Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the fundamental drivers of the Indian economy are gaining momentum and the country is moving on a sustainable growth path. In the inaugural address at FIBAC 2024, the governor said that massive changes are taking shape in various economic sectors and markets, and the country is geared for orbital shifts.
The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.701 billion to $584.107 billion in the week ended April 23, 2021, RBI data showed. In the previous week ended April 16, 2021, the reserves had risen by $1.193 billion to $582.406 billion. The reserves had touched a lifetime high of $590.185 billion in the week ended January 29, 2021.
The country's foreign exchange reserves fell $2.238 billion to $570.74 billion in the week ended August 12, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. In the previous week ended August 5, the foreign exchange reserves declined $897 million to $572.98 billion. The fall in the reserves in the reporting week ended August 12 was on account a decline in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI on Friday.
Debt mutual fund (MF) schemes are set to register the best calendar year (CY) performance in the last four years despite no changes in the interest rate. An analysis of one-year performance of debt funds show that many of the schemes are set to deliver double-digit returns in CY 2024.
Under Urjit Patel, the then RBI Governor, the central bank had a habit of making complete about-turns on various issues, including electoral bonds and digital payments, former finance secretary Subash Chandra Garg said in his book titled 'We Also Make Policy: An Insider's Account of How the Finance Ministry Functions.' Citing some instances of about-turns by the then RBI Governor Patel, Garg in his book said, RBI had done so on the electoral bond issue and it had so in case of setting up of Payments Regulatory Board (PRB). RBI also made unilateral decisions like ordering complete data localization for participation in the payment system, Garg wrote in the book which will hit the stands on October 1.
Major laggards among Sensex constituents included Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel and ITC. Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, NTPC and Titan emerged as winners.
From the 30-share pack, Adani Port, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies and ICICI Bank were among the laggards. Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Maruti, Larsen & Toubro, ITC and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
The country's foreign exchange reserves rose $183 million to touch a record high of $560.715 billion in the week ended October 30, RBI data showed on Friday. In the previous week ended October 23, the reserves had jumped $5.412 billion to $560.532 billion.
In the June quarter of FY24, 51 per cent of consumers who took small-ticket personal loans already had more than four credit products at the time of accessing yet another new loan, compared with just 17 per cent in the June quarter of FY20, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Zomato cracked nearly 7 per cent. Power Grid, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, NTPC, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma and UltraTech Cement were the other major laggards. In contrast, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Consultancy Services and IndusInd Bank were the gainers.
The country's foreign exchange reserves decreased by $3.27 billion to $600.42 billion in the week ended April 22, RBI data showed. In the previous week, the reserves had declined by $311 million to $603.69 billion. During the reporting week, the fall in the reserves was on the account of a decline in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, and gold reserves, Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) weekly data released on Friday showed.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will maintain the policy repo rate at 6.5 per cent during its upcoming June 8 announcement, considering the easing of retail inflation in April and the potential for further decline, indicating the effectiveness of previous policy rate actions, anticipate experts. Headed by Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das, a meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled for June 6-8. The decision of the 43rd meeting of the MPC would be announced on Thursday, June 8.
'Within India, people want high-quality, personalised banking services, and the demand for such services has exploded.'
Foreign investors have made a strong comeback to Indian equities with a net investment of Rs 22,766 crore in the first two weeks of December driven by expectations of rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. This revival follows significant outflows in the preceding months, with Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) pulling out a net Rs 21,612 crore in November and a massive Rs 94,017 crore in October -- the worst monthly outflow on record.
Credit card spending reached Rs 2 trillion in October, a 14.5 per cent rise from September, largely driven by festival season purchases. However, the volume of outstanding credit cards increased only marginally during the same period. The spike in spending comes at a time when nearly all major credit card issuers are calibrating their growth in the segment due to visible signs of stress.
India's forex reserves jumped by $7.02 billion to touch a new high of $681.69 billion in the week ended August 23, the RBI said on Friday. The overall reserves had jumped by $4.55 billion to $674.66 billion in the previous reporting week. The previous all-time high for the overall reserves was recorded at $674.92 billion as on August 2.
India's forex reserves increased by $4.23 billion to $597.51 billion for the week ended May 20 on the back of a high accretion of core currency assets, according to RBI data. The country's foreign exchange reserves had declined by $2.68 billion to $593.28 billion in the previous reporting week ended May 13. During the reporting week, the rise in the reserves was mainly on account of an increase in Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, and gold reserves, as per weekly data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.
The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $3.01 billion to $561.05 billion in the week ended August 26, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed. In the previous week ended August 19, the reserves had dipped by $6.69 billion to $564.05 billion. The fall in the reserves during the reporting week ended August 26 was on account of a dip in the foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, and the gold reserves, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI on Friday.
The average value of retail digital payments dropped 48 per cent from Rs 8,769 in March 2021 to Rs 4,560 in March 2024 due to a growing preference to use digital modes of transactions for small value payments, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) report on the trend and progress of banking in India.
