The SF Chron has a list of seven good, lesser-known sites for online investing advice and info.

Invest in Value: Benjamin Graham, considered by many to be the architect of fundamental analysis, coined the term “intrinsic value,” which he defined as the present value of a company’s expected future cash flows. He then looked for stocks trading at a discount to their intrinsic value, which he termed the “margin of safety.”

The bigger the margin of safety, the better. Invest in Value ( www.investinvalue.com) calculates the margin of safety for most stocks. You can use it two ways. Either enter a ticker to see the margin of safety for a stock that you pick, or use the screener to see a list of high-margin-of-safety stocks.

TickerSpy: Have you ever puzzled over a stock’s big up or down move that’s seemingly without reason? Usually such a move is triggered by a news report or analyst upgrade or downgrade that you didn’t see. You can usually find the news or analysts rating changes that you missed on TickerSpy ( www.tickerspy.com). The site depends on its users to post links to relevant stories about each stock. Surprisingly, that strategy works. TickerSpy doesn’t replace Yahoo, my favorite source for news headlines about my stocks, but it’s good for filling in the gaps.

321energy: As we’ve seen in recent months, energy prices affect everything. Successful investing requires Read the rest of this entry »

In its Credit Policy, the RBI has hiked the CRR by 25 bps to 8.25%. It has left the repo, reverse repo rates unchanged. The RBI aims at 4-4.5% inflation going forward. It is attempting to bring down the inflation to 5.5% in FY09.

The RBI stance is very clear. It has made stabilizing inflation or price stability the first goal. That is the change in the stance. It is a slight change in language. But it is emphatic that price stability will be the major goal and the entire monetary and interest rate environment will accord highest priority to price stability and well anchored expectations and then financial market stability and then conducive to growth.

Market cheers the RBI’s credit policy

BSE : 17415.40 : Up 399.44 : 2.35%
NSE : 5189.25 : Up 99.60 : 1.96%

In much the same way that a resume displays your work experience to a prospective employer, a credit report provides prospective creditors (and in some cases employers and insurers too) with a detailed picture of your credit history. And like a resume, your credit report can influence whether you will receive what you are applying for. Ideally, your credit report is an accurate, up-to-date reflection of your credit history.

CIBIL - India’s first credit information bureau- is a repository of information, which contains the credit history of commercial and consumer borrowers. CIBIL provides this information to its Members in the form of credit information reports

CIBIL is a composite Credit Bureau, which caters to both commercial and consumer segments. The Consumer Credit Bureau covers credit availed by individuals while the Commercial Credit Bureau covers credit availed by non-individuals such as partnership firms, proprietary concerns, private and public limited companies, etc.

CIBIL credit report for an individual at present is not shared. They are planning to do it once the RBI comes up with guidelines in this respect, credit scores will be available to the individuals.

Read more @ CIBIL

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sent a letter to Yahoo’s board of directors this morning threatening to take the company’s offer to buy Yahoo for $31 a share directly to shareholders if directors don’t reach a deal within the next three week. 

Microsoft has earlier bid for yahoo on Feb 11 2008. The Yahoo shareholders rejected Microsoft’s bid, after which Microsoft has threatened to take the issue to the shareholders. Senior executives from Microsoft and Yahoo have reportedly met twice during the past few months, but have not entered into meaningful talk.

Yahoo has tried and failed to find an alternative to Microsoft’s offer that would substantially increase Yahoo’s value, including potential deals with Time Warner and News Corp. Ballmer warned that Microsoft would lower its offer if the deal is not done by April 26. 

Positive Pointers

- Excise duty on small cars, two and three wheelers reduced from 16% to 12%
Small car prices to drop by Rs 8000 - 16000 and bikes by Rs 1000 - 1800

- Custom duty on Set-Top Box components removed
May result in a drop in STB prices across IPTV, DTH and cable digital TV

- Tax relief on premium paid for parents Medical cover

- Tax filing date extended to September 30th

- Payment of Rent
An employee availing HRA can claim exception which is the least
of 50% of basic pay (40% for non metros) or the actual HRA or
rent paid in excess of 10% of basic pay

- Interest on Education Loan
Interest paid on loan taken for higher studies is exempt from tax for a
maximum of eight successive yrs. There is no limit for the amount
eligible for exemption

- Interest on Housing Loan
The interest paid upto 1.5 L on a home loan can be deducted from taxable income.
In Joint ownerships, both can claim deduction up to 1.5 L

Negative Pointers

- Short- Term Capital gains tax hiked to 15% from 10%
Profit margins of day traders and short-term players will be effected

- STT can no more be Claimed as Income Tax Rebate
STT is now like any other deductible expenditure

- PAN Card made Mandatory
It is required for personal loans, insurance and deposits.

- Excise duty of 1% on mobile phones imposed
Duty on phones costing between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500 will rise by Rs 10 and Rs 15

Personal Income tax rates:

• Standard deduction general: Rs. 1,50,000
• Standard deduction women: Rs. 1,80,000
• Standard deduction senior citizen: Rs. 2,25,000

Tax Slab:

• upto Rs. 1,50,000 - nil
• Rs. 1,50,000 - Rs. 3,00,000 - 10%
• Rs. 3,00,000 - Rs. 5,00,000 - 20%
• Above 5,00,000 - 30%

Further reading