The big story of the day is the dramatic fall of Dow Jones which shed about a 1,000 points before recovering, and closing just 347 points down. The WSJ has this on the subject (emphasis mine):
At its afternoon low the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down almost 1,000 points, hurt by sharp drops in Procter & Gamble, 3M and other companies that traders said were subject to heavy selling by so-called black boxes, or automated trading systems.
U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday afternoon in a furious selloff accelerated by automated orders and possible erroneous trades.
Several market watchers said they heard a major firm may have accidentally released an errant program, where a trader accidentally placed an order to sell $16 billion, instead of $16 million, worth of e-minis, the futures contracts tied to equity indexes.
I had no idea such a thing was even possible. I hope we get to know the real reasons behind this because drops like these are quite scary, and even more, if human errors and computer programs cause them.
I wrote about the IDBI Nifty Index Fund yesterday and thought I should start making a list of all Index mutual funds in India. I started with Index mutual funds tracking the Nifty simply because that is where I left yesterday. So, here is a list of all the Nifty Index Mutual Funds that I could find.
I have taken all the numbers from Value Research, and that link will also you the entire list of all index funds in India along with their launch date, rating, risk grade and other cool stuff.
Notice that all funds trail Nifty itself because they have to incur costs, and keep some cash in reserves for redemptions and such.
Index Fund
1 Year Returns
Expense Ratio
Quantum Index
40.45
0.75
Franklin India NSE Nifty
40.42
1
ICICI Pru Index Fund Retail
39.93
1.5
Magnum Index
39.92
1.5
Nifty Benchmark ETS
39.82
0.5
Canara Robeco Nifty Index
39.7
1
Tata Index Nifty A
39.7
1.5
UTI Nifty Index
39.64
1.5
Principal Index
39.53
0.79
Birla Sun Life Index
39.52
1.5
HDFC Index Nifty
37.27
1
LIC MF Index Nifty
36.23
1.23
IDFC Nifty
–
–
Kotak Nifty ETF
–
0.5
IDBI Nifty Index Fund
–
1.5
Nifty
42.93
Index Fund   1 Year Returns   Expense Ratio
Quantum Index   40.45   0.75
Franklin India NSE Nifty   40.42   1
ICICI Pru Index Fund Retail   39.93   1.5
Magnum Index   39.92   1.5
Nifty Benchmark ETSÂ Â Â 39.82Â Â Â 0.5
Canara Robeco Nifty Index   39.7   1
Tata Index Nifty AÂ Â Â 39.7Â Â Â 1.5
UTI Nifty Index   39.64   1.5
Principal Index   39.53   0.79
Birla Sun Life Index   39.52   1.5
HDFC Index Nifty   37.27   1
LIC MF Index Nifty   36.23   1.23
IDFC Nifty   -   –
Kotak Nifty ETFÂ Â Â -Â Â Â 0.5
IDBI Nifty Index Fund   -   1.5
Nifty      42.93
IDBI opened up its NFO for the IDBI Nifty Index fund today. This is a passive index mutual fund, which means that the fund manager will not try to actively manage returns, but rather invest in stocks in a proportion that resembles the S&P CNX Nifty, and then track the Nifty as closely as possible.
There is a growth and dividend option under this scheme, and the default option is growth. So, if you don’t specify that you want the dividend plan, then your investment will be treated as if it was under the growth plan.
I have stressed the importance of expenses paid on mutual funds and ETFs several times, so I was naturally curious to know what the expenses of this fund is going to be, and how they compare to other index mutual funds in the same category. This index fund will charge recurring expenses up to 1.5% of weekly average net assets, which is just slightly higher than what comparable funds offer. There are other funds from Franklin and HDFC (among others) that incur lower expenses. When you think about a index mutual fund – expenses are key because the composition of two funds tracking the same index should be quite similar, and the returns should also be similar.
The only difference should be due to how they manage their cash, and expenses. And lower the expenses – the better it is for you.
This new fund offer will close on the 31st May, and will re-open on the 30th June, so if you invest in the NFO – you should keep the 30th June date in mind because that is when the fund will re-open, and you can track it using a portfolio tool.
In view of the concerns raised by another regulator, the Exchange in consultation with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has deferred the launch till further notice.
One of the most common emails I get is folks inquiring about investing in the Tata Motors Fixed Deposit Scheme. I have a more or less standard response that I type out every time, and each time I think that I will save it in a notepad, and use it next time, but somehow I never get to it.
Today I discovered a much more efficient way of doing this, and I want to share the video which taught me this. This video is from Amy Andrews who runs Blogging with Amy, and she lists out the steps to create a canned response in Gmail. This is a Labs feature, and I have a feeling a lot of people like me need this type of a thing. I came across this video on Problogger.
