HA1022 Principles of Financial Markets - Assignment Marking Guide Term 2 / 2014

HA1022 Principles of Financial Markets - Assignment Marking Guide

                                        Term 2 / 2014

Choose two (2) companies in the same industry and work on the criterion mentioned below: 

a)      Business Overview

b)      Risk

c)      Short Term Financial Policies of the business

d)     Current Capital Structure

e)      Current Dividend Policy

Recommendations

References

1)    Students need to clearly show the theoretical understanding of the above stated issues, defining them and using references where required.

2)    Further, students need to relate the theory to the companies selected by analysing the data and the stating as to how the companies are managing their Risk, Short Term Financial Policy, Current Capital Structure and their Current Dividend Policy.

Note: Students would be assessed as follows:

(1)   Banking Industry:  ANZ, Westpac

(2)   Insurance Industry:  IAG, QBE

(3)   Departmental Shop: Myer, David Jones

(4)   Mining Industry:  BHP, Rio Tinto

(5)   Airline: Qantas, Virgin Australia

(6)   Online: Carsales, Wotif

(7)   Supermarket: Woolowrths, IGA

(8)   Telecom: Telstra, Vodafone

(9)   Education: Navitas limited, Vocation Limited

HA1022 Principals of Financial Markets Assignment Guide

Fundamental Analysis has two types:

a)      Top Down, i.e. how is the economy as a whole going, think Macro economics.

§  What is the current interest rate?

§  What is current GDP etc?

§  http://www.rba.gov.au/

b)      Bottom Up, i.e. what is the companies current financial situation, think Micro economics

§  This is the ratios etc.

§  These need to be compared to the industry and company history.

§  All of the required information for calculation and often the actual ratio/number can be found on various websites on the internet.

§  http://www.investsmart.com.au/

When you are performing the fundamental analysis take a less is more approach. Select a few key performance measures then define each measure; explain what the measure is supposed to show and then what it is showing for your company.

These types of analysis are what I want you to do. Most (if not all) of this information is available on the internet. So it is just a matter of doing the research to find the information and then analysing this resulting information. If you are not sure what something means, there is always the class text or a little website called google.com.

You should also give a brief introduction of the company, its history, mission statement etc.

When writing the report, imagine that your audience are people that know nothing about finance or the financial markets. At each stage you will need to carefully explain what do are analysing and why. Do not think that just because your lecturer will know what this ratio means that you do not have to define it.