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«Other announcements which are all for increasing the safety and soundness of the banking system and the payments and other things, that are welcomed,» says R Gandhi, Former RBI Deputy Governor. What to your mind actually stood out from the governor's commentary given that it was along expected lines and a status quo? Yes, that is right. The whole policy announcements are on expected lines only. Both by the market and others going by any standard I do not think anybody would have thought otherwise. Of course, going forward, everybody would be expecting the rate cut to come in sometime soon. So it could be in August or October, that will be the next debate, that would obviously depend upon the inflation footprints that we will get this month and next month so that should guide us.

RBI Monetary Policy LIVE Updates: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das is set to announce the second bi-monthly monetary policy of the financial year 2024-25 on Friday. This RBI policy will be the first one after the Lok Sabha election results 2024. The RBI Governor headed six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to keep the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 6.5% for the eight consecutive time and continue with its stance of ‘withdrawal of accommodation’.

Retirement services provider Empower has announced a new hire to lead on strategy for its asset management unit.

HBO's satirical show "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver." He has been hosting the show for almost a decade now, and it is highly acclaimed for its in-depth exploration of current events and social issues, often blending comedy with investigative journalism."Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" has won numerous awards, including several Primetime Emmy Awards, for its intelligent commentary and investigative reporting. The audience loves John for his style, which combines wit, satire, and thorough research.

T20 World Cup 2024: South Africa will clash with Sri Lanka on June 3 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. Aiden Markram will captain the Proteas while Wanindu Hasaranga will lead the Lankan side.A post shared by ICC (@icc)South Africa, since 2023, have played 11 T20Is that produced results and lost 9 of those. They were recently defeated 3-0 by West Indies.

Mint in an interview. The commentary comes as the construction materials platform raised $50 million from Mars Unicorn Fund last week. The company is valued at $2.5 billion, as per its official website.

Captain Liam Shaw, a standout addition to the Star Trek universe, is receiving renewed attention in the latest issue of Star Trek #20. Penned by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and illustrated by Megan Levens, the issue talks about Shaw's character, hinting at the possibility of his return to the franchise.

Russia’s wealthy elite could face higher income taxes

₹5,020.20 crore in the three months ended March amid weak demand during the quarter. Net profit for the maker of Gold Flake cigarettes and Bingo chips was slightly below the ₹5,150 crore estimated by a Bloomberg poll of 20 analysts.Revenue from operations grew 1.4% to ₹17,752.87 crore from ₹17,506.08 crore a year earlier.

Gurmeet Chadha, Managing Partner & CIO, Complete Circle Consultants, says None of the FMCG names are less than 50-60 times. So, if they fail to deliver on double-digit volume growth and margin expansion, one has to be a little careful because a lot of the profit growth has come from realisations and not as much as from volume. So, one has to be a little selective. We are more keen on adding the likes of ITC, Tata Consumer in the portfolio in that space. The commentary from most of the management has been pointing to a rural recovery, but would you buy the argument and buy afresh in these FMCG names? Gurmeet Chadha: It is a combination of commentary being good and elections also playing a role especially as the rural spending picks up. It is a bit of a form of mini-stimulus. In fact, there is a very interesting report which talks of that there is actually some bit of labour shortage in industrial states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu as people go back to rural areas during election time and there is election-related spending which actually leads to some bit of reflection in the rural sales as well, reflecting in FMCG numbers as well.

The consumer durables space should benefit from the pick-up in project completion of real estate, says Sachin Trivedi, Fund Manager — Equity, UTI AMC. He is also bullish on select private sector banks, auto, healthcare and capital goods sector. Edited excerpts from a chat on Q4 results, market valuations and sectoral choices: How would you sum up the March quarter earnings season? Which pockets of the market would you prefer to avoid after listening to the management commentary?

Current valuation discounts in large private banks seem to be completely oblivious to the positive surprises and improved earnings momentum outlook, says Santanu Chakrabarti, Analyst – Banking and Finance at BNP Paribas. “This dichotomy appears incongruous as we also note best-in-decades balance-sheet hygiene, ample loan growth and materially higher operating costs already baked into the financials,” he says. HDFC Bank is the top pick of the brokerage within the banking space with a target price of Rs 2,470. Edited excerpts from a chat: What are your key takeaways from the overall earnings season as far as the financial services sector is concerned? How has the outlook changed now for FY25? Santanu Chakrabarti: The only headline negative surