Sector
Market basicsA group of companies sharing an economic activity and its drivers.
In plain terms
Each sector has two or three numbers that actually matter, and they differ in every case.
1492 terms
Glossary
Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
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Sector classification
Fundamental analysisThe administrative grouping of listed companies into industries by an index provider or exchange.
In plain terms
A label, not an economic statement. Two companies in one sector can share nothing but the word.
Sector exposure
Risk & psychologyThe share of a portfolio's total open risk concentrated in a single sector.
In plain terms
Four banks and two NBFCs are not six positions. They are one bet on Indian credit conditions, and a single RBI decision stops all of them out in the same session.
Sector rotation
Technical analysisThe tendency of money to move between sectors as the economic cycle and rates change.
In plain terms
A sector moving from laggard to leader is more useful than one that has already led for a year.
Business driver
Fundamental analysisThe external factor that most determines a sector’s fortunes.
In plain terms
Rates for banks, the rupee for IT, crude for paints. Write down what hurts a company before buying it.
Direct assignment
Fundamental analysisAlso called: Portfolio assignment
The outright sale of a loan portfolio to a buyer — often a bank meeting its priority sector obligations — with the seller retaining a prescribed minimum share of every loan and continuing to service them.
In plain terms
Where the transfer qualifies, the loans leave the balance sheet and the future spread is recognised now. The borrower never notices: the same branch, the same collections, a different owner of the interest.
Factsheet
Market basicsA monthly document disclosing a fund’s holdings, sector mix, turnover and expense ratio.
In plain terms
Free, two pages, and it answers everything a star rating cannot.
Industry growth
Fundamental analysisThe rate at which a whole sector is expanding.
In plain terms
The escalator. Standing still on it still gets you upstairs, and it is not climbing.
PSU
Market basicsPublic Sector Undertaking — a company in which the government is the controlling shareholder.
In plain terms
The promoter is also the policymaker, employer and often the largest customer.
Comparative analysis
Fundamental analysisEvaluating two similar businesses against the same set of questions.
In plain terms
It controls for the sector and market factors neither of you can judge, leaving the part that is about the businesses.
Dunning-Kruger effect
Risk & psychologyThe tendency for confidence to be highest at low levels of competence, before the scope of the subject becomes visible.
In plain terms
Why the people most at risk in a new sector are those who have just learned enough to find it interesting.
Government grant
AccountingAssistance from government in return for compliance with conditions relating to a company’s operating activities, accounted for under Ind AS 20.
In plain terms
Recognised only when compliance and receipt are both reasonably assured. The standard permits more than one presentation for income-related grants, which is precisely why two companies in the same sector can show the same benefit in different places and both be right.
Minimum public shareholding
Regulation & taxAlso called: MPS
The requirement under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules that a listed company keep at least 25% of its shares with the public, a shortfall being corrected within twelve months through routes SEBI specifies.
In plain terms
A seller acting on a legal deadline rather than a view on value, and the gap is a subtraction anyone can do from the quarterly shareholding pattern. Listed public sector companies have repeatedly been given extended timelines that no private issuer would get.
Peer comparison
Fundamental analysisAssessing a company against direct competitors rather than in isolation.
In plain terms
Choose peers carefully — two companies in one nominal sector often do very different things.
Piercing line
Technical analysisA bullish two-candle pattern in which price gaps down after a red candle and then closes back above the midpoint of that candle's body.
In plain terms
The decline accelerated at the open and was fully absorbed — buyers were waiting for the gap. Indian equities gap often because the market is shut for 17.5 hours, so check whether the whole sector gapped before reading emotion into it.