Mutual Fund Market Insight

13 Mar, 2015

Mutual funds (MFs) pumped in Rs 5,2OO crore into equity schemes in February, taking the total inflow to about Rs 61,000 crore in the first 11 months of the current finan­cial year, on the back of posi­tive returns.

Publication: Business Standard

In step with smart recovery in the stock markets, the rupee re­bounded by 28 paise to close at 62.50 onfresh dollar selling by exporters.

Publication: The Financial Express

With an improved eco­nomic outlook, India has pitched for an upgrade in its sovereign rating by global rat­ing agency Fitch pointing to its slew of reform measures, lower crude oil prices and fis­cal consolidation plan.

Publication: The Indian Express

Barclays has said it sees the Reserve Bank continuing to shore up the forex reserves, which have been hitting new highs for many months, to the tune of $50 billion to take the overall kitty to over $380 billion by December

Subramanian is the global head of de­livery excellence group at the company and is responsible for governance of ser­vice delivery, compliance and risk man­agement. With her appointment, Mumbai-based TCS’ board has 11 members, of which six are independent directors.

Publication: The Economic Times

The labour ministry will soon come out with the guidelines on the new in­vestment pattern for equi­ty and equity-related schemes for EPFO, but is unlikely to fully accept the finance ministry’s propos­al in this regard.

Publication: Financial Chronicle

India’s image in the world will be restored with the passage of the insurance amendment bill by the Rajya Sabha, Analjit Singh, chairman of Max Health­care and Max Bupa Health Insurance Co. said. Edited excerpts from an interview:

12 Mar, 2015

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which in its Jan­uary review predicted India pipping China to be the fastest-growing major econo­my in 2016-17, improved its outlook of the country’s econ­omy.

Publication: The Financial Express

According to the terms of the memorandum of under­standing signed by the two orga­nisations, the Railways will use the funds to augment its capaci­ty.

Publication: The Economic Times

Equity assets under manage­ment (AUM) of mutual funds in the last one year have grown the most in nine years. Funds’ equity AUM has almost doubled from February last year as re­tail and affluent investors poured mon­ey into these schemes as the Sensex rose over 31% in the period.

Publication: The Economic Times

The government does­n’t have space to give Rs 20,000 crore or 25,000 crore (for capital infusion). If banks require further capital they have other means to raise capital in­cluding from raising capi­tal from market, Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said.

Publication: Financial Chronicle

India is emerging as a regional leader in creating policies that encourage inclusive economic growth, said Richard Rahul Verma, the US ambassador.

Publication: Business Standard

Foreign exchange re­serves in nominal terms, which includes the valua­tion effects, increased by $16.4 billion during the April-December period compared to $1.8 billion during the same period of preceding year, as per Re­serve Bank data on sources of variation in forex reserves released on Tuesday.

Publication: Financial Chronicle

Government officials say there is no pro­posal to curb RBI’s powers over the money markets and the Finance Bill’s proposed amendments to the RBI Act will only take away the central bank’s powers to issue and regulate gov­ernment securities.

Publication: Business Standard

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is set to visit London later this week, where he will address foreign institutional investors for the first time since the Bud­get, and meet Britain’s Prime Minister and Chancellor of Exchequer.

Publication: The Hindu Business Line

The Rs9,000-crore Senior Citizen Welfare Fund, announced by finance minis­ter Arun Jaitley in his budget speech, may face legal hurdles besides stiff opposition from trade unions who feel that gov­ernment cannot confiscate the unclaimed amount and should instead fund the social sector schemes on its own.

Publication: The Economic Times

Track­ing weak stocks, the rupee on Tuesday fell 21 paise to end at a two-month low of 62.78 against the greenback on sus­tained dollar demand from importers on speculation an improving US economy will prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates as early as June boosted the dollar.

Publication: The Financial Express

Indians could soon join the same queue as passport holders from Singapore, Brunei and Japan when they land in Beij ing or Shang­hai. Citizens of these countries are currently eligible for visas on arrival in China. India may become the next, overturning decades of mistrust be­tween the two that’s been punctuated by a war and regular skirmishes.

Publication: The Economic Times

Retailers of expen­sive products like branded jew­ellery, watches and phones, have appealed to the government against the move to make shar­ing of PAN mandatory for pur­chases worth Rs 1 lakh and above, saying it will hit their sales.

Publication: The Economic Times

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday cleared the contentious land acquisition Bill, along with nine amendments pro­posed by the government. Though these amendments convinced some National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners to come on board, they failed to appease the Congress and most other Opposition parties, which walked out at the time of voting on the Bill.

Publication: Business Standard

10 Mar, 2015

The country’s 45 fund houses together have an average asset under management (AUM) of Rs12,02,196 crore as at February-end, up from Rs 11,81,356 crore in January, according to the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

Publication: The Financial Express

The decline in world commodity prices, led by crude oil, has made managing the national budget easier. And now, after the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revised its methodology for calculating gross domestic product (GDP) data, that task has become easier still.

The central government’s move to extend the applica­bility of the SARFAESI Act to non-banking finance companies (NBFC) would speed up recoveries by these firms, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Publication: The Free Press Journal

After a gap of over 20 years, RS 1 note has been released in the country and it bears the signature of finance secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

Publication: Hindustan Times

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan to ensure housing for all lndian citizens by 2022 received a twin boost from the Reserve Bank of Indiaon Thursday.

Publication: The Free Press Journal

Giving credence to the govern­ment’s claim that the CAG had cor­rectly computed losses to the tuneof Rs 1.86 lakh crorc, pro­ceeds from the two rounds of electronic auction of coal blocks arc likely to cross Rs 2 lakh crore.

