at a certain price, that's the market's way of telling you that this trade will not be an easy one to make profitable

India Can Average 9 Percent GDP Growth in 2007-12, Singh Says

India can sustain average economic growth of 9 percent annually between 2007 and 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

Such growth is ``feasible'', Singh said at a meeting with chief ministers of India's states in New Delhi today, according to a copy of the speech made available to reporters.

India, the world's second-fastest growing major economy, wants to accelerate economic growth to 10 percent to cut poverty in the nation of 1.1 billion people. More than half the nation's population lives on less than $2 a day, according to World Bank estimates.

India's economy has grown more than 8 percent in six of the past seven quarters, gaining 9.2 percent in the three months to Sept. 30. China's $2.2 trillion economy, Asia's second-largest, expanded 10.4 percent in the quarter ended Sept. 30, the quickest pace among the world's 20 largest economies and almost four times the 2.6 percent gain in the 12 European nations sharing the euro.