Ask rediffGURU and PF, MF and insurance expert Purshotam Lal your mutual fund, insurance and personal finance-related questions.
'Margins will be an outcome of that. They will likely remain somewhat range-bound.'
Investors will take cues from the December quarter corporate earnings, with blue-chips like Infosys, Reliance Industries scheduled to report their results this week, in addition, inflation data and trading activity of foreign investors will also be crucial in dictating market trends, analysts said.
But there are challenges, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has retained its position as the highest-ranked Indian company on the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list, according to the latest rankings released by the publication. The oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate has been ranked at No.88 on the latest list, down from 86th position in 2024.
'If we want faster growth and want greater flow of credit towards the private sector, it's important to have many more of such large entities.'
As the results season kicks in, the quarterly earnings numbers of several blue-chip firms -- such as Infosys and Reliance Industries -- along with global trends and trading activity of foreign investors, will determine equity market movement in the holiday-shortened week ahead, according to analysts. The domestic WPI inflation data for June -- scheduled to be announced on Monday -- will also influence trading sentiments, traders said. Markets will remain closed on Wednesday for Muharram.
Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies has rejigged his equity portfolios. In his Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio, he has added Axis Bank (5 per cent weightage) and increased holding in Larsen & Toubro (L&T) by one percentage point. This, Wood said, will be paid for by removing the investment in ICICI Lombard General Insurance and reducing the investments in HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) by one percentage point each.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The Indian insurance industry is set to focus on customer-centric technological adoption and expansion into rural areas to drive growth in 2025.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Leading private life insurers HDFC Standard Life, Bajaj Allianz and Birla Sun Life top the list of firms against whom consumers have filed complaints with sectoral regulator Irda for indulging in unfair business practices.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
New India Assurance and Niva Bupa have invested in the Bima Sugam India Federation.
While a giant, it's a nimble-footed one, and is growing at a speed that even some of its private sector peers find enviable.
Between FY18 and FY24, it doubled its balance sheet. Despite being a late entrant in some segments, it has been able to grab market share, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
High-value insurance policies experienced muted growth in the first six months of the current financial year after the Centre decided to tax such products in this year's Budget. Simultaneously, there has been a marked improvement in the growth of policies with premiums of 'less than Rs 5 lakh', mainly originating from smaller cities. During this year's Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed that insurance policies (excluding unit linked insurance plans or ULIPs) with an aggregate premium exceeding Rs 5 lakh, and the maturity amount, would not be exempt from tax.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked at least 10 general and life insurance companies to submit a detailed road map for their listing strategies by the end of this month, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter. "The regulator met four life and six general insurers last month and asked them to provide their listing strategies by the end of February," said one of the sources.
Only experienced investors with a high risk appetite, a grasp of market cycles, and comfort with volatility and timing risk should invest.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Insurance companies reported nearly 23 per cent growth in first year premium in the first quarter of financial year 2024-25, when compared to the same period last year, with market leader LIC leading the charge with 28 per cent growth. According to the data released by the Life Insurance Council, the new business premium (NBP) increased by 22.91 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to ~89,726.7 crore in Q1FY25 from ~73,004.87 crore in Q1 FY24, reflecting a robust demand for insurance policies in the country.
The share of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in monthly new business premium (NBP) in the life insurance sector declined to 58.50 per cent in September 2023 from 68.25 per cent in September 2022 -- a drop of 975 basis points -- owing to shortcomings in the product and distribution side of business. However, the market share saw a marginal uptick from the 57.37 per cent recorded in August this year. According to the monthly business data released for September 2023 by the Life Insurance Council, the NBP of LIC up to September 2023 stood at Rs 92,462.62 crore as compared to about Rs 1.25 trillion in the same period a year ago.
As of March 25, life insurers have paid Rs 1,986 crore towards 25,500 Covid death claims
Top Indian private sector lender ICICI Bank, which owns nearly 68 percent of the insurer, is selling up to 181.34 million shares in the IPO.
'As our per capita income increases and various demographic segments emerge, the need for various kinds of protection and risk covers will become even more explicit.'
Bupa and Axa have already declared their intention to raise stakes.
Life insurance companies are balancing the increasing use of celebrity endorsers by limiting the association to short, event-led campaigns.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Ramalingam Kalirajan offers some easy steps to reactivate your accounts with banks like SBI, HDFC Bank, IDFC First Bank and PNB just so that you can start availing all the benefits linked to your account.
HDFC Standard Life Insurance has posted a 65 per cent growth in premium income at Rs 66 crore (Rs 660 million) during the first half of this fiscal, its CEO Deepak Satwalekar said on Tuesday.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Brokerages expect a further slowdown in Indian firms' revenue and earnings growth in Q4FY25, following low single-digit growth in the preceding three quarters, as factors like weak consumer demand and credit growth linger on.
Mortgage firm HDFC Ltd on Wednesday announced sale of a 10 per cent stake in its private equity arm HDFC Capital Advisors to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for about Rs 184 crore. ADIA is also the primary investor in the alternative investment funds managed by $3 billion-HDFC Capital. Set up in 2016, HDFC Capital is the investment manager to HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Funds 1, 2 and 3; and is aligned with the government's goal to increase housing supply and support the Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana - 'Housing for All' initiative, HDFC Ltd said in a statement.
HDFC Standard Life Insurance will hike its capital base by over Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) to about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3,000 million) this fiscal and targets to become the leading private player in the next five years.
Privately, many bankers admit their immediate goal is not growth but slowing the erosion of Casa deposits, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd expects a first premium income of Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) from individual policies, even as it plans to raise its capital base by Rs 75-80 crore (Rs 750-800 million) in the fiscal 2003-04.
Younger people, who usually have a longer investment horizon which allows them to handle the interim volatility, may go for them.
