Interest Rate Sensitive Stocks & Sectors List

Details about the List of Interest Rate Sensitive Stocks & Sectors and how their stock performance is impacted by interest rates
In this article, we will talk about the list of stocks and the sectors which have a direct impact on the stock price movement based upon the interest rate changes.
In our past article, How Interest rates affect stock prices, we have explained the how the share prices move in case of interst rate changes - the article carries quite a few good examples for anyone to understand the share market performance and its interest rates dependency.
Continuing further, our focus in this article will be to highlight only those stocks, shares and industry sectors, which are heavily dependent on interest rate price fluctuations. So let's begin with the list of Interest rates dependent stocks and shares.

List of stocks and sectors with dependency on interest rate changes

First, let us look at the root cause of this topic - why should you worry about any share, stock or industry sector being dependent on interest rates? Basically, its your money. You are investing it in stocks and shares, and acros various industry sectors. The returns generated by fluctuating share prices depend upon lots of micro and macro-economic factors and interest rates is one of the prime factors for that. Hence, it is good for any individual trader or investor to know about dependency of stock prices and their sensitivity to interest rate changes. So let's start with the list.

The first on the list of Interest Rate Sensitive Stocks & Sectors is the Banks and Financial Industry Stocks, for obvious reasons. Now, it sounds obvious to keep banks and financial institutes at the topmost position, but in my personal opinion it is something that needs to be looked upon properly.
Banks work on simple principle - collect money from depositors in form of savings (at a lower interest rate) and offer loan to borrowers (at a higher rate) and keep the differential as profit. So, as and when any interest rate changes occur, banks and financial institutions are expected to be hit first. However, it needs a rethink. When interest rates rise, the banks usually increase both the lending rates as well as the deposit rates. Usually, the deposit rate increase is less compared to the lending rate increase, which again goes in favour of the bank. Hence, although there are minor drop in the bank index or overall banking and financial sector share prices, due to this increase being applied to both lending and deposit rates, banks dont suffer that much. Hence, if the fundamentals of the banks are strong, then such increase in interest rates can offer good buying opportunities to investors, with a long term view.
But you need to be careful about the overall business scenario as well - in case the macroeconomic interest rates go really high, then there is less liquidity in the market as people spend less. Hence, even bank stock may not perform that well, despite the deposit and lending rate differential.

The second on the list of Interest Rate Sensitive Stocks & Sectors is the Real Estate Sector and Property Stocks, like those of construction companies or infrastructure development companies.
The reason for this real estate sector being impacted depends upon the country's economic status. If the real estate market in a country is such that people can buy property only by taking a loan (because of high property costs), then this real estate sector gets very much affected by the interest rate changes. If interest rates increase causing costly loans, then demand for real estate (usually purchased on loans) go down. This leads to a fall in real estate share prices. On the other hand, for a loan dependent economy, if interest rates decrease, then it is a positive for real estate market, as more people tend to take loan at lower interest rates.
However, for a country which does not have loan dependency, the interest rate changes does not usually have much impact on real estate share prices.

Third on the list of Interest Rate Sensitive Stocks & Sectors is the Automobile Industry Stocks - this again depends upon teh country's econmomy. If majority of the vehicles are purchased on loans, then this sector gets badly hit by increasing interest rates.

Fourth on the list of Interest Rate Sensitive Stocks & Sectors is the Capital Goods Stocks & Sector, which again depends upon the market demand and supply. In case of high interest rates, the overall demand in the market goes down and hence all the companies in the capital good sector take a hit as their products, services and other offerings see less demand. There is a speculation about less growth and hence these stocks too take a hit.

Other than the above mentioned four sectors, there is company specific interest rate risk which should be checked by all investors. For eg., there can be a company listed on NYSE which may have a market cap of say 10 million, but it may have an outstanding debt or loan of 15 million. Hence, the loan amount to be repaid is higher than the actual market cap valuation of the company. This company can belong to any sector, but its share price will be hit severly if the interest rates increase. Because of increase in interest rates, it will mean that this company will have to pay more interest on the outstanding loan amount and hence this poses a negative situation.

Therefore, to summarize:
1) Usually, Banks, Financial Sector companies, Real Estate, Auto and Capital Goods sector are the ones which get affected by interest rate changes.

