Retail investors now own a larger share of smallcap companies than they did a year ago, thanks to their conviction in mutual fund (MF) schemes focused on this segment. Data from Capitaline shows that MFs' average holding in the National Stock Exchange Nifty Smallcap 250 Index stood at 9 per cent at the end of the October-December quarter of 2023-24 (FY24), up from 7.76 per cent in the same quarter of 2022-23.
Chanda Kochhar, who was arrested for a cash-for-loan scam on Friday, was once a powerful banker and instrumental in making ICICI Bank the country's biggest private sector lender. Kochhar, a regular feature on Forbes top global honchos lists, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with alleged cheating and irregularities in loans sanctioned by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group companies. Kochhars were called to the agency headquarters and arrested after a brief questioning session. Her chapter at ICICI Bank ended abruptly in 2018 when the board of directors approved a request from Kochhar to seek early retirement following allegation of corruption and quid pro-quo while extending loans to the now bankrupt Videocon Industries.
Fundraising via the initial public offering (IPO) route by companies may touch Rs 1 trillion in financial year 2024-25 (FY25), according to a recent note by Pantomath Group - a mid-market investment bank. During the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), 76 companies tapped the markets through mainboard IPOs, Pantomath said, raising nearly Rs 62,862 crore. This is a 21 per cent rise compared to FY23, the note added.
Shares of One97 Communications (OCL), which provides financial services under the brand 'Paytm', and has a banking arm Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL), hit the 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 428.10 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Monday's (February 26) intraday trade. The up move in the stock on Monday came after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), in post stock market hours, to look into the possibility of migrating PPBL customers, using the UPI handle '@paytm', to four-to-five other banks.
'It is advisable to stay away from the markets for now and buy only on a dip.'
'The private sector believes that some enablers in labour-intensive sectors like apparel, toys, tourism, and media retail, can unlock a lot of jobs.'
New norms are in place to strengthen regulations for this set of lenders which has been playing a critical role in Asia's third largest economy, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The World Bank must become Archimedes's lever to help change the world into a more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable planet in the 21st century. The change in leadership now provides that opportunity, observes Ajay Chhibber.
Brokerage firms on Wednesday appeared divided in their calls on Larsen & Toubro (L&T) after the company's 2023-24 (FY24) October-December quarter (third quarter, or Q3) performance and guidance for the quarters ahead. While few stayed optimistic about the stock over future order inflow prospects, others saw increasing exposure to West Asia and fixed price contracts as a concern. In Wednesday's trade, L&T's share price closed at Rs 3,480 per piece, 4.22 per cent down from its previous day's close.
The senior IPS officer said that 45 percent of cyber financial frauds taking place in the country are originating from the South East Asia.
Piramal Realty will invest Rs 3,500 crore over the next two years in four ongoing housing projects as it aims to deliver a 6 million square feet area to customers, its CEO Gaurav Sawhney said. Founded in 2012, Piramal Realty is the real estate arm of the business conglomerate Piramal Group. It is one of the leading developers with 15 million square feet of residential and commercial under development in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The Reserve Bank on Thursday eased foreign direct investment (FDI) norms and allowed banks to provide guarantees on behalf of NRIs to acquire shares and debentures in Indian companies.
Why is the RBI harsh on Paytm Payments Bank? Why did it give Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank Ltd such a long rope?Often, it's a long investigation process, but the RBI doesn't discuss this openly since that can threaten financial sector stability, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The value of foreign portfolio investors' (FPI) holdings in the domestic equities reached $584 billion at the end of December 2022, which was 11 per cent lower from preceding year, according to a Morningstar report. This was largely on low return given by the Indian equities and exodus of foreign money from the domestic stock market. Going by the report, the value of FPIs investments in Indian equities dropped to $584 billion as of December 2022 as compared to $654 billion at the end of December 2021.
The central bank's tough new rules spell major changes in the competitive landscape for financial services audits.
Mutual funds (MFs) are investing in more stocks despite the recent volatility. The industry invested in 824 companies across the listed universe as of October, according to primemfdatabase.com. The S&P BSE Sensex hit its all-time high of 62,245 that month. The index has since corrected to 57,864, around 7 per cent below the peak.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in Rs 1.7 trillion into domestic stocks in 2023, one of the highest net inflows ever witnessed during a calendar year, of which 25 per cent went into the direct buying of stocks. Data provided by depository NSDL revealed that Rs 44,950 crore of the total FPI flows last year went into primary issuances. A large portion of the FPI investments through the stock exchange route went into block deals, thereby reducing the actual investments made via direct buying of stocks. Last year saw selldowns or block deals worth Rs 2 trillion.
