Marksheets Uploaded!

Marksheet with project marks (FIN254_Marksheet2) for FIN254 uploaded. Thanks.

++++++++++ Previous post +++++++++++++++++++++++

Marksheet for ACT201 has been uploaded under ACT201 folder. Please check your records for mistakes. Please let me and my TA know if you find any problem. Grades would be prepared based on this marksheet on Sunday. So, if you find any problem in your record do let us know on or before Sunday. If you want to check your scripts, you may visit my office on Sunday, 3rd of January, 2010 between 10 am and 1 pm. Please convey this message to all your classmates. Thanks.

Marksheet for FIN254 will be uploaded soon. I am still working on it. Thanks.

PS: Sorry for the delay in uploading your marksheets. Unfortunately, NSU Internet server seems to have blocked my blogger and 4shared websites. So, I am having trouble logging into those websites.

Email & WiFi Services!

The ISD (Information Services Department) has completed the arrangement to provide email and Wi-Fi Facilities to all registered students of NSU. The Wi-Fi facilities can only be given to students who possess a laptop computer.

Students may avail the following services through Wi-Fi:
=> Online Student Advising
=> Computer Lab Access
=> Lab Resource Access (provided by the faculty members)
=> Internet Access
=> Printing Facility

Interested students are requested to collect an Email/Wi-Fi Application Form from Room SAC503. They may also download it from www.northsouth.edu/download.

Thanks.

Undergrad Exchange Program in the US!

The application forms and description of the following program are available at the Department of Career & Professional Development Services (CPDS).

The American center of the US Embassy announces the competition for the 2010 Near East and South Asia Undergraduate Exchange Program (NESA Undergraduate Program). The program provides scholarships for one academic year of study in a non-degree program, funded by the Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The goal is to provide a substantive exchange experience at a U.S. college or university to a diverse group of emerging student leaders from non-elite under-represented groups in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. The program will provide full scholarship.

Applications are due no later than January 7th, 2010. Please note that only short listed candidates will be called for the interview; for additional information, please contact Tahmina Hossain by phone at 8837150-54 or by email at HossainTX@state.gov.

Thanks.

FIN254 Project FAQs!

This post contains answers to some questions related to FIN254 Project that I have received recently from students. I will continuously update this post until the project due date. So, please check this from time to time to be updated, in case you may have a similar query. If you have an important question/issue that is not answered/discussed here, please let me know through email or blog comments.

Q: Sir where can I find Market Cap date and Current Price Earning Ratio (P/E) date?

Ans: There is no such fixed date. As these two measurements are calculated using market price, they change along with change in market price of shares. So, you should use the date when you accessed these data (or the company profile for that matter) on. To be technically correct you should use the "Last Update" date to be found in "Market Information" section of the company profile page at the top.

Q: In a news of my company, they did not mention net profit and EPS of previous period. What should I do? How do I do the comparison in the earnings table?

Ans: You will find that information in company profile under financial performance section.

Q: Dear sir, I have the following confusion regarding the unaudited half yearly report appeared as in the AB bank sample and in one of my stocks.

22-07-07
as per un-audited half yearly accounts on 30.06.07 the bank reported.....

And in the stock of QSMDRYCELL.the year is given as.

31-01-07
As per un-audited half yearly accounts on 31.12.06 the company reported.....

Sir, my question is can i put this record in the dividends earnings table, although there is difference in the years as shown in the sample?

Ans: Please try to understand there is nothing wrong in any of these two news. In your first news, it seems the company's year end is December, that's why it is disclosing half-yearly earnings up to June on 22nd July. On the other hand, the second company's year-end is probably June, that's why it is disclosing half-yearly earnings up to December on 31st January.

And yes, you should use this info in the half-yearly earnings table.

Q: What do we do if we see significant price change but without any disclosed news? 

Ans: You may explain the price change mentioning "for an unkown reason"...

Q: If we see a sponsor director selling significant amount of shares, should we consider that as price sensitive?

Ans: Yes.

Q: If a news has both regular and diluted earnings, which one should we use?

Ans: You should use the diluted one.

Q: What to do if I don't have news/data for 2007? How to fill up 2007 data?

Ans: If your stock does not have 2007 data/news, it means you stock was not listed by 2007. In that case, please leave them (for example, DnC2007 worksheet and Dividends-Earnings for 2007) blank and ignore that part.

Q: What should be the treatment for news of un-audited quarterly reports of net profit and eps declarations? Does that need to be recorded in the div. declarations tab?

Ans: Please ignore quarterly earnings for Dividends-Earnings worksheet.

Q: May I know what is meant by diluted EPS? Do we enter it as it is? I have entered the restated dividend instead of the previous one. Is that right?

Ans: Simply put, Diluted EPS is calculated after accounting for post-dividend (after all convertible securities have been exercised) number of outstanding shares. For example, for a company with Tk. 50 lac after tax net income and 1 lac shares, EPS would be 50/1 or Tk. 50 per share. If they declare 50% stock dividend, their number of shares would increase to 1.5 lac, so diluted/restated EPS would be 50/1.5 or Tk. 33.33. For more technically appropriate definition please visit http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dilutedeps.asp link.

When comparing current period's EPS with previous period's EPS, please use the diluted/restated EPS for the previous period. However, you don't need to change it in the previous period comparison.

For example, when you are comparing 2008 EPS with 2007 EPS, use the diluted/restated EPS for 2007. But don't use diluted/restated one for 2007 when comparing 2007 EPS with 2006 EPS.

Q: What should I do if there is no dividend announced?

Ans: Input '0' (zero) in the dividend cell and fill up other cells, for example, news date, record date, AGM date etc, as required.

Q: Sir, in my ORIONINFU project there is no EPS in audited or unaudited earnings, there is only net profit for every period. So, how I am going to find out the EPS?

Ans: You can get latest number of shares and other information of a company directly from the company profile in DSE website against number of securities. You may use the following link for Orion Infusion.

http://www.dse.com.bd/displayCompany.php?name=ORIONINFU

You may also view information of other listed companies by just replacing the stock ticker "ORIONINFU" by any other stock ticker after the equal sign (=) at the end of the above link.

Q: Sir, I didn’t understand this news “Khaleque Knitting & Garments Inds. (Pvt.) Ltd., one of the Corportate Sponsors of the company, has reported its intention to sell 15,00,000 shares out of its total holdings of 39,60,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange within next 30 working days.”

Ans: Apparently Khaleque Knitting is a name of a sponsor (corporate sponsor because it is a company, not a person) that contributed to the paid up capital of the company you are working on. Out of its total holdings (all the shares it owns) of 39.6 lac shares, it wants to sell 15 lac shares. As per regulation, before buying/selling shares a director/sponsor director must notify the regulator and the public of its intention.

Q: In the StockTradeInfo file, i don’t have the records at all for one of my shares. Apparently there are no records at all after "K". What should I do?

Ans: Please check the file carefully, it is probably not complete or you converted the file from xlsx (excel 2007) format to xls (excel 2003) format. Due to lower capacity of Excel 2003 it can not contain all the price info in a single file. That's why you must use Excel 2007.