2) Apart from the above, the investors should also look at the company outstanding loan and debt amounts

3) It should also be compared to the market valuation of the company based upon current stock price, before making any investment

Largest Insurance Countries & Insurance Companies Of The World: Global Insurance Market

Insurance is the buzzword now, all across the globe. Its a big business, with billions and billions of dollars being poured into insurance companies as premiums and then some part of it being refunded for the claims. Managing the insurance money in itself is a challenge, given the asset-liability problems from the point of view of insurance companies.

Largest Insurance Markets Of The World: Countries with Largest Insurance Business

However, looking at it from the market size perspective at a global level, there are some countries (or better to say markets) which dominate the list of largest insurance countries clearly. Here in this article, we will cover a List of top 10 Insurance Countries with the Largest Insurance Market Value in the world

1	USA
2	Japan
3	UK
4	France
5	Germany
6	China
7	Italy
8	Canada
9	South Korea
10	Netherlands
11	India

Interestingly, India has just entered this list recently, by surpassing Spain which earlier held the 11th Spot. India appears to be the only developing country in the list, rest are all considered to be developed countries. As expected, USA continues to be the top rank holder. China holds the 6th spot with its huge population. Interestingly, small countries like Netherlands (comparatively small in both area and population) are in the top 10 list.
But as you observe, we are talking about the market value of insurance market in these countries.
So how about the individual insurance companies of the world - where do the insurance companies stand in terms of largest insurance companies ranking?

Largest Insurance Companies of the World

Here is the List of Largest Insurane Companies of the World and their corresponding revenues in US$ in billions.

Sr.No.	Insurance Company	Country	Revenues (USD billions)
1	Axa	France	161
2	ING	Netherlands	146
3	Berkshire	USA	137
4	Allianz	Germany	125
5	Generali	Italy	114
6	Aviva	UK	89
7	Munich Re	Germany	79
8	AIG	USA	78
9	Prudential	UK	73
10	Zurich	Switzerland	62
11	Legal & General	UK	59

Related: Largest Stock Exchanges of the World

Please note that this data is as available at the time of publishing this article

Real Estate Group Discount Offers for Property Home Purchase: Look Before You Leap

There has been a sudden outburst in the business of Group Offers - it started with restaurents, lunch offers, spa's etc. and this group buying scheme has been extended to big buying decisions like those of real estate, property and flat purchases. There have been lots of companies which have now mushroomed up all of a sudden, which promise to offer great discounts on real estate purchases if you sign up for their offers. In this article, we will discuss whether these group discount offer companies really offer any value worth or is it just a commission earning marketing gimmick, which might land the buyers in trouble. Let's start with the basics:
How do property group offer companies work?
The model for group offers is simple - you start a firm/company with a group offer discount available only if a certain no. of people apply for it jointly in a group.
Now, this is where the so called "Group Offer Companies" try to cash in upon.
Let's see this with an example. There is a group offer company called "GroupOfferX" and There is a restaurent in the city which is not seeing much crowd on weekends in the afternoon during lunch hours. The restaurent wants to have customers come in. So they start offering discounts for the luch time during the weekends.

Group Discounts Offers for Property, Real Estate Home Purchase

However, that may still not work, as the restaurent needs to advertise for that discount offer (another cost), and also suffer losses due to discounts. So what they do is either they approach the GroupOfferX company or the GroupOfferX approaches them. They get into a deal like this:
Restaurent: Get me confirm 100 clients by FRIDAY evening, who would come to dine at my resturent on Saturday Lunch time and I will offer 25% discount to them on the normal charges and another 10% will be paid to GroupOfferX for getting these 100 clients.
GroupOfferX: We will try for that and confirm by Friday evening

Now, the GroupOfferX company puts this offer for 25% discount on their website, send that info through SMS to their subscribers and email marketing and try to gather the required 100 clients.

Suppose the lunch is offered at Rs. 100 per plate, then the GroupOfferX will get 10 Rs. per client, if they manager to get the required 100 clients. The 100 clients only need to pay Rs. 75 (25% less on 100 Rs. lunch).

Typically, a client who is interested in that offer, needs to pay only say 20% of the bill amount for showing interest (i.e. only Rs. 15 for the actual discounted amount of Rs. 75). This is either through online payment or direct debit from bank - these details are usually stored by the GroupOfferX site. Once the GroupOfferX company gets the minimum required 100 clients for that restaurent, the GroupOfferX will then automatically take the remainder amount of Rs 60 from the credit card or net banking for all the 100 clients, confirming the discount offer.
After that, all the 100 (or more) clients are send vouchers through email/sms which they can show at the restaurent and get the discounted lunch.

