London School of Commerce

MODULE TITLE: - FINANCIAL MARKETS AND INVESTMENT ANALYSIS

PROGRAMME: MBA
SEMESTER: Stage 3
ACADEMIC YEAR PERIOD: August-November 2014 Semester
LECTURER SETTING ASSESSMENT: - Dr K V Shenai
DATE ASSESSMENT SET AND LOADED ON TO STUDENT PORTAL: DATE ASSESSMENT TO BE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTTED: SUBMISSION METHOD/MODE: - Online via turnitin
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Assessment Type:Individual coursework worth 100 % of the module

Assignment Question:

You will be given a company on the main London Stock Exchange. Discuss briefly the nature
of activities of the company and its position in relation to the sector in an opening introductory
page.
(a) Using weekly data of the last one year (31 Aug 2013- 1Sep 2014), estimate the market
model for the share and interpret the outputs of these regressions.
(30 marks)
(b) What is the yield curve? Discuss the main theories of the yield curve. Critically appraise
the various possible uses of the yield curve in finance.
(20 marks)
(c) Using the information from (a), (b) above, value the price of the share of your company as
at 1 Sep 2014 using at least three alternative valuation techniques.
(15 marks)
(d) Critically evaluate your results in (c) and with reference to academic literature and
empirical research, advise which method of valuation you find appropriate for your company
and make a buy, sell or hold recommendation on the company.
(30 marks)
Good clear presentation, referencing, spelling and grammar.

(5 marks)

Your individual assignment:

Gives you an opportunity to apply some of learning from the module to your
chosen company.

Assessment requirements:

The submission of your work should be organized and clearly structured.

The overall word limit is 2,000 words: this is about 8 A4 pages (size 12, times
new roman, 1.5 line spacing). The appendices will include a reference list and
the weekly data on prices of the share the sector and the entire market. The
word count must appear on the top right hand corner of page 1 of your
assignment. The pages must be numbered in the bottom right hand corner. You
name can appear in the assignment at the footer.
Indicate the sources of information and literature review by including all the
necessary citations and references adopting the Harvard Referencing system.
Please note that this is an individual assignment and the policy of the University
on Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct applies.
Students who have been found to have committed acts of Plagiarism are
automatically considered to have failed the entire module.
Plagiarism involves taking someone elses words, thoughts, ideas or essays from
online essay banks and trying to pass them off as your own. It is a form of
cheating which is taken very seriously.
Marks will be deducted for poor presentation and inadequate
referencing.
All workings must be shown.

Assignment Structure:

Introduction.
The context of your chosen listed company.
Attempts at parts (a), (b) and (c).
with reference to academic literature, critical discussion of your findings in (a),
(b) and (c) and the usefulness of the concepts of market efficiency, portfolio
theory and the CAPM, alternative valuation techniques.
o References and bibliography; the Harvard style of referencing should be
followed (see below)
o Appendix data on this may include extracts of the relevant financial
statements/information of
the chosen listed company.

Harvard Referencing
The structure of a citation under the Harvard referencing system is the authors
surname, year of publication, and page number or range, in parentheses, as
illustrated in the Smith example near the top of this article.
The page number or page range is omitted if the entire work is cited.

The authors surname is omitted if it appears in the text. Thus we may

say: Jones (2001) revolutionized the field of trauma surgery.

Two or three authors are cited using and or &: (Deane, Smith, and
Jones, 1991) or (Deane, Smith & Jones, 1991). More than three
authors are cited using et al. (Deane et al. 1992).

An unknown date is cited as no date (Deane n.d.). A reference to a

reprint is cited with the original publication date in square brackets
(Marx [1867] 1967, p. 90).

If an author published two books in 2005, the year of the first (in the
alphabetic order of the references) is cited and referenced as 2005a,
the second as 2005b.

A citation is placed wherever appropriate in or after the sentence. If it

is at the end of a sentence, it is placed before the period, but a citation
for an entire block quote immediately follows the period at the end of
the block since the citation is not an actual part of the quotation itself.

Complete citations are provided in alphabetical order in a section

following the text, usually designated as Works cited or
References. The difference between a works cited or references
list and a bibliography is that a bibliography may include works not
directly cited in the text.

All citations are in the same font as the main text.

Examples
Examples of book references are:
Smith, J. (2005a). Dutch Citing Practices. The Hague: Holland
Research Foundation.
Smith, J. (2005b). Harvard Referencing. London: Jolly Good
Publishing.

In giving the city of publication, an internationally well-known city (such as London,

The Hague, or New York) is referenced as the city alone. If the city is not
internationally well known, the country (or state and country if in the U.S.) are given.
Examples of journal references are:
Smith, John Maynard. The origin of altruism, Nature 393, 1998, pp.
639-40.

Bowcott, Owen. Street Protest, The Guardian,October 18, 2005,

accessed February 7, 2006.

Module learning outcome: The set coursework will cover the following learning outcomes of
the module, while the remaining will be covered in the classlectures
Learning Outcomes:
Discuss the concepts underpinning the role of interest rates and markets,
including their term structure and the wider implications in a global context
Critically evaluate the most appropriate sources for financing, how to raise it,
and what are the conditioning factors within localised and global market
contexts which need to be considered when taking decisions on these matters
Evaluate, appraise and critically discuss the efficient market hypothesis and
portfolio theory and the manner in which these may be mapped against case
study examples and models
Analyse, discuss and form reflective judgements on how markets transfer
funds and risk between people and the global, individualised, ethical and
contemporary issues which contribute to this area of debate
Demonstrate a critical awareness of the importance of research in evaluating
the evolution of investment analysis

Marking scheme: August 14, CMET FMIA assignment

Part

(a) good write up on company and

its position in the sector; proper
interpretation of the F statistic,
R^2 , alpha, beta, p values on the
market model regressions

Marks
awarded/
allocated
---/30

(b) Definition of the yield curve;

discussion of at least three main
theories
of the yield curve; critical
appraisal on the various possible uses
of the yield curve in finance.

----/20

(c) computation of the value of the

share using at least three
alternative methods.

----/15

(d). Critical evaluation of results in (c) and

with reference to academic literature and
empirical research, advising which method
of valuation is appropriate for the allocated
company.

----/30

----/5
(f) good clear presentation, referencing,
spelling and grammar.

Total

Drshenai/aug 2014

----/100

Marker Comments