Top investors other than Rakesh Jhunjhunwala who made a killing in Indian stock market in 2017

While Rakesh Jhunjhunwala may have earned the reputation of being India’s Warren Buffett, we take a look at three other ace investors, who too have proved their mettle in the Indian capital markets.

“One thing which keeps me apart is that I have got guts,” says Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

Investment wizard Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s ability to pick multibagger stocks needs no elaboration, as in 2017 alone, four of his stock picks have more than doubled investor wealth. These include his favourite scrip Titan Company Ltd returning 161%, Delta Corp Ltdshares which returned 170%, shares of Dewan Housing Finance which surged by 142% and shares of Escorts Ltd which zoomed 158%.

What sets the man apart from other investors in the stock market? In his own words–ability to take risk. “One thing which keeps me apart is that I have got guts. I may have Rs 1,000 in my bank but if I think the deal is worth a crore – I will do it. I have guts and setbacks don’t put me off. I feel them for 10 minutes but then I am ready to fight back,” Rakesh Jhunjhunwala explained in a recent interview with CNBC TV18. While Rakesh Jhunjhunwala may have earned the reputation of being India’s Warren Buffett, we take a look at three other Indian ace investors, who too have proved their mettle in the Indian capital markets.

Porinju Veliyath

One of the most influential small and midcap stock pickers in the country, Kochi based Porinju Veliyath had picked had spotted names such as Wockhardt, Orient Paper, Piramal Enterprises, Kitex Garments, Force Motors and Biocon, which have multiplied many times over since he spotted them. GVK Power and Infra Ltd, where the ace investor holds a significant stake rallied by a staggering 256% in 2017, more than tripling investor wealth. Sharing that he owns 6.5% stake in the company, Porinju Veliyath quipped in an interview with ET Now in November-17, “Last time when I went to Mumbai I was waiting for the flight in the lobby. I was telling my wife I own 3% of Mumbai Airport! So something nice to think about. There are leveraged infra companies and with the less leverage infra companies, infrastructure is definitely a theme and a story going forward.”  

Trsck stock prices: Titan Company Ltd; Delta Corp Ltd; Escorts Ltd; GVK Power and Infra; Rain Industries Ltd

Dolly Khanna

Dolly Khanna whose portfolio value was estimated at being above Rs 600 crore in November-17, too made  killing in Indian capital markets last year. One such mid-cap Rain Industries Ltd, picked by Rajiv Khanna, who invests in the name of his wife Dolly, has given more than 577% returns since in 2017. The other multi-baggers in the portfolio of Dolly Khanna include NOCIL Ltd which returned 171% and PPAP Automotive with returns of 342% in 2017.

Ashish Kacholia

The media shy investor, Ashish Kacholia, who is known for his multibagger mid and small-cap picks, too proved his mettle in 2017. Notably, NOCIL Ltd is a common scrip which features in his portfolio along with Dolly Khanna. As mentioned earlier, The largest rubber chemicals manufacturer NOCIL Ltd’s shares have returned a staggering 172% in the year 2017. The other multi-baggers in the portfolio of Ashish Kacholia include KEI Industries which returned 204% and APL Apollo Tubes with returns of 116% in 2017.

http://www.financialexpress.com/market/top-investors-other-than-rakesh-jhunjhunwala-who-made-a-killing-in-indian-stock-market-in-2017/1013227/

Supreme Court in turmoil after four judges revolt against Chief Justice Dipak Misra

J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph alleged Chief Justice Dipak Misra was not following established precedents in allocation of cases among the judges

The four Supreme Court judges—(from left) Kurian Joseph, J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur—in their briefing alluded to the controversial death of justice Loya, who was presiding over the CBI court in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court broke ranks and publicly questioned the leadership of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The four judges, J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, alleged that the chief justice was not following established precedents in allocation of cases among the judges. Consequently, they argued, this was “adversely” affecting the justice delivery system.

After submitting a seven-page letter of protest to the chief justice on Friday morning, the judges went public with their grievances and held a press conference at the residence of justice Chelameswar.

“This is an extraordinary event in the history of the institution. The administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and despite repeated attempts to convince the Chief Justice to take immediate remedial measures, nothing has been done,” justice Chelameswar told the media.

Misra did not respond to the issues raised in the press conference or the letter and continued to hear the cases on his roster through the day. While Gogoi is next in line to take over from Misra, Chelameswar, Joseph and Lokur will retire this year.

Interestingly, while the letter made no reference to it, the four justices in their briefing alluded to the controversial 2014 death of judge B.H. Loya, who was presiding over the CBI court in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

Responding to a question on whether their protests had anything to do with allocation of Loya’s case, justice Gogoi said “yes”.

Besides being an unprecedented step, the revolt by the four judges has the potential to snowball into a larger crisis, especially since national political parties are poised to take sides on the issue.

Addressing a press conference on Friday evening, Congress president Rahul Gandhi backed the four judges.

