Glossary - B

Funds which aim to provide both growth and regular income as such schemes invest both in equities and fixed income securities in the proportion indicated in their offer documents.

An accounting statement of a company’s assets and liabilities, provided for the benefit of shareholders and regulators. It gives a snapshot, at a specific point of time, of the assets that the company holds and how the assets have been financed.

One hundredth of a percentage point. Basis points are used in currency and bond markets where the size of trades mean that large amounts of money can change hands on small price movements . Thus if the yield on a Treasury bill rose from 5.25% to 5.33% the change would have been eight basis points.

The benchmark index is a baseline indicator against which to measure market category performance.

A measure of the volatility of a stock relative to the market index in which the stock is included. A low beta indicates relatively low risk; a high beta indicates a high risk.

A negotiable certificate evidencing indebtedness - a debt security or IOU, issued by a company, municipality or government agency. A bond investor lends money to the issuer and, in exchange, the issuer promises to repay the loan amount on a specified maturity date. The issuer usually pays the bondholder periodic interest payments over the life of the loan

An evaluation of the possibility of default by a bond issuer, based on an analysis of the issuer's financial condition and profit potential. Bond rating services are provided by, among others, CRISIL and Fitch.

The net amount shown in the books or in the accounts for any asset, liability or owners’ equity item. In the case of a fixed asset, it is equal to the cost or revalued amount of the asset less accumulated depreciation. Also called carrying value. The book value of a firm is its total net assets, i.e. the excess of total assets over total liabilities

A member of a Stock Exchange who acts as an agent for clients and buys and sells shares on their behalf in the market. Though strictly a stock broker is an agent, yet for the performance of his part of the contract both in the market and with the client, he is deemed as a principal, a peculiar position of dual responsibility.

A rising market with abundance of buyers and relatively few sellers