Bad loans of PSU banks rose by 28.5 per cent.
Fitch Ratings on Monday said the plan to privatise two state-owned banks in the current financial year ending March 2022 could face delays amid renewed challenges for the Indian banking sector due to the second wave of Covid-19. The government in the Budget announced plans to privatise two public-sector banks. NITI Aayog has been entrusted with the task of selecting the banks and one general insurance company for the privatisation.
Unlike any other national asset, which is typically sold to the highest bidder, the profile of the bidder is the most important criterion for a licence to bank, and even for acquiring more than 5 per cent stake, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government is set to initiate consultations with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to devise a new security clearance framework for screening potential bidders of public sector banks (PSBs) as it kick-starts the privatisation process, beginning with the strategic divestment of IDBI Bank. As the government is moving ahead with strategic divestment of IDBI Bank and is looking to privatise two PSBs, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is looking to put in place an appropriate framework as the potential buyers will have to meet the RBI's fit and proper criteria, said an official. The process of bank privatisation would be different from the sale of any other public sector undertaking (PSU), and more restrictions and measures will have to be put in place, the official said.
The divestment process, however, will not be an easy affair as there are multiple stakeholders, including the employee unions, whose concerns will have to be addressed.
rediffGURU Vivek Lala answers your income tax and personal finance queries.
Reserve Bank has lowered interest rates by 0.50 per cent since January 2015.
Traditionally, most PSUs have been cash-rich, which added to their value. However, the government has been tapping regularly into their cash resources to boost revenue for the exchequer
In the year to date, 61 PSUs have lost an average of 22 per cent, with five companies losing more than half their share value. The BSE PSU index is down 10.6 per cent.
IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, jumping nearly 5 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Reliance Industries, Titan and Asian Paints.
From the Sensex pack, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries were among the major laggards. Bucking the trend, auto stocks Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra closed with gains.
BSE PSU index rallies 10% in one month; nearly a third of the stocks on the index has gained 20% over the period
Customers using e-commerce websites are young and techno-savvy.
Move can also bring a huge change in the way business is done in India, where firms use multiple current accounts, often for even individual projects, making them difficult to monitor.
What the RBI should ensure is that its rules are appropriately framed and uniformly implemented with transparency, fairness and correctness
Tata Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, plunging over 8 per cent, followed by SBI, Dr Reddy's, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto and L&T. NSE Nifty declined 118.35 points or 0.71 per cent to 16,450.50.
The agency said that over the next two years new NPL formation rates would witness a gradual decline.
Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 5 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Nestle India, ITC, Axis Bank and Tata Steel. Nifty rose 46 points to its fresh closing peak of 17,991.95.
Despite unprecedented levels of uncertainty in Samvat 2077, investors have little to complain about on the returns front. The BSE Sensex delivered returns of 38 per cent in this period, while the Nifty registered a return of over 40 per cent. As is the case in bull markets, companies in the small- and mid-capitalisation basket outperformed the benchmarks, with returns almost twice those of frontliners.
India's economy will do well once vaccination reaches a critical mass as pent up demand, global recovery and easy financial conditions will boost activities, RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Ashima Goyal said on Tuesday.
'It is human nature to get angry and annoyed when you are inconvenienced.' 'But we were able to enroll a few of our customers as 'bank mitras', who with my staff made sure that the queues were orderly and coupons were given to all the customers who wanted to withdraw or deposit money.'
Bharti Airtel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, jumping around 3 per cent, followed by Nestle India, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Tech and ITC. NSE Nifty rose 15.75 points to settle at 17,369.25.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan had said recently that there was "no need" to set up a separate bad bank to deal with stressed assets of public sector lenders.
P V Subramanyam clears some misconceptions about debt funds.
A fresh PIL was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by multiple central government agencies under the supervision of a panel or a former apex court judge against the Adani Group of companies following allegations of fraud and share price manipulation made by the US-based Hindenburg Research.
It is imperative to check the basics of a company before investing in it
Five state-run general insurance companies have a total exposure of Rs 347.64 crore, or 0.14 per cent of their total assets under management (AUM), in Adani group of companies, the finance ministry said on Monday. In a written reply to a question by Congress' Manish Tewari, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said Life Insurance Corp (LIC) held Rs 35,917.31 crore in debt and equity of Adani group of companies as on December 31, 2022. This is 0.97 per cent of its total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 41.66 trillion.
Banking services across the country were hit on Wednesday by the day-long strike by 10 central trade unions and 14 bank unions, but workers of largest lender SBI and a few other banks stayed off the agitation.
These firms offer job security and lucrative salries.
Major gainers in the Sensex pack were Wipro, Kotak Bank, Infosys, Maruti, Tata Motors, L&T, IndusInd Bank, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, SBI, ONGC, HDFC Bank and HUL, rising up to 3 per cent.
'The financial sector will be hit even harder than the overall market.' 'The banking sector will eventually be rescued.' 'But it may go into a long downwards spiral before things turn around.' 'Threat or buying opportunity?' asks Devangshu Datta.
With general elections on the horizon, the government's privatisation bandwagon has almost but stalled as a government wary of being accused of selling family silver opts for minority stake sales on stock exchanges over outright privatisation. The result -- the divestment target for current fiscal year is again likely to be missed. Big ticket privatisation plans such as that of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and CONCOR are already on the backburner and analysts feel meaningful privatisation can happen only after April/May general elections.
TCS was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by HUL, UltraTech Cement, Nestle India, Kotak Bank, Dr Reddy's and Titan. NSE Nifty surged 157.90 points to 17,234.15.
India's state banks are under pressure to improve profitability.
Nifty PSU bank index dropped nearly 2%
The banking sector's credibility is on thin ice. Unless the government takes strict steps, things could get worse.
From the Sensex pack, NTPC, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Titan, Power Grid and State Bank of India were the major gainers. ITC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and JSW Steel were among the laggards.
Banking as we know it will stand on its head in the next 10 years.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday relaxed the norms for valuing perpetual bonds. The norms, which had sought to value banks' deemed residual maturity of Basel III additional tier 1 (AT1) bonds as 100-year debt from April 1, were strongly opposed by the finance ministry. In a statement released on Monday, the regulator said the maturity would be 10 years until March 31, 2022, and would be increased to 20 and 30 years over the subsequent six-month period.