Capital markets are becoming more prominent in India's growth story, with an expanding share in capital formation and investment landscape on the back of technology, innovation and digitisation, according to the Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled in Parliament on Monday. Further, Indian markets are resilient to global geo-political and economic shocks, it added. "Despite heightened geo-political risks, rising interest rates and volatile commodity prices, Indian capital markets have been one of the best performing among emerging markets in FY24," the Economic Survey said.
A Bank Investment Company to act as a holding company for state-owned banks would go a long way in minimising government interference and improving governance.
Ulhas Joshi, Head -- Sales, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Prominent exits by promoters included a Rs 15,300 crore share sale in Indus Tower by Vodafone Plc, a Rs 9,300 crore share sale by the Tata group in Tata Consultancy Services.
After a turnaround in performance by Indian equity markets since July that has seen the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 wipe out the year-to-date losses, analysts suggest investors start nibbling into stocks that are focused on the domestic economy. While they say intermittent corrections, led by policies of global central banks and other economic data, cannot be ruled out, analysts expect India's relative outperformance among global equity markets to continue as it looks better placed with a healthy economic recovery, and remains one of the fastest growing major economies. In this backdrop, Neeraj Chadawar, head of quantitative equity strategy at Axis Securities, believes that amid global slowdown, aggressive tightening by the central banks, and preference for domestic interests first (by the local government), export-oriented themes are likely to be muted or will deliver conservative returns in the near-term.
With a new $100-billion technology fund, SoftBank is likely to go after market leaders.
Why do we need a bad bank, owned by the banks themselves when there are at least 28 ARCs around, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In yet another move to close the regulatory gap between banks and shadow banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated exposure limits to the non-banking finance companies, in line with commercial banks. In the large exposure framework released on Tuesday, the regulator capped aggregrate exposure of NBFCs which are in the upper layer toward one entity at 20 per cent of capital base. The limit can only be extended by another 5% with board's approval. For a particular borrower group, the cap is at 25 per cent, with additional 10 per cent if exposure is towards infrastructure.
'The consolidation of the world's fifth-largest economy in the hands of 15-20 corporate giants is a once-in-generation event, which we are focusing on.'
Bajaj Auto, India's leading two-wheeler (2W) and three-wheeler (3W) maker, is scaling up its wholly owned finance subsidiary, Bajaj Auto Credit Ltd (BACL), with an investment of more than Rs 3,000 crore planned over the next two financial years, company's managing director Rajiv Bajaj said. BACL has already started commercial operations, Bajaj recently said on the sidelines of the group's CSR identity event. According to rating agency CRISIL, BACL's operations began on January 1 after receiving its licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in August last year.
For the startup ecosystem in India, the scorecard so far has been a mixed bag, observes Akhil Gupta.
Pennsylvania-based Customers will buy shares worth $22 million from the founders.
Rishabh Pant on track for IPL comeback
CEOs have complained that high interest rates have blocked their investment decisions. At the same time, customers are also deferring their purchases for new consumer durables, cars, and homes.
IPO-bound mobility platform Ola, said it has successfully raised $500 million via a Term Loan B (TLB) from marquee international institutional investors. This term loan has no impact on the valuation of Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola. The Bengaluru-based firm recently raised $139 million. This is part of a $1 billion funding round for which the company is in talks with investors, increasing its valuation to about $7.5 billion, according to the sources.
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.
Only the top 5 per cent profit makers account for 75 per cent of profits.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Startup founders need to sit up and think about how not to take stardom for granted and how not to disappoint their fans who have stood in long queues for those precious selfies with popular entrepreneurs, notes Nivedita Mookerji.
Retail investors have gained significant heft in the past year amid a sustained uptick in Indian equities. The share of retail investors in companies listed on the NSE reached an all-time high of 7.32 per cent in the quarter ended December 31, 2021, up from 7.13 per cent in the previous quarter and 6.9 per cent a year ago, the data from PRIME Infobase shows. This was despite the Nifty's 1.5 per cent decline during the quarter.
Foreign money has been pouring into India's fast-growing e-commerce sector, with investors ranging from Japan's Softbank Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
Debt-saddled telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd's Rs 18,000 crore follow-on offering (FPO) opened to a modest response on Thursday with just 26 per cent of shares on offer being sought by investors. Of the 1,260 crore shares on offer, 331.24 crore was subscribed on Thursday, according to information on the BSE. Qualified institutional buyers picked up 61 per cent of their 360 crore shares reserved for them while non-institutional investors sought 28 per cent out of 270 crore shares earmarked for them.
Investors shunned shares of Bajaj Finance on Friday, a day after the non-banking financial company (NBFC) reported a sharp contraction in its net interest margin (NIM) for the March quarter of the financial year 2023-24 (Q4FY24). The losses accounted for a fifth of the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex's 609-point loss. Most brokerages have tamed their earnings expectations for the next couple of quarters, after the management said it expected the pressure on NIMs to continue in the near term.
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