Stock Market
July 4, 2011
Not only that but with the loss of political power,Sun TV executives can no longer manage to intimidate the industry.The Sun TV COO Saxena was hauled off to jail in a cheating case filed by a film producer.Note this would have never happened in the earlier DMK regime as the police would have refused to even lodge a case let alone put Saxena in jail.Crony Capitalism is not without its dangers and betting on these stocks is not a great idea.The reason is that once the political party loses power which happens quite frequently in India then the businesses close to that party come under serious fire.Note Dayanidhi Maran is also facing the heat in the 2G Scam where he has been accused of amassing huge amounts of money by favoring close promoters.When he was the Telecom Minister the whole Sun TV group of companies used state telecom infrastructure for free.The whole lesson from this is that betting on stocks/companies close to the ruling party might not be a good idea.In fact opening an event driven hedge fund might be a good idea using power changes in crony capitalist democracies.Thanksin stocks are rallying Thailand today as his sister has won the elections.
July 3, 2011
olar Panel Manufacturers are present in most parts of the world with Korea,China,Taiwan,USA,Japan and Germany dominating.Solar Panels are of mainly 2 type – crystalline and thin film.Most of the solar panels produced today are of the crystalline type and are mostly used in residential rooftops.Thin film panels are mostly used in large ground solar power plants.Thin film solar panels are of lower efficiency and are lower priced as well.However falling costs of crystalline solar panels has led to their increasing dominance.
Solarworld AG
Germany till a couple of years was the home of the biggest solar panel manufacturers in the world.This was driven mainly by the German Renewable Energy Law (EEG) which is the most successful renewable energy subsidy in the world.The German Solar Market has become the biggest in the world for the last 2-3 years and an estimated 25 GW of solar panels would have been installed in Germany.Capitalizing on a large domestic market a number of solar companies like Q-Cells,Solarworld,Solon and others became the biggest in the world.
July 3, 2011
Photovoltaic Cells have grown tremendously in the last few years spurred on by lowering costs and high demand in European countries like Germany.Photovoltaic Cell Manufacturers have also increased particuarly in low labor cost regions of Asia like China and Taiwan.In fact most of the solar panels have solar cells from companies in Asia.Solar Cell Manufacturers have incresased their capacity at a fast pace to meet the increasing demand.Currently due to oversupply of Photovoltaic Cells,the prices of solar cells have crashed with top quality solar cell prices almost 50% down from that one year ago.This is one of the best times to install solar cell panels in your roof given the rapid decline in the cost.Most of the independent solar cell suppliers are from Taiwan and some from China.European solar cell producers have mostly disappeared due to the high cost base of the European factories.
July 3, 2011
What are High Efficiency Cells High Efficiency Solar Cells are those Solar Cells whose average efficiency of converting solar energy into electricity is in general much […]
July 2, 2011
Note corruption is nothing new for the Big 4 firms with another one PriceWaterhouseCoopers caught red handed in the massive billion dollar Satyam corruption scam.Two of the partners of PWC were sent to jail in the fraud which involved cooking the books for almost 8 years.Having a Big 4 auditor is a must for any well known big public company.However the reputation of these Big 4 continues to get besmirched with newer scandals.It does not take a rocket scientist to guess that bribes were involved as rules were circumvented and Corporation Bank top brass was also involved.Government Tenders are a massive hotspot of corruption as they are opaque and powers rest with a few.Lack of transparency results in massive embezzlement of taxpayer money.Corporation Bank.Note Relaince India's biggest company is facing an investigation along with the oil and gas regulator DGH.Recently LIC Housing Finance one of India's largest housing finance companies was involved in a scam as well alongwith top official form other PSU Banks for taking bribes.This resulted in a massive stock price fall for a number of these companies.Expect Corporation Bank stock to take a similar dive hurting the shareholders.Investing in the Indian stock market has become more dangerous than ever where a corruption scam hides under every stone.Government companies which are considered safer by investors too are being proved problematic with PSU CEOs now being jailed for scams.India's largest aluminum company NALCO CEO has been jailed for accepting gold bricks in bribes
July 2, 2011
Vestas has been getting bigger orders and has been streamlining operations,however its stock price has continued to go down as investors see bleak future prospects wit hthe entry of Korean shipbuilders into the industry.Other heavyweights like Gamesa and Suzlon too have faced massive losses as margins have evaporated in the face of declining topline and prices.But now Vestas has got a lifeline from the renewable energy subsidiary of the French giant utility EDF.The order from is for 2000 MW of Wind Turbines over the next few years.While pricing was not disclosed,it would be certainly be at a discount to the normally premium prices charged by Vestas.This given order visibility to Vestas and provides price safety for EDF.The next frontier for Wind Energy Companies is going to be Offshore Wind and Siemens has stolen a march.Vestas is not going down without a fight recently introducing a 7 MW wind turbine for this segment
July 1, 2011
Australia has seen a big increase in solar panel installations due to generous subsidies given by individual states in Australia like New South Wales and others.Unlike other parts of the world where solar installations have started with large solar farms,residential rooftop installations have powered Solar Energy in Australia.The sharp growth in solar power has attracted most of the largest solar panel manufacturers in the world like Suntech, Canadian, REC, Kyocera, Sharp, Sanyo, Yingli, Suntech, Trina Solar and others.The major Solar Panel Suppliers in Australia are foreign manufacturers as Australia does not have a local content policy to promote manufacturing of solar cells or solar panels.Only a few handful of companies have manufacturing operations in the country.Almost all of the solar panels sold in Australia are imported.
