Thursday, December 30, 2010

Finance Glossary

Circuit Breaker:
A system to curb excessive speculation in the stock market, applied by the stock exchange authorities, when the index spurts or plunges by more than 5%. Trading is then suspended for some time to let the market cool down. Although introduced in November 1992, it was used for the first time in the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday, 9 March 1993 when the sensex declined by more than 5% from the opening level, i.e. from 2451.20 to 2318.26.

Growth Shares:
Shares of fast – growing companies which show increasing and higher than average earnings per share than the industry.

Clone Fund:
A new fund, set up by a company or corporation, which has affinity with existing funds. Funds of new schemes floated by the Life Insurance Corporation, for example, would be regarded as clone funds.

Godfather Offer:
A takeover offer so attractive that the target company cannot refuse. Usually takeovers result in a change of the management team. Shareholders too, sometimes have reasons to assume that the takeover will serve some ulterior motive of the predator (such as asset stripping, transfer of reserves) rather than uphold their interest. A godfather offer has none of these nasty implications.