How is this kind of Group offer beneficial?
It's a win-win situation for all parties.
For the restuarent, it gets increased business, increased popularity as more and more people visit it. It may take a slight hit in the beginning due to discounts being offered, but it can expect visitors to publicize about that restaurent. They save on individual advertising.
For the GroupOfferX company, they get the commission from restaurent
For the end clients, they get a good collective discount, which may not be possible had they gone to the same restaurent on their own

So, for the GroupOfferX company, they are the ones who play the pivotal role or the commission agents or the brokers in all this deal. The above example is for a restaurent, but the same can be extended to other sectors - like spa's, beauty parlours, branded clothes, apparels, jewellery, and now the biggest of all - the real estate or property market especially the homes and apartments.

How does group offers work for Property deals or home purchases?
That is the million dollar question and the biggest of all kinds of the group offers. With internet, email and SMS serving a quick and easy way of sharing information, it has become easy for lots of so called group companies to mushroom around and start claiming to be the best in the discount offers they can make available to their end clients.
First, lets talk about how the Group discount offers work for property or home purchase.
Say a builder is planning to construct a 10 floor building with 60 flats or apartments in it. The site is at a relatively new location, with no proper roads and not much of amenities, but they are expected to be developed in around 2 years time. The builder also expects to complete the building in 2 years time.
But because of the current state of the locality, the builder is not getting much enquiries from clients. To continue construction, he needs partial payments from the buyers, which he cannot afford.
The so called group discount offer company, say RealEstateGroupOffer, and a builder gets into a deal. RealEstateGroupOffer claims that they can get around 40 clients for the builder in 3 months time, provided builder offers them a good discount. Builder agrees to offer say 20% discount to clients coming through RealEstateGroupOffer, provided GroupOfferX gets them minimum 40 clients.

So now, RealEstateGroupOffer company uses its own network of clients (potential flat buyers) who might be looking for purchasing flats for their own use or for investment purpose. So they start advertising for this Group Discount offer for purchasing apartments on their website, through emails and through SMS, to potential customers offering them 15% discount. The balance 5% they will pocket as their commission from the builde.
Interested clients will reply to them and express their willingness to purchase the property. However, the exact details about the property like name/builder/location may still not be disclosed by RealEstateGroupOffer to its clients. The group offers for home purchase works a bit differently than the example of restaurent cited above.
In case of Home buying group offers, the RealEstateGroupOffer company asks the interested clients to assemble at a particular location (some landmark near the actual site) at a particular date and time. The interested people come and then they are taken to the actual site where floor plans, availability, location, etc. is revealed to them.

What are the conditions or problems of Group Discount offers on Property Flat Purchases?
Although some group discount offers may be good and genuine, there are still certain doubts that the buyers must keep in mind and get them clarified.

- What is the real reason that the builder is offering discount on group buying? If its a good project, why is he not getting clients, why is his flats not sold off till now?
- If the builder is offering discount on group bookings, is he doing so for want of money? Is there a possibility that he may face financial problems in future during the construction of the flat if material or labour costs increases?
- Is locality or area the issue?
- Are there any problems about basic amenities - water, electricity connections, roads,
- Is the neighbourhood safe - any liquor shops around, criminal activity record of that area, etc.
- Is it an under-construction project - what is the guarantee that the builder will make it ready in the promised time of 2-3 years?
- Is the RealEstateGroupOffer company or the builder offering any condition for delay in promised possession

What should be checked about the Discount Offers on Group Bookings for Real Estate Or Home Purchase?
There can be many many reasons why the builder is offering group discounts, but its for the buyer to keep himself safe. Here are some checkpoints and conditions which the group discount buyer should be careful about:

- Usually, only unsold under-construction flats in far flung areas are offered by group discount companies.

- Almost all of them are under-construction project having proposed possession timeline mentioned as 2 years or even more (which may further get extended)

- You may be forced to book on the same first day of your site visit, to avail the discount. Remember, purchasing a house is a lifetime decision. Dont fall for the marketing & pressure tactics of these RealEstateGroupOffer companies (& the builder)

- More money to be paid early - you will be asked to pay more money in the early stage itself, in the name of the discount offer. But be careful - you might end up paying high interest on your home loan amount, because of your higher initial payments in the name of group discount bookings. The so called discount will then vanish away.