June 30, 2011
Note Indian ministries and regulators have been found to be massively corrupt with the 2G Telecom Scandal facing the glare from the Supreme Court .Huge loss has been caused by ministers,corporate CEOs and various politicians a number of which are in jail right now.The CAG report had said that Reliance had doubled its cost in the KG-6 Basin leading to a huge loss for the Indian government.A number of other lapses (intentional) has been found by the DGH and the Ministry each time favoring the private oil and gas companies in India.Now the CBI has filed a case of corruption against the the former chief of the DGH V K Sibal for scuttling a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for showing undue favors to the private companies.Note India has been stuck by a number of scams in the stock market pertaining to mid cap and small caps.This has led to huge losses for investors with some companies like Reliance Telecom,Unitech having over 90% of their share values eroded.Reliance the biggest Indian company by market capitalization might be facing the same fate if the investigative agencies and the courts do their jobs.
June 30, 2011
Wind Power in India has been growing at a rapid pace making India the 5th largest global market for wind energy despite limited resources of wind energy.India Wind Power Plants are all set to grow with the entry of new wind power developers like Metal Traders MMTC and Ushudeve International.Note MMTC is the state owned metal trading giant while Ushudev is the 3rd largest private sector trader in metals after Adani and Surana Groups.New Wind Farm Developers like Caparo,Greenko,Genting,Techno Electric have already put agressive wind expansion plans in place.Now MMTC and Ushudev have joined the wind party as the economics of wind energy look enticing given the massive shortage of energy and the incentives given the government like GBI,Tax Breaks etc.
June 28, 2011
Proprietary Trading by Foreign Banks and Brokerages has been allowed by the Finance Ministry overruling India's Central Bank RBI.There seems to be no logical reason given by the Ministry despite RBI objecting saying that it will affect the financial stability and lead to increased speculation in the Indian stock markets.Note Properietary Trading refers to trading in financial assets by investment banks using their money and has come under the regulatory glare in the US.Huge conflicts of interest arise due to this practise as brokerages can indulge in front running and other unethical and illegal acts.Already major investment banks like Goldman have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars over improper trading acts.Proprietary Trading encourages brokerages to mislead and defraud customers as they are generally on the other side of the trades and advising them as well.
June 24, 2011
The Nifty Trading Tip Industry is filled with innumerable websites,scamsters who are trying to make a quick buck of gullible retail investors.Almost all Indian websites are filled with text and print display ads in which websites offer you hundreds of percent returns on your money by providing you daily tips on the Nifty.You are bombarded with ads and even the Google home page contains ads by these scamsters.Note earning ANY MONEY through day trading is a tough task let alone 100% or more.The fraudsters provide you tips not based on any commissions but using a monthly rental.Note these websites have no business model except scamming for they have no costs except for marketing and spending.If they manage to snare even a single subscriber its a pure Rs 3000 profit .
June 23, 2011
GoldPoly,SunOasis,China Technology Development Group Corplto invest $10 billion in European Solar Projects using Financing from China Development Bank and Merchants Bank.Note these 3 companies have integrated facilities from processing of polysilicon into wafers to making solar panels.Its the first time that 3 Chinese companies have combined to promote such a massive project.The 3 companies are not listed in the US stock or HK stock exchange unlike other major Chinese solar companies like Trina,GCL,Suntech,LDK and others.Note China Development Bank (CDB) which is owned by the Chinese government has already extended billions of dollars in credit to Chinese solar panel companies like JA Solar,LDK and others.
