Do it yourself

The recent move in prices of some popular e-commerce stocks listed in India has caught the eye of the market participants. These stocks have sharply outperformed the benchmark Nifty50, Nifty IT and even NASDAQ in the past one month. Notably, these stocks have been sharply underperforming the markets for the past one year particularly. Most of these stocks have lost about two third of value from their respective all time high stock price levels. Many investors who had bought these stocks in the 2021-2022 frenzy have seen material erosion in their investment value. It is therefore pertinent to examine, from the individual investors’ viewpoint, whether the tide is turning for these companies; to assess whether they should stay invested, buy more or consider using the latest price rally to exit their positions. Use your own parameters One grave mistake small investors usually make while investing in the stock of a company, is to use the valuation matrices followed by specialized invest...

A recent report published by The Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and Ernst & Young (EV) gives a fairly detailed view of Indian Ecommerce and Consumer Internet Sector in India. The report highlights how rapidly this sector has been growing in India in past few years. It also indicates towards the future of business and direction of growth. Obviously, the trend in India are part of a larger global trend and is greatly influenced by the global patterns. The key highlights of the report could be noted as follows: ·          In 2020, E-commerce and Consumer Internet companies raised over US$8 billion in PE / VC capital spread over 400 deals, giving rise to 9 new unicorns. Edtech and hyperlocal segments led the investment activity, together accounting for over 40% of 2020 investments and witnessing 5x and 2x growth in funding value respectively over 2019. Fintech and social commerce continued to witness traction by i...

This Diwali season was seen as critical from the economy as well as financial markets view points. Most businesses observers, analysts and policy makers were keenly watching the festival consumer demand to assess the future direction of the economy and markets. The policy makers were especially interested in assessing the impact of the various stimulating and corrective measures taken in past few months to boost demand. It will take some time to know the real picture. However, what we know from the news snippets and anecdotal evidence collected from the market visits and speaking to the traders and shop keepers in past few days, the season has been a mixed one. The following key trends may be noteworthy in this context. 1.     The move from the unorganized to the organized retailing may be happening at much faster pace than earlier estimated. The experience is somewhat similar to the mobile telephoney - where almost everyone waited to see the growth...