“Points raised by the four judges are extremely important. They said there is a threat to democracy and that needs to be looked into carefully. SC judges spoke about justice Loya and that too needs to be looked at from the highest levels of judiciary.”

Explaining their unprecedented action, Chelameswar said the judges were driven by the fear that failure to communicate their concerns could jeopardize the institution of the Supreme Court and thereby of democracy.

The letter cited the irregular manner of assigning of cases by Misra as a particular matter of concern. “There have been instances where a case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by the chief justice selectively to the benches ‘of their preference’ without any rational basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs,” it said.

The judges also criticized the delay in finalizing the memorandum of procedure (MOP) on which detailed discussions were held by the collegium (comprising the top five judges of the Supreme Court) and submitted by the then chief justice to the government in March 2017.

The MOP is a document put together by the Union government and then shared with the apex court. It determines the procedure of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.

Since the MOP submission in March, the government has not responded to the comments of the Supreme Court. The four judges have questioned Misra for failing to move ahead with the MOP.

When asked what the future course of action would be for the four judges, Justice Chelameswar merely said that they would be back at work on Monday.

The move found favour with members of the bar.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said on Twitter: “Truly unprecedented! Kudos to the four senior most judges of SC who addressed a press conference today to apprise the people about the extraordinary abuse of ‘master of roster’ powers by CJI in selectively assigning politically sensitive cases to handpicked junior judges for desired outcome.”

Arguing similarly, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “If true, these are extremely serious allegations regarding change of benches, and if true they also reflect very poorly on certain matters of great significance in the corridors of power. I hope that they are addressed immediately because otherwise this is an irreparable assault on possibly the most important pillar of our democracy.”

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/kAadW0vqG6KuREJ92nd6SL/Four-Supreme-Court-judges-criticise-administration-of-countr.html

210 government websites made Aadhaar card details public...!!!

UIDAI says 210 government websites made Aadhaar card details public

 PTI   New Delhi     Last Updated: November 19, 2017  | 13:24 IST

More than 200 central and state government websites publicly displayed details such as names and addresses of some Aadhaar beneficiaries, the Unique Identification Authority of India has said.

The Aadhaar issuing body added, in response to an RTI query, that it took note of the breach and got the data removed from those websites. It did not specify when the breach took place.

It said Aadhaar details have never been made public from/by UIDAI. "However, it was found that approximately 210 websites of central government, state government departments including educational institutes were displaying the list of beneficiaries along with their name, address, other details and Aadhaar numbers for information of general public," it said.

The UIDAI took note and got the Aadhaar data removed from the said websites, it said in reply to the RTI application.

UIDAI issues Aadhaar-a 12-digit unique identification number-which acts as a proof of identity and address anywhere in the country.

The central government is in the process of making Aadhaar mandatory for people to avail benefits of various social service schemes. "UIDAI has a well-designed, multi-layer approach robust security system in place and the same is being constantly upgraded to maintain highest level of data security and integrity," the RTI reply said.

The architecture of the Aadhaar ecosystem has been designed to ensure data security and privacy which is an integral part of the system from the initial design to the final stage, it said. "Various policies and procedures have been defined, these are reviewed and updated continually thereby appropriately controlling and monitoring any movement of people, material and data in and out of UIDAI premises, particularly the data centres," the UIDAI said.

It said security audits are conducted on a regular basis to further strengthen security and privacy of data. Besides this, all possible steps are taken to make the data safer and protected, the authority said.

http://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/uidai-says-210-government-websites-made-public-aadhaar-card-details/story/264358.html

The man who called a new bull market in 2012 says take your profits now

Piper Jaffray’s Craig Johnson thinks the stock market could correct by 20%

For the past 5½ years, no one has been as steadfastly bullish as Craig Johnson.

In August 2012, the chief market technician for Piper Jaffray called a new, long-term bull market for the stock market in which he said the S&P 500 SPX, +0.54% then trading around 1,400, could hit 2,000.

It was an outlandish prediction. Many of today’s most bullish investors were then on the sidelines, grumbling about government debt and the “phony” rally engineered by the Federal Reserve.

But the S&P has almost doubled since then. Whenever I checked in with Johnson over the years, he remained bullish, and recently predicted the S&P would hit 2,850 by the end of 2018.

But on Wednesday, this perennial bull put out a note to clients called “Entering the Danger Zone” in which he wrote: “We are raising cash in the model portfolio as 10-year bond yields are entering the danger-zone (2.60%-2.70% range)… We are concerned that the reversal of a 31-year downtrend in 10-year bond yields in the U.S… may spill over into stocks.”

“We believe this secular bull market will likely endure a healthy correction over the near-to-intermediate term.”

How “healthy”? Perhaps 20%, Johnson told me when I caught up with him late Wednesday.

“We think that, while the secular bull market is still going to be there, a potential setback or a very meaningful correction is starting to unfold,” he told MarketWatch.

