The Code is the Design

Info on the remotely possible war . Coming to Satyam: First there was the cancelled bid to buy out the originally named Maytas companies Then the billion dollar claim from Upaid and the possibility that the two were related And finally, the world bank ban . [Update on Jan 7, 2009] Satyam Chairman resigned after admitting to falsifying accounts More information: 1. Indian Stocks Plunge Most in Two Months on Satyam Scandal 2. Satyam Accounting Scandal Erodes Confidence in India 3. NYSE halts trade in Satyam Computer until further notice

The only difference between Bonus Shares and Stock Splits is that for a Bonus share, there is no reduction in face value, which is a number of no real value anyway. Of course, if the company maintains its dividend yield as per par/face value even after the bonus, the stockholder stands to gain by getting more dividends later. But the stock holder gains nothing immediately from a bonus share because the EPS, Book value etc now get divided among the new shares too. So even though the market tends to react favourably to bonus share announcements, share prices tend to rise and the stockholder gets the impression of having received wealth, the reduction in quality of the share will eventually reflect in the market price of the share too. Rising prices at the time of announcement of bonus shares would, in fact, be a good time to exit one's position in the said stock. For more details on Bonus shares and splits, see the discussion here ; especially the post by the user "Agilent"

A good self explanatory link on Rights issues Hindalco's case “The ratio will now be three equity shares for every seven equity shares held” Assuming that the Rs 96 paid for the 3 issue shares adds to the book value along with with the book value of the 7 existing shares, the issue price seems very reasonable and the reaction of the market seems excessive. And at current prices, the stock seems to be selling below book value even assuming that the Rs 96 doesn't add to the book value.

For those wondering if there is an Indian counterpart to the SEC's EDGAR ; yes, there is. As of 27th December 2007, SEBI has decided to mandate filing through the new CFDS portal put in place jointly by BSE and NSE. Over time, other modes of sending public information to stock exchanges for compliance with clauses of Equity Listing Agreement will be dispensed with, including filing through EDIFAR . But financial data of more than 5 years is rare even on these official portals. Corporate websites with the most comprehensive historical earnings and dividend data were: Tata Steel [60 years of financial data] Tata Power Larsen & Toubro J B Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd Of other companies analyzed, the following have also provided useful data: BONGAIREFN HDFCBANK COSMOFILMS HINDALCO RUCHISOYA NMDC TATAMOTORS BHUSANSTL HDFC GAIL SESAGOA RELIANCE GRASIM ONGC BHEL Note that the presence of data in itself is not an indication to the quality of the stock. The quality of a stock