India's inclusion in JP Morgan's bond index can channel billions of dollars into India. How will the government securities market handle it?
Even as the slowdown in the information technology (IT) services sector deepens, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), as well as oil and gas companies, emerge as the primary drivers of corporate earnings in the country. The IT services sector's share in corporate earnings declined to a five-year low of 17.4 per cent in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), whereas banks and finance companies accounted for 46.5 per cent, and oil and gas firms contributed 16.8 per cent. At their peak, IT services firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, and Wipro represented just over a third of the combined net profit of all listed companies in the Business Standard sample.
After a sharp fall in the share prices of HDFC Bank and other private sector lenders in the past three days, the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector weighting in the Nifty50 has slipped to a seven-year low of 32.03 per cent, down from nearly 36.6 per cent at the end of March 2023 and 34.5 per cent at the end of December 2023.
The Indian Council of Medical Research is conducting three different studies to ascertain the facts regarding rising cases of cardiac arrest after the pandemic, Mandaviya said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The insurance Bill seeks to increase the cap on shareholding of foreign investors
Shares reserved for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), including banks and mutual funds in the LIC's public offer were subscribed fully on Monday morning, taking the overall subscription of the issue to a little over 2 times. Against 3,95,31,236 reserved, 4,61,62,185 bids were received, reflecting a subscription of 1.17 times, according to data posted on stock exchanges at 12:12 pm. Non institutional investors' portion was subscribed 1.38 times.
The sharp rally in the markets thus far in fiscal 2023-24 (FY24) has left analysts struggling to find investment-worthy themes. The S&P BSE Sensex has surged nearly 7 per cent thus far in FY24 and hit a fresh 52-week high of 63,601.71 levels on June 22, mostly led by foreign institutional (FII) flows. "The Indian market has seen a broad rally in the past few months but headline indices have seen more modest performance. "We are not very clear about the reasons for the rally and the divergent performance and struggle to find ideas in the consumption, investment and outsourcing sectors after the sharp run-up in several of our favored sectors and stocks in the past two months," wrote Sanjeev Prasad, co-head, Kotak Institutional Equities, in a recent co-authored note with Anindya Bhowmik and Sunita Baldawa.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
'Companies are coming to the campuses, and we have companies booking their slots for the placement season, but the overall number of companies signing is low, and the hiring numbers are also lower.'
'it's not just youth in India who are left behind because of their inability to find jobs; nearly two-thirds of Indian women of working ages do not participate at all in the paid labour force.'
'We emphasise the importance of not basing investment decisions solely on electoral outcomes.' 'Instead, focusing on investing in high-quality businesses capable of prospering regardless of the political landscape is paramount.'
Life insurance premium rates are likely to drop over the next few months owing to longer life expectancy, with a new mortality and morbidity table expected to be in place by the fourth quarter of 2009 to replace the current one, which is of 1994-96 vintage.
Department of financial services secretary Sanjay Malhotra held a meeting with heads of PSBs, insurance companies and financial institutions for identifying ways to support Agniveers on completion of their tenure of duty.
The investment limit for foreign entities in Indian stock exchanges will be enhanced from 5 per cent to 15 per cent on par with domestic institutions.
Following are comments from economists at leading financial institutions, banks and rating agencies on the interim Budget:
To curb mis-selling of policies and rationalise commissions, radical changes have been proposed to help investors.
Bupa and Axa have already declared their intention to raise stakes.
Mutual funds' equity buying remained elevated for the fifth consecutive month in December, taking the net equity purchase past Rs 1.7 trillion in 2023. The aggressive buying in December indicates that flows into equity funds are likely to have remained unaffected by the sharp run-up in the market last month. Mutual funds (MFs) bought equities worth Rs 23,000 crore last month (until December 28) compared to Rs 18,000 crore in November, shows data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Global investment firm Blackstone on Wednesday sold its entire 23.5 per cent stake in Embassy Office Parks REIT for around Rs 7,100 crore, according to sources. Embassy Office Parks REIT is India's first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) sponsored by Blackstone and Bengaluru-based realty firm Embassy group. Blackstone sold its stake in the entity at around Rs 316 per share through open market transactions and at this price, the deal is valued at about Rs 7,100 crore, the sources said.
Stocks of public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been on fire in the past year as investors cheered an improvement in key operating metrics and embraced counters of these state-owned enterprises, analysts suggest. The S&P BSE PSU Index has gained over 90 per cent in the past year, rising much higher than the S&P BSE Sensex, which has rose nearly 19 per cent during this period, according to ACE Equity data. The BSE PSU Index, reports show, has delivered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28 per cent (including dividends reinvestments) over five years and risen by almost 60 per cent in the past year.
Heatwaves claimed more than 17,000 lives in 50 years in India, according to a paper authored by M Rajeevan, former secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences, along with scientists Kamaljit Ray, S S Ray, R K Giri and A P Dimri.
