Prajna Capital - An Investment Guide

When it comes to investing, it is commonly observed that investors tend to replicate the investment strategy followed by their colleagues, friends or relatives. It is generally believed that an investment strategy that has worked for one will also work for others. However, this is the wrong approach, simply because 'one size does not fit all' while investing. Instead, investors need to build an investment portfolio that is right for them. Building an investment portfolio requires the investor to put in a fair degree of thought and time. The need for the latter is only accentuated in light of the overwhelming choices available. In this article, we present a 4-step strategy that will help investors build an investment portfolio. 1) The investment objective The first step should be to identify the investment objective and tenure. In our view, no investment must be undertaken without defining these parameters. For this, you need to ask yourself - "what am I investing for"...

You can use the correction phases to build your portfolio with value picks. Volatility is a basic nature of stock markets. Stock markets are driven by investor sentiments and expectations of corporate earnings. Usually, markets react sharply to negative or positive news developments. The volatility this year is due to a negative bias. There are many factors that contribute to negative investor sentiments. For example, a persistent high inflation rate (especially the core inflation rate that is driven by basic commodities), rising commodity prices in global markets, slow down in global economy and no visible signs of improvement etc. Global investors who were pumping money into emerging markets are exiting. Large foreign investors are bearish on the global growth potential and expect the global economy to deteriorate. Since the stock markets are in a sideway movement and not doing very well, equity funds are also not delivering good returns. In fact, most of them delivered negative perf...

In this section an attempt is made to analyze and highlight the implications of Budget on common man under various heading. Home is where many tax saving options still dwell Buy a home, go for joint ownership if you are two salaried persons, buy a second property, or even sell the existing one...if you plan well, there are various options to save tax on hard-earned money THE Indian economy has been witnessing a boom in the recent past. However, rising property prices and growing interest burden on home loans are worrying buyers. The Budget has not offered any relief, but you can still make ample use of the existing provisions to save substantially on property investments. Here’s how…. BUYING A HOUSE Owning a house is not just a dream but a necessity, and there are several tax benefits as well. However, when buying a house, you would do well to consider the following. (a) It’s always advisable to go in for a housing loan. Interest paid on home loans can be deducted from your taxable in...