Gold prices are likely to decline further to around Rs 24,500 per 10 grams by December if the rupee continues to rule at the current level.
Small stocks made a dashing comeback in 2020 after delivering negative returns in the last two years as increased retail investor participation in pandemic times saw small-cap index surging up to 31 per cent and outperforming the bigger benchmark gauge. This year turned out to be eventful for the equity market, witnessing bearish and bullish sentiments at different points of time. While the initial part of COVID-ravaged 2020 saw the bears in full force amid concerns related to the pandemic and lockdowns hurting economic activities, bulls made a comeback towards the latter half of the year. As the market swayed with many lows as well as highs, small and mid-cap indices emerged as markets favourites in 2020.
The test - called the Truenat Beta CoV test - effectively enables same-day testing, reporting, and patient isolation initiation.
Many investors want to exit equities now and re-enter when they begin to rise. Such timing is difficult to pull off.
While the market may remain volatile this year, analysts expect equities to deliver positive returns by outperforming inflation and government bonds, supported by the fiscal stimulus in the US.
According to experts, the Nifty has continued to form lower top-lower bottom formations, a trend seen in the last five weeks, and witnessed sharp selling towards 9,700 zones.
Gold, which was hovering around $1,321 an ounce in January 2019, has already breached $1,600 per ounce in the past few sessions to a seven-year high.
The government is expected to dole out some populist policies, especially for the rural / farm sector while presenting the interim budget, given that the country is heading towards general elections over the next few months.
Since last month, the realty (down 23%), auto (down 16%) and finance (down 14%) indices have underperformed the market by falling over 13%, as against 8% decline in the benchmark indices
In the past two months alone, four companies have garnered a cumulative Rs 22,400 crore via this route.
While some companies, such as HSBC, have closed retail operations, big players such as India Infoline is scaling down.
While weather forecasters remain divided on how the monsoons will play out in India over the next few months, analysts believe the news at the current juncture - at best - can trigger a knee-jerk reaction in the markets. They believe it is too early to say whether the sub-par monsoon on account of El Nino can seriously dent the market sentiment in the short-to-medium term. "These are just initial forecasts and we will have another round / status update from the weather forecasters a month down the line.
Technically, the Indian economy is on road to recovery.
'To achieve a corpus of Rs 10 crores in the coming years, I would suggest you increase your SIP, advises Nikunj Saraf, vice president, Choice Wealth.
Active subscriber base declined by 2.2 million on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to 970.2 million in August 2019, on the back of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea losing customers. Jio was the only operator to add 7.2 million active subscribers in the same month.
Equity mutual funds attracted an all-time high net inflow of Rs 28,463 crore in March, on continued interest by retail and HNI investors, who used market correction as a good buying opportunity.
Titan accounted for 59.6 per cent of his disclosed portfolio at Rs 8,355 crore. This is more than 10 times the next biggest holding, Federal Bank, at Rs 619 crore.
Over the past one-and-half years, the number of stocks trading below their respective face value has increased 29 per cent after a sharp correction in stocks of small-cap companies.
A hotel in 1975, entry into paperboards in 1979, India's dominant cigarette maker, ITC, read the tea - or tobacco - leaves early, leveraged its enterprise strengths and stepped up the diversification agenda to create multiple drivers of growth. Some failed, some faltered, some were transformational, adding steadily to the top line. Now those efforts are making a difference: margins from non-cigarettes - FMCG, hotels, agri, paperboards, paper and packaging - are expanding and profits are kicking in more significantly than ever before.
Overall, the domestic FMCG market bounced back to levels of 98 in June compared with 75 in May and 101 in March before the nationwide lockdown was announced. The pre-Covid March index for foods was 103, and for non-foods, it was 99.
Auto, pharma, IT, chemicals among sectors with significant reliance on UK and European nations with Tata Motors, Motherson Sumi, Tata Steel, TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Tech M among key names.
Stick to export-focussed plays, large-caps, say analysts
To be able to tide over the current crisis, automobile manufacturers have waged a war against all cost heads.
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
'Indians are great savers, but they are lousy investors.'
The elections held in April-May 2019 will be an important determinant of future growth and investment.
Market sentiment around the stock has continued to be positive on the back of improving outlook for the US economy and anticipated weakness in the rupee.
Outflows are likely to continue, experts say, till such time as the markets see a significant correction.
Given the developments, analysts expect fiscal and monetary support from the government and RBI to revive sentiment. However, recovery, they say, from these levels will be slow and painful.
A joint venture of Synbiotics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises (ASE), and CoDiagnostics, CoSara Diagnostics is the first and only Indian company so far to receive a licence from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to manufacture coronavirus diagnostic test kits.
Attractive pricing coupled with improving prospects make the offer lucrative
Gold, which lost its sheen to some extent in the second half of 2021, is likely to regain the glitter in the New Year and cross the Rs 55,000-per-10-grams level amid pandemic woes, inflation worries and stronger US dollar. After a stellar run up in 2020 when the yellow metal touched a record high of Rs 56,200 on the MCX in August, the prices are near Rs 48,000 per 10 grams now. This is roughly 14 per cent lower from the all-time highs and 4 per cent lesser compared to January 2021 levels.
The social impact of this could be worse as 300 million subscribers may face the annoyance of network shutdown and churn.
Analysts say investors should increase their exposure to gold up to 10% of their portfolio, depending on their comfort with a 2-year horizon. But avoid investing in physical gold or deposit schemes run by jewellers
The retail inflation rate breached the 6 per cent upper tolerance limit of the RBI for the first time in seven months in January, while the wholesale price index stayed in double-digits for the 10th month in a row, showed two sets of data released by the government on Monday. Retail inflation, the key input for the RBI while reviewing the repo rate every two months, soared during the month mainly because of a spike in certain food items. The previous high for retail inflation was 6.26 per cent in June 2021.
India Inc's cash pile was up 13.8 per cent last fiscal year, thanks to a combination of higher profits in sectors such as IT and fund raising by top companies such a Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors, among others.
Though the markets have lost ground since the past few sessions, analysts do not seem worried.
Some of the sops being offered to rope in new clients and retain the existing ones are cashbacks, reduced fee, and customised consultancy for clients.
If the rupee falls further, it would negatively impact the dollar-based returns of foreign investors, and could influence foreign flows into India.
In the first eight months of 2019, 70 per cent stocks in the BSE 500 universe were down. These stocks account for 94 per cent of India's total market capitalisation.