Q: In some cases Un-Audited half yearly, there is only Net Income figures stated w/out the EPS values given at all. Even when I went to DSE company listings on the website, there is no figures or tables for such information. Should I completely skip the part for that given period?

Ans: If you don't have eps figures for a period you can use the other eps declarations (previous or next) and find number of shares and adjust that numbered with right or stock dividend declared in between and calculate the eps by dividing net profit by number of shares.

Q: Is it possible to "Import News" or obtain the relevant information regarding News Reader at all? If so how?

Ans: Yes, you may import latest news to the offline news reader. You need to create a “news.txt” (a text file) file within the same folder and paste all the news (you may get it from DSE official website’s news archive section) you want to incorporate and press the “import news” button.

Q: Is news such as "no price limit on the trading of the shares on __date" price sensitive news"?

Ans: No, this is not a price sensitive news by itself! Such a news always accompanies a price sensitive news, especially a news with recommended corporate benefits.

Q: As u have shown on Sample of ABBANK file, should we comment for a few news dates collectively or each news date will have separate comments?

Ans: It depends! If you think analyzing multiple news would make more sense then you may do so, otherwise interpret them separately.

Q: Can u plz re-clarify "Instant Real Effect" and "Long term Real Effect"? when will instant effect be positive?

Ans: Instant real effect would be positive if you see price increase on the news day or the next day (because sometimes companies disclose the news after the trading hour, in that case, reaction for the news would be seen on the next day’s trading). Long term would be when price gradually increases over a period of time (it may be a month or more, if there is no other price sensitive news in that period).

Q: The Board of Directors of ICB has recommended cash dividend @ 14% for the shareholders of ICB for the year 2006-2007. Date of AGM: 30.10.07, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: BIAM Auditorium, 63 New Eskaton, Dhaka. Book closure: 16.10.07 to 30.10.07.

Sir should i consider the cash dividend of 14% a poor dividend and right negative in the cell of possible impact?

Ans: Please look at the dividend payment history and compare with them. With relatively very high premium, right share declaration may be a bad news.

Q: Sir, is this a price sensitive “As per latest share demat status intimated by the company, 51.65% shares of general public has been demated up to 04.06.09. Considering this, trading of the shares of the company will resume today.”

Ans: It depends on the situation... how long the share had been held up from trading... if it was for too long then short term effect may have negative impact on price as many would want to realize their money by selling their shares. Otherwise usually it is a good news that from now on shares of this company would be traded electronically, no longer paper-based, so many investors would be interested to invest... price may go up...

Q: Is the following news for right share declaration? If it is not then how will I understand which specific news is indicating the declaration of right shares?

“Following the change of the denomination of shares and market lot with effect from 25.07.07 (record date), the new face value of the share of the Bank will be Tk. 100.00 instead of Tk. 1000.00, market lot will be 50 shares instead of 5 shares and the new adjusted closing price of shares will be Tk. 382.50 per share.”

Ans: No, this is not a right share declaration. This is a share split news. The company has changed the denomination of it’s share’s face value from 1000 taka to 100 taka. After the mentioned record date, shareholders having 5 shares (with 1000 taka face value) would own 50 shares (with 100 taka face value). Usually share split news is considered a positive one.

For right share news, the company would specifically mention they are issuing right shares. For example, look at EBL news on “02/04/2008” (initial recommendation) “18/11/2008” (approval news from SEC) for a 50% right share declaration at par. For another example, look at BRACBANK news on “29/01/2008” where they recommended both stock and right (20% right with 400 taka premium) in a single news.

Q: What does demat mean? Is it a positive news or a negative news for a company that intends to go for demat? 

Ans: Dematerialisation (Demat for short) is a term used for converting physical (paper-based) share certificates to a de-materialised or electronic form share. 

It is indeed a positive news for a company. For a paper-based share, an investor has to go through the name transfer procedure (which is a lengthy and painstaking process) to be eligible for the corporate benefits (cash or stock dividend or right share etc.) announced by the company. For a demat share (electronic share) investors do not need to go through such a procedure.

Q: Sir when the book closure date is given like 16/10/2007 to 30/10/2007 then which one should we use.

Ans: Please consider the starting date to be the record date. The term “Book Closure” is used for paper based shares whereas “Record Date” is used for electronic shares. Paper shares take more time than electronic shares because they update the registered shareholders list manually. That’s why you see a duration is given for paper-based shares instead of just one record date for electronic shares. Only shareholders whose names appear on the register after the book closure/ Record Date are eligible to attend in the AGM/ EGM and also to receive dividends & bonus shares and entitlement to right shares, if any.

Q: As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.08, the Company has reported profit after tax of Tk. 38.80 m with EPS of Tk. 9.70 as against last years half yearly of Tk. 31.01 m and Tk. 7.75 respectively.  

Sir, the above mentions about an un-audited half yearly profit. Do we treat it as positive news? Is the treatment same as that of an audited profit?

Ans: Yes, this should be treated as a positive news because their half-yearly earnings increased by 25%.

You may also compare double of this (the projected EPS = 9.70 * 2 = Tk. 19.40 per share) with the audited yearly EPS they disclosed for the previous period in your analysis.

Q: Though I have office 2007, I am not being able to open the Xl files.

Ans: I don't know why you are having problem with the project files. Make sure you have MS Excel 2007 installed in your computer. You may also try downloading the files again. If you still face the problem get the files from the resource drive.

FIN254 Project Submission Deadline Extended!

The project submission deadline has been extended till 17th of December, 2009 (Thursday). If you are done you may submit the project before the deadline. Please follow previous posts and project instruction document for submission guideline.

Thanks.

MTO Recruitment Presentation by EBL!

The Department of Career & Professional Development Services has arranged a presentation on Eastern Bank Limited regarding recruitment of Management Trainee Officer (MTO).

Date: 10 December 2009, Time: 11:00 am to 12:30 pm, Venue: NAC 514 

Speakers:
Honorable Pro Vice Chancellor, Dr. S A M Khairul Bashar 
Head of Human Resources, Eastern Bank Limited

This might help you prepare for your future career.

Thanks.

Final Exam Schedule

Please note that the Registrar's Office has published the final exam schedule for Fall 2009.

ACT201=> 20-Dec-09 Sunday @ 8 am  in Rooms NAC413 & NAC414

FIN254=> 21-Dec-09 Monday @ 2 pm in Room NAC514

Please be aware of the timing of your exam. You will not be given any extra time for a late start. Prepare yourself accordingly so that you are on time for the exam. ACT201 students may need to be extra careful because it might be a cold and foggy morning.

Thanks.

FIN254 Project

All the necessary files for the FIN254 Project have been uploaded. You may use the following link for a quick access to the project files.

The Project!

The main purpose of this project is to analyze the impact of disclosed news on price of a stock. The time period for the analysis is from January 2007 to November 2009 (almost three years). Please refer to the "Project Instructions.doc" file for a detailed step by step guideline to complete the project work. Three stocks have been assigned for each student and the assessment would be done for each student individually.

Before you start the project work please open and verify all the resource files to check whether there is any problem opening/accessing them. You need to prepare three excel files (one per stock) for the project. Please review the sample file (Sample-071001030-ABBANK.xlsx) by checking each worksheet to understand the nature of the job you are assigned to do for the project. You need to prepare three such project files for the three assigned stocks.