June 23, 2011
Solar Industry Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have picked up pace in recent times with a number of companies in distress with supply exceeding demand as Italy suddenly changed its solar subsidy policy in April 2011.With high inventory levels and prices crashing only the biggest and best solar panel manufacturers are managing to thrive.Note the Solar PV Industry has not seen too much M&A unlike the Solar Thermal Industry which has always been a hot area for M&A activity as giant industrial groups like Siemens,Areva,Alstom and GE have bought startups to improve their technology offerings.With the Solar PV industry having crossed more than $50 billion mark in 2010,more and more MNC conglomerates have now starting buying solar companies at cheap valuations.Here is a list of the recent buyouts,stake buys and mergers in the Solar PV Industry that have taken place recently.
June 21, 2011
Now India's Largest Company Reliance too has seen its stock fall to a post Lehman low on concerns that it has colluded with the Oil Regulator and Ministry to gold plate its costs in the KG 6 Gas concession.Reliance is India's biggest oil and gas company with interests throughout the supply chain.Note its nothing new as Reliance has always been known to be the most powerful corporate in India .However with the government's own auditing department CAG raising allegations of collusion and corruption,Reliance too may find itself snared in the corruption scandal.Note the infamous Nira Radia tapes had ample proof of how the powerful Reliance group manages the appointment of its favored persons in key federal ministries.The company must now by hoping that the Supreme Court which is already preoccupied with a ton of corruption cases does not take a keen interest and gets the CBI to investigate the allegations.
June 20, 2011
The Indian Stock Market saw a flash crash on the morning of 20th June at 10 am.The market which started weak at 9 am fell by almost 3% in 10 minutes.The main index Nifty which was trading at around 5350 crashed to around 5200 in around 10 minutes.The market recovery by 1% but is again starting to go down to the low levels fo 5200 .Note the Indian stock market has been hammered due to worries on inflation,massive endemic corruption which is facing protests from the civil society.The FIIs which are the main buyers of Indian equities in the last year or so seem to have abandoned the Indian stocks as QE2 starts ending and global risks like Greece,US slowdown,inflation and interest rates worries in emerging markets come to the fore.Note Indian stock markets are not the easiest to invest in with scams and scandals happening regularly and it at best remains a market in which you have to choose between the bad and the ugly.
June 1, 2011
Wind Power in India has shown sharp growth in 2010 and looks to have a bright future with a number of wind farm developers investing aggressively to expand capacity.Wind Turbine Companies have also been putting up factories in India to catch a slice of the world's fifth largest wind energy market.Even Chinese companies like Dongfang and Shanghai Electric have managed to win contracts from power companies like KSK Energy.Greenko one of the first Green Utilities in India is raising funds to put even more wind turbines in India while Caparo has the biggest expansion plans in place.CLP which is the largest wind energy capacity owner in India too is plowing ahead with plans to add to the wind capacity.The most surprising entry is by Malaysian casino developer Genting which has raised debt from HSBC to put up a 92 MW Wind Farm in India.
May 31, 2011
India and China are largely dependent on Coal for fueling a majority of their energy needs despite the evident disadvantages of coal.China derives almost 80% of its electricity from coal while India uses Coal for 50% of its Energy Needs.Most of the new power plants being built in India have plans to use thermal power which means that the coal demand is going to skyrocket even as these 2 Asian giants are already suffering from coal shortages.India's Coal Production is falling short as the Environment Ministry makes it tough for the coal miners to dig up virgin forest areas even as private Indian power companies keep on building gargantuan thermal power plants of more than 4,000 MW capacity.Most Indian companies are now racing to acquire coal mines abroad joining the Chinese companies.Seeing the massive potential in coal,international resource giants such as Rio Tinto and others are trying to access coal assets as well.
May 31, 2011
Japanese Nuclear Giant Toshiba which is the second largest seller of complex nuclear equipment globally is looking to shift its focus towards Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.The company is already facing delays in shipping nuclear reactors to customers as the Fukushima Disaster makes governments around the world rethink their nuclear power ambitions.The Nuclear Energy Disadvantages are winning over the Advantages currently in public sentiment.Toshiba which acquired US Westinghouse has a target of selling 39 nuclear reactors which is getting delayed.With advanced nuclear power countries like Germany,Switzerland and Japan killing nuclear energy,the going looks tough for Toshiba.The company was already facing tough competition from the GE-Hitachi and Areva as well as new players from South Korea and China in the nuclear equipment market.
