The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has stayed a Sebi order which imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on HDFC Bank for invoking securities pledged by stock broker BRH Wealth Kreators, till further orders. Sebi had imposed the fine and also directed the bank on January 21 to transfer Rs 158.68 crore along with 7 per cent interest per annum into an escrow account till the issue of settlement of clients' securities is reconciled. "The fact that the circulars have been violated or not and whether the securities have been rightly invoked by the appellant requires consideration," the tribunal said in an order dated February 19 while giving three weeks time to Sebi to file a reply.
Sebi on Thursday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on HDFC Bank for invoking securities pledged by stock broker BRH Wealth Kreators in violation of the regulator's interim directions. In addition, the bank has been directed to transfer Rs 158.68 crore along with 7 per cent interest per annum into an escrow account till the issue of settlement of clients' securities is reconciled, Sebi said in an order. The instant proceedings have essentially arisen on account of non-conformity by HDFC Bank with the directions contained in the interim order issued by Sebi against BRH Wealth Kreators and other entities on October 7, 2019.
The RBI on Tuesday said state-owned SBI, along with private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank continue to be Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) or institutions which are 'too big to fail'. SIBs are perceived as banks that are 'too big to fail (TBTF)'. This perception of TBTF creates an expectation of government support for these banks in times of distress. Due to this perception, these lenders enjoy certain advantages in the funding markets.
Asset management companies launched 239 new fund offerings (NFOs) mobilising Rs 1.18 lakh crore in 2024, with sectoral or thematic equity funds emerging as the top choice of investors, according to a report by Germinate Investor Services Research. This was higher than 212 NFOs collecting Rs 63,854 crore in 2023 and 228 NFOs garnering Rs 62,187 crore in 2022.
The country's largest private lender HDFC Bank is planning to facilitate a shift in its payments module from the existing core banking platform. This would ensure minimal payments downtime, even if core banking is not available. "This 15-month project will be followed by hollowing the customer-master modules from its existing core systems. "It will ensure a single system of record for customers across various products," said Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO), in the annual report for 2021-22.
Gold prices rallied Rs 910 to hit a fresh all-time high of Rs 83,750 per 10 grams in the national capital on Wednesday due to heavy buying from jewellers and retailers, according to the All India Sarafa Association. The precious metal of 99.9 per cent purity had settled at Rs 82,840 per 10 grams in the previous trading session.
Net NPAs increased to Rs 36,260 crore in the December quarter from Rs 34,843 crore in September and Rs 33,116 crore in December 2023, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Gold prices rallied by Rs 630 to a lifetime high of Rs 82,700 per 10 grams in the national capital on Wednesday following persistent buying by jewellers and retailers amid strong global trends, according to the All India Sarafa Association. Rallying for the sixth straight session, gold of 99.5 per cent purity appreciated by Rs 630 to hit a lifetime high of Rs 82,330 per 10 grams.
The country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 23 per cent jump in standalone net profit to Rs 10,055.20 crore for the March quarter, led by growth in loan demand across categories and lower provisioning as bad loans were trimmed. The bank's net profit during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal stood at Rs 8,186.51 crore. "After providing Rs 2,989.5 crore for taxation, the bank earned a net profit of Rs 10,055.20 crore, an increase of 22.8 per cent over the quarter ended March 31, 2021," HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing.
Defying trends, the country's largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank, has shifted its asset mix significantly towards high-rated segments. As a result, its wholesale-to-retail mix has tilted heavily in favour of wholesale, even at the cost of margins. Further, it is even looking to ramp up its branch network, with an aim to service clients within a 1-2 km radius rather than the current 5-6 km radius.
This is not for the first time that the customers of the bank have faced service outage. In fact, the bank has been penalised by the Reserve bank of India (RBI) for two major outages in the past. In December, the RBI temporarily barred HDFC Bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards after taking a serious view of service outages at the lender over the last two years.
In the quarter gone by (Q3 of FY22), private lender HDFC Bank issued around 950,000 credit cards, its highest ever credit card issuance in any single quarter. Since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revoked the embargo on it in August 2021 to issue new credit cards, the lender has issued 1.37 million credit cards. This is according to a senior bank executive, who was present in an analysts' call after the lender's Q3 earnings. In Q3, we achieved the highest ever issuance, with 950,000 card issuances.
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Shares of asset management companies (AMCs) have rallied in the last 3-4 sessions due to clarity on regulatory changes in total expense ratios (TER) and expectations that it won't upset profits much in the long run. HDFC AMC has gained over 12 per cent in the last four sessions, while Nippon AMC and UTI AMC are up around 5 per cent. Aditya Birla Sun Life (ABSL), the only other listed AMCs, has risen more than 2.3 per cent in the last four sessions.
'Asset allocation should be driven much more by long-term factors rather than the market scenario at any particular point in time.'
Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard and Nippon Life have evinced interest for the profit-making insurance arm of Reliance Capital (RCap), joining several prominent financial companies from India and abroad in the race for RCap's assets. The final day to submit an expression of interest (EoI) was March 25 and the bidders will now get access to the latest information about RCap before they make financial bids.
The last time this happened was in 1996.
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are expected to witness pressure on volumes in the October-December quarter. However, price hikes will help push up revenues, said brokerages.For India's largest engineering firm, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), the analysts expect a 20 per cent growth in consolidated revenue, and an 8.1 per cent core business Ebitda margin, up 40 bps from a year ago.
Banks have issued Rs 7.78 trillion worth of CDs in the current calendar year until August 2024, compared to Rs 4.9 trillion in the same period of 2023, registering a 59 per cent growth
The Indian equity markets will soon account for over a fifth of a key emerging market (EM) benchmark tracked by funds with assets exceeding $500 billion. This development is expected to funnel as much as $3 billion into the domestic markets. Following the latest review undertaken by global index provider MSCI, India's weighting in the MSCI EM index will surpass 20 per cent for the first time, narrowing its gap with the current top-weighted China to fewer than 400 basis points.
India's financial sector is dominated by large government-owned and private-sector banks.
A lot depends upon the crucial decision-making skills of the management. If you have any doubts about the management then you always have the choice of selling your shares or not buying stocks of those companies at all.
The Indian insurance industry is set to focus on customer-centric technological adoption and expansion into rural areas to drive growth in 2025.
HDFC and HDFC Bank were the biggest losers in the Sensex pack, plunging 5.09 per cent and 3.32 per cent, respectively, after the private bank reported a rise in non-performing assets.
New India Assurance and Niva Bupa have invested in the Bima Sugam India Federation.
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The need to maintain people's confidence in digital banking resulted in the action against HDFC Bank for service outages, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday and exhorted lenders to invest more on the technology front.
With slippages increasing every quarter, any derailment on growth or change in customers' repayment behaviour after moratorium may impact the overall asset quality. Correction, though, presents attractive buying opportunities, given the bank's sustained leadership position.
HDFC Bank on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an external IT firm for carrying out a special audit of its IT infrastructure in the aftermath of repeated service outages at the country's largest private sector lender over the past two years. "RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949..., at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act.
Given gains in equity prices, it is not surprising that the earnings of asset management companies (AMCs) are growing quicker. The earnings momentum looks set to continue. Good fund performances have thus led to AMC earnings upgrades although valuations are high. Recent market performance and net flow trends have led to earnings upgrades by between 3-8 per cent for FY25-27.
While HDFC Bank has vowed to recoup its lost market share in the credit card segment in three to four quarters by aggressively sourcing new cards, brokerages believe it is a little hard to come by, given how competitive the landscape has become, with other players in the market becoming equally aggressive to gain market share. Kotak Institutional Equities in its report on Monday said, "We would like to believe that the recovery in market share is likely to be gradual, if any. "All the key players, including Axis Bank, are now willing to expand their credit card portfolios as they have tested quite well against Covid-19."
The real estate sector had been going through a rough phase even before the COVID-19 crisis, marked by falling sales and piling up of inventories.
Although net inflows into equity mutual funds deteriorated month-on-month (M-o-M) in March 2024 to Rs 22,576 crore (excluding Hybrid), down 15 per cent M-o-M (up 12 per cent Y-o-Y), asset management companies (AMCs) had a great year with robust growth in assets under management (AUMs). AMCs are likely to report strong PAT growth (30-40 per cent Y-o-Y) in Q4FY24 on the back of AUM growth. In Q4FY24, domestic mutual fund (MF) industry's quarterly average AUM grew by 34 per cent Y-o-Y and 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) to Rs 54 trillion ($652 billion).
'The deal pipeline across products is robust for 2024.'
Stock market investors became richer by a whopping Rs 77.66 lakh crore in 2024, helped by an overall optimistic trend in equities, where the BSE Sensex surged over 8 per cent. Analysts said the year witnessed a tug of war between the bulls and bears marked by volatility but, despite the uncertainties around the world, the Indian markets sustained the pressure and delivered impressive returns.
Credit card spending reached Rs 2 trillion in October, a 14.5 per cent rise from September, largely driven by festival season purchases. However, the volume of outstanding credit cards increased only marginally during the same period. The spike in spending comes at a time when nearly all major credit card issuers are calibrating their growth in the segment due to visible signs of stress.
If the entire amount of Rs 24,000 crore is raised, then it would be the biggest fundraising exercise by any Indian company ever.
Overall, volume growth is likely to be in the range of 3-8 per cent for two-wheelers and 5-7 per cent for passenger vehicles owing to healthy demand from urban and rural areas and pending order books.
