A strong influx of 11 equity new fund offers (NFOs) in June, particularly within the thematic space, helped mutual funds collect Rs 14,370 crore - the highest ever via such introductory offers. This surpassed the previous high recorded in July 2021, where four NFOs accumulated Rs 13,709 crore, with ICICI Prudential MF's flexicap NFO alone mobilising Rs 9,808 crore.
The proposed exemption in customs duty on import of lithium, cobalt and other rare minerals in the Union Budget 2024-25 is likely to lower the battery production cost and help in making electric vehicles more affordable for the buyers, auto industry leaders said on Tuesday.
The Invicto hybrid, priced at Rs 24.79 lakh (Rs 2.479 million), is a Multi-Purpose Vehicle, which is based on the Toyota Innova Hycross.
'You cannot have only one product or one market or one customer segment.'
Bandhan Bank's managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (pictured), who has decided to step down, on Wednesday said the bank will need at least three months to identify his successor. He has also written to his employees, asking them "not to worry" over his surprise decision. "Whatever, our experience in the earlier selections, when we selected two executive directors on the basis of that experience we need a minimum three months of time for selection of candidates and then it will go to RBI and then whatever is the time taken by RBI for approval," Ghosh said.
Diversified business conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has picked up a 3.53 per cent stake in private sector lender RBL Bank for Rs. 417 crore. "We may consider further investment, subject to pricing, regulatory approvals, and required procedures. However, in no circumstance will it exceed 9.9 per cent," M&M said in an exchange notification on Wednesday. Shares of RBL Bank jumped 7.1 per cent to settle at Rs. 238.8 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday, close to their 52-week high of Rs. 242.1.
You see the Thar is not just a Car.... It is The Thar.
'Have a long way to go even as a small finance bank, both in terms of size, and in terms of fulfilling our aspirations for financial inclusion.'
'Private General insurers are poised to grow at 17 per cent - 18 per cent over the next 5 to 7 years and we will grow faster.'
The number of dematerialised (demat) accounts required to hold shares and other securities in electronic format rose by 3.1 million in April, bringing the total tally to a fresh record of 154.5 million. Since December last year, the new additions have consistently remained above the 3 trillion mark, a sign that the stock markets continue to attract new investors despite a spike in volatility.
The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), which is still awaiting regulatory approval for its initial public offering (IPO), is now planning to streamline the process of buying the unlisted stocks of the company, thereby reducing the time taken for such deals from about four months to just a week. The management of India's biggest stock exchange has affirmed that it is working to reduce the time taken. According to the analysts, certain approvals required at present from NSE for buying stocks, are adding to the processing time.
HDFC Bank has reshuffled the portfolios of its senior management team. This is the first major rejig after the amalgamation of HDFC Ltd on July 1. "The runway for our growth is large. This change is being done to bring in a very sharp focus on leveraging what we have built and for enhanced execution," said Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive of HDFC Bank, explaining the reason for this overhaul.
Close on heels of the launch of Gift Nifty (earlier SGX Nifty), domestic exchanges are pushing for extension of trading hours for the onshore derivatives market, said sources. Bourses are waiting for a final approval from market regulator Sebi on the proposal to keep the derivatives market open for longer hours, they said. The move is aimed at attracting more trading members for onshore futures and options (F&O) contracts amid risk that global investors could prefer trading at Gift City given the tax benefits.
The unclaimed funds within the life insurance sector are higher from policies sold by agents as against other channels like bancassurance or a digital platform, said analysts and officials from insurance companies. Unclaimed life insurance funds refer to the proceeds of insurance policies including death or survival benefits not claimed by the beneficiary or the policyholder. Bancassurance means selling an insurance product through banks.
Hyundai Motor India expects SUV sales to account for 65 per cent of its overall volumes in 2024, while it gears up to enter the EV segment early next year, aiming to garner 20 per cent of its total sales by 2030, its COO Tarun Garg said on Tuesday. The automaker, which got around 60 per cent of its overall volumes from sports utility vehicle (SUV) sales last year, plans to invest Rs 7,000 crore on its second plant at Talegaon, according to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The company officials however declined to comment on the matter.
Sundararaman Ramamurthy has assumed charge as managing director and chief executive officer of leading stock exchange BSE. In a regulatory filing last year, BSE said that markets regulator Sebi has approved the appointment of Ramamurthy as its MD and CEO. "Sundararaman Ramamurthy has assumed charge as MD and CEO of BSE," the exchange said in a release on Wednesday.
Rising outgo towards clearing and settlement fees has led to an altercation between the BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), with the latter striking down the former's request to lower the charges. NSE said it has no plans to restructure the same and that it will continue with the pricing defined under the interoperability framework. The interoperability framework, introduced in 2019, allows trades executed on any of the exchanges to be settled or cleared at either of the two clearing corporations -- NSE Clearing (NCL) or Indian Clearing Corporation (ICCL), fully-owned by the NSE and the BSE, respectively.
In order for life insurance customers to attain maximum benefits, it is crucial for the persistency ratio to be far higher than its current level, top executives of the industry said at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit on Thursday. The persistency ratio is a metric that measures the number of policyholders who continue paying renewal premium and is gauged at varying stages in the life of a policy. A higher persistency ratio is seen as an indicator of an insurance product that caters satisfactorily to the needs of a customer.
The country's largest bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE) has put the NSE Prime initiative in cold storage following lukewarm response from India Inc, said people aware of the development. Inspired by Brazil's Novo Mercado, NSE had announced a separate platform which any listed company could be part of by voluntarily adopting a stricter corporate governance code. Launched in December 2021, NSE Prime was to formally take off within a year after empanelling companies.
