15 July 2011

The Explainer: Stock Market - Part I

Last week, I started 'The Explainer' - a feature on explaining important political and economic issues. Initially I was skeptical of your response; however, your response to the first article on FDI was overwhelming and extremely positive. Thank you!
The Explainer this Friday will focus on 'Stock Markets'. In the space below, I have explained a lot of stock market terms, like dividend and demat accounts. I will try to explain these complicated terms in a layman's language.

What is the basic difference between a Private Company and Public Company?
In a private limited company, the minimum number of people required to start the business is two (2); in other words, you require a minimum of two people to contribute to the capital. In a public limited company, seven (7) people are required to start the business.
As for the maximum members who can contribute to the capital of a private company, it is 50. In the case of a public limited company, it is unlimited; in other words, a public company can have lakhs of people contributing to the capital base. For example, Reliance Industries, a public limited company, has more than two million shareholders.
In a very simple way, the people who start the company are called promoters.

What is a 'Share'?
The total capital of a company is divided into a large number of units. Each unit is given an equal value; such value is called par value (also called face value). Each such unit (with an equal value) is called a ‘share’. In short, a share is a unit of capital.
Example:
Let us say that you and six of your friends wish to start a public limited company, with Rs10,00,00,000 (Rs Ten Crore). Now you do not wish to invest a lot of your own money in the company because there is an inherent risk associated with it (like you may lose your entire investment if the company goes bankrupt!). So follow a simple principle of investment: use OPM – Other Peoples’ Money!
To make it easy for people to invest in small parts, you divide the total capital of Rs10 crore into 1 crore units, each with an equal value of Rs10. In this example, Rs10 crore is the total capital of the company, the total number of shares is 1 crore, and Rs10 is the par value (also called face value) of each share of the company.
The company now comes out with a prospectus, asking people to subscribe to the capital of the company. Let us say, I have bought 2000 shares of your company, at Rs10 each, for a total investment of Rs20,000. So now I have become a shareholder of your company; in other words, a co-owner of your company. 

What is Dividend?
There are different names for the returns gained on various kinds of investments. For example, when you invest money in a Fixed Deposit, the return is called ‘interest’. Similarly when you invest in shares, the return on such investment is called dividend. 
Let me open this up. A dividend is that part of the profit that is distributed among shareholders. Each share-holder will receive her share of the dividend in ‘proportion’ to her share holding (as a part of the total shares issued). In other words, dividend can be termed as distributed profit.
Recall that I had purchased 2000 shares. Now if the company declares a dividend of 20% on the face value of the share, then the dividend would be Rs2 per share. So, the total dividend I would receive would be Rs4000 (2000 shares x 2 per share).
  
What is a Stock Exchange?
A stock exchange is a marketplace where the shares of public limited companies are bought and sold. In India, the two main stock exchanges are the National Stock Exchange (NSE; India's largest) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE; Asia's oldest, established 1875).

What comprises a Stock Market?
There are two major components in a stock market: primary market and secondary market.

What is a Primary Market?
The primary market can also be called capital market. It is a market in which newly issued shares are sold and purchased, via application. Hence, the primary market is also known as ‘new issues market’.
You must have seen ads of companies coming out with new issue of shares: in other words, these companies are raising fresh capital and are asking members of the public to buy shares (by subscribing to the capital) at the quoted par value and thus become shareholders.

What is a Secondary Market?
In this kind of a market, you deal in shares which already exist. In other words, it is a market in which previously issued shares are traded. Trading in such shares is done through a stock exchange.

Can you buy / sell shares on a stock exchange directly?
No. One needs membership of a stock exchange to be able to buy / sell shares on a stock exchange. The membership of a stock exchange comes with a very high price tag; hence it is difficult for common people like you and me to directly trade shares on a stock exchange.

So, how do you buy / sell shares?
We can buy / sell shares by approaching a stock broker, who is already a registered member of a stock exchange. There are a large number of stock brokers in the market (like Motilal Oswal and Anand Rathi) who can help us buy / sell shares.
Recall again that I had bought 2000 shares. Now if I wish to sell these shares, I need to have two things: (1) approach a stock broker to find a buyer and (2) own a demat account.
The easy part is that a stock broker can help me find a buyer on the stock market and help me dispose of my shares.

What is a demat account?
Demat stands for dematerialisation. In the past, when you purchased shares, you received hard / physical copies of certificates as proof of ownership of shares (just like a fee receipt or a fixed deposit receipt).
However, in order to avoid legal hassles like stealing of share certificates (and tax transparency) and administrative problems like crumpled share certificates, demat accounts were introduced.
A demat account can be opened with a bank or a stock broking house, for which the bank charges a fee. It works like a normal bank account or like your email account. In the most basic way, when you purchase shares, an electronic entry is entered in your demat account that mentions such a purchase. Similarly when you sell shares, another entry is made which reflects such a sale. In other words, a hard copy of your demat account will look like the passbook of your savings account.

Note: Whenever I write the next part of this article (if it is not on next Friday), I will focus on stock brokers, like bulls and bears and a few more stock market terms like wash sales.
(Please select your reaction to this post in the footer below. Thank you.)

72 comments:

Sandeep Reddy said...

Cool sir... But i am little bit confused with Demat account :-/

suresh said...

nice info

Hari... said...

Every one can understand easily,even if they don't have any knowledge on Stock Markets ... :)

piyush483 said...

thanks sir....these info was really usefull 4r me....i was unkwn of all these terms nw i clearly understood the terms....ur the best sir!!!!

Raja said...

thanks for this information...it helped me to understand the basics of stock market...

shravan said...

Thank you very much sir. It is really very helpul for us...

Ratnadeep said...

