As discussed in our previous blog entry What Next?, taking advantage of the general market weakness over the last two days and a nearly 15% drop in Indian mining giant Sterlite Industries (SLT) today, I am starting a position in the company both in the model portfolio and my personal portfolio. I will use the closing price of the day to purchase 2,000 shares of Sterlite for the model portfolio. We added Sterlite to our watch list in January 2008 and I have been patiently waiting since then for an opportunity to get into this company.

As a subscriber pointed out this morning, the company has a market cap of $3.34 billion and is trading below the value of cash and short-term investments it holds even after taking out short-term and long-term debt. This is based on the March 2008 balance sheet available on Yahoo Finance. Looking at the balance sheet as of June 2008 on Google Finance, both current assets and total assets have gone up more than the increase in current liabilities and total liabilities. Please note that the financials on Google Finance are in Indian Rupees and you will need the exchange rate of $1=Rs48 to convert the numbers to dollars.

Last 5 posts by Asif Suria

• What Next? - October 28th, 2008
• Capitulation or Just Another Leg Down? - September 30th, 2008
• The Rules Of The Game Have Changed - September 21st, 2008
• Lehman Fails, The Last Act Begins - September 16th, 2008
• TowerStream Adds Prominent Clients, Revenue Jumps 53% - August 12th, 2008