With over 3,000 species of plants, 26 interconnected lakes and the 250-year-old Great Banyan Tree -- the largest in the world -- the Indian Botanic Garden is a veritable treasure, discovers Payal Singh Mohanka.
India and Swtizerland have a tax treaty under which specific information on tax evaders can be shared. But as the HSBC Bank accounts have been opened before 2011 -- when the treaty became effective -- the I-T department has asked HSBC account holders to give an undertaking under the secrecy laws.
'For the first time ever it has come below 1 per cent, at 0.97 per cent.'
The monopoly of the state-owned State Bank of India in managing provident fund totalling about Rs 2.5 lakh crore (Rs 2.5 trillion) on Tuesday ended with government allowing three private players including ICICI and HSBC a piece of the cake.
According to the report, the demand for materials needed for infrastructure projects like metals, minerals, buildings and transport equipment is expected to increase as the country invests in building its civil infrastructure.
Following are comments from economists at leading financial institutions, banks and rating agencies on the interim Budget:
Gaganjeet Bhullar added to his growing reputation with a four-under par 68 that saw him jump from overnight 46th to tied 27th at the midway stage of the US $7 million WGC-HSBC Champions in Dongguan, China, on Friday. The 24-year-old Bhullar is three-under 141 for 36 holes and a good showing over the weekend will boost his ranking further.
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in India has reported a 32 per cent rise in net profit (after extraordinary expenses) to Rs 197.8 crore (Rs 1.98 billion) for the fiscal ended March 31, 2004.
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The subdued labour market is likely to recover.
HASBC says India is a strategic market and one of the key profit centres.
HSBC Banking group will expand its capital market, corporate and investment banking team in India and establish analytical support facility to exploit growing business opportunities and provide services to the group's overseas requirements.
India's current account deficit which narrowed in the second quarter of this fiscal, however, is likely to widen during the second half of FY 2013-14 as seasonal demand bring in more imports, an HSBC report says.
Investors may have to wait a little longer for Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based block mechanism in the secondary market even as the market regulator has set the effective launch date as January 1, 2024. Several brokerage firms said they may take a few months more to implement it. Investors will be able to register for this facility only if the stock broker has opted for the UPI block facility.
The government had last sold 5 per cent stake in ONGC in 2012 for Rs 14,000 crore (Rs 140 billion).
The Indian markets have seen a good run in the last three months with the S&P BSE Sensex rising around 7 per cent and the Nifty50 moving up 7.5 per cent. The next leg of the market rally from here on, analysts suggest, will be driven by a growth in corporate earnings over the next few quarters. That said, they do not expect material / sharp downgrades to India Inc's earnings estimates despite headwinds for the economy.
Ask rediffGURU Ulhas Joshi your mutual fund queries.
State Bank of India's earnings growth may turn lacklustre in the near-term, warn analysts. This, they said, could be due to margin compression and likely lower fee income over the next one year. "While the cost of deposits is repricing sharply across the system, there will be relatively lower yield expansion going ahead as most of the back-book has been repriced and there is a high competitive pressure on yields.
Foreign brokerage HSBC has said it expects the rupee to trade at 60-levels by December against the dollar even though risks on the domestic unit from both external and domestic fronts have increased.
rediffGURU Ulhas Joshi recommends five factors you need to look at to evaluate the performance of two schemes.
rediffGURU Sunil Lala answers your MF-related queries.
It has been a choppy calendar year 2022 (CY22) for global financial markets amid the spectre of rising inflation that led most central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve (US Fed), to tighten their monetary policy. Most equity indices across the globe have seen a sharp fall from their respective peak levels in this backdrop. FTSE India, for instance, has corrected 16 per cent from its October peak.
The Reserve Bank is planning to extend wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for transactions for interbank borrowing or call money market, sources said on Tuesday. The pilot in the wholesale segment, known as the Digital Rupee -Wholesale (e-W), was launched on November 1, 2022, with the use case being limited to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. "RBI is now planning to go into the interbank borrowing market.