If you are done completing the necessary steps for all three assigned stocks you are then ready to send me your work. Before sending me the files, review the files again carefully for last minute editing, if necessary. It would not be possible for me to accept a second time submission. The submission deadline is 15^th of December, 2009 (Tuesday). You may definitely send me the files earlier if you are done to reduce pressure of the upcoming final exams.

Send me the three excel files (one excel file per stock) to both of my email addresses (To: imran.edu@gmail.com, imran@northsouth.edu) as three attachments by the due date. Make sure to include your email address too, so that you have a copy of the sent email. You should use the prescribed format to send your work to me.

Before sending me the email please recheck your data and files minutely. I won’t be able to accommodate your request of accepting a modified version next time. Please wait at least one day for email acknowledgment from me as a confirmation of my receipt of your email. If you don’t receive my acknowledgment by one day then resend the email to me and notify my TA, Nabila at 01713004609. Please keep checking your email frequently around that period because I may send you an email as an alert if I find significant problems in your files/work.

Please do not hesitate to contact me (through emails, blog comments or personally visiting my office) if you have any questions/issues. 

Thank you and wish you best of luck for the project.

Eid Greetings!

Eid Mubarak to all my students. May this Eid bring happiness and prosperity to your lives.

Please do remember that the semester is far from over. Please don’t lose touch with your studies. The final exams are very close. I would request you, especially those who could not do that well in the midterms, to utilize this time to make up for your weaknesses and prepare better for the finals.

FIN254 students, please keep checking my blog for your project work. I will try to upload all necessary materials within today or tomorrow.

Thanks.

Classes Canceled!

Tomorrow's (19th of November, 2009) classes have been canceled by order of the Registrar's Office. Make-up is scheduled to held on the 10th of December, 2009.

Exams on Sunday (FIN254) and Monday (ACT201) would be held as scheduled earlier in NAC514 during class hours. For FIN254, chapter 8 is excluded from the midterm syllabus.

Thanks.

Revised Academic Calendar!

NSU Registrar's Office has changed the academic calendar recently. I had to make a few changes to the class schedule accordingly. These changes will have immediate effect.

The changes are as follows...
1. Introduction of 29th Oct (THU) as ST regular make-up class
2. Change of 5th Nov (THU) from ST to MW
3. Change of 19th Nov (THU) from MW to ST

Please be informed that all the exams are scheduled to be held in NAC514 during class time unless mentioned otherwise.

Sorry for the inconveniences caused. Thanks.

A Reminder: 31st October, 2009 is the last date to submit the student profile excel file for 1% extra credit.

Mystery UFO halo over Moscow!

THIS glowing halo in clouds over Moscow looks like an Independence Day style alien attack. The astonishing ring was spotted over the city and captured on video by stunned locals. It has been described as a "true mystery" by a UFO expert.

If you are interested to know more, visit the following links...

Link 1
Link 2

Opportunity to meet Nobel Laureates!

If you are interested, you may visit the following link...

Lindau Meeting!

Each year, since 1951, 20 to 25 Nobel Prize Winners accept the invitation to a unique meeting on Lake Constance. Some 500 young students come from all over the world to listen to the Laureates’ lectures and to engage in discussions with them. Intermediaries from universities and research institutions select participants based on strict criteria. Started in 2004, there is an addition to the traditional Lindau Meetings for Nobel Prize Winners in Natural Sciences. Since then the Meeting of Prize Winners in Economic Sciences takes place every two years.

The Lindau Council is interested in bringing young Bangladeshi talents into the Lindau dialogue and through it establish a relation in order to foster their vision of Lindau as a window to the world. Lindau Council would like to reach out to the young Bangladeshi’s, who study/work in or out of their homeland and to give them the possibility of joining forthcoming Lindau meetings.

Interested applicants from related area can apply for the Upcoming Lindau Meeting.

ROOM CHANGE NOTICE!

Due to unavailability of multimedia, class rooms for FIN254 have been changed to the following ones.

FIN254.1 => NAC508

FIN254.5 => NAC411

Thanks.

Fall 2009

This is to welcome all my students to a new semester - Fall 2009. You may download course outlines, assignments, other resources using the links shown above under the heading "Fall 2009 Folders".

Please check my blog from time to time for announcements and updates. You may use any 'comments' link found at the end of each post on this page to leave a comment, ask me a question, or share any academic or non-academic issue. If it is unique/personal in nature, please provide your email address so that I can contact you and give you a feedback. Otherwise, you may leave an anonymous comment.

For extra credit, please download and read the course outline (full version) thoroughly. Follow the instructions, given in the course outline, carefully to send the filled up student profile excel file. You may download the student profile using respective course folder link above.

I wish you all the very best for the semester. Thanks.

Grades Posted!

Grades have been posted. You may know your grade from the Registrar's Office or at the time of advising. You may also email me to know your unofficial grade.

Special Mention

Following students are hereby recognized for their outstanding performances in my class this semester. Please join me to congratulate them for this achievement and recognition. I would request them to keep up the excellent work and make us proud.  

Aaka Asad (FIN254)

Mubashir Ahmed (ACT201)

Sabrina Haider (ACT201)

Gazi Musayab Raffan (ACT201)

Thanks.

Final Marksheets!

I made the final marksheets available in the folder links above. Please look for mistakes and let me and/or my TA know if you find any through email. These marksheets would be used to submit the final grades tomorrow (10th of September, 2009). So, please tell all your classmates about this. This is important.

By the way, B1, B2, and B3 are regular exam bonus points (the difference between highest mark and 100) for Mid 1, Mid 2, and Final exams. Make up exam (marked in red) takers are not eligible for these bonus marks.

SB stands for the special bonus points got from the last question of the final exam paper. For ACT201 students, this has been added to the worst exam marks. For FIN254 students, this has been added to the final exam marks, as final exam weight is the most. This special bonus has been added to Mid-2 score if someone's score is more than 100 if added to the final exam score, as total cannot be more than 100.

A.M1, A.M2, AND A.F are post-bonus adjusted marks of mid 1, mid 2, and final exams. EC stands for Extra Credit 1% resulted from the student profile you emailed me at the beginning of the semester. Abs is the number of missed classes.

Thanks.

+++++++++ Previous Post +++++++++++++

I am almost done checking the final exam scripts. I am planning to upload the marksheets today in the evening* after recording the exam scores. Please check back for updated marksheets. If you want to check your scripts, you may visit my office. I will be available in my office from 11 am to 1 pm every day for 3 days starting today.

FIN254 students who are yet to get my acknowledgement email after sending your project files, please contact my TA (phone number available in the project instruction document) immediately. Updated marksheets with project scores will be available tomorrow.

Thanks.

Swine Flu (H1N1 virus) in Bangladesh

Time has come to become more aware of this. As we are yet to invent a medicine to cure this 100%, only preventive measures and more awareness may help us avoid deadly consequences.

Main Symptoms:

1. Sudden fever for 2-3 days with temperature of 101-103 deg and it doesn't come below 100 deg even after taking medicine.

