Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday hiked tax on petrol and diesel, raised import duty on gold, levied additional surcharge on super rich and brought a tax on high value cash withdrawals as she sought to spur growth with reduction in corporate tax and sops to housing sector, startups and electric vehicles.
Debit card use at POS terminals increasing at rapid clip, transactions at ATMs declining
New businesses have been secured from the public and private sectors, as well as domestic and international markets.
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.
The career bureaucrat-turned-central banker walked into the 19th floor corner room of the Reserve Bank on December 12, 2018. Since February 2019, the Das-led RBI has cut the repo rate by a whopping 135 basis points to support the sagging growth, including an unprecedented 35 bps reduction in August. As he completes one year at the helm, woes in the NBFC sector, overall health of the banking sector and steeply falling economic growth are among the major challenges that needs to be tackled sooner than later.
Most of the index heavyweights are yet to declare their results.
PSU divestment, LIC IPO, fiscal deficit: Budget 2021 marks a clear change in the Modi government's stance from fiscal conservatism to growth orientation.
Data used for the graph and cited elsewhere in the column were obtained from various publications of the RBI.
SBI remains a favourite of most brokerages in the PSB segment.
The headline for corporate profit growth has been very encouraging in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), with the combined net profit of listed companies up by 38 per cent year-on-year. However, the earnings distribution has been very lopsided, with most of the growth coming from public-sector oil-marketing companies (OMCs), banks, non-bank lenders, automobile (auto) companies, and cement producers. By comparison, companies from information technology services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, and consumer durables were disappointed, experiencing a sharp slowdown in net sales growth and a relatively muted increase in reported net profit.
'The focus needs to shift towards the ability to collect payments, particularly in tier-3 to tier-4 areas where acceptance is still lacking.'
While a wallet is convenient, payments bank offers interest on deposits and ATM facility.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 0.83%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.8%.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress remain the most dominant political forces in Chhattisgarh, though the state has several regional outfits that have pockets of influence, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making a determined bid to challenge its well entrenched rivals and make a mark in polls to the 90-member House.
The main factor boosting production was a sustained rise in new work inflows.
Two members recommended bringing down the rate by 50 bps in the April policy.
With economic growth slowing to a six-year low, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath says the government should undertake structural reforms such as bank clean-up and labour reforms to address the slowdown in domestic demand. She rooted for government policies focusing on managing a slowdown in domestic demand, and on boosting productivity growth and supporting employment creation in the medium term.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand said the career spans of chess players are getting shortened because of the intense competition within the sport.
It is nearly after 13 years that a foreign brokerage has resumed holistic coverage on stocks of public sector banks (PSBs). To that extent, Morgan Stanley's report dated March 3, where the analysts have listed their order of preference for PSB stocks, is an indication that the state-owned banks may once again be attracting some interest, thanks to three back-to-back quarters of good results in FY21 so far. "State-owned banks' balance sheets have improved, and bad loans formation should moderate going forward," the analysts note and this is the key reason for them to relook at their stance on PSBs. While State Bank of India (SBI) remains their preferred pick, stocks of Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have been upgraded from 'underweight' to 'equal-weight'. The brokerage maintains its underweight recommendation on Bank of India and Canara Bank.
AIBOC in a letter to the Prime Minister, has said the government should not expect the banking fraternity to "join the political campaign of #MainBhiChowkidar" unless issues related to merger of banks, salary revision and staff recruitment, among others, are addressed.
Investors with stalled projects and mounting bad debt will refinance their loans.
With GST, demonetisaton and the banking sector reset, investment banker Christopher Wood expects PM to focus on generating jobs ahead of the 2019 election.
The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices under-performed to lose 0.8% and 1.6%
The further expansion and upgrade of the Chinese military does not augur well for India, which continues to confront an increasingly belligerent China on its borders, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Cardholders must ensure their debit cards are used in their presence.
The Sensex closed higher by 170 points at 26,128 and the Nifty rose 59 points to end at 7,943.
It's crucial for Modi to make India an easier place to do business.
The liquidity crisis at Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) has dented the fortunes of ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who increased his stake in the troubled company in the March 2019 quarter (Q4FY19).
Governments that do not respect central banks' independence will sooner or later incur the wrath of the financial markets, ignite economic fires, and come to rue the day they undermined an important regulatory institution; their wiser counterparts who invest in central bank independence will enjoy lower costs of borrowing, the love of international investors, and longer life spans, said Acharya, who will return to the New York University's Stern Business School in August.
The 30-share Sensex closed up 34 points at 27,831 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 15 points at 8,356.
Payments banks are niche banks set up by the Reserve Bank of India to further the agenda of financial inclusion.
We still have time for this government to take action.
Banks seems to be upset over RBI's move over rate cut.
'The Modi government needs some big private sector trophies to affirm its anti-corruption credentials before the polls.' 'So on whose neck will the sword fall next?' 'To that extent, the outing of the ICICI Bank-Videocon story is cathartic,' says Shekhar Gupta.
There is a definite attempt to put the landslides on the backburner because news of them and climate change worry Wayanad's tourism and real estate businesses greatly. Whatever I experienced of Wayanad's 2024 by-elections; the July landslides were not a burning issue, observes Shyam G Menon.
7 key areas that the Budget must address to re-energise the infrastructure sector, suggests Vinayak Chatterjee.
Fitch on Tuesday affirmed India's sovereign rating at 'BBB-' with a stable outlook, on robust growth and resilient external finances, but said weak public finances remain a challenge. India's rating has been unchanged at 'BBB-', which is the lowest investment grade, since August 2006. "Fitch Ratings has affirmed India's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook," it said in a statement, adding strong growth potential is a key supporting factor for the sovereign rating.
Money is being released and the government knows it will have to front-run private investment.
Shankar Acharya gives ten predictions on key politico-economic developments in the world and ten for India.
YES Bank raises base rate; HDFC Bank, Axis hike deposit rates.