May 31, 2011
Indian equity investing through offshore funds might not be the best idea as these funds have underperformed the benchmarks by putting too much weight on infrastructure and capital goods sector.Note lured by the $500 billion investment target for Indian infrastructure,an Indian infra ETF INXX was also launched at a ludicrous valuation.However the endemic corruption in India with scams related to major infrastructure sectors like Real Estate,Telecom popping up everyday,its not a surprise that the stocks have tanked.Note investing in the Indian stocks markets is hazardous with issues like insider trading,pump and dump schemes quite rampant.The risks of corruption are huge and even top asset managers like Goldman,GMO have become victims of fly by night operators just like a simple retail investor.
May 31, 2011
According to the Financial Express, a top US Thin Film Based module manufacturer is exploring the possibility of setting up a facility in Tamil Nadu with an investment of $500 million (approximately R2,255 crore) in the coming months.Note the sources have not revealed the name of the company but it is evident from the investment amount,solar technology that the company is First Solar.A a top level team from the company is expected to visit sometime early next week to initiate discussions with the state government officials.Note First Solar has been emphasizing the importance of India for its growth aiming to supply 100 MW of solar panels in 2011 itself which would make it a leader in the Indian solar industry.Other top solar panel companies like Suntech and Trina too have been investing heavily in selling their solar panels in India through partnerships with local companies.
May 30, 2011
Coal has become the hottest energy topic in the world’s fastest growing economies India and China which depend on Coal for a majority of their Energy […]
May 28, 2011
SEBI has been strangely and inexplicably absent from its role of supervising the primary market in India despite a stream of pump and dump IPO by small disreputable promoters and investment bankers.Most of these IPOs have no fundamentals to justify lofty valuations and without the role of market operators and investment bankers have no hope in hell of getting subscribed.Its a scary gambling scheme in which retail investors put money only with the hope of getting out on the first day with probably listing gains.There is no way that an investor can make money in these issues in the long term.However the shenanigans of the promoters and bankers have gone unpunished leading to more and more of these junk IPOs getting into the stock market everyday.This only brings a bad name to Indian stock markets where manipulation can happen so brazenly and openly and pushes away genuine investors away from equities.SEBI has been recently been trying to get more retail investors into the stock market however it seems mere words as it does not take action on open corruption.
May 12, 2011
The Chinese Wind Industry has around 80 wind turbine companies many of which are quite small and don't' have the money and expertise to compete in the international markets.Though the Chinese dominate the top global wind turbine companies list with 7 of the top 15 WTG companies Chinese,many are not competitive.Sinovel which has become the largest wind turbine company has recently canceled order for Electrical Control Systems from American Superconductor citing high inventory.Other Wind Turbine companies are in even more trouble as the industry suffers from huge overcapacity.The Chinese Wind Capacity has grown at 100% CAGR to reach 18 GW in 2010.However this strong growth has led to saturation of the wind market and price wars are being seen in China.Exports to other countries have been difficult as the cost of transportation of Wind Turbines is high.Besides Chinese Wind Companies don't possess strong technology and quality unlike established ones like Vestas,Gamesa,GE and Siemens.Though Dongfang and Shanghai Electric have managed to win some Turbine Orders in India,the export percentage is negligible.Wind Power in India too has reached a stable growth level and a number of wind companes in India are fighting for marketshare as well.
May 8, 2011
Note the stock fell before it announced the results after the close of the markets which means that insider trading had take n place.The volumes at 10 times certainly seems to hint so as the JP Morgan downgrade of the stock could not have led to such a big fall in which there are a large number of foreign and domestic funds as investors.Besides its problems in Andhra Pradesh are hardly new and Indian brokers hardly that good that their reports cause such big stock price movements.Like other SEBI probes expect this one to fail or result in a small penatly which will not deter more such white collar fraunds in the Indian Stock Market.Insider Trading in India is quite widespread with some of the biggest business groups having been fined by SEBI like ADAG etc.