2. Running nose with sneezing frequently with slight cough.

3. Slight pain all over the body

4. Breathing problem (complicated case)

5. Feeling very weak after fever rise.

What You Should Do (if affected):

1. Go to any specialist immediately and take suggestion 

2. Take a lot of fluid

3. Sleep as much as you can

4. Take a lot of good food

5. Take complete bed rest for at least 7 days

6. Isolate yourself from others in a room for 7 days

Where You May Get Help:

In Dhaka you can get help from the following places

1. Dhaka Medical College Hospital

2. Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital

3. Shorawardi Medical college Hospital

4. Shastho Odidoptor Mohakhali Dhaka

IN MOHAKHALI SHASTHO ODIDOPTOR ( Ground floor, Red Building ) ( beside Mohakhali Rail gate ) you can get free test of Swaine flue and Medicine with proper Guideline for 24 hours. Contact with them in this number +8801937000011. If your patient is seriously ill they will collect sample from your home.

Some Preventive Measures:

1. Use mask for 24 hours specially when you go to public area like market, bus stop etc.

2. Don't shake hands with others or don't touch the patients who are infected.

3. Wash your hands with soap frequently

4. Put your clothes in Detergent Water for 10-15 mins after coming from outside

5. Take a complete shower with soap after coming from outside

6. Don't touch your face and nose when you are outside of home or beside any patients

7. Try to avoid public place as much as possible

Please don't be afraid when you are detected as H1N1 Virus positive. Although direct medicine is not invented yet but proper bed rest partial medicine and good care can make you well fit for work again.

NEGLEGENCY IN TREATMENT CAN DAMAGE LUNGS WHICH CAN LEAD TO DEATH.

If you are in fever please go immediately to MOHAKHALI for free test and free medicine.

So we should spread this message to as many people as we can to save LIFE as well as to save ourselves.

FIN254: Q/A Session

Q: Can you please clarify us about the final exam syllabus again?

Ans: According to the decisions made centrally by the FIN254 coordination committee, final exam must be comprehensive covering the whole syllabus.

MCQs are made centrally, so I don't have any control over it. Questions may be from anywhere, not necessarily from our book as different faculty members use different books in their sections. But as everyone follows same set of topics, you don't need to worry if you cover the things discussed in the class.

As far as problems are concerned I will prepare them considering all the chapters we covered in class. For convenience I am making it simplified - no problems beyond chapter-10, there will definitely be a large problem from chapter-10, one problem from chapter-8 on stocks, some problems covering time value of money concept and financial statement analysis.

Q: Sir, my project files are huge in size and I am having genuine problem sending them to you with slow internet connection. What should I do?

Ans: I don't know what to say. The file size should not be that large. I have received many project files so far and the file size ranged from 100+ KB (kilobytes and not megabytes!) to 300+ KB. There is something wrong either in your operating system or the software itself.

Try "Save As" option to save them again in previous excel version, that is, xls (Excel 2003) format and check your file contents and the size. If that works, send them to me. If same problem remains, you may bring the files with you in a flash-drive/pen-drive during exam time and give it to me.

Marksheets Uploaded!

The marksheets are now available using the course folder links above. If you face any problem opening the files using your browser, please use MS Internet Explorer to open them. More updated marksheets containing other marks will be available after checking final exam scripts and project files.

If you find any problem with your recorded marks, please send an email to my TA (nabila_nisha@yahoo.com) and a copy to me [CC: imran.edu@gmail.com] giving details of the problem.

Thanks.

FIN254 Project FAQs!

This post contains answers to the questions related to FIN254 Project that I receive from FIN254 students. I will continuously update this post until the project due date. So, please check this from time to time to be updated, in case you may have a similar query.

Q: Sir, in my ORIONINFU project there is no EPS in audited or unaudited earnings, there is only net profit for every period. So, how I am going to find out the EPS?

Ans: You can get latest number of shares and other information of a company directly from the DSE website. You may use the following link for Orion Infusion.

http://www.dse.com.bd/displayCompany.php?name=ORIONINFU

You may also view information of other listed companies by just replacing the stock ticker "ORIONINFU" by any other stock ticker after the equal sign (=) at the end of the above link.

Q: Sir, I didn’t understand this news “Khaleque Knitting & Garments Inds. (Pvt.) Ltd., one of the Corportate Sponsors of the company, has reported its intention to sell 15,00,000 shares out of its total holdings of 39,60,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange within next 30 working days.”

Ans: Apparently Khaleque Knitting is a name of a sponsor (corporate sponsor because it is a company, not a person) that contributed to the paid up capital of the company you are working on. Out of its total holdings (all the shares it owns) of 39.6 lac shares, it wants to sell 15 lac shares. As per regulation, before buying/selling shares a director/sponsor director must notify the regulator and the public of its intention.Q: In the Stock Quotes file, i don’t have the records at all for MEGHNACEM and SINGERBD. Apparently there are no records at all after "K". What should I do?

Ans: Please check the stock quote file carefully, it is probably not complete or you converted the file from xlsx (excel 2007) format to xls (excel 2003) format.

Q: In some cases Un-Audited half yearly, there is only Net Income figures stated w/out the EPS values given at all. Even when I went to DSE company listings on the website, there is no figures or tables for such information. Should I completely skip the part for that given period?

Ans: If you don't have eps figures for a period you can use the other eps declarations (previous or next) and find number of shares and adjust that numbered with right or stock dividend declared in between and calculate the eps by dividing net profit by number of shares.

Q: Is it possible to "Import News" or obtain the relevant information regarding News Reader at all? If so how?

Ans: Yes, you may import latest news to the offline news reader. You need to create a “news.txt” (a text file) file within the same folder and paste all the news (you may get it from DSE official website’s news archive section) you want to incorporate and press the “import news” button.

Q: Is news such as "no price limit on the trading of the shares on __date" price sensitive news"?

Ans: No, this is not a price sensitive news by itself! Such a news always accompanies a price sensitive news, especially a news with recommended corporate benefits.

Q: As u have shown on Sample of ABBANK file, should we comment for a few news dates collectively or each news date will have separate comments?

Ans: It depends! If you think analyzing multiple news would make more sense then you may do it, otherwise interpret them separately.

Q: Can u plz re-clarify "Instant Real Effect" and "Long term Real Effect"? when will instant effect be positive?

Ans: Instant real effect would be positive if you see price increase on the news day or the next day (because sometimes companies disclose the news after the trading hour, in that case, reaction for the news would be seen on the next day’s trading). Long term would be when price gradually increases over a period of time (it may be a month or more, if there is no other price sensitive news in that period).

Q: The Board of Directors of ICB has recommended cash dividend @ 14% for the shareholders of ICB for the year 2006-2007. Date of AGM: 30.10.07, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: BIAM Auditorium, 63 New Eskaton, Dhaka. Book closure: 16.10.07 to 30.10.07.

Sir should i consider the cash dividend of 14% a poor dividend and right negative in the cell of possible impact?

Ans: Please look at the dividend payment history and compare with them. With relatively very high premium, right share declaration may be a bad news.

Q: Sir, is this a price sensitive “As per latest share demat status intimated by the company, 51.65% shares of general public has been demated up to 04.06.09. Considering this, trading of the shares of the company will resume today.”

