Accounting Definations - 6

SEBI and its role: The SEBI is the regulatory authority established under Section 3 of SEBI Act 1992 to protect the interests of the investors in securities and to promote the development of, and to regulate, the securities market and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.

 Portfolio: A portfolio is a combination of investment assets mixed and matched for the purpose of investor’s goal.

Market Capitalization: The market value of a quoted company, which is calculated by multiplying its current share price (market price) by the number of shares in issue, is called as market capitalization.

Book Building Process: It is basically a process used in IPOs for efficient price discovery. It is a mechanism where, during the period for which the IPO is open, bids are collected from investors at various prices, which are above or equal to the floor price. The offer price is determined after the bid closing date.

Cut off Price: In Book building issue, the issuer is required to indicate either the price band or a floor price in the red herring prospectus. The actual discovered issue price can be any price in the price band or any price above the floor price. This issue price is called “Cut off price”. This is decided by the issuer and LM after considering the book and investors’ appetite for the stock. SEBI (DIP) guidelines permit only retail individual investors to have an option of applying at cut off price.

Blue-chip Stock: Stock of a recognized, well established and financially sound company.

Penny Stock: Penny stocks are any stock that trades at very low prices, but subject to extremely high risk.

Debentures: Companies raise substantial amount of long-term funds through the issue of debentures. The amount to be raised by way of loan from the public is divided into small units called debentures. Debenture may be defined as written instrument acknowledging a debt issued under the seal of company containing provisions regarding the payment of interest, repayment of principal sum, and charge on the assets of the company etc…

Large Cap / Big Cap:   Companies having a large market capitalization

For example, In US companies with market capitalization between $10 billion and $20 billion, and in the Indian context companies market capitalization of above Rs. 1000 crore are considered large caps.

Mid Cap: Companies having a mid sized market capitalization, for example, In US companies with market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion, and in the Indian context companies market capitalization between Rs. 500 crore to Rs. 1000 crore are considered mid caps.

Small Cap: Refers to stocks with a relatively small market capitalization, i.e. less than $2 billion in US or less than Rs.500 crore in India.

Holding Company: A holding company is one which controls one or more companies either by holding shares in that company or companies are having power to appoint the directors of those company     

The company controlled by holding company is known as the Subsidiary Company.

Consolidated Balance Sheet: It is the b/s of the holding company and its subsidiary company taken together.

Partnership act 1932: Partnership means an association between two or more persons who agree to carry the business and to share profits and losses arising from it. 20 members in ordinary trade and 10 in banking business

IPO: First time when a company announces its shares to the public is called as an IPO. (Initial Public Offer)

A Further public offering (FPO): It is when an already listed company makes either a fresh issue of securities to the public or an offer for sale to the public, through an offer document. An offer for sale in such scenario is allowed only if it is made to satisfy listing or continuous listing obligations.

Rights Issue (RI): It is when a listed company which proposes to issue fresh securities to its shareholders as on a record date. The rights are normally offered in a particular ratio to the number of securities held prior to the issue.

Preferential Issue: It is an issue of shares or of convertible securities by listed companies to a select group of persons under sec.81 of the Indian companies’ act, 1956 which is neither a rights issue nor a public issue. This is a faster way for a company to raise equity capital.

Index: An index shows how specified portfolios of share prices are moving in order to give an indication of market trends. It is a basket of securities and the average price movement of the basket of securities indicates the index movement, whether upward or downwards.

Dematerialization: It is the process by which physical certificates of an investor are converted to an equivalent number of securities in electronic form and credited to the investor’s account with his depository participant.

Bull and Bear Market: Bull market is where the prices go up and Bear market where the prices come down.

Exchange Rate: It is a rate at which the currencies are bought and sold.

FOREX: The Foreign Exchange Market is the place where currencies are traded. The overall FOREX markets is the largest, most liquid market in the world with an average traded value that exceeds $ 1.9 trillion per day and includes all of the currencies in the world. It is open 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Mutual Fund: A mutual fund is a pool of money, collected from investors, and invested according to certain investment objectives.

Asset Management Company (AMC): A company set up under Indian company’s act, 1956 primarily for performing as the investment manager of mutual funds. It makes investment decisions and manages mutual funds in accordance with the scheme objectives, deed of trust and provisions of the investment management agreement.

Back-End Load: A kind of sales charge incurred when investors redeem or sell shares of a fund.

Front-End Load: A kind of sales charge that is paid before any amount gets invested into the mutual fund.

