Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services research report on Axis bank suggests a target price of Rs.1353 over one year. At the current level, the valuation seems very attractive and hence, the ‘buy’ is recommended. The stock is currently traded in the range of Rs.850.

During the past one month, the stock price is down 11.9% as against the decline of 8.4% in the Bankex and a drop of 5.9% in the Sensex. It seems that the correction in the stock is highly unwarranted it continues to be Geojit BNP Paribas's top pick.

Here are some more analysis to back that recommendation.

Manshu of OneMint shares why he continues to stay invested in stocks even while the stock markets is going topsy turvy.

He believes that companies will continue to exist and make profits many many years down the line, and as long as he invest in companies that don’t go bankrupt and with money that I won’t need in a hurry, he should be fine.

Read the full post

Risk is a part of the investment process and we all need to be aware of the risks of investing in stock markets. We can start with having a measure of these risks with the help of beta.

With the help of beta we can approximately tell how much a particular stock will move if we know how much the whole stock market is going to move. Thus, beta tells us what the volatility is in a particular stock with respect to movements in the stock market. Beta is also referred to as financial elasticity or correlated relative volatility.

Definition - "The Beta Coefficient in terms of finance and investing is a measure of the systematic risk of a stock or portfolio. It quantifies relative volatility in relation to the overall market, which is defined as having a beta of 1".

This is an odd post to write when markets are dropping by the day. Cross posted from my blog. However I think that at times like these, it is important to remind ourselves of the basics so that one does not get overwhelmed by the negativity and fear around us.

So coming back to the question – Why do stocks go up? Well it depends on who you ask.

If you ask a day trader, he or she is likely to say that it is due to volumes, the day’s news and finally due to sentiments. If you ask a technical analyst, the reason could range from the ordinary (volumes, patterns etc) to the esoteric (Elliot wave theory, Fibonacci sequence etc). If you ask the lay person, they would usually have no answer for it (as most consider the stock market to be nothing more than a casino).