Ans: It depends on the situation.. how long the share had been held up from trading... if it was for too long then short term effect may have negative impact on price as many would want to realize their money by selling their shares. Otherwise usually it is a good news that from now on shares of this company would be traded electronically, no longer paper-based, so many investors would be interested to invest... price may go up...

Q: Is the following news for right share declaration? If it is not then how will I understand which specific news is indicating the declaration of right shares?

“Following the change of the denomination of shares and market lot with effect from 25.07.07 (record date), the new face value of the share of the Bank will be Tk. 100.00 instead of Tk. 1000.00, market lot will be 50 shares instead of 5 shares and the new adjusted closing price of shares will be Tk. 382.50 per share.”

Ans: No, this is not a right share declaration. This is a share split news. The company has changed the denomination of it’s share’s face value from 1000 taka to 100 taka. After the mentioned record date, shareholders having 5 shares (with 1000 taka face value) would own 50 shares (with 100 taka face value). Usually share split news is considered a positive one.For right share news, the company would specifically mention they are issuing right shares. For example, look at EBL news on “02/04/2008” (initial recommendation) “18/11/2008” (approval news from SEC) for a 50% right share declaration at par. For another example, look at BRACBANK news on “29/01/2008” where they recommended both stock and right (20% right with 400 taka premium) in a single news.

Q: What does demat mean? Is it a positive news or a negative news for a company that intends to go for demat? 

Ans: Dematerialisation (Demat for short) is a term used for converting physical (paper-based) share certificates to a de-materialised or electronic form share. 

It is indeed a positive news for a company. For a paper-based share, an investor has to go through the name transfer procedure (which is a lengthy and painstaking process) to be eligible for the corporate benefits (cash or stock dividend or right share etc.) announced by the company. For a demat share (electronic share) investors do not need to go through such a procedure.

Q: Sir when the book closure date is given like 16/10/2007 to 30/10/2007 then which one should we use.

Ans: Please consider the starting date to be the record date. The term “Book Closure” is used for paper based shares whereas “Record Date” is used for electronic shares. Paper shares take more time than electronic shares because they update the registered shareholders list manually. That’s why you see a duration is given for paper-based shares instead of just one record date for electronic shares. Only shareholders whose names appear on the register after the book closure/ Record Date are eligible to attend in the AGM/ EGM and also to receive dividends & bonus shares and entitlement to right shares, if any.

Q: As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.08, the Company has reported profit after tax of Tk. 38.80 m with EPS of Tk. 9.70 as against last years half yearly of Tk. 31.01 m and Tk. 7.75 respectively.  

Sir, the above mentions about an un-audited half yearly profit. Do we treat it as positive news? Is the treatment same as that of an audited profit?

Ans: Yes, this should be treated as a positive news because their half-yearly earnings increased by 25%.

You may also compare double of this (the projected EPS = 9.70 * 2 = Tk. 19.40 per share) with the audited yearly EPS they disclosed for the previous period in your analysis.

Q: Have you uploaded the selected lectures on resource drive?

Ans: Powerpoint slides of selected chapters are made available to the resource drive and you may also download them using the blog link.

Q: Though I have office 2007, I am not being able to open the Xl files.

Ans: I don't know why you are having problem with the project files. Make sure you have MS Excel 2007 installed in your computer. You may also try downloading the files again. If you still face the problem get the files from my office.

Job Opportunity in UAE!

A well known HR Consulting firm in Bangladesh has been recently appointed to recruit 40 graduates in the field of finance for a UAE based remittance company. A word document file containing the details of the job has been made available in the “Others” folder link above. 

Fresh graduates are encouraged to apply. You may also ask your friends or relatives if they are interested. 

Thanks and Regards.

Correction in Assignment#7 for ACT201

I made a mistake when uploading the assignment file to the resource drive. The correct problem numbers would be P17-3A & 11A for the assignment and the submission due date is 24th of August (Monday).

Sorry for the inconveniences caused.

Final Exam Schedule

The schedule for the final exams has been announced by the Registrar's Office.

ACT201 : 28-Aug-09 (Friday) at 8 am (NAC301 & NAC311)

FIN254 : 31-Aug-09 (Monday) at 8 am (NAC415)

Thanks.

Change of Class Time during Ramadan

This is notified for information of all concerned that there will be no change in class time schedule for the undergraduate students during the holy month of Ramadan as announced earlier. 

Please follow this link to view the official notice.

Sorry for the inconveniences this may have caused.

*********** Previous Post **********************

Effective from 22nd of August, 2009, classes would start from 2 pm and 3:30 pm instead of 2:40 pm and 4:20 pm respectively. There is no change for the 8 am classes.

Thanks.

FIN254 Project for Summer 2009

The main purpose of this project is to analyze the impact of disclosed news on the price of a stock. The time period for the analysis is from January 2007 to June 2009. Sometimes you would see price moving positively (or negatively) with positive (or negative) news as expected. Some other times you would see price not moving as expected rather going to the opposite direction (or consolidating) because the news was probably out before it was disclosed. Carefully review such news impacts on the price movements of your stock and put your findings accordingly.

You must do this job using the format and guidelines prescribed in the word document file named “Project Instructions.doc” made available to help you complete the project. Three stocks have been assigned to each student and the assessment would be done for each student individually. If anyone of you don’t see your id in the assigned stock list, inform me immediately.

Please download all the resource files from the project folder available within the FIN254 folder link above. Same resource files are also available on the resource drive accessible from the on-campus computer labs.

Before you start the project work please open and verify all the resource files to check whether there is any problem opening/accessing them. You need to prepare three excel files (one per stock) for the project. Please review the sample file (Sample-ABBANK.xlsx) by checking each worksheet to understand the nature of the job you are assigned to do for the project. You need to prepare three such project files for the three assigned stocks.

Send the completed project files (three excel files, one for each stock assigned to you) as three attachments by the due date 25th of August, 2009 (Tuesday). That means you may send your completed project files earlier if you can finish early. Make sure to include your email address too, so that you have a copy of the sent email. Please refer to the guideline provided in the word document file for detailed format of your email to be sent to me.

Before sending me the email please recheck your data and files minutely. I won’t be able to accommodate your request of accepting a modified version next time. And please don’t send me multiple emails to make sure I get it!

Please wait at least one day for email acknowledgment from me as a confirmation of my receipt of your email. If you don’t receive my acknowledgment by one day then resend the email to me and notify my TA. Please keep checking your email frequently around that period because I will send you an email if I find significant problem in your work/files.

If you have any question then you may see me at my office during the office hours or send me an email or post it in my blog. Please READ all the instructions carefully before sending your project as email attachments. Check your work carefully before sending it to me. I would not be able to accept a modified version second time.

Thank you and wish you best of luck for the project.

Different Real 7 Wonders!

I made a video file available in the 'Others' link. If you have time, please have a look. It is really a beautiful piece - a touching and inspirational one.

Thanks.

Internship opportunity in Maldives!

If any of your friends or relatives is interested and qualifies for it, you may check this out! Please download the document from the "Others" folder link above.

Thanks.

Classes Cancelled!

Today's classes have been cancelled due to heavy rain last night and water-clogging problem in many parts of Dhaka city. Make-up schedule would be announced later.