Johnson explained that the S&P would have to correct between 3% and 4% to get back to its 50-day moving average and close to 10% to return to its 200-day moving average, two key indicators technicians use to measure short- and intermediate-term support for stock prices. “If you were to come back and retouch the highs of where you were back in 2015, you could be close to 20%,” he explained. That would drive the S&P down to around 2200, a painful 500-point-plus decline.

What’s causing his jitters is the rise in yields (and decline in price) of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.68% That has also gotten the attention of Bill Gross, now of Janus Henderson, who on Tuesday declared a new bear market in bonds had been confirmed.

“Gross is correct,” Johnson told me. “Just drawing that down trend resistance line off that 1981 high gets you right to about a 2.60%, 2.70% level.” A sustained move above that yield would break the 36-year down trend line (the 10-year note’s yield peaked at 15.8% in July 1981 and bottomed at 1.37% in July 2016) and thus the generational bull market in bonds—and low interest rates.

“You think about all the things that have changed in this financial market since 1981, and everything has been basically geared toward lower rates,” Johnson said. If it’s truly unwinding—and we’ve seen some spikes in 10-year yields in the past that have ultimately reversed themselves—that would be, Johnson said, “a big deal.”

Investors certainly haven’t priced in a big move up in interest rates. Complacency is high and volatility surreally subdued. Investors are taking one new high after another for granted.

“One out of every four trading sessions in 2017 was an all-time new high,” Johnson said.

That’s a jaw-dropping statistic.

Johnson thinks we’re just moving into the market’s euphoric stage. “There is euphoria, but it’s not off the charts,” he told me.

He still believes stocks will recover nicely after any selloff and go on to hit new highs.

But he thinks the rise in bond yields is so important that he’s advising clients to reduce exposure in their equity portfolios to 85% from 95%. That still sounds like a lot, but “this is the first time I’ve had this much cash in the model probably since 2008,” he told me.

This column was prematurely bearish as stocks soared throughout 2017 and into the new year. But I think caution is warranted in view of the frothy sentiment and the absence of any meaningful correction since February 2016.

Such a correction is long overdue, and if Johnson is right, it could be a doozy.

Howard R. Gold is a MarketWatch columnist and founder and editor of GoldenEgg Investing, which offers exclusive market commentary and simple, low-cost, low-risk retirement investing plans. 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-man-who-called-a-new-bull-market-in-2012-says-take-your-profits-now-2018-01-11

Top 10 global leaders: Big feat! PM Narendra Modi defeats Donald Trump, Xi Jinping in popularity

PM Narendra Modi had taken the world by storm when he won 2014 Lok Sabha elections and assumed charge of PM with an overwhelming majority.

Gallup International in its highly-regarded annual survey, Opinion of Global Leaders, PM Modi has been ranked third globally. 

PM Narendra Modi had taken the world by storm when he won 2014 Lok Sabha elections and assumed charge of PM with an overwhelming majority. And, there have been repeated proofs of it. World leaders ranging from Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Japan PM Shinzo Abe have termed him as a powerful man with a lot of influence. Gallup International in its highly-regarded annual survey, Opinion of Global Leaders, PM Modi has been ranked third globally. The ranking puts India’s PM ahead of the likes of China’s Xi Jinping, Putin, UK PM Theresa May, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu amongst others. The two world leaders who are the top are Angela Merkel and France’s newly elected PM Emmanuel Macron. Despite a domestic political set-back German Chancellor Angela Merkel ranks as the most popular leader polled, 49% hold a favourable view of her, up from 42% two years ago. She just beats the newcomer President Macron, who 45% hold a favourable view towards (compared with 42% who scored his predecessor President Francois Hollande favourably).

Here is the full list of top 10 Global leaders:

1- Angela Merkel

2- Emmanuel Macron

3- Narendra Modi

4- Theresa May

5- Xi Jinping

6- Vladimir Putin

7- Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud

8- Benjamin Netanyahu

9- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

10- Turkish President Erdogan

11- US President Donald Trump

12- Pope Francis

METHODOLOGY: The Gallup International End of Year Survey (EoY) is an annual tradition initiated by and designed under the chairmanship of Dr. George Gallup in 1977. It is conducted every year since then. This year it was carried out by the Gallup International Association in partnership with WIN in 55 countries around the world.

Sample Size and Mode of Field Work: A total of 53769 persons were interviewed globally. In each country a representative sample of around 1000 men and women was interviewed either face to face (23 countries; n=24235), via telephone (13 countries; n=11656) or online (19 countries; n=17878). The field work was conducted during October 2017 – December 2017. The margin of error for the survey is between +3-5% at 95% confidence level

Regions Coverage:

EU Total – combines EU West and EU East

EU West – Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland. Italy, Netherland, Spain, Sweden, UK

EU East – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia

Non-EU Europe – Albania, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine

Latin America – Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru

East Asia – Bangladesh, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam

West Asia – Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Turkey

Middle East – Iraq

http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/top-10-global-leaders-big-feat-pm-narendra-modi-defeats-donald-trump-xi-jinping-in-popularity-details-of-survey-here/1011207/