Health/Life Insurers and Indin Companies ADRs

I was doing some research on health and life insurers as well as ADRs of Indian companies and found that there are so many great (and to some extent speculative buys) which could provide returns of 50-100% in next 18-24 months.

Here are some of the recommendations:

• Cigna (CI). This provided one of the best buying opportunity when it traded near 10-11 on 10/31. Later in the day it recovered all the way above 16. However it still provides a good opportunity at 15-16 with potential of reaching 24
• Hartford Financial (HIG): This stock got killed last week. Investors are scared that this is another AIG in the making. However there are few differences - most important being HIG is not playing in CDS market similar to what AIG had. So while its investments in financial sector got impacted in a major way, its book value is still above $40. At $10, it provides a great (but highly speculative) opportunity with potential of going above $20 (or going down below $5). Invest with caution !
• MET, PRU, PFG: All of these traditional insurance companies are great buys
• Lastly: ING at $9 and BSC (Barclays) at $10 provide great opportunity in banking sector now that they have done all necessary capital raising.

Indian Companies (ADR):

Following companies have already jumped by 50% in last two weeks but still provide a great value for investments in next 18-24 months. Most of following companies are owned by big conglomerates and have been in operation for more than 20 years. Normally in India, I had not seen such companies go BK and hence I have high confidence that these would not only survive but proper. Indian owners are typically very conservative in their cash management and hence we will not see repeat of Lehman, AIG kind of explosions

• Sterlite (SLT) at $6
• Tata Motors (TTM) at $5.5
• Wipro (WIT) at $7.5
• Infosys (INFY) at $27
• ICICI Bank (IBN) at $16

This time could provide one of the best times to invest in great companies at sale prices !

Have a good weekend !

Obama wins !

Now that we are in final weekend before the historic elections, let me predict that Obama wins the election and would be 44th President of USA. He would win more than 300 electoral votes and would take couple of RED states which were won by Bush in 2004.

So now that President is decided, let's see what would happen in congress.

In house, democrats would increase majority by additional 20 seats and in Senate they will take additional few seats but would fall short of 60 seats. This would be good so that democrats don't have blank check and republicans can put some checks and balances in senate. Democrats majority in Senate could go in 55-58 range.

Markets would react cautiously till new new secretaries for important cabinet posts are announced. However most probably we had seen the bottom 2 weeks back

Have a good weekend !