Extra-class for FIN254 students would be held on this Thursday (30th July) as announced earlier. Quiz#2 would be held at the beginning of the class, so please don't be late for the class. As today's class could not be held as planned, chapter 8 has been excluded from the quiz syllabus.

Thanks.

Resource Drive Up!

On-campus resource drive is up and running. I have made the assignments and other files available to that drive so that you have easy access from the computer labs.

Thanks.

A Request for Help!

A G4S security personnel, Mr. Ruhul Amin, has been suffering from acute financial distress. He lost his house and other valuable property due to Cyclone Sidr. Recently most of his family members got sick. He needs financial support.

I request you to extend monetary assistance to rescue him from this crisis. He is usually stationed at NAC Level 5.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

Change in Academic Calendar!

Please find the revised class schedule available within the "Others" folder link above. Adjust your academic plan accordingly.

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Due to the change in academic calendar made by the Registrar's Office, there will be no ACT201 class on this Thursday (25-06-09); instead, FIN254 class will be held. Revised class schedule will be available soon.

Thanks.

Assignments

Assignments are now available. Please check the course folder links above to download. The submission due dates are mentioned in the assignments.

These are home assignments and supposed to be done at home. So, I don’t want to see you doing the assignments in my class. Your assignments must have a cover page with your name, id, assignment number, course details, submission date, etc.

I prefer hand-written assignments. Computer composed assignments will also be accepted but make sure nobody else has access to your softcopy of the assignments. Let me remind you… copying somebody else’s assignment is a form of cheating and it may result a failing grade in your course.

Thanks.

Summer 2009

This is to welcome all my students to a new semester - Summer 2009. You may download course outlines, assignments, other resources using the links shown above under the heading "Summer 2009 Folders".

This semester is unique in many aspects. The most prominent one is that we have finally moved to our own permanent campus. We will be having our classes in this new campus for the first time. I remember when I was a student of NSU 14 years ago, I used to pay for the development of this campus. Although I am not a student here anymore, I feel a similar enthusiasm that you are feeling.

There will be a cake-cutting ceremony at the new Bashundhara campus on the 9th of June, 2009 (Tuesday) at 11 am to celebrate the first day of classes. You are all cordially invited to attend this auspicious event.

Please beware that the campus building is not 100% complete. So, you may face a lot of minor but solvable inconveniences. I would request you to be patient. Let us make the dawn of a new era pleasant and memorable. 

Please check my blog from time to time for announcements and updates. You may use any 'comments' link found at the end of each post on this page to leave a comment, ask me a question, or share any academic or non-academic issue. If it is unique/personal in nature, please provide your email address so that I can contact you and give you a feedback. Otherwise, you may leave an anonymous comment.

For extra credit, please read the course outline (full version) thoroughly. Follow the instructions, given in the course outline, carefully to send the filled up student profile excel file. You may download the student profile using respective course folder link above.

I wish you all the very best for the semester. Thanks.

Advising

As decided by the NSU Authority the Advising for Summer 2009 will resume on the 24th of May and continue till 26th. All students are advised to participate accordingly. For more specific information please check NSU official website.

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Passwords for advising may be collected from day after tomorrow. A new advising schedule will be published. Those of you who already went through the advising process do not need to get advised again.

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I am receiving a lot of emails regarding advising status from students. I don't think advising will be cancelled. You know such decisions come from the top. As far as I know there will be a high-level meeting today and some important decisions will be made there regarding advising, convocation, moving to the new campus, commencement of classes etc. I will publish the decisions when I am informed. So you may check my blog and NSU website from time to time for latest status.

Online advising facility is available. You may collect your password from IS dept if you haven't done it yet. IS dept will remain open although NSU is declared closed for 2 days from today. You may do your own advising at your advising time-slot from home/cyber-cafe. If you have problem with retaking a course or prerequisite, you may resolve that problem from the BBA Dept once university is open.

I am very thankful to them who emailed me to know about my wellbeing. I am doing alright. What happened yesterday at NSU was something that had never happened before in 18 years of NSU history. It was really a disgraceful and shameful event. The atrocities they showed by vandalizing, assaulting teachers and fellow students, and most heinous attacks on and around the office of our honorable VC sir, just stunned me! It was utterly unbelievable. Such an act is outright unacceptable from the students we teach in the hope of instilling better human nature in them and make them future leaders of our nation.

Students have every right to protest for their rights. But they should do it peacefully. They don't have any right to force other students not to get advised or harass after advising! Anyway, I don't want to get into any arguments here. I am also an NSU alumni. After all it is OUR institution. What WE do here reflects US in the community where we live in. Such events will definitely have consequences when you graduate from here in future. You should preserve the reputation of NSU by all means for your own sake.

Thanks.

Grades Ready!

Grades have been submitted to the department and also into the online database. Please contact the BBA department or the Registrar's office for your grade. You may email me to know unofficial grade. For detailed marks, please follow the previous post.

It's been a pleasant semester with you. Hope you feel the same. Enjoy the holidays.

An Income Opportunity...

Those of you who are interested to earn extra pocket money during this semester break, you may avail this opportunity. If you can arrange a buyer for a new car, you may earn a commission ranging from 10,000 taka to 20,000 taka per sold car! If you are intereseted then contact me (email me or post a comment providing your contact info) for more details.

Thanks.

Final Marksheet!

FIN254 project scores updated!

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Extra credit marks updated. I am still waiting to receive the project files from the following FIN254 students. This is the last call. If any one of you know them, please let them know.

051366030 (Kamrul); 071242030 (Alifuzzaman); 073032030 (Aumi); 082400030 (Waresh)

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The final marksheets are available in respective course folders above. Please inform all your friends/classmates about this. Sorry, I could not finish them completely (marks for extra credit and project of FIN254 are yet to be recorded) because of a strong headache. I will try to update them tomorrow. I am planning to be in my office tomorrow morning. If you want to verify your marks, you may come to my office and check your scripts.

Your grades would be prepared day after tomorrow on the 27th of April (the last day of grade submission) based on the marks posted here. So, check them carefully. If you notice any discrepancy in the marks, please let me or my TA know immediately. Otherwise, it might be too late!

For FIN254 students: if you are yet to get my confirmation email about the project, do submit your project files again by tomorrow morning. To my knowledge the following students are yet to send me the project files:

051366030 (Kamrul); 071242030 (Alifuzzaman); 073032030 (Aumi); 082400030 (Waresh)

Thanks.

FIN254 Project FAQs

I received a considerable number of queries regarding the project in the past few days. I am posting some of them with answers in the following in case you have similar queries… And please read these first before asking me a question.

Q: Sir, you said that for all the shares the investment period should be 10 years but some shares ‘(janata insurance etc.) Closing date is October 30 2008 instead of December 30th. So in the auto calculation worksheet the investment period is shown 9.8 years. Should I leave it like that or manually change the investment period to 10.

Ans: Please search for the price data using both full name of the company (in some cases also look for a changed name for a company, especially when you see price data missing for a period) and ticker (the abbreviated form which is used in DSE website to quote a price) of that company. In your case, you probably did not search price data using the ticker of the company, which is ‘JANATAINS’.