- Above all - simply keep a suspected eye - why is this being offered at a discount, what can be the reason?

Home Insurance for Home Loan: The Truth, Details & Actual Coverage of Home Insurance Policy

Home Insurance Details, Truth & Requirements
It was recently that I purchased a home by taking a home loan. I was made to (or better to say "forced to") take a home insurance also, along with my home loan. Now that policy detail was not shared with me earlier by the home loan providing bank, rather I was simply asked to pay for that insurance without much of discussion. So there it was - I had to get a demand draft for the home insurance premium and give it to my home loan provider bank, and the bank person would in turn pass it on to the insurance provider company who would then issue the policy for "securing" my home from all (??) kinds of calamities.

But then, even after paying for the insurance premium, I had no idea of what I was paying for (nor did the bank personnel seem to have, as whatever I asked him, he just kept turning down my questions by saying - Since you are taking a home loan, this home insurance policy is essential)

Home Insurance Policy: Truth, Details & Requirements of Home Loan Insurance Policy

So, after more than a month of home loan disbursal, I got the printed copy of my home insurance policy which was essential for my home loan. And there the surprises started.
Let me detail somethings which came out after a few follow-ups with the insurance company, about the truth of home insurance.

First, my observations about my own home insurance policy.

The first shocker was the one about the SUM ASSURED for my home insurance, and that's where I got into q and a's with the insurance company helpdesk.
The price of my purchased home was, say X. Add to it the registration and stamp duty cost, and the overall price rises to X+12%. Out of this, my home loan amount was only X*65% i.e. around 2/3rd of the total home price.
What was interesting is that I took this home loan for around 10 years, and was forced to buy home insurance policy for a tenure fo 10 years (i.e. loan period) by paying a one time premium, yet the sum assured amount mentioned on the policy document was only aroun 40% of X

So, if my home was of say, 50 Lakhs total cost, the insurance policy which was forced onto me was having the sum assured only as 20 Lakhs. So what is the actual worth of my insurance I'm forced to purchase???

I logged a query with the insurance company and that is what they came up with.

Irrespective of the amount of total money you pay to buy your home, irrespective of the amount of home loan you take, your home insurance policy ONLY covers the cost of construction for your house. i.e. in case something goes wrong with the flat due to say any natural calamity, then the home insurance policy only covers the cost of reconstructing that property.
It is in turn dependent on the area of construction (usually the carpet area) and interestingly, the locality where your property is located.

If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans, Insurance or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Although it sounds absolutely logical to take the cost of construction (hence insurance value) to be a factor of the carpet area, but it makes no sense to make it dependent on the locality within the same city. How will the cost of construction change significantly if the area is under the same city?

Although I've been insisting on the insurance company to give a written confirmation on this to me through email - they are trying to avoid it. Even though I've asked them explicitly to provide a written response through email, they simply call on my mobile and avoid putting the answers in writing.

Related: Home Loan Tax Benefits and All Home Loan Articles

So, there is nothing much that an individual can do about the choices he/she has for home insurance. The moment someone takes a home loan, he has to purchase some or the other stupid policy in the name of coverage. Some banks force only property insurance, some also force life insurance that too in favour of the home loan bank. With the property papers lying in the custody of the home loan provider bank, the home itself is the biggest security for the bank against the loan it has provided. So why should there be a force on the home insurance or life insurance?
Something for the authorities to think about and come to the rescue of the individuals.

Home Loan: High Low Interest Rates High Low Property Prices Best Time To Take a Home Loan

Very often, I come across people asking this question - "When should a home loan be taken?" Should it be when the interest rates are high or should it be when the home loan interest rates are low? What is a low interest rate range? What is the right time to take a home loan?
In this article, I will explain the Mathematics and scenarios about house or property prices with respect to low and high interest rates for home loans

Home Interest Rates & House Property Prices: Best time to buy

If you are reading this article, that indicates you are seriously considering purchasing a house on loan. The big questions facing you is - are the current rates quoted by the builder right at this time? Are the home loan interest rates correct for taking home loan? is this the right time to get into this transaction of buying home on loan or should you wait for some more time?
Let's see -
Section 1: Please understand clearly that when you buy a house on home loan, there are 2 components of it:
1) The Fixed Price Component - this is the amount that you pay to the builder. Remember that a part of this comes from you savings, a part from the home loan. This fixed component depends upon the property rate (per sq. ft. cost) and is a determinent of one time cost. i.e. once you pay the total amount to the builder and get the possession of the flat, you dont need to worry about this.