In the mid-quarter monetary policy review last month, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had left the key policy rate unchanged, after raising it 50 bps in two instalments since he took over on September 4, saying he was waiting for more data clarity.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will keep on the path of fiscal consolidation and opt for narrowing the FY24 fiscal deficit to as low as 5.8 per cent in the upcoming Budget, analysts said on Tuesday. The government may go for a fiscal deficit number which will be far lower than the 6.4 per cent of GDP budgeted for FY23, they said, pegging the Budget figure for the next fiscal in the range of 5.8 - 6 per cent. Given the fact that this will be the last full Budget of the present government, there may be a temptation to make it into an expansionist one.
The fully funded scholarship includes tuition, living expenses and travel cost for a one-year-postgraduate programme.
The net inflows into active equity mutual fund (MF) schemes registered more than a twofold month-on-month rise in August, crossing Rs 20,000 crore, the highest in five months. This rise in net inflows was boosted by an 18 per cent growth in gross investments, driven by a record Rs 15,800 crore inflow through the systematic investment plan (SIP) route and Rs 5,000 crore collected by seven new fund offers (NFOs) in the active equity space, reveals data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). Moreover, redemptions moderated in August, declining by 19 per cent to Rs 24,580 crore, after staying elevated in the previous three months owing to profit booking.
Mutual funds (MFs) have lined up information technology (IT) funds, indicating that technology stocks are back on fund managers' radar after a hiatus. Over the past 18 months, stock prices for companies in the software space have either corrected or remained subdued. Fund houses have launched five IT-based sectoral funds in the past three months, with three of them taking the passive route.
An aggressive rate hike by the US Fed and the possibility of a recession can trigger a slide in these stocks, which will be a good opportunity to buy from a long-term perspective.
N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Information Technology giant Infosys, has lamented that economic activities in India were 'stalled' and decisions were not taken by the Manmohan Singh government in time in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-era.
Analysts are divided on their retail price inflation forecast, with some saying the first quarter numbers will overshoot the RBI target by as much as 60 bps while others are softer in their estimate. Consumer price inflation retreated from its 15-month peak of 7.4 per cent in July to 6.8 per cent in August, much lower than the market expectations, despite vegetable prices remaining elevated at 26.1 per cent. Food inflation eased to 9.9 per cent from 11.5 per cent, led by some cooling of inflation in vegetables, cereals, pulses and milk.
Over the past year, the National Stock Exchange Nifty FMCG Index, which tracks the market capitalisation of the top 15 companies in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, has surged by 17.3 per cent. In contrast, the Nifty50, a broader market index, has witnessed an 8.8 per cent increase during the same period. The FMCG stocks have also been rally leaders in the current calendar year.
New investment projects announced in the manufacturing sector declined in the three months ended June 2023. The value of new projects was lower than in the March quarter, as well as the year-ago period, shows data from project tracker the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The new project announcements worth around Rs 85,000 crore in the manufacturing segment in June were a 48 per cent decline from the Rs 1.6 trillion in March and a 66 per cent decline from the Rs 2.5 trillion seen in June 2022.
rediffGURU Hemant Bokil answers your personal finance queries
Stocks of gold jewellery retailers have been able to retain their sheen in 2023 despite volatile gold prices. Kalyan Jewellers, Titan, PC Jewellers, Thangamayil Jewellery, and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) have rallied 21-72 per cent so far since April as compared to a 13 per cent gain in the benchmark Sensex index. The rally gained steam on the back of gold's 6 per cen
Domestic equity investors' wealth eroded by more than Rs 4.43 lakh crore on Monday as fears of a financial contagion triggered by one of the biggest bank failures in the US roiled market sentiments. After a strong opening, Indian stocks went into a tailspin with the benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex tumbling nearly 900 points to close at 58,237.85 points -- sliding for the third straight trading session. The NSE Nifty too declined 258.60 points to end at 17,154.30 points.
Within three trading sessions in May, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pumped in Rs 9,461 crore into Indian equities. This follows net inflows worth Rs 7,936 crore in March, and Rs 11,631 crore in April. The trend, analysts said, could continue going ahead as the US Federal Reserve may soon halt its interest rate hike cycle, which will strengthen foreign fund inflows into emerging markets, including India.
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