In times like these, when the financial industry is reeling under the pressure of scepticism, communication has become the most important tool for financial services providers. Hence the flood of emails to associates, employees and investors.
In a move to soften the blow of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in the Indian stock and asset markets, four banks are set to take over its structured products businesses in India.
Home loan borrowers perpetually worry about the consequences of defaulting. And whether they wish it or not, there could be situations where they are forced to do so. For instance, after the Mumbai bomb blasts on July 11 2006, a large number of affected families found themselves in deep financial trouble leading to difficulties in servicing their home loans
Most car buyers, when applying for a loan, grapple with the question of whether they should opt for a fixed or a floating rate option.
While gold index funds have returned almost 10 per cent over the last three months, gold equity funds (investing in mining companies) have not given good returns in the last few months. At present, there are two gold funds, DSPML World Gold Fund and AIG World Gold Fund
Stock market investors and potential home buyers may not remember the years 1998 and 2008 too fondly.
Among the many documents that you sign when you take a car loan could also be a 'surrender letter' -- a document that declared you a defaulter even before the loan is sanctioned.
In January this year, the stock market started falling. In the following six months, it has lost over 30 per cent. The data on open-ended equity funds show that only a small cluster has managed to wriggle out with very little loss (See table). From a thematic point of view, only global funds have given returns.
This product was first introduced by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (ICICI Prudential FMP Series 33) and Deutsche Mutual Fund in February. Recently, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has also floated a similar fund. The Nifty return, multiplied by the participation ratio (that is pre-decided by the fund) is the final returns. In Aviator, the participation ratio is 140-145 per cent, leading to returns of 43.14-44.5 per cent in our given example.
Cement-maker to increase capacity to 20 MT with three new units. After acquiring L&T Concrete and capturing over 25 per cent of the market share in ready-mix concrete space in the country, the cement major is set to establish a pan-India presence. The company has plans to set up at least three greenfield units with a capacity of 2.5 MT each. According to sources, the company has zeroed in on Rajasthan, Karnataka and Meghalaya for the facilities.
With rising interest rates and inflation taking a toll on home loan customers, banks are beginning to encourage them to partly prepay their loans. Many of them are doing so without charging them prepayment penalty.
Swiss cement major, Holcim, promoter of two of India's biggest cement companies, ACC and Ambuja Cements, said there is no escape from increasing the cement prices in the country considering the high energy costs.
Investors in SIPs should be especially careful because the taxation is done according to the first-in-first-out basis
When the NAV falls, you are going to get more units of the fund. That means when the market turns around, you will get much more returns
Chinese equipment is comparatively cheaper than those from Europe. Puneet Dalmia, managing director, Dalmia Cement, said, "At present, we have no plans to bring machinery from China as there are unclear evidences regarding how long the plant would last." Cement majors such as ACC and Shree Cement has imported a small part of their equipment need from China, but these do not make part of the main cement plant.
The company is among the largest exporters of cement and clinker via Gujarat ports. "The step will not have any impact on cement prices. The step taken by the government is a good and sensible one. The export ban offered no assistance in making cement available in the domestic market as a majority of the exports was in clinker form," said A L Kapur, managing director, Ambuja Cements.
In the last couple of years, reverse mortgage (RM) has been touted aggressively as a product that will allow the elderly to unlock the value of their house. In fact, in the last two Union Budgets, the finance minister has made a special mention about it.
With ICICI Bank recently offering to reduce the equated monthly instalments of existing customers for high tenure loans, many may like to exercise this option because it would reduce their burden for the time being. Also, with the rise in the interest rates in the last couple of years, many have found their monthly EMIs rising by over 15 per cent.
The acquisitions, costing more than $1.6 billion, have helped Holcim corner close to quarter of the country's 189 million-tonne cement market. Lafarge, which entered India in 1999 by acquiring the cement division of Tata Steel and bought out Raymond's cement facility in 2001, has a capacity of only 5.5 million tonnes. Holcim also plans to invest around Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in the next five years to set up plants.
The 189-million tonne domestic cement industry is gearing up to tackle attrition in the industry.
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