Thank you Very Much Sir.... That Was Very Easy...to understand!! Technically.

Deepali said...

Very Informative..a very lucid explanation..

kanishka said...

thank you sir...very informative...waitin for ur next article on stock brokers

kanishka said...

and please explain bout harshad mehtas scam....nd sumothr theories where people r fooled

Ajay Nath said...

a very important and useful information explained in a very simple language... gud one Bharat...

madhu praveen said...

thank u sir ..!!!

ashok said...

thank you sir.. it was really good...
but a bit confused with Demat account.

3gp Movies for u said...

sir but demat account is only needed if we want register our name in sebi and we don't need a share broker if we have it we can directly purchase and sell it

Aashu said...

Very informative....

Ashvin
http://loveanduncertaintiesinlife.blogspot.com/

Nish said...

Crystal clear...!!!

Chaithanya said...

i think no one can explain more clearly....!

sudeep said...

very informative sir

also sir please provide the information on the minimum number of shares one can buy or sell at a time.

thank you sir

shyam said...

it's informative sir

srinidhi kotha said...

simple and excellent briefing ....It was very useful...thank you sir!!!

RAHUL said...

THANK U SIR

Ravi P said...

Sir, not even wikipedia could put it in such a simple way. We know how much you enjoy sharing your ideas, we take it equally :) Thank you Mr. Walking wiki ;) It was very useful...

goutham said...

way of your explanation is simpler sir
thank you for posting such valuable info

Bharadwaja said...

The Hard copy of Demat Account looks like a passbook of my savings account???? Oh Man,it was superbly explained....It was so simple to understand....I knew a little before about stocks and stock market so the way u explained things looked awesome to read...

venkat said...

really good one sir .. thank u sir ... i learnt few basics in stock market

Hari pramod said...

really useful for a student who knows nothing about the basics.
Thank u sir.

Anonymous said...

Good information for a lay man...

triveni samineni said...

good information sir
used a simple language which can be understandable to every one.
especially,a person like me who are not from the English medium.

Anonymous said...

thank u very much sir

kakarla said...

thank you sir

Abhinav said...

Thanks for the information.Is there any book or reference material available on the tools to understand and interpret the stock markets and investment techniques.

Anonymous said...

thank you sir, you make me so easy to understand about stock market......earlier, i wasn't able to understand the stock market but now m having a knowledge of the market....thanks a lot..

Anonymous said...

Sirji tussi gr8 Ho ji

Anonymous said...

Really Helpful!

Anonymous said...

Amazing Blog.. Very nicely explained.

Unknown said...

The post is written in very a good manner and it entails many useful information for me. I appreciated what you have done here. I am always searching for informative information like this. Thanks for sharing with us.

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Anonymous said...

Thank you for using lay man language

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Anonymous said...

This is some great writing for a common man

Sock tips said...

This post is so informative and makes a very nice image on the topic in my mind. It is the first time I visit your blog, but I was extremely impressed. Keep posting as I am gonna come to read it everyday! Stock tips

Anonymous said...

great work Sir

Abhilasha said...

Awesome!! I've tried searching for this in simple words..My search ended here..Thanks a lot

Unknown said...

great article,in layman's language

Anonymous said...

Sir,I wish i cud be your student.Thank you.

santu....bablu said...

a brush up of basics..thank u sir

Unknown said...

Sir, not even wikipedia could put it in such a simple way. We know how much you enjoy sharing your ideas, we take it equally :) Thank you Mr. Walking wiki ;) It was very useful..

Money Creators said...

thanks for sharing nice post & blog
best of luck

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surender reddy said...

thanks for sharing info of such a pulchritude

Anonymous said...

very informative in layman words....thank you sir

Anonymous said...

u r a simple text book for a layman Mr.Bharat... Vry easily understandable.. I completely depend on ur website for any kind of doubts.. Thanks a lot for this article and i appreciate ur efforts ..

Dividend said...

Thank you for sharing this work with me but I am the best of the world. Thank you very much for sharing it but I am the best of the world mate.. A powerful site and also a good blog with nice articles as they are very much related to every other particular subject matter

Anonymous said...

Nice one sir.
I have a doubt. When a company issues new shares does it reflect in change in face value of already existing share holders?

Unknown said...

nice work monsieur! merci!

Anonymous said...

Little confuse abt demat account.

Anonymous said...

Much Informative!! Explained in very basic terms. Really helpful!

Unknown said...

i had a little phobia when i began to learnt about stock exchange.....but now i feel very confident about it after reading this :)it was very simple,informative and thaq u so much

prasheed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Riti said...

ha!! i dint know learning about stock market could be interesting at all....but this is awesome!! :)

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Anonymous said...

Thank you very much Bharat sir...Finally I understood the Stock market mistery...:)

Anonymous said...

very informative.

Anonymous said...

sir, your articles are always amazing.please throw some light on how trading is done..thanks in advance

Unknown said...

Very informative sir.Thank you!

Unknown said...

Sir Very nice. briefly explained with simple language. Few queries for me.
1. Public limited company is different from govt company right?
2.In stock exchange private limited companies will not participate? Because u clearly mentioned that buying/selling of shares of public limited companies. Please resolve my doubts when ever u r free

Somya said...

Such lucid explanation to terms that haunted me. I am a total novice to the field of business and while reading the economic times, these terms troubled me a lot. finally a solution!!Thank you sir

kailash said...

Everybody could know simply, even if they do not have any information on Share Markets

kailash said...

Everybody could know simply, even if they do not have any information on Share Markets

how to start trading in shares said...

Great article, but I do solicit for more market information that will further strengthen the power of forecast over time. I do hope to read further and extend it to others. Keep it up.

letitbe said...

I found your blog very informative. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.