All these funds have outperformed their benchmarks over  the long term. As on 5th of Oct, SBI contra managed to give  an extra annual return of 24% as against its benchmark index  19% during the three-year period and 4% over the one-year  period. The fund invested 40% in midcaps and its  benchmark is BSE 100.

Reliance Growth gave an annual return premium of 23%  over five years and14% over three years. The last two years  though have not seen much of a value addition that the fund  could do over the benchmark index BSE 100. Over the 2-  year period, it just gave 0.5% more and 6% over the one-year  period. The fund invested 63% in mid-caps and has BSE 100 as its benchmark.

DSP Equity’s five years annual returns were 19% more than the benchmark, 3 years returns 13% more and 1 year return 9% more. It has been one of those funds that have managed to consistently be on top of returns among its peers. It currently invests around 60% in midcaps and has Nifty as its benchmark index.

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The US economy is expected to
slow down in   2008, sending markets the world over,including  India’s, into a flutter. Oil is close to $100 a barrel  and the subprime crisis cloud has not   blown over. What are the possible consequences  for India? Rupee appreciation is set to increase,  as a weak  US economy and easy interest rates  spur capital flows into India.

A stronger rupee will continue to neutralise some
of the increase in oil prices. However, exports
are likely to be hit by a strong currency and weak demand. Should India be worried?

India’s current account deficit, now about 2.1 per  cent of gross domestic product, is unlikely to worsen, as remittances, now about $27 billion,  have never been affected by slowdowns in the world economy. Merchandise exports are expected to come to terms with a rising rupee and grow at 12-15 per cent in the medium term, even as services exports no longer rise at 30 per cent per annum. However, India’s best bet against the inevitable ebbs and flows in the world economy is to generate internal demand.

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Investors are losing Rs 194 crore (Rs 1.94 billion) in every minute of trade since last    Thursday, but there is no alarm.

Investors’ wealth, measured in terms of market capitalisation of all the listed   companies in the country, has plummeted by over Rs 3,25,600 crore (Rs 3.25 trillion)   in the past five straight sessions, taking it to Rs 61,58,532 crore (Rs 61.58 trillion) at   the end of Wednesday’s trading.

Taking into account five hours and 35 minutes of trading in a session, the market has seen a total 1,675 minutes of trading since November 15. The total loss of Rs 3,25,600 crore since that day leads to an average loss of about Rs 194 crore every minute or more than Rs 3 crore every second.

Yet, no sign of panic was not visible on Dalal Street [Get Quote] and a number of marketmen defined the fall as “a buying opportunity” or “healthy correction”.

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The All-India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIEA) has demanded merger of four public sector general insurance companies into a single corporation to protect business interest and also to effectively fulfill their social obligations.

A meeting of the association held here recently adopted a resolution, copies of which were distrbuted to the media today, seeking the merger of the United India Insurance, the New India Assurance and Oriental Company.

AIEA Standing Committee Secretary J Gurumoorthy told reporters that following the opening up of the insurance sector, nine private companies had forayed into the non-life insurance business.

Stating that all the four public sector companies had been generating profits despite the entry of the private sector, he questioned the need for four different PSU firms to carry on the same business in the era of mergers and acquisitions.

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The Sensex continued its fall for the fourth day in a row by losing 353   points on Tuesday on increased selling induced by fresh concerns on  subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S.

The BSE index touched the intra-day high of 19714.22 before the  mid-session but later fell despite a bounce back in Asian indices and  firm start in European markets.

The Sensex fell to a low of 19196.42 before ending at 19280.80, a net  fall of 352.56 points or 1.80 per cent from Monday’s close of   19633.36.

The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange tumbled 126.75   points or 2.15 per cent to close at 5780.90 from 5907.65.

Heavyweights such as RIL, ONGC, BHEL, Grasim, HDFC Bank   HDFC, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Infosys, L&T, Maruti Udyog, NTPC,   SBI and TCS were among prominent losers.

Worries of widening mortgage losses re-emerged after a leading fund   Goldman Sachs downgraded Citigroup’s shares from neutral to sell, forecasting more write-downs by the bank due to mortgage related losses, market players said. — PTI

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Source…..

In the SEC filing, Internet Brands Inc. announced that it has lowered its initial public offering size and now anticipates the IPO to total 6 million shares of Class A common stock and price at $8 per share.

Earlier, Internet Brands expected the offering to total about 9.6 million shares and price between $10 and $12 per share.

Internet Brands is selling about 2.35 million shares of Class A common stock and the selling stockholders named in the prospectus are selling about 3.65 million shares of Class A common stock. The company stated that it would not receive any of the proceeds from the shares of Class A common stock sold by the selling stockholders.

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