The rupee breached the 80-mark against the dollar on Tuesday. The steady depreciation in the value of the rupee against the US dollar is likely to prove expensive for corporate India. The listed companies' revenue expenses in foreign currency or imports exceed their export revenues or revenue earnings in forex. In their latest financial year, BSE500 companies, excluding banks and non-banking finance companies and insurance (BFSI), reported combined forex expenses of Rs 12.31 trillion against forex earnings of around Rs 10 trillion.
A remarkable story which helped in transforming a bureaucratic organization, to a customer centric organization. This experience may inspire several government / private organizations to modify or adopt digitisation to transform their business, notes Professor N Ravichandran (retd).
Brokerages expect India Inc to report an upturn in earnings for the March quarter of 2022-23, after a relatively muted showing in the previous two quarters. This growth is expected to be led by banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies, FMCG firms, and automobile makers. The combined net profit of the Nifty50 companies (excluding Adani Enterprises) is expected to have grown 15.6 per cent to Rs 1.77 trillion in Q4FY23, from Rs 1.53 trillion a year ago.
Cyber crimes caused by the insured's employees also get covered under the policy but would exclude the actual perpetrator.
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday allowed inbound travellers from G20 nations arriving at select airports to use the popular UPI for making payments in the country. Later, the RBI also proposes to extend the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) facility to travellers from all countries. UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
...benefiting 350,000 persons. Also, Trai detected and blocked seven million mobile phone connections involved in cyber fraud and suspicious activities.
The message is clear: The 60-year-old wise uncles need to handhold the 40-year-old entrepreneurs when, obsessed with ambition and greed for growth, they become a victim of hubris, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
A few years ago, when top officials of Indian state-run refiners went to Dubai to negotiate a crude oil supply contract, a senior official from state-owned Saudi Aramco told them, "We can negotiate on anything, but I am the last man standing for you. "Nobody can offer the range of crudes we do with certainty," an official who was part of the negotiating team recalls. Perhaps that explains why Saudi Arabia is less concerned about losing its place as India's premier oil supplier to an upstart like Russia, which emerged from nowhere to become India's biggest crude oil supplier in September and October.
As the Narendra Modi government nears completing a year in office, the Congress on Wednesday stepped up its offensive against the prime minister accusing him of weakening democracy by running a "one-man show" while scoring maximum on "arrogance" and minimum on governance.
In a relief to FMCG major Dabur, two of its foreign subsidiaries, Dabur International and Dermoviva Skin Essentials, have been removed as a defendant in multiple lawsuits filed in a US court over allegations that their hair-relaxer products caused ovarian cancer, uterine cancer and other related health issues. However, lawsuits filed against its third international subsidiary Namaste Laboratories LLC, would continue before the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, according to a statement from Dabur on Wednesday. Dabur International and Dermoviva were removed and got relief in the multiple suits due to lack of jurisdiction as they have not either manufactured, marketed, distributed or sold hair relaxer products in the US, it added.
Initial public offering (IPO)-bound Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India's assets under management (AUM) increased to Rs 38 trillion as of September 2021, compared with Rs 37 trillion as of March 2021, said sources in the know. Its AUM is almost 3x the AUM of all the private life insurers in the country and over 15x more than the AUM of the second largest life insurer, SBI Life, as of September 2021. SBI Life's AUM was approximately Rs 2.4 trillion as of September 2021, said sources.
The government on Monday budgeted Rs 1.75 lakh crore from stake sale in public sector companies and financial institutions, including 2 PSU banks and one general insurance company, in the next fiscal year beginning April 1. The amount is lower than the record Rs 2.10 lakh crore which was budgeted to be raised from CPSE disinvestment in the current fiscal year. However, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the government's CPSE stake sale programme, and the target has been lowered to Rs 32,000 crore in the Revised Estimates.
Not just unclaimed bank deposits, there are thousands of crores of rupees locked in unclaimed shares and insurance policies lying with many institutions across India.
'A key reason for the strong interest in IPOs has been an increased focus on profitability and reasonable pricing of deals.'
The Navi lending app, launched in May, provides instant loans of up to Rs 5 lakh, with repayment tenures of up to 36 months.
In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.
'How can you explain the necessity of selling an institution that has been delivering regular returns to the government, that has never asked for any capital from the government, that has invested Rs 38 lakh crores in the Indian economy and that owns 4 per cent of the market capitalisation in India?'
Currently, the select committee is considering the Bill.
India's largest insurer LIC is likely to list on the stock exchanges on May 17, a week after its bumper initial public offering (IPO) closes. The government is selling over 22.13 crore shares in LIC at a price band of Rs 902-949 a piece in the initial public offering, which opens on May 4 and closes on May 9. As per the final papers filed with Sebi, the allotment of shares to the demat account of bidders will happen by May 16, post which LIC would commence trading of equity shares in the stock exchanges and list "on or about May 17".
