rediffGURU Samkit Maniar answers readers' personal income tax queries
The central bank bought the 10-year bonds at 50 paise above the prevailing rate, and brought down the yields from 6.08 per cent to 6 per cent mark.
The Reserve Bank has found gaps in banks' corporate governance despite issuing guidelines on the matter, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday. Addressing directors of bank boards, Das said such gaps, which have been mitigated, could have caused "some degree of volatility". He also hit out strongly against "smart accounting" to conceal stress and bloat financial performance.
Share prices of Dewan Housing, Indiabulls Housing, and PNB Housing have declined 30-80% in the past one year
'Business families like the Godrej group are increasingly realising that an amicable settlement is better.' 'Else, the wealth of all shareholders gets destroyed.'
The Indian financial system's asset quality improved despite the pandemic, but it could be due to special dispensations by the regulator, and banks would likely see increased stress on their books once the schemes expire. According to the annual trend and progress report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released on Tuesday, the data available for this financial year so far indicate that banks' bad debts have moderated while provision coverage ratios (PCRs), capital buffers as well as profitability indicators have improved relative to pre-pandemic levels.
In a major relief to stressed assets, the Cabinet approved the proposed IBC amendment that the licences, permits, concessions, and clearances for a corporate debtor cannot be terminated or suspended or not renewed during the moratorium period. The Cabinet also allowed amending the code to streamline the corporate insolvency resolution process and protect last-mile funding to boost investment in financially distressed sectors.
Longer-tenure FDs generally give higher returns. Nonetheless, going for a tenure higher than two to three years is not advisable.
Re-rating of Axis Bank's stock may continue in the near-future, believe analysts, as the risk-reward on the stock remains favourable amid healthy financials. The bullish stance comes after the Mumbai-based lender delivered a strong outperformance in the March quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 (Q4FY24) on core pre-provision profit and net profit, with improving asset quality. Axis Bank's net interest margin (NIM) expanded, against expectations, even in a tough market.
'The approach towards Mallya is not right because his unit could have been turned around earlier with additional funds from his side and the bank's side.'
'As these segments are growing at 25 per cent for the last three years, credit quality has been extremely good.'
Weakness in HDFC Bank's net interest margin (NIM) might have bottomed out in the July-September quarter (Q2-FY24), analysts said on Tuesday, as most of the merger-related one-time adjustments have been done. The bank, they believe, should be able to grow from here on, allowing the stock to reverse its underperformance. "The weak NIM print was not unexpected given the merger and regulatory impact caused by the incremental cash reserve ratio (ICRR; 5-10 bps for the quarter).
India's largest life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) reported encouraging performance in the January-March quarter (Q4) of FY24. Total annual premium equivalent (APE) was at Rs 21,180 crore, up 10.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), with group APE of Rs 3,890 crore, up 60 per cent Y-o-Y, though individual APE contracted 2.1 per cent Y-o-Y. The participatory book contracted 20.2 per cent Y-o-Y, but the non-par grew by 206 per cent to Rs 3,740 crore.
When costs go down, interest rates will go down, says managing director and CEO Aditya Puri.
HDFC Bank has reshuffled the portfolios of its senior management team. This is the first major rejig after the amalgamation of HDFC Ltd on July 1. "The runway for our growth is large. This change is being done to bring in a very sharp focus on leveraging what we have built and for enhanced execution," said Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive of HDFC Bank, explaining the reason for this overhaul.
In an effort to grab a share of the hefty Diwali bonus to employees in government and corporate sector, country's largest lender State Bank of India may raise the interest rate on term deposit rates in next few days.
The Reserve Bank of India is likely to take a call on the relaxations sought by HDFC Bank in relation to the merger, as the date of merger draws closer, sources said. The HDFC twins, which announced their decision to merge in April last year, received National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT's) approval recently - a key milestone to close the deal in due time. The management of both the entities had said that it will take 15-18 months for the merger.
It's the easiest thing to give people money, but the risk perception has changed, says Rajiv Lall, Managing Director, IDFC.
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
At least two public sector banks Union Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank have quietly increased interest rates on short-term deposits to raise resources and manage asset-liability mismatch. Union Bank has announced a special deposit scheme for 400 days, which offers 9 per cent interest. The scheme was launched much before the announcement of the monetary policy. Chennai-based Indian Overseas Bank has also raised rates for large deposits.
Balanced advantage funds have the potential to earn superior risk-adjusted returns for the investor and offer a smoother investment journey.
'This segment has performed very well for us and this is reflected in our bounce rate which is about three to four per cent.'
'To the believers of crypto regulations, I have only one question to ask, how will you regulate it?'
'When an institution believes its knowledge and capability is superior to everyone, it behaves like a frog in the well.' 'And this is precisely the cause for the mess,' says J N Gupta.
'Our unsecured loan is not exactly unsecured. It is backed by cash flow of customers.'
According to an Andhra government statement, Naidu 'reposed confidence' in the PM's leadership.
India's largest PSU bank, State Bank of India, delivered excellent results, once the impact of a big jump in employee expenses was adjusted for. The net interest income (NII) beat the Street due to a better net interest margin (NIM) and good loan growth. The credit growth at 5.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) (15 per cent year on year) was excellent for a large bank.
The banking regulator was uncomfortable with the runaway pace at which consumer credit was growing.
Non-compliance can also result in legal complications and disputes with the tax authorities.
Despite a largely stable December quarter, investors booked profit in shares of IndusInd Bank (IIB) as an increase in slippages took them by surprise. Analysts, on their part, believe investors may, now, wait for actual delivery on slippage decline, potentially limiting near-term upside. "The management has indicated that corporate slippages (from legacy stressed book) have ended and inch up in consumer finance slippages was more one-off, and should meaningfully improve Q4FY24 onwards.
The Reserve Bank on Monday asked banks to notify the base rate, or the minimum lending rate, at least once in every three months.
Investors can sell a part of the stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other securities held in their portfolios at a loss and use this loss to offset tax on the capital gains made on the sale of other securities.
The Reserve Bank India's (RBI's) decision to ban the onboarding of new accounts on the "bob World" mobile digital platform led to a selloff in the Bank of Baroda (BoB) stock. The stock of the public sector bank dropped by around 3 per cent. The central bank cited "material supervisory concerns"; news reports claimed mobile numbers were randomly linked to accounts to purportedly inflate registrations on bob World.
'You cannot have only one product or one market or one customer segment.'
After the latest rout, the American depositary receipt (ADR) premium of HDFC Bank to its local shares has shrunk to nearly zero. Shares of HDFC Bank on Thursday fell 3.1 per cent to Rs 1,490, extending its two-day decline to 11 per cent. Meanwhile, the ADR has slumped over 15 per cent in the past two trading sessions.
Axis Bank has strengthened its positioning -- on both the assets and liability side -- and it may be set to deliver sustained improvement in performance. The valuation gap between Axis Bank (which trades at 1.4x core book value (or BV) and peers like ICICI Bank (valued at 2x BV) is expected to narrow.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
For non-banks, the IL&FS crisis was nothing short of India's Lehman moment, which has for a foreseeable future reset the sector on multiple grounds.