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COVER STORY
Interest Rate Futures: The Second Coming
-- D Satish
Interest Rate Futures (IRF) have recently made a second coming on the Indian Bourses. These
financial instruments, which made a debut in 2003, failed to takeoff due to design, pricing and regulatory
flaws. The reintroduction was done after taking into consideration the recommendations of a high
powered committee. While the initial response has been encouraging, there is still a long way to go.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
COVER STORY
Interest Rate Futures: A Charm Redeveloped!
-- Amar Ranu
Since the liberalization of Indian economy in 1991, there have been many financial reforms
and innovations in the capital markets. Introduction of currency futures was seen as the first step
towards achieving the full rupee convertibility. The latest salvo in the fire is the re-introduction of Interest
Rate Futures (IRFs) which heralds a new era in the derivatives markets. Besides helping the primary dealers
to better manage the risks, IRFs would bring in greater transparency and improve liquidity in debt markets.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
EQUITY
Delisting of Equity Shares
-- Payel Jain and Anushree Agarwal
The market regulator, SEBI, recently issued guidelines to be followed by a company for delisting its
shares from a stock exchange. The regulations, whilst retaining the basic framework of the earlier
guidelines, have provided more clarity on the procedures involved in delisting of equity shares.
© 2009 Payel Jain and Anushree Agarwal. All Rights Reserved.
MUTUAL FUNDS
Demystifying Arbitrage Funds
-- Ashish Pai
One of the categories of mutual funds that has performed well in this current equity market meltdown
is the arbitrage funds. Arbitrage funds are becoming popular among the investors because of their low
risk characteristics and are generating returns higher than that of liquid and short-term debt funds.
Also, these schemes enjoy tax benefits like equity funds.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
MUTUAL FUNDS
Advance Age Wise Assets Allocation Method
-- Nikhil Srivastava
The basic decision in asset allocation is to determine the weightage of debt and equity in a portfolio.
The asset class chosen and debt equity mix depends on the age of the person and life expectancy. This
article discusses the pattern of asset allocation to be followed according to one's age.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
INVESTMENT
India and Islamic Investments: Striking Synergies for Inclusive Growth in India
-- Sumeet Gupta and AK Mohapatra
Although the concept of Islamic banking emerged about 15-20 years back, it has caught on only in
the past three to four years. India has a huge market potential for Islamic banking given the fact that
the country has a very huge Muslim population. However, there exist numerous economic and
legal challenges for the expansion of this system in India.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
INDUSTRY
Financial Tsunami
-- Manju Gupta
Beginning as a subprime crisis in early 2007, the imprudent easing of the US lending norms,
lax regulations, innovative and complex derivative products and extreme over-leveraging by giant
US Investment Banks gradually led to a financial tsunami with wide-ranging effects on the housing
market, the economy and the financial sector not only in the US, but in the markets the world over. This
article traces how the financial tsunami `struck' the US markets and the response of the government to
the crisis.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Gold ETF
-- VDMV Lakshmi and Nimit Agarwal
Gold is continuing to make historic highs even after signs of global economic recovery. The reason for
the same can be the inflationary expectations due to the expansionary fiscal and monetary policies.
Further, gold is also perceived to be an excellent tool for portfolio diversification.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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