My sister recently started a blog, and I wanted to gift her a book on writing – Elements of Style. I have read this myself, and find it to be an excellent resource for anyone interested in improving their writing skills. I wondered how I could buy books in India online because I have never done this earlier, and this post is a summary of results I found.
There are several websites that sells books online in India, and the point of this post is to tell you where you can buy books online in India, and I will list down the options I came across.
First, Amazon sells this book for $7.95, which is ~Rs.350, so that is the reference price as I start my hunt. Let’s see if I get something close to that price or not.
Buy books in India online
1. Rediff Books: The first site I discovered was Rediff Books. I was able to find this book easily on this site, and there were three different options of these. The top result was the hardcover, which was priced at Rs.2,831, which is clearly way outside the range I am looking at. They have paperback editions as well, some of which are imported, and priced at a very reasonable Rs. 191 too; only problem – they will take 45 business days to ship! No, I did not make a typo – it really says 45 business days to ship!
Since this is a family blog – I will not get into what I feel about 45 business days to ship, and move to the third option. The third option was also a paperback edition, priced at Rs. 499, but it will ship at a more reasonable 4 business days. So far, this is the most reasonable option I see. But, I am not entirely satisfied, so I will try and hunt some more sites.
2. NBC India: Next, I went to the site of NBC India, and found the book there too. They had a list price on the paperback edition of Rs.366, and the picture of the book was exactly like the one I have. The price and picture pleased me quite a bit, but the results page didn’t show me the shipping days. I added it to the cart and went as far as payment options, but it didn’t show me how long it will take to ship, which is quite ridiculous. So, I dropped this option, and went off in search of another website.
3. India Plaza:India Plaza was the next website I saw, and this book was listed at Rs.149 there. That particular edition was Trade Paper, which sounded like a slightly inferior version of a Paperback. This one shipped in 16 business days, and that didn’t fit the bill for me. They had paperback editions listed for Rs. 582, but that also shipped in 16 business days. There was an illustrated version for Rs. 718 that shipped in 3 days.
So far, Rediff Books is looking like the best option.
4. Flip Kart: I have heard of Flip Kart before, but never actually used it. They had this book listed at Rs. 175, and they say it will ship in 4 – 6 business days. This is a paperback edition that was printed in 2006, and this option looks quite promising.
5. Penguin Books:Penguin Books also have a website that looked promising to me, but it turned out to be hopeless. I tried searching the book in their Search box, but it told me that I had to use a category first. Then I chose the category as “Title”, and it told me that it couldn’t find a result. They have a long way to go in terms of selling books online, and I’d be surprised if they are currently doing well in this space.
6. eBay India:eBay India also has this book listed for Rs. 653 in the buy now option. This is clearly higher than the two good options I already have, so I am not going to explore this any further.
7. A1 Books: I found this book in another lesser known website – A1 Books, which has this priced for Rs. 449, and ships it within 4 days. This looks like a decent option, but I clearly have better options at this point in time.
8. Amazon.com: I just realized that I didn’t mention that Amazon.com also ships books to India. They charge $4.99 to ship, and say that it can take anywhere from 18 to 31 business days.
After going through all these options, I felt that the Flip Kart option is the best one, and went ahead and ordered the book. I hope it reaches within the stated time, and is in good condition. If something is amiss, then I will update this post with that info as well.
Doing this kind of side by side comparison helped me quite a bit, and I know that in future I will only have to look at two or three websites to find out the best option. I hope you find this research useful too, and I’d be happy to hear your thoughts about buying books in India online. Has anyone done this before, and what has your experience been?
While we are on the subject, let me share this video where Bill Clinton talks a little about this issue at a macro level. It is about 5 minutes, and very well worth your time.
On to something more actionable now – I found this useful article at Digital Inspiration about keyboard shortcuts for the iPhone, and I have been using #2 and 10 a lot since I discovered it.
Barry Ritholtz takes a look at the big picture. This is one of the best macro overviews I have read for some time.
The Digerati Life shares tips for easy credit card management. I feel that using credit cards simplify life a great deal, and instead of trying to run away fro them, we should try to master their use.
What trust brings to Amazon, Zappos and USAA: Very interesting article on Harvard Business Review that talks about how good things happen to companies that trust their customers.
SEBI has released a guide to understanding IPOs, and I think this is a good start for investors interested in IPOs. Don’t expect too much insight, but as I said – it is a good start.
Let me end this post with this awesome joke I found at FT Alphaville.
Heaven is a place where the police are English; the chefs are Italian; the car mechanics are German; the lovers are French and it’s all organized by the Swiss. Hell is a place where the police are German; the chefs are English; the car mechanics are French; the lovers are Swiss and it’s all organized by the Italians.