Q: Sir, I am facing problem regarding the findings part. Can you send a sample please?

Ans: There is no such sample. This is a subjective part of your project. You are independent to discuss about your findings in any way you feel appropriate. This is your own findings. Use your imagination, please!!! 

Here is a guideline… You may talk about your investments in five companies. Compare the performances of the companies you invested in. Tell me which companies gave you better returns and what may be reasons (probably they gave higher dividend regularly etc.) and which companies could not give a decent return and why (may be they were irregular in their dividend payments or they never gave any dividends at all etc). What may be your recommendation (choosing a right company for investment) to a new investor in the capital market based on your findings and learning from this project?

Q: I honestly do not know what cumulative return or average periodic return say about a particular share. Could you please help me?

Ans: Let me use the example (Al Arafa Bank) I provided you as a sample. The cumulative return was 1944.38%. It means your investment grew nearly 2000 percent or 20 times in the past 10 years, indicating one taka of your investment grew to twenty taka in 10 years! Similarly periodic return of 194.44% means, nearly 200 percent or 2 times average growth every year!

Q: Sir, I am not sure about the DAD PART OF the dividend information regarding the year 1999 and 2000. How can I provide the exact date for these two years?

Ans: Unfortunately, the DADs (dividend announcement or declaration dates) for 99 and 2000 are not available. That's why we need to estimate those dates based on 2001 and 2002 DADs by taking the average of them. 

Q: All the price data follows month/date/year format, right? but DSE Monthly Review listed the last AGM as Date/month/year. We have to change only this date right?

Ans: When you insert a date in excel, instead of writing the date with slash sign (for example, 12/02/08) right in full format (for example, 12 feb 08), excel will take care of the rest.

Q: Sir, I am facing a problem regarding project. One of my assigned share is BIFC (Bangladesh Industrial Fin. com. Ltd.). The problem is in resource "02_DSE Monthly review dec2008", BIFC is not there. So how I will fill up "Basic" in Excel template?

Ans: It's there! It's BD. Industrial Finance Co under 'BANKS' sector. Please put a little more effort!!!

Q: Sir, I would like you to send me the files containing Company Monthly Review and Company Web Site 1 jan 2009. These two particular files which you have provided in the resource are not opening thus causing delaying in processing the project progress.

Ans: I think there is no problem in those files. These two particular files are in 'RAR' format, a compressed file format. You need to ‘un-rar’ them before you can use the files. For that you need to use RAR type of software (for example, winrar) which is freely available online. Use that software to open them and use the files. I have added a ‘winrar’ software free version in the resources (both lab and online) for your convenience.

Q: I am not sure of the term 1B:5 of B/R column. Will you please explain it sir?

Ans: 1B:5 means 1 bonus share against 5 shares which is equivalent to 20% bonus share. Similarly 1B:2 would mean 50% bonus share.

Q: Sir, if 1B:5 is 20% bonus issue. Then how do we calculate the bonus % for 1B:7 and 1B:14? The percentages are in decimals; however when the value is filled in the dividend cell it is automatically converted to a whole number, for e.g it changes from 14.28% to14%. Is this correct?

Ans: You are correct. 1B:7 and 1B:14 are equivalent to 14.29% and 7.14%. Don't bother about the auto-rounding. Formula will take decimals into consideration.

Q: I have problem in BIFC which has no dividends. In analysis it shows invalid & has no first issue price. Where do I put the beginning value? 

Ans: Please look at the dividend file carefully. BIFC announced following dividends

Cash Dividend of 15% on 15-04-07 and
Cash 10% & Stock 10%B on 09.04.2008.

Moreover, BIFC was listed with DSE in November 2006. So, you will not get any trading information before that. In the trading data table you will have no values from 1999 to 2005. Use "15-Nov-08" (as it is the first trading day for BIFC) closing price which is 189.75 (you can get it from price data excel file). Then put the other closing price values under that accordingly.

For the Auto-Calculation worksheet: As this stock started trading from 2006, you need to put the initial investment amount of 1,00,000 in 2006 (Cell No. B11), not earlier. Hope you will be able to get this right. 

Q: Sir, if the 3rd month from the cash dividend declared date is after Dec 2008 then what I should do as price data is not available after 2008 and that is beyond the investment period.

Ans: You may leave it blank if the DAD is in December 2008. Otherwise, you may use 30-December-2008 (or last trading date of December 2008) data as the 3RD Month data. Please DO NOT assign zero, because it would be a wrong information and would be a problem for auto-calculation.

Q: Sir, I am having some problem with the project. For Desh Garments last CP given is of 14-12-02. Should I take it as the end CP of DEC 2002?

Ans: Yes, you are correct. End of Dec closing price of a script in any year does not necessarily mean trading on the last day of December of that year. Your project requires you to pick the last closing price in a particular year. If a particular script was last traded on the 14th of Dec in 2002, then let it be. Use that to be the Year-end closing price. You may even find a script which was not at all traded in the month of December. In that case, the Year-end closing price might be the closing price of last trading day, even if it was in Nov or earlier. 

Q: Sir, Do I include D.A.D(9/17/2001), Cash (0), 3RDM(Dec)? 

Ans: For a zero/nil cash dividend, you don't need to put close price of the 3rd month. 

Q: Sir, I have seen the company listing information of UCBL on the DSE Website and it shows that they have declared a 30% Bonus issue for 2001 but I cannot find the declare date any where for it. So, I could not include the 30% bonus issue in the excel file for UCBL without that date.

Ans: The declaration date is right there in the dividend file! It's 30%B (2001) announcement date 05.08.2007. I don't know why/how you missed it! Announcement date is not important in case of stock dividend for our project. However, it's important for cash dividend.

Q: Are we just required to comment on the cumm. and average return for the various companies in the word file? Do I mail you both the excel and the word file (softcopies) only?

Ans: Exactly! You are required to discuss the findings and compare stock performances in the word file. You should email me six files: five excel files (one for each stock) and one word file with the discussion.

Q: What do "1B:4,1R:2", "5%(1B:20)" and "35%B,1R:2" mean? I know what individually 1B:4 means and what 30%B means, but i don't know what the "R" term means and how to interpret them together.

Ans: They mean the same thing together. For example, "1B:4,1R:2" means 1 bonus share against 4 shares (or 25% bonus share) and 1 right share for 2 shares (or 50% right share). When the companies announce this type of declaration, they also announce different record dates for bonus and right shares to be effective. To learn more you may browse through the news section of DSE website.

Q: What do you think about my stock .........? I am having this type of problem with it? What to do with it?

Ans: Please don't use the blog to ask me specific share related problem. In that case, email me directly. It's not practical to post solutions to hundreds of such individual stock related problems here. Hope you would understand. Thank you.

Extra Office Hours

I will try to be available in my office from 11 am to 1 pm on the 19th and on the 20th of April. You are welcome to see me if you have any problem/issue. Thanks.

+++++++Previous post++++++++++

I am planning to be in my office from 11 am to 1 pm on the 15th and on the 16th of April. You are welcome to see me if you have any problem/issue. Thanks.

