rediffGURU Samkit Maniar answers readers' personal income tax queries
Calling a ministerial group formed to look into their wage demands an eyewash, PSU oil firm executives today said they will go on indefinite strike from January 7, as the government has failed to live up to its promises of giving officers a fair deal.
Sensex has six while Nifty has only 10.
Diktat to four general insurance companies says 'avoid competition' in any corporate or group account
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday held a review meeting on credit guarantee scheme with heads of public sector banks, and asked them to expedite loan disbursement under the Rs 3-lakh crore ECLGS for MSME sector, hit hard by coronavirus-induced lockdown. The meeting on Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) was held through video conference, and the minister appreciated the efforts of banks in execution of the scheme.
Air India has very often been slammed for living off taxpayers' money - an impression that was patently wrong till a couple of months ago when the first tranche of Rs 800 crore was given to the airline as additional equity by the government
The government on Tuesday gave greater autonomy to state-run banks, allowing them make domestic and overseas acquisitions without its approval.
The divergence shows lack of financial depth in the Indian stock markets.
'The revenue projection arises out of all sectors doing well and the formalisation of the economy helps in making sure the tax domain gets widened.'
Conflicting views on Coal India (CIL) might leave investors confused. The bullish perspective that India has strong power demand (and also high steel production) means high demand for coal. As CIL is the monopoly producer of coal -- supplying over 80 per cent of the domestic requirement - the public sector undertaking should be a beneficiary of the rising power demand.
From the Sensex pack, Larsen & Toubro jumped 4.26 per cent to emerge as the biggest gainer, followed by IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, State Bank of India, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, NTPC, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Wipro. Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, UltraTech Cement and Hindustan Unilever were the major laggards.
Land resources belonging to ailing companies being pitched to pvt players for new initiatives.
On government's last week's announcement of revamping of PSU banks, Fitch Ratings said the move is "credit positive, but risks remain".
NMDC reported a strong standalone revenue at Rs 5,410 crore, rising 45 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and 35 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-q) in line with consensus. Iron ore sales at about 11.4 million tonnes (MT) grew 18.9 per cent Y-o-Y (19 per cent Q-o-Q). Realisation stood at Rs 4,679 per tonne, higher by 22 per cent Y-o-Y (12.9 per cent Q-o-Q).
Analysts seem to be generally pessimistic about Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL). Out of 15 brokerages with recommendations since May this year, two have 'buy' while five have 'sell' and eight have 'underweight'/'reduce'/'underperform'/'hold' recommendations. The average target price of the public sector undertaking (PSU) is Rs 61. However, the stock has been consistently hitting new highs, which indicates that there is some kind of valuation mismatch.
'I would say restore the banks to health, get active board composed of professionals, then there will be an ideal situation for merger.'
India's largest PSU bank, State Bank of India, delivered excellent results, once the impact of a big jump in employee expenses was adjusted for. The net interest income (NII) beat the Street due to a better net interest margin (NIM) and good loan growth. The credit growth at 5.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) (15 per cent year on year) was excellent for a large bank.
Tata Motors was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying 2.94 per cent. It was followed by Vedanta, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, RIL, HDFC duo, L&T and SBI, rising up to 2.78 per cent.
To boost the economy, the RBI has taken a slew of measures since September last year, including cuts in the cash reserve ratio and short-term lending (repo) rate, to inject funds into the system and signalled a soft interest rate regime. PSU bankers' meeting is being held in the backdrop of the third quarterly review of monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of India.
These PSU banks also account for the lion's share of bad loans or NPAs plaguing the sector and need crores of rupees in new capital in the next two years to meet global Basel III capital norms.
Chidambaram would be meeting the bankers for the first time after the quarterly review of monetary policy by Reserve Bank on July 29. The apex bank raised the key policy rate to 9 per cent following which most of the PSU banks including the largest lender SBI hiked their lending rates by 50-100 basis points.
Among PSBs, the top gainers have been Union Bank of India and Corporation Bank, whose shares have rallied more than 15% each. Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda, too, registered double-digit rise
In the last two months, these stocks have lost nearly a quarter of their market cap.
The country's government-run firms suffered a loss of over Rs 82,000 crore (Rs 820 billion) on a single day on Monday with no significant announcement like FDI hike in some sectors or disinvestments in PSUs in the Budget 2009-10.
rediffGURU Kanchan Rai, founder, Let Us Talk, offers advice on how to navigate life's problems.
ICICI Bank was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, slipping 2.81 per cent, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank and Power Grid. Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro and Titan were the gainers.
Government-owned companies are more generous in rewarding their shareholders with dividends.
Telecom, metal and healthcare came as dampeners.
Fundraising through qualified institutional placement (QIP) has revived this year, led by commercial banks, after a lacklustre 2022. According to data compiled by Prime Database, Indian companies have raised Rs 53,070 crore in 2023 so far, of which seven banks - Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of India, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and J&K Bank - account for Rs 21,290 crore, or about 40 per cent. If other financial institutions are included, the figure surges to Rs 26,690 crore.
The recent failure of PSU public issues lies in the present character and structure of the primary market
The rally in PSBs, analysts feel, was more a knee-jerk reaction to the development, and the actual benefits will start to accrue once the addition takes place in 2024. "The actual benefit for banks from the inclusion in JP Morgan's EM Index will accrue from June 2024 onwards. "Until then, the larger fundamentals of the market will dictate the moves. "Once the initial euphoria subsides, bond markets will look to global cues which may trigger fresh selling," said Siddharth Khemka, head of retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
As of June, the gross NPA of nationalised banks was 3.89 per cent and State Bank Group at 5.50 per cent.
Reliance Industries Ltd was the biggest wealth creator during the five-year period from 2018 to 2023 while Adani Enterprises Ltd was the top all-round wealth creator, according to a study by Motilal Oswal Financial Services. The study, based on stock market performance of companies, said for the fifth time in succession, Reliance emerged as the largest wealth creator, adding Rs 9,63,800 crore wealth over 2018-23. It was followed by Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 6,77,400 crore wealth addition), ICICI Bank (Rs 4,15,500 crore), Infosys (Rs 3,61,800 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 2,80,800 crore).
PSU stocks held gains on selective buying interest
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.
'The Nifty index looks to be 20 per cent overvalued as per our model after moving up more than 10 per cent in the last two months.'
The policy was part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package announced by Sitharaman in May 2020 as a coherent policy where all sectors would be opened for private sector participation.
Known for stable returns, near debt-free status and dividend track record, these 10 PSU stocks are worth buying now.
The Finance Ministry has called a meeting of heads of public sector banks to clear stalled projects.
PNB reported the maximum number of such frauds.
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