Banking and financial stocks got more than their fair share of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows in February. Overseas investors pumped in $3.56 billion into domestic equities last month. Of this $1.96 billion went into financial stocks, data analysed by Edelweiss shows. "The sector now has 34.8 per cent of FPI assets, up from 33.8 per cent in January.
The comments come about a week after PSU bank employee unions went to a four-day relay strike to press for early revision of wages.
The Nifty Bank index has come off 15 per cent from its peak in February, underperforming the benchmark Nifty which is down 6%.
'Investors should ideally consider equity allocations from a medium-to-long term perspective.'
The Reserve Bank India's (RBI's) decision to ban the onboarding of new accounts on the "bob World" mobile digital platform led to a selloff in the Bank of Baroda (BoB) stock. The stock of the public sector bank dropped by around 3 per cent. The central bank cited "material supervisory concerns"; news reports claimed mobile numbers were randomly linked to accounts to purportedly inflate registrations on bob World.
In an eventful week ahead, stock market investors will take cues from major events like the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, the upcoming Union Budget and Q3 earnings, analysts said.
Pawan Verma contended that PSU banks are influenced to give loans to the people who are not able to repay them.
In August, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with chief executive officers/ managing directors (CEOs/ MDs) of large non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs). The discussions included diversifying borrowing sources for NBFCs and housing finance companies (HFCs) to contain increasing reliance on bank borrowing, risks associated with high credit growth in retail segment in unsecured loans, prioritising IT upgrades and cyber-security, improving provisioning, monitoring of stressed exposures and slippages, ensuring robust liquidity and asset-liability management, ensuring transparency in pricing, creating robust grievance redress mechanisms.
State-run banks that hiked interest rates without their respective Boards' nod last week are expected to obtain approval now, but none of them are likely to rollback the hike, bankers felt.
Stocks of public sector companies, especially the oil refining and marketing companies (OMCs) - Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) - logged gains on Tuesday in a weak market. While the Nifty lost nearly 1 per cent in trade on Tuesday, the Nifty CPSE index - a gauge of performance of central public sector enterprises on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) - gained over 3 per cent in intra-day trade. The rally in PSU stocks comes on the back of the BPCL chairman, Arun Kumar Singh suggesting in the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday that the government intends to complete the divestment process in the OMC by March 2022.
Simple tips to prepare for bank interviews from M B Sivaramakrishnan, a HR professional and author of the book Guide to Bank Interviews.
Conducted by research firm IDC, the study titled 'Understanding the Indian Retail Banking Customer' says push marketing is fast becoming obsolete and the thrust should be on creating brand advocates.
Foreign brokerages said if SBI decide to buy stake in the bank, they should buy it at Rs 1 per share as the net worth is hugely impaired.
The Budget proposals are expected to boost the fortunes of consumer goods and fast-moving consumer goods companies, which have been struggling with poor consumer demand for more than a year. The Budget announcements, such as the increase in standard deduction by Rs 25,000 for income-tax payers and slab revisions, will put more money in their hands, boosting consumer demand. Private consumption is also likely to benefit from a new scheme to offer internships to 10 million youths in the country's top 500 companies.
Price correction over post-election peaks could throw disinvestment calculations awry.
The devotion to the deity is such that even commerce is not untouched by the spiritual feel in the holy city. Images of the grand temple is finding places even on visiting cards, posters, calendars and even signages.
A number of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) have tapped into the debt capital market ahead of the festival season to meet increasing credit demand as bank funding slows. On Tuesday, Aptus Value Housing Finance secured Rs 300 crore at an interest rate of 8.75 per cent through bonds maturing in five years. ICICI Home Finance Company turned to the market to raise Rs 275 crore at 7.94 per cent, alongside another Rs 300 crore at 7.95 per cent, through bonds maturing in five and three years, respectively.
At this time of fear and apprehension over jobs, public sector banks are swimming against the tide to go on a hiring spree.
The banking stocks have been rallying since the RBI policy announcement four days back, and today they got an booster after the Cabinet cleared capital infusion of Rs 15,000 cr in PSU banks.
'Inter-ministerial coordination, information on the proposed PSUs, and due diligence are taking longer than expected to conclude the process.'
"Subject to synergy, subject to reasonable similarity in culture, they (public sector banks) in the next 5-10 years really need to look at consolidation and merger," finance secretary Ashok Chawla said after launching the mobile banking service of Vijaya Bank in New Delhi.
Punjab National Bank is the second largest PSU bank, in which government holding is 58.87 per cent.
Credit-to-deposit (CD) ratio of major public sector and private sector banks during the October-December quarter of FY24 inched up as compared to the previous quarter though government-owned lenders reported a lower rate than their private peers. CD ratio is the ratio of the funds that banks lend as compared to the funds raised in the form of deposits. The CD ratio of top public sector banks (PSBs) - State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank - was lower than their private counterparts.
Indian stock markets are expected to be driven mostly by global factors this week amid a lack of local triggers and earnings season largely coming to an end, say analysts. Crude oil prices, rupee movement and US Federal Reserve meeting minutes to be released this week will also influence the market sentiment. "With the earnings season behind us, global cues would largely dictate the trend in the coming week," Ajit Mishra, SVP - technical research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.
'I find the RBI edict to the Kotak Mahindra Bank to reduce Uday Kotak's shareholding very unreasonable,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The most sought after exam for aspiring probationary officers will be held on Sunday, April 28.
Replying to a question on charges of money laundering by certain employees of three private sector banks, Chidambaram said the RBI and the Finance Ministry are looking into the issue.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked banks to tap the vast opportunity provided by the semi-urban and rural markets by converting savings in these areas into financial assets.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that at a time when the private sector has been somewhat conservative in investments, public investment always takes the lead.
Bajaj Finserv was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 3 per cent, followed by Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and HDFC.
The government on Monday said there was "tremendous" need for consolidation to enable banks gain financial muscle and absorb risks in the years to come.\n
Despite multiple headwinds at the start of 2023, the Indian markets delivered a strong performance, posting 19-20 per cent growth for the year. Even as new records were set, investor sentiment remains strong going into 2024, given the lower inflation, expectations of steady to lower interest rates, higher economic growth, and strong inflows. However, the overriding concern for most brokerages is valuations.
"The bank strike is expected to be called off today. I am being told that talks are on between the bank associations and worker unions," he said replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour.
When AS-15 became operative in 2006, the initial estimate for additional pension provisioning was estimated at Rs 6,000 crore. However, the latest wage revision may bring in an additional 275,000 bank employees who opted for PF. Banks may also provide for the pension liabilities of 65,000 employees who have retired but have been seeking resort to the defined pension scheme since 1996. This will require additional provisioning of Rs 6,000 crore.
With short-term rates firming up due to tight liquidity conditions, Indian corporates are opting to borrow long term to take advantage of the attractive rates by locking them in these uncertain times. The banking system has a liquidity deficit of over Rs 2 trillion. According to market participants, engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) raised Rs 1,500 crore through 10-year bonds in December 2024.
FM recommended a 0.5% cut in deposit and lending rates to banks to encourage investments.
The government on Thursday said it will encourage mergers of public sector banks to create strong entities, which can compete with other world-class banks.
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