Investors have been lukewarm to the FMCG and pharma sectors. But the future looks brighter than the immediate past.

The booming infrastructure and manufacturing sectors have helped these multinationals maintain their impressive standing.

Despite the hype (and paranoia) around it, retail on D-street remains a one-stock story—that of Pantaloon.

Providing financial services to loaded Indian consumers is cool. What’s even cooler is distributing financial products— and every bank and broker worth its net worth is aiming for a slice of the estimated Rs 20,000-crore pie.

Before the Stock market boom and until unit linked insurance policies (ULIPs) came on the scene, money-back policies were preferred by buyers who planned for the various milestones in their lives.

The stock market has scaled unprecedented heights this year; the bellwether BSE Sensex has shot up from 14,000 to 19,000 in 10 months.

Nilesh Khare, an accounts executive, till recently had little knowledge about the existence of bulls, bears and other creatures that prowl the Street. But last fortnight when the benchmark index on the Bombay Stock Exchange kissed the 17,000 mark, he decided it was time to step into the world of investing.

When V. Jayaprakash, 44, was driving down to work on his two-wheeler, somebody suddenly cut across the road, forcing him to brake hard. But in avoiding the person, Jayaprakash’s vehicle skidded and he fell and broke his nose.

There’s no telling where the Sensex will be by the time this article hits the stands—given the multiple 1,000 point jumps the indices have demonstrated of late. Stock market forecasting at the best of times has been tricky business.

In less than two years, Wipro’s Azim Premji has snapped up 11 different companies, mostly abroad. Why is the tech czar in a tearing hurry? It’s all part of his grand plan to make the soaps-to-software Wipro a truly global corporation, write Venkatesha Babu and Rahul Sachitanand.