'While we expand into other areas, banca remains our primary channel, and we continue to be a banca-led organisation.'
At Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, DNA samples from over 190 relatives are being matched with victims of the Air India crash, a process expected to take up to 72 hours.
Inflows into gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which manage a total of Rs 37,390 crore, have surged sharply in recent months. This trend is likely to continue, especially after the reintroduction of long-term capital gains tax (LTCG), which is likely to attract smart money into mutual fund offerings amid a robust outlook for the yellow metal. Smart money, also known as opportunistic flows, refers to strategic investments that are generally of a short-term horizon.
The Indian insurance industry is set to focus on customer-centric technological adoption and expansion into rural areas to drive growth in 2025.
The outflows could be a result of a mix of factors led by the underperformance of some of the larger funds amid elevated return expectations.
Life insurers shifted their focus to selling high-value policies in October as the transition to new surrender value norms, effective October 1, limited their ability to roll out all products in their portfolio. This led to a 40 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) drop in the number of policies sold in October. Additionally, distributors engaged in a fire sale of policies in September due to uncertainty about the impact of the new norms on their commission structures.
Fund houses are exploring ways to differentiate themselves in the hybrid space. A relatively unknown hybrid fund variant, Balanced Hybrid, is about to see its first launch since the introduction of mutual fund (MF) scheme categorisation norms in 2017. WhiteOak Capital MF has filed papers with the regulator for this scheme, which comes amid increasing interest in the hybrid space. MFs anticipate that hybrids will become the preferred category for investors with a lower risk appetite following changes in debt fund taxation.
Riding the wave of the equity market, the mutual fund (MF) industry experienced double-digit growth in Samvat 2079, concluding the Hindu calendar year close to the Rs 50 trillion assets under management milestone. After a subdued 6 per cent growth in Samvat 2078, the industry's assets surged over 18 per cent last year to Rs 46.7 trillion. Industry players anticipate that Samvat 2080 will also be a fruitful year for the asset management industry, given the strong inflows from retail investors, particularly through the systematic investment plan route.
Arbitrage funds have recorded net inflows for three months straight, after steep outflows for half a year before that. The trend changed as mutual fund (MF) schemes improved amid a rise in equity market volatility. Investors redeemed over Rs 31,000 crore from arbitrage schemes between June and November before putting in Rs 3,000 crore in the last three months, shows data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).
Now that bank FD rates have gone up and most BAFs haven't delivered good returns, these investors are likely to be moving back to FDs, observed a senior MF distributor. The performance of BAFs in the past year has been mixed.
Elevated food price-led inflation could become a sore point for markets, which they seem to be ignoring at current levels, observe analysts. Retail inflation in India - as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - came in at a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January 2023, compared with 5.72 per cent in December and 5.88 per cent in November 2022. The inflation print for February, according to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, will be critical for the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee.
The finance ministry on Thursday raised concerns over the possible impact of El Nio conditions on India this year, saying if recent forecasts came true, the country could see lower agricultural output and higher inflation. "Some meteorological agencies predict the return of El Nio conditions in India this year. "If these predictions are accurate, then monsoon rains could be deficient, leading to lower agricultural output and higher prices," the ministry said in its monthly economic review.
Many life insurance companies are yet to see a sharp spike in the sale of high-value policies as was widely expected in the aftermath of the government's decision to tax income from insurance policies having an aggregate premium above Rs 5 lakh in a year.
It may be a little early to cheer the recovery in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space as a deceleration in discretionary demand, after the festival season, may offset fragile rural recovery, analysts have cautioned. "The overall demand environment for staples remains muted, while discretionary demand trends have seen some deceleration after the festival season. "We believe margins in staples have bottomed out, but we expect only a gradual uptick with the ongoing softening in raw material prices.
Life insurance companies reported a 17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in new business premium (NBP) in February as state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India's premiums contracted 32 per cent during this period on account of a drop in its group single premium segment. According to data released by the Life Insurance Council, the industry earned an NBP of Rs 22,847.65 crore in February - a drop of 17 per cent from the same period a year ago.
Rushabh Agrawal, an alumnus of BITS Pilani was recently offered a job at Google for a package of Rs 1.16 crore. He shares his experience and offers advice to young aspirants.
Life insurers' new business premium (NBP) reported stellar performance in November after a poor showing in October, on the back of strong growth in group single premiums for both private insurers and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. In November, 24 life insurers, including LIC, reported NBP to the tune of Rs 27,177 crore, up 42 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from the year-ago period. Private insurers' NBP rose 58.63 per cent YoY to Rs 11,209.75 crore as group single premiums more than doubled during this period.
Come October, life insurers may have to tighten their underwriting standards further for retail term plans at the behest of one of the largest reinsurers in the Indian insurance market, Munich Re. According to a source aware of the development, "Munich Re has been studying long-term mortality trends for the past few years, and has suggested some tightening in the underwriting process." "As far as financial underwriting is concerned, the reinsurer has suggested that insurers should ask for additional documents. "For example, apart from income proof, they can ask for bank statements of the prospective customer before issuing policies," added the source.
These products are extremely transparent and are the lowest charged products in the insurance space. The policyholder has to only pay the fund management charge. Hence, from the cost side, ULIPs are very competitive.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
While large-cap funds, in three months, yielded gains of 26.3%, small-cap funds are up 37.9%, and mid-cap funds fetched returns of 29.9%.
Seeking to dispel media reports that American-Indians would vote unanimously for Hillary Clinton, a band of staunch Barack Obama supporters get together in New York for an evening of 'Bhangra for Barack'.
Dollar's strength against some currencies overseas and firming crude oil prices also put pressure on the rupee, dealers said.
Forex dealers said besides robust month-end demand for the American currency from oil importers, dollar's strength against its rival currencies on expectations of rising interest rates amid lingering Sino-US trade tensions, weighed on the domestic currency.
Mumbai defeated Vidarbha by six wickets in their Super League Group B match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, in Indore, on Monday.
Top seeded Khan dropped a game before beating unseeded Fateh Singh in the boys' under-17 in the Servo Open squash championship.
The sixth seed beat giant-killer Rushabh Thukral 6-1 in NSCI Invitational Snooker Championship.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
'I will never create a romantic angle to survive on a game show. I do not give a damn what people think of it,' Karishma Tanna tells Rajul Hegde/ Rediff.com
Domestic giants Mumbai continued its winning run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy thrashing Madhya Pradesh by nine wickets in Mumbai on Monday.
All payments made via debit and credit cards, net banking and mobile wallets will be entitled to discounts.
'There is hardly any boy who thinks he can jump from a high rise building and bash up 50 people. I really wanted people to believe it. That was the starting of my ****up.'
Xiaomi said in a statement that "it isn't easy" to build up a patent portfolio as a start-up company, but it aims to have filed 8,000 applications by 2016.
India is the world's third-largest smartphone market.
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