Off Shore Funds: The funds setup abroad to channalise foreign investment in the domestic capital markets.

Under Writer: The organization that acts as the distributor of mutual funds share to broker or dealers and investors.

Registrar: The institution that maintains a registry of shareholders of a fund and their share ownership. Normally the registrar also distributes dividends and provides periodic statements to shareholders.

Trustee: A person or a group of persons having an overall supervisory authority over the fund managers. Bid (or Redemption) Price: In newspaper listings, the pre-share price that a fund will pay its shareholders when they sell back shares of a fund, usually the same as the net asset value of the fund.

Schemes according to Maturity Period:

A mutual fund scheme can be classified into open-ended scheme or close-ended scheme depending on its maturity period.

Open-ended Fund/ Scheme

An open-ended fund or scheme is one that is available for subscription and repurchase on a continuous basis. These schemes do not have a fixed maturity period. Investors can conveniently buy and sell units at Net Asset Value (NAV) related prices which are declared on a daily basis. The key feature of open-end schemes is liquidity.

Close-ended Fund/ Scheme

A close-ended fund or scheme has a stipulated maturity period e.g. 5-7 years. The fund is open for subscription only during a specified period at the time of launch of the scheme. Investors can invest in the scheme at the time of the initial public issue and thereafter they can buy or sell the units of the scheme on the stock exchanges where the units are listed. In order to provide an exit route to the investors, some close-ended funds give an option of selling back the units to the mutual fund through periodic repurchase at NAV related prices. SEBI Regulations stipulate that at least one of the two exit routes is provided to the investor i.e. either repurchase facility or through listing on stock exchanges. These mutual funds schemes disclose NAV generally on weekly basis.

Schemes according to Investment Objective:

A scheme can also be classified as growth scheme, income scheme, or balanced scheme considering its investment objective. Such schemes may be open-ended or close-ended schemes as described earlier. Such schemes may be classified mainly as follows:

Growth / Equity Oriented Scheme

The aim of growth funds is to provide capital appreciation over the medium to long- term. Such schemes normally invest a major part of their corpus in equities. Such funds have comparatively high risks. These schemes provide different options to the investors like dividend option, capital appreciation, etc. and the investors may choose an option depending on their preferences. The investors must indicate the option in the application form. The mutual funds also allow the investors to change the options at a later date. Growth schemes are good for investors having a long-term outlook seeking appreciation over a period of time.

Income / Debt Oriented Scheme

The aim of income funds is to provide regular and steady income to investors. Such schemes generally invest in fixed income securities such as bonds, corporate debentures, Government securities and money market instruments. Such funds are less risky compared to equity schemes. These funds are not affected because of fluctuations in equity markets. However, opportunities of capital appreciation are also limited in such funds. The NAVs of such funds are affected because of change in interest rates in the country. If the interest rates fall, NAVs of such funds are likely to increase in the short run and vice versa. However, long term investors may not bother about these fluctuations.

Balanced Fund

The aim of balanced funds is to provide both growth and regular income as such schemes invest both in equities and fixed income securities in the proportion indicated in their offer documents. These are appropriate for investors looking for moderate growth. They generally invest 40-60% in equity and debt instruments. These funds are also affected because of fluctuations in share prices in the stock markets. However, NAVs of such funds are likely to be less volatile compared to pure equity funds.

Money Market or Liquid Fund

These funds are also income funds and their aim is to provide easy liquidity, preservation of capital and moderate income. These schemes invest exclusively in safer short-term instruments such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit, commercial paper and inter-bank call money, government securities, etc. Returns on these schemes fluctuate much less compared to other funds. These funds are appropriate for corporate and individual investors as a means to park their surplus funds for short periods.

Gilt Fund

These funds invest exclusively in government securities. Government securities have no default risk. NAVs of these schemes also fluctuate due to change in interest rates and other economic factors as is the case with income or debt oriented schemes.

Index Funds

Index Funds replicate the portfolio of a particular index such as the BSE Sensitive index, S&P NSE 50 index (Nifty), etc these schemes invest in the securities in the same weightage comprising of an index. NAVs of such schemes would rise or fall in accordance with the rise or fall in the index, though not exactly by the same percentage due to some factors known as "tracking error" in technical terms. Necessary disclosures in this regard are made in the offer document of the mutual fund scheme.

There are also exchange traded index funds launched by the mutual funds which are traded on the stock exchanges.