2) The variable component - this is the component that keeps changing i.e. since you've taken a home loan, and it is 99% that you have taken it on floating interest rates, it is quite possible that the interest rates will keep on changing (or better to say that they will keep on increasing). Hence, this introduces a variable component in your house purchase transaction and this is a repeated recurring cost.

Related: Home Loan Tax Benefits and All Home Loan Articles

Now, coming back to our question on what is the right time to buy a house on loan?
Section 2:
1) Please note that usually, when the home loan interest rates are high, the property prices will be a bit low because there will be less demand. Hence, builders will be willing to negotiate and bring down the prices.
2) The reverse happens when the home loan interest rates are low. Generally, builders will increase the cost of property to astronomical levels, buyers will not mind paying that high price since the loan are available for cheap leading to low EMI payments.

So, what can be done to determine the right time to buy a house? Club both the things discussed in Section 1 and 2 together. The fixed price component is something which you have to pay one time. It's better to keep it low. And it will be low when the first scenario of high interest rates will occur i.e. high interest rates means less money with people, high cost of loan, so less borrowers hence less demand and thereby a decline in property prices leading to less fixed cost.
How is this beneficial?
First, you pay less fixed cost. The drawback is that you take home loan at higher interest rates. But it still works in your favour. Since you are taking a higher interest loan, your initial EMI payments will be higher. When the economic cycle turns around in 2-3 years time, the interest rates will start coming down. Hence, you can expect you EMI payments to come down.
It is quite possible that in countries like India you may not see the banks decreasing the interest rates even if the overall interest rates are coming down. However, you can still bargain with your existing home loan provider bank and see if they are ready to bring down the rates. If not, then you can approach the other banks to get your remaining home loan repayment taken over as a new home loan and you get the benefit of the low interest rates.
Hence, overall you pay less fixed price at the start, and later also your EMI payments come down in the long run making it beneficial to you.

If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Now consider other case: You buy home on loan when interest rates are less and home prices are at peak.

The problem with this scenario is that your fixed cost that you pay to the builder is high. Property rates will be at their peak, everyone will be blindly investing like mad, so high demand backed by low interest rates will mean high proeprty prices.
The initial benefit will be low EMI payments because of low interest rates. But in the long run it might turn against you. When the economy switches modes, i.e. low interest rates turning out to be high interst rates, it will increase your EMI significantly causing your recurring high cost, month after month. And remember, this will happen when the economy will become tight - less salary hikes, high inflation, less purchasing power and less money. So it is a bad situation overall.

Therefore, weigh your options properly. Consider your financial situation and the current state of economy and the interest rates, property rates and then go for a deal. Purchase wisely, dont follow the herd mentality. After all, its a once in a life tiem purchase of house

Birla SunLife Nifty ETF NFO: Review Analysis & Details

Details about Birla SunLife Nifty ETF: Review, Analysis, Details & Investment Opinion.
The Birla SunLife Mutual Fund House is launching their Birla SunLife Nifty ETF. Interestingly, there seems to be a lot of Nifty based Exchange Traded Funds now being launched by the various fund houses. Recently, it was the Religare Nifty ETF (See Details) which was launched by Relgare, and even biral Sunlife had come out with its Gold based ETF called Birla Sun Life Gold ETF. So ETF's or Exchange Traded Funds seems to be the flavour of the season and Birla Sunlife has jumped on the bandwagon to get a piece of cake.

In this article, we will analyze how good is this Birla SunLife Nifty ETF NFO, whether this Birla SunLife Nifty ETF offers anything new or unique for the investors and whether the investors should invest in Birla SunLife Nifty ETF.

Birla SunLife Nifty ETF NFO: Review Analysis & Details

Let's begin with some basic details about Birla SunLife Nifty ETF.
What are the NFO dates for Birla SunLife Nifty ETF?
The NFO period for Birla SunLife Nifty ETF is currently open and will close on 18th July 2011. After the NFO period, the regular buying and selling of fund units will start, but the precise date is not known.