Ahead of the Union Budget 2023, insurers are hoping that the Centre will act on their recommendations, which includes increasing the limit for tax deduction under 80D of the Income Tax Act. Also among them are issuance of long-term bonds, tax incentives for home insurance premiums, and a separate section to claim deduction for term-insurance premium, among others. These suggestions would help improve the penetration of insurance in the country.
Disney Star is mulling legal actions against Zee Entertainment for backing out from a $1.4 billion sub-licensing agreement for TV broadcast of international cricket matches in India, according to industry sources. This could brew another legal trouble for Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), which is already facing an arbitration plea by Sony Group at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, claiming $90 million for breach of conditions of their merger agreement. Disney Star, an Indian subsidiary of media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company, is working on its strategy over the development, said industry sources.
CBI has made substantial progress in the investigation into the NSE co-location case where markets regulator Sebi has found violations of norms by the stock exchange as well as some of its former top level employees, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. The government and Sebi have received some complaints in the matter of NSE co-location. In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, the minister said that during the investigation into the matter, it was noticed that certain stock brokers got preferential access to the trading system.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday fixed the tenure of MD, CEO and whole-time director (WTD) in a private sector bank at 15 years and prescribed the maximum age of 70 years for such functionaries. These directives form part of the instructions issued by the RBI with regard to the chair and meetings of the board, composition of certain committees of the board, age, tenure and remuneration of directors, and appointment of the WTDs on Monday. The RBI said it would come out with a Master Direction on Corporate Governance in banks in due course.
The mutual fund (MF) industry added a record Rs 10 trillion to its total assets under management (AUM) in 2023, taking the cumulative tally past the Rs 50 trillion mark for the first time, in December. This 20 per cent growth in AUM last year was fuelled by a robust rally in the equity markets and a record Rs 1.62 trillion net inflows into active equity schemes. In another first, the AUM linked to systematic investment plans, too, hit Rs 10 trillion by the end of 2023.
Among the Sensex firms, Axis Bank, Power Grid, Maruti, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, ITC, Nestle and Mahindra & Mahindra were the major gainers. Bajaj Finance and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.
Fortis Healthcare on Thursday said it has inked a pact with the VPS Group to acquire Manesar-based Medeor Hospital for Rs 225 crore. The healthcare major said it has signed definitive agreements to acquire Medeor Hospital for an overall purchase consideration of Rs 225 crore. The hospital has a potential capacity of 350 beds and can be operationalised in a phased manner in around nine months, it added.
'We are committed to achieving the targets we had outlined.'
FMCG major HUL on Friday announced the appointment of Rohit Jawa as the managing director & chief executive officer to succeed Sanjiv Mehta who will retire from the company after leading it for a decade. Jawa, presently the Chief of Transformation for Unilever, would take over the leadership role for a term of five consecutive years with effect from June 27, 2023, the company said in a statement. "The appointment of Rohit Jawa as a whole-time director and MD & CEO will be subject to approval of Shareholders and other statutory approvals as may be applicable," it added.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd on Wednesday said Culver Max Entertainment, formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks India, has agreed to discuss extending the date required to make their merger scheme effective, a day ahead of the deadline. A day after Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) stated that it has not yet agreed to a deadline extension requested by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) for their proposed $10-billion merger, the Subhash Chandra family-promoted media firm said it has received a communication from Sony group for discussing an extension of the deal which was announced almost two years ago.
Private equity (PE) investment in real estate declined 5 per cent year-on-year in April-June to $1.9 billion because of high interest rates, according to Anarock. PE inflows stood at $2 billion in the year-ago period. Real estate consultant Anarock has come out with a report titled 'FLUX Q1 FY24 Market Monitor for Capital Flows in Indian Real Estate'.
It is 10 years since Bandhan Financial Services became the first microfinance institution (MFI) to receive the universal bank licence. A year later, in 2015, it started operations. Bandhan's entry into banking was seen as a vote of confidence by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the country's microfinance sector. Subsequently, the RBI awarded small finance bank licences to nine MFIs.
For long-term financial security, millennials must not only provide social security for their young families but also ensure that their financial burdens are not passed down to their families, says Casparus Kromhout.
'In case the El Nino pattern plays out negatively and/or the political situation becomes messy, we may see markets correcting and waiting for the situation to become clear by early/mid-2024.'
The 49-year-old had received "Monoclonal Antibody Cocktail therapy" on Monday night.
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
Sales of Mercedes-Benz in the country have jumped by 36.67 per cent to 16,497 units in 2022-23 amid high demand for its top-end vehicles, according to its India MD & CEO Santosh Iyer. "This is the highest-ever sales recorded by the company in any financial year," he stated. In the luxury car segment of India, Mercedes-Benz is the market leader with about a 42 per cent share.
Heads of various public and private sector banks on Thursday sought to present a counter-narrative on RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das warning lenders about the perils of extreme risk aversion in the pandemic-stricken environment where credit demand is on the wane.
Gift Nifty will provide Indian investors cues on how domestic markets could react to global events.
RBL Bank's interim chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) Rajeev Ahuja on Sunday tried to allay concerns around the health of the bank. He said events during the weekend are not linked to RBL's asset quality. The bank said Vishwavir Ahuja, its managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), had on Saturday proceeded on leave with immediate effect on medical grounds.
'We are in a sweet spot.' 'Equity, on a standalone basis, will continue to remain the asset class to stay invested in.'