The country's foreign exchange reserves fell $6.687 billion to $564.05 billion in the week ended August 19, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. In the previous week ended August 12, the reserves declined $2.24 billion to $570.74 billion. The drop in the reserves during the week ended August 19 was due to a fall in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) and the gold reserves, as per the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI on Friday.
Just 40 per cent of India Inc's forex loans are hedged.
Banks face the grim possibility of a chunk of the unhedged loans turning bad.
India's forex reserves rose by $223 million to a new all-time high of $689.46 billion for the week ended on September 13, according to the Reserve Bank data released on Friday. The overall forex kitty had jumped by $5.25 billion to a high of $689.24 billion for the previous reporting week ended on September 6.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) interest rate decision, West Asia conflict and trading activity of foreign investors are the key factors that will dictate investors' sentiment in the market this week, analysts said. Moreover, quarterly earnings from IT bellwether TCS, domestic macroeconomic data and movement in global oil benchmark Brent crude would also guide trends in the market. Worsening tensions in the Middle East and foreign fund outflows were the major culprits behind the equity markets sharp fall last week.
India's forex reserves dropped by $691 million to $562.808 billion as of December 23, making it the second consecutive week of decline in the kitty, according to the RBI data. The overall reserves had dropped by $571 million to $563.50 billion in the previous reporting week, snapping a five-week trend of an increase in the kitty. In October 2021, the country's foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $645 billion.
The exodus of FPIs from the Indian equity markets continued unabated, as they withdrew over Rs 7,300 crore (about $840 million) in the first week of this month due to global trade tensions, with the US imposing tariffs on countries such as Canada, Mexico, and China. This came following an outflow of Rs 78,027 crore in the entire January. Before that, they invested Rs 15,446 crore in December, data with the depositories showed.
He also affirmed that over time, as the government finances improve, the SLR will be brought down further.
After rising for five consecutive weeks, India's forex kitty dropped $571 million to $563.5 billion for the week ended December 16, according to RBI data released on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had swelled $2.91 billion to $564.06 billion, making it the fifth straight week of an increase in the kitty after a protracted decline. In October 2021, the country's foreign exchange kitty had reached an all-time high of $645 billion.
The Reserve Bank on Friday superseded the board of the city-based Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank on concerns emanating from "poor governance" and appointed an administrator to manage the affairs of the lender. In what can be seen as a step that should allay depositors' concerns, the central bank did not put any restrictions or moratorium on deposit withdrawals because of the comfort it gets on the bank's finances, according to people in the know. "(The) action is necessitated due to certain material concerns emanating from poor governance standards observed in the bank.
Reflecting strong momentum in business, commercial banks, including one public sector lender, reported a year-on-year (YoY) growth in advances. This was higher than or around the banking sector trend in the first quarter ended June 2023. Bank of Maharashtra said its loans expanded by 25 per cent YoY to Rs 1.75 trillion. This pace was much higher than the banking system's 15.4 per cent growth till June 16, 2023, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.
The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $5.87 billion to $590.59 billion in the week ended on June 17, the RBI data showed. In the previous week ended on June 10, the reserves had dropped by $4.6 billion to $596.46 billion. In the reporting week, the forex reserves fell due to a dip in foreign current assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves, and also in gold reserves, the data showed.
The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $394 million to $631.92 billion in the week ended March 4, the RBI data showed. In the previous week ended February 25, the reserves had declined by $1.425 billion to $631.527 billion. It touched a lifetime high of $642.453 billion in the week ended September 3, 2021.
India's foreign exchange reserves dropped $325 million to $560.942 billion as of February 24, making it the fourth consecutive week of decline in the kitty, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had declined $5.68 billion to $561.267 billion. In October 2021, the forex kitty reached an all-time high of $645 billion.
India's forex reserves jumped by $9.7 billion to an all-time high of $666.85 billion for the week ended July 12, the RBI said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the kitty had increased by $5.16 billion to $657.16 billion, surpassing the previous high of $655.82 billion for the week ended June 7.
The three day MPC meeting began on Monday and the decision will be announced on Wednesday by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das.
Gold reserves were up by $1.525 billion in the reporting week to $37.625 billion.
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty pared early gains to settle lower on Wednesday due to late selling in index major Reliance Industries, ITC and HDFC Bank even as the RBI took the first step towards a rate cut in its monetary policy review. Erasing its early gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 167.71 points or 0.21 per cent to close at 81,467.1. During the day, it surged 684.4 points or 0.83 per cent to hit an intra-day high of 82,319.21.
Retail inflation declined to an 18-month low of 4.7 per cent in April mainly due to falling prices of vegetables, oils and fats, and came closer to Reserve Bank's target of 4 per cent, showed government data released Friday. It was for the second month in a row that Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation remained within the RBI's comfort zone of below 6 per cent. The government has tasked the central bank to ensure retail inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.
'...because it is still a legal tender.'
From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Adani Ports jumped over 5 per cent. NTPC, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Zomato, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank and Maruti were among the other big gainers. From the 30-share pack, Hindustan Unilever, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and UltraTech Cement were the other laggards.