+++++++Previous post++++++++++

I will be available in my office from 11 am to 1 pm on 13th of April. You are welcome to see me if you have any problem/issue. Thanks.

FIN254 Project for Spring 2009

Please download all the resource files from the project folder available within the FIN254 folder link above. Same resource files are also available on the resource drive accessible from the on-campus computer labs. Please follow the instructions available in a word document available along with the resource files. 

Send the completed project files (six files in total: five excel files for five assigned instruments and one word document file for the short report with your findings) to both of my email addresses (To: imran.edu@gmail.com, imran@northsouth.edu) as six attachments by the due date 19th of April, 2009 (Sunday). That means you may send your completed project earlier if you can finish early.

You should use the following format for the subject of your email (FIN254 Project 091; your name; id; section). Before sending me the email please recheck your data and files minutely. I won’t be able to accommodate your request of accepting a modified version next time. And please don’t send me multiple emails to make sure I get it!

Please wait at least one day for email acknowledgment from me as a confirmation of my receipt of your email. If you don’t receive my acknowledgment by one day then resend the email to me and notify my TA. Please keep checking your email frequently around that period because I will send you an email if I find significant problem in your work/files.

If you have any question then you may see me at my office or send me an email or post it in my blog. Please READ the above instructions carefully before sending your project as email attachments. Check your work carefully before sending it to me. I would not be able to accept a modified version second time.  

Thank you and wish you best of luck for the project.

Final Exam Schedule Announced!

Registrar's office announced the final exam schedule. My ones are as follows:-

ACT201 => 17-April-2009 (Friday) in SPZ631 at 8:00 am 

FIN254 => 22-April-2009 (Wednesday) in SPZ601 at 8:00 am

Best of luck.

A Q/A Session

Sir, in chapter-10 problem-13 it is said "the sausage system will save the firm $130,000 in pretax operating costs". Is this the EBIT? In problem-14 it is said "you will save $330,000 before taxes per year in order processing costs and you will be able to reduce working capital by $125,000 (this is a one time reduction)". Is the $330,000 the EBIT? Is the $125,000 the change in NWC at the end of the project?

For problem 13, we may use the “Tax Shield Approach” to calculate OCF. In that case, the given pretax OCF is just “Sales – Costs” part of the equation. We may also use the basic approach, OCF = EBIT + Depreciation - Taxes. In this case, given pre-tax OCF is actually “OCF + Taxes” leaving “EBIT + Depreciation” on the other side of the equation.

For problem 14, ‘saving $330,000 before taxes per year’ is actually referring to the pretax OCF, not EBIT. So, we solve this problem using similar approach as discussed above for problem 13. Accepting this project means that we will reduce NWC. This reduction in NWC is a cash inflow at Year 0. This reduction in NWC implies that when the project ends, we will have to increase NWC. So, at the end of the project, we will have a cash outflow to restore the NWC to its level before the project.

Sir, sometimes the correct IRR is something like 19.78% , and its very difficult to find out the correct figure as it is too time consuming by using trial and error method . Can we just give the approximate figure , would you deduct any marks for that . like suppose the correct IRR is 19.78% and if i write "IRR is 19.7% could be little higher than that."

Rounding 19.78% to 19.8% (instead of 19.7%) will do.

Sir, how do we calculate capital gains yield?

Capital gains yield is simply percentage change in price. For a stock, the capital gains yield will be the change in price divided by the original (purchase) price expressed in percentage. For example, suppose you purchased a share of ABC Corporation for $200 and later sold the share for $220. The capital gains yield for that investment would be = [(220-200)/200]x100 = 10%. Similarly, if you sell at a lower price (less than the purchase price), your capital gains yield would be negative.

Sir, in chapter-6 for problem 24 we use the periodic rate right? but for problem 25 should we use APR or EAR? unless it is stated in the question that we are comparing between two investments, we are supposed to use APR. is my concept correct?

Please see the answer to the following question. For all types of TVM calculations, we need APR to find out periodic interest rate. So, for both problems you need APR.

Sir, when we calculate the future or present value of an annuity and we need the annual rate of return, which rate do we have to use? APR or EAR?

For Time Value of Money (TVM) calculations we need to use periodic interest rate (not necessarily annual rate, it may be a monthly rate, or a quarterly rate depending on the situation). That means for annual periods (annual compounding) we need to use APR, for monthly periods (monthly compounding) we need to divide APR by 12 (if monthly rate is not given in the problem) to get monthly rate, and so on.

However, we need EAR to compare different investment alternatives.

Sir, I am having great difficulty understanding the rates of return. When it is said "with monthly compounding" or "compounded monthly" it is the APR right? We divide it by 12 to get the actual rate per month right? When it is said say 14% per month it is the actual monthly rate right? In the selected lecture notes that you have given us, on page 39, why is it FV sir? Should'nt it be PV?

Yes, you are right. The phrases “with monthly compounding” and “compounded monthly” mean the same thing. If an annual rate is given and it is not mentioned that it’s an effective rate, it’s always the annual percentage rate (APR). So, you devide that rate by the number of such periods in a year to get the periodic rate, just like you said. If a periodic rate is mentioned that’s the actual rate for that period.

In the daily compounding problem you are referring to, please notice that the amount $15,000 will be needed after 3 years (FUTURE VALUE) to buy a car and you want to calculate the amount of money you need to deposit today (PRESENT VALUE), so that at 5.5% APR based on a daily compounding it (today's deposit) would grow to your desired amount after 3 years.

Make-up Classes

Make-up class schedule of previously cancelled classes is as follows:

FIN254.5 => Make-up on the 7th of March, 2009 (Saturday)

ACT201.8 & ACT201.13 => Make-up on the 14th of March, 2009 (Saturday)

Class time & room numbers remain the same for all except for ACT201.13 (BTA430 instead of BTA400).

Thank you.

Cancellation of all classes!

Due to National Mourning Day, all classes of today (Sunday, 1st of March, 2009) have been cancelled as well.

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According to a notice by the Registrar's Office, all classes and exams of Wednesday, 25 February 2009 have been cancelled. Thus today's class of FIN254 of section 5 will not be held. Make-up class day will be announced later.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

An Announcement!

Due to unavoidable circumstances all undergraduate classes of Sunday, 1st February, 2009 will be held on Thursday, 5th February, 2009.

- A notice from the Registrar's Office

Spring 2009

This is to welcome all my students to a new semester - Spring 2009. You may download course outlines, assignments, other resources using the links shown above under the heading "Spring 2009 Folders".

Please check my blog from time to time for announcements and updates. You may use any 'comments' link found at the end of each post on this page to leave a comment, ask me a question, or share any academic or non-academic issue. If it is unique/personal in nature, please provide your email address so that I can contact you or give you a feedback. Otherwise, you may leave an anonymous comment.

For extra credit, please read the course outline (full version) thoroughly. Follow the instructions, given in the couse outline, carefully to send the filled up student profile excel file. You may download the student profile blank template using the "Common" link shown above.

I wish you all the very best for the semester. Thanks.

Sponsored Visit to Thailand!

My dear students:

The Royal Thai Embassy is planning a trip to Thailand for university students under a project called 'Education Thailand'. All necessary expenses would be covered by the Embassy. For more details download the attached.

Thanks.