Publication: The Indian Express

The department of posts (DoP) will soon move a Cabinet note seeking approval for investment of Rs 650 crore for its proposed payments bank venture. Also, it will carve out an independ­ent entity for the venture with a new board of directors in place.

Publication: Business Standard

RBI is likely to adopt a zero toler­ance policy on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) norms. The move follows a series of violation of norms by banks, which were identified by the RBI in the recent past. The regulator also feels that the quantum of penalties for such viola­tions is small. It is currently looking at a proposal to increase this

Publication: Business Standard

The Self-Trade Prevention Check (STPC), aimed at limiting circular trading, was already in force in the stock exchange’s derivatives segment.

Around 53 countries are being shortlisted by the tourism ministry for a second round of approvals for tourist visas on arrival. Canada, France, the UK, Spain, China, Greece, Iran, Turkey and Kuwait are likely to be on this list.

Publication: Business Standard

Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), the state-owned financier for railway pro­jects, plans to raise up to RS 4,000 crore by selling bonds with short­er maturities as it aims to reduce borrowing costs by taking advan­tage of RBI’s falling rate cycle.

Publication: The Economic Times

The finance ministry, which has set a Budget target of rais­ing Rs.69,500 crore through dis­investment in 2015-16, is try­ing to revive plans for initial public offerings (IPOs) in three central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) — Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) and THDC India.

Publication: Business Standard

The government on Monday tabled the sec­ond supplementary demand for grants for 2014-15 in Parliament, to seek its approval for additional expen­diture that will lead to net cash outgo of Rs.19,230 crore.

Publication: Business Standard

Mineral water, chips, internet expenses, hotel lodging charges, inverter among others have been made part of the new consumer price index (CPI)unveiled last month reflect­ing the changing consumption patterns across the country based on 20ll-l2.

Publication: The Economic Times

09 Mar, 2015

DSP BlackRock Eq­uity Fund: If you fear the market may turn turbulent after the splendid rally in the last 18 months, here’s one fund to shield your portfolio against any sharp slide.

Publication: The Hindu Business Line

With an average of over Rs 1,000 crore a day, the net foreign fund inflows into Indian capital markets have crossed $11 billion (over Rs68,000 crore) in little over two months so far in 2015.

Publication: The Pioneer

As it clamps down on fraudsters duping gullible in­vestors of their hard earned mon­ey, Sebi is stepping up efforts to make the public aware about the grievance redressal mechanism available to them and safeguards against high-return claims.

Publication: Hindustan Times

Against an earlier estimate of about Rs. 82,000 crore, the Modi gov­ernment is likely to raise in excess of Rs. 1,00,000 crore from the biggest-ever sale of 2G and 3G airwaves.

Publication: The Hindu

Union Finance Secretary Rajiv Mahrishi has released new Re 1 notes at Sri-nathiji temple in Nathdwara af­ter offering prayers, a temple spokesman said.

Publication: Deccan Herald

In the Union budget 2015, the finance minister proposed that non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) registered with the Reserve Bank of India and having asset size of Rs500 crore and above, should be considered as financial institution under the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Inter­est Act (SARFAESI Act), 2002.

Money market traders and government bond (G-secs) dealers are mulling the implica­tions of language in the Union Budget which takes away regulato­ry powers of RBI over the money market and confers it on SEBI. Many are calling the decision con­fusing and unwarranted.

Publication: The Economic Times

Fi­nance minister Arun Jaitley will address board members of RBI on March 22 to inform them about steps taken in the Budget for2015-16 to boost economic growth and contain fis­cal deficit.

Publication: The Financial Express

The coal block auction has garnered a sum of more than rs.1.52 trillion so far, strengthening the national audi­tor’s claims that allocation of mines over the years had caused substantial losses to the excheq­uer.

The Finance Minister’s an­nouncement that he intends to end wealth tax and in­stead introduce an additional surcharge of 2 per cent (over and above the existing 10 per cent surcharge) on individu­als earning more than Rs.1 crore is a smart move, say tax experts.

Publication: The Hindu Business Line

08 Mar, 2015

The Indian mutual fund indus­try crossed the Rs 2 lakh-crore mark in February this year, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) shows. Equity funds continued to at­tract money and in February it saw net inflows of Rs5,217 crore.

Publication: Business Standard

The Indian mutual fund indus­try crossed the Rs 12 lakh-crore mark in February this year, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) shows.

Publication: The Financial Express

07 Mar, 2015

DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has launched a closed-end debt-oriented fund called Dual Advantage Fund. The invest­ment objective of the scheme is to gener­ate income by investing in a portfolio of debt and money market instruments, nor­mally in line with the duration of the scheme.

Publication: The Financial Express

A day after RBI cut its key pol­icy rate by 25 basis points, minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha ex­pressed hope that a few ma­jor banks would soon lower their lending rates, which in turn would prompt smaller banks to follow suit and help in the transmission of the mone­tary policy.

Publication: The Indian Express

Nextweek’s board meeting of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), that manages retire­ment savings for over five crore salaried people, is ex­pected to be stormy with trade union representative nomi­nees taking strong exception to finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget proposal to make it optional for employees to opt for provident fund.

Publication: The Times of India

A day after the RBI cut the policy rate, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha put public sector banks on notice, saying they will have to face the music if there is evidence of cartelisation to avoid passing on the interest rate ben­efit to customers.

Publication: The Hindu Business Line

RBI has allowed foreign investors to invest up to 34% of the paid-up capital in Container Corporation of India. The decision follows passage of resolutions at its board of directors level and a special resolution by company’sshareholders, agreeing for enhancing the limit for the purchase of its equity shares and convertible debentures by Flls/RFPIs, RBI said.

Though big-bang reforms were absent from the Budget 2015-16, higher spending plans of the government are expected to boost muted corporate profits, according to a study by India Ratings.