Security analysis

Security analysisThe industry analysis should take into account the
Security analysis refers to the analysis of tradingfollowing factors among others as influencing the
securities from the point of their prices, returns andperformance of the company, whose shares are to
risks. All investments are risky and the expectedbe analyzed. The factors like, business life cycle, raw
return is related to the quantum of risk. All investorsmaterial supply, demand and market tendency, labor
try to earn more return with low level of risk orsupply, automation, future prospects etc. are
without risk. For this purpose they are consideringconsidered here, before making investment in equity
some objectives. These are:shares.
ObjectivesCompany-specific factors
Regular income – the income from theIn company analysis the profit and loss account and
investment should be regular and consistent one. Thebalance sheet are analyzed before investing into a
high fluctuation is income stream is not suitable forshare of the company. Here the factors like sources
the long-term growth.and uses of funds, profitability, dividend payout ratio,
Capital appreciation – the investment must yieldprice-earnings ratio, track record of the company and
regular income as well as growth in value i.e, capitalthe promoters etc are considered.
appreciation. It is the difference between the sellingHence fundamentalist’s objective is to relate the
price and purchase price.current market price of a security to its intrinsic value
Safety of capital – the capital invested in assetsor theoretical value and to execute a buy or sell
requires the safety. Safety is the important elementorder accordingly in order to ensure superior gains
which protects the loss of capital and return fromfrom the market.
the investments.Technical analysis
Liquidity – liquidity is the ease of convertibility orThe technical school of thought developed its own
marketability of assets.theory for determining the behavior of stock prices.
Hedge against Inflation – the inflation is theThe technicians do not believer fundamentalists
biggest problem we are facing today, hence the ratethoughts. Technical analysis of the market is based n
of return from the investment requires high yield tosome basic tenets, namely, that all fundamental
beat inflation rate.factors are discounted by the market and are
These are the major objectives of an investor; toreflected in prices. Secondly, these prices move in
attain these objectives a careful and critical securitytrends or waves which can be both upward and
analysis is necessary. The literature on securitydownward depending on the sentiment, psychology
analysis can be consolidated to form threeand emotions of operators or traders. Finally, the
approaches to explaining the behavior of share pricespresent trends are influenced by the past trends and
and their valuation. These analysis are used to findthe projection of future trends is possible by an
out the answer for the question like, why shareanalysis of past price trends. According to the
prices fluctuate, how they are determined, what totechnicians, prices are determined in the following
buy or sell and when to buy or sell.manner.
Fundamental analysisPrices of securities are determined by the demand
Fundamental analysis relates to an examination of theand supply of securities in the market. Demand and
intrinsic worth of the company, to find out whethersupply of securities are to be considered the main
current market price is fair, overpriced or underessence of changes in security prices. The collection
priced. Intrinsic worth is the real worth of theof past market data used to find out the history of
company share price; it is calculated dividing the netprice movements and depict these on a chart. The
assets by number of equity shares outstanding.chart helps to determine future prices.
Hence fundamentalists attempt to estimate theHence, the technical analysis reveals that the past
intrinsic worth of a share by analyzing the variousbehavior of stock prices gave an indication about the
economic, industry and company related factors.future of the stocks.
Analysis on fundamental factor is consideredEfficient Market Hypothesis
necessary while making investment in equity shares.The efficient market hypothesis is based on the flow
At any phase in the economy, there are someof free and correct information and the market
industries which are mounting while others areabsorption of it. The theory of efficient market
declining. The performance of companies will dependhypothesis describes the efficiency in three forms.
among other things upon the state of the industry asThese are weak form, semi-strong form and the
a whole and the economy. If the industry isstrong form. In 1991 Eugene F Fama has re-titled
prosperous, the companies, within the industries maythese categories as tests for return predictability,
also be prosperous although a few may be in a badevent studies and test for private information.
shape. The performance of a company depends notThe weak of efficient market hypothesis says that
only of the industry and of the economy, but morecurrent prices of stocks reflect all information, which
importantly, on its own performance.is already contained in the past. The weak for also
Macro-economic factorsholds that prices have no memory and yesterday has
It is concerned with macro-economic factors; thesenothing to do with tomorrow. The semi-strong form
factors have much impact on the market price ofof EMH asserts that the security prices incorporate all
the shares. These are growth rates of nationalpublicly available information such as information
income and industrial sectors, inflation and interestavailable from annual reports, dividends and earnings
rate, foreign trade and exchange rates, savings andannouncements etc. Lastly, the strong form of EMH
investment of the public, monsoon and agriculturemaintains that current prices of stocks reflect all the
performance, political stability etc. Hence this factorinformation including the insider information.
not only affects a particular script but affect theHaving awareness in these factors can help to earn
stock market as whole.more returns in the market.
Industry-wide factors