What is so unique about this Birla SunLife Nifty ETF?
We've covered a lot about ETF's in detail with examples of returns calculations in our articles like Example of Nifty based ETF.
This new ETF from Birla Sunlife is expected to work the same way. Collect money from investors, pool it together, purchase Nifty based shares in the same proportion as they are listed in Nifty index and attempt to generate the returns similar to Nifty.
However, there comes a tracking error, which essentially means that the returns generated by fund manager of Nifty ETF may not be exact replica of the returns generated by Nifty Index, due to many trading activities and buying/selling/redemption of units by individuals.
So in essence, there is nothing very unique about this Birla SunLife Nifty ETF if you compare it to other Nifty based ETF's. Instead, investors are now spoilt for choice in the Nifty based ETF space as there are lot of them available.

The asset allocation for Birla SunLife Nifty ETF will be as follows:
95% to 100% will be invested in the nifty based securitites
Rest 0-5% will be in debt and money market instruments for unit redemption and creation purposes.

What are the other competitor products available in comparison to Birla SunLife Nifty ETF?
As mentioned above, there are lots of other Nifty based Exchange Traded Funds available in the market which are similar to this Birla SunLife Nifty ETF
The Birla SunLife Nifty ETF will track the standard benchmark index S&P CNX Nifty Index for tracking its performance.

What are the risks of investing and trading Birla SunLife Nifty ETF?
By investing in any index based ETF, you are taking the risk on overall market. If the overall Indian stock market (represented by Nifty & Sensex) collapses, then so will be the fate of your investments in this fund.
Along with that, you are also taking the risk on the performance of your fund manager. If the fund manager is not able to replicate the stocks in the same proportion as that of Nifty index, your returns might suffer (it might perform better than Nifty also, although a rare case)
You are also taking the tracking error risk. Since not 100% of your money will get invested in this fund (only 95%-100%), the tracking error comes in.

Final Thoughts about Birla SunLife Nifty ETF?
Another good option for trading the overall Nifty Index. Being an ETF it will give you the benefit of Intraday price movements and benefit from them as a trader, if you can. As a long term investor, you can buy and hold it without much of recurring expenses.
The brokerage charges would apply only on transactions.

See List of All Mutual Fund and NFO Articles here

During NFO period each unit cost Rs. 10 per unit
Minimum investment Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Re 1 afterwards.

No tax benefit will be available in Birla SunLife Nifty ETF

Mr. Satyabrata Mohanty will be the fund manager for Birla SunLife Nifty ETF

Google Plus Invite Workarounds

Details about How to get Google Plus Invite through Workarounds Image Taken from plus.google.com

As all of you are aware, that Google has blocked its new invites for the much hyped "Google Plus", which is being claimed to be a Facebook and Twitter Killer in the Social Networking Space.
However, if you go by the rumors on the internet, there are lots of work-around available to get to sign-up for the Google Plus. This article discusses some of them in detail and how they work. Please note, these are partially verified/unverified details based upon the inputs received. It is possible that these methods to get Google Plus invites may not work after sometime, as Google is smart enought to detect the workarounds and block them.

How to get Google Plus Invite - Workarounds

1) Users of iOS devices can get Google Plus Invites:
The first method we wish to list for getting the Google Plus Invite is for the people who use the Apple Products (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad) which in turn uses the iOS operating system. If you happen to use one of these instruments from Apple, then simply visit the site plus.google.com and you can sign up for Google Plus.

2) Users of Mac Computers can get Google Plus Invites:
Mac users can simply get a google plus invite by setting the Safari's user agent as mobile version.

3) Users can download the Chrome App to get Google Plus Invites:
Non-Mac or Non-Apple users can still get a Google Plus invite by visiting and downloading the Chrome App here
As a first step, install the Chrome App, then after installation, click on the Chrome Icon and it will ask you to sign up for Google Plus. Simple!

3) Link to your Google Profile to get Google Plus Invites:
Visit https://plus.google.com/u/0/me and sign-up or login. Unless Google has now disabled this, you should be able to get to sign up for Google Plus!
Enjoy!
If you are facing any problems in any of the above listed methods, please let us know by posting your comments in the "Post a Comment" section and we try to get you the solution, if available. Please note that this is not an official communique rather what we are seeing as workarounds from the news making rounds on the internet, any of the methods may or may not work