May 7, 2011
India's Power Sector is seeing massive investments with innumerable business groups setting up thermal power plants in the country spurred by the electricity deficit of more than 15% and the GDP growth of more than 8% expected in the next decade.India's private power companies are competing with each other in setting up massive ultra mega thermal power plants of 4 GW capacity.However India's pathetic state of electricity distribution may lead to huge losses for the investors in the power sector.The reason is that the electricity distribution is controlled by the state utilities which have cumulative losses of $13 billion which is expected to double to $26 billion in another 5 years.These "discoms' don't have money to pay the private producers of power even with an electricity deficit.With India's electricity market a tangle of red tape,losses and government control the situation looks bleak for all the business groups deciding to enter the power sector.
May 7, 2011
Investing in the Indian Stock Markets is like navigating your way through a minefield with innumerable instances of fraud,unethical actions and disregarding the interest of the retail investor.The SEBI which is India's stock market regulator remains mostly toothless and a blind spectator to the whole stock market fraud schemes like pump and dump.Most of the IPO's that come in the Indian markets are blatantly manipulated by the market operators,promoters and shady investment bankers.However SEBI has not taken any action so far which would make one speculate that the regulator is itself compromised.The pump and dump schemes continue unabated in the market which remains quite shallow despite the more than one trillion dollar capitalization.Mid cap and small cap corruptions scams happen with alarming regularity and even top MNCs defraud the retail investors using legal loopholes.
May 6, 2011
China has been rewriting its renewable energy plan in the wake of the Fukushima Nuclear Energy Disaster in Japan.Note there has been a strong global backlash against nuclear energy around the world and 7 nuclear plants in Germany have been closed all but in name.Other countries like South Korea,Italy,Switzerland are rethinking of what do about their nuclear reactors giving the massive tail risks with nuclear generation.China had a target of only 20 GW of solar by 2020 has decided to raise the target by 150% to 50 GW according to the country's leading energy planning authority NRDC.Note China installed more than 15 GW of Wind Energy in 2010 alone becoming the world’s largest Wind Energy Market by far.Solar Energy strongly lags Wind in China despite China having the biggest solar panel manufacturing industry in the world.Its Golden Sun and other Solar Subsidy programs have been small in absolute terms compared to its huge electricity capacity.
May 3, 2011
Coal M&A is picking up at a feverish pace as the demand and price of coal shoot through the roof.Note Coal is the cheapest fossil fuel and powers most of the world's power plants despite its disadvantages.The abundance and cheapness of coal has managed to hide its deleterious effects.Indian and Chinese companies are gobbling up coal mines and companies globally as they rush to secure raw material for the growing thermal power plant capacity.The Adani Group is one of the leading Indian private power companies setting up gigawatts of new thermal power plant capacity.Mundhra Port the Adani Flagship has been buying up coal plants,ports and building power plants to vertically integrate itself in the whole coal supply chain.It recently bought the Australian Linnc Energy's Gaililee coal project for USD 2.7 billion.It has followed it up by buying Abbot Point Coal Terminal from the Queensland state of Australia for 1.8 billion Australian dollars.
May 3, 2011
India's Central Bank has been steadily raising interest rates in 25 bps increments as inflation has raged at more the double digits for more than a year.However it has not stopped the inflation from coming down as high commodity prices keep the inflation at 9% which is much more than the target of 3-5% inflation rates.With Bernake money printing fueling oil and food prices globally,it looked unlikely that RBI's timid measure would bring the inflation down anytime soon.So this time the Central Bank has thrown the kitchen sink at the problem raising the interest rates by 50 bps to 7.25% which is much more than what the market was expecting.The Central Bank also raised the interest rate on savings rate from 3.25% to 4% which was not expected by anyone.Note the low interest rate on savings bank had been a huge money spinner to top Indian banks which have large deposits of this low interest rate savings deposits.
May 2, 2011
Arch Coal is the 3rd largest Coal Company in the USA. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Company sold approximately 126.1 million tons of coal and operated 19 active mines at 11 mining complexes located in the United States. On October 1, 2009, the Company acquired Rio Tinto’s Jacobs Ranch mine with 345 million tons of coal reserves and integrated it into the Black Thunder mine.International Coal on the other hand is a small producer with a market cap of $2.2 billion previously which has managed a nearly 50% premium.Market Cap of $2.2 Billion is a producer of coal in Northern and Central Appalachia .As of December 31, 2009, the Company operated a total of 11 surface and 11 underground coal mines located in Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Illinois.The Company’s mines in Central Appalachia produced 10.1 million tons of coal in 2009, and the mines in Northern Appalachia produced 3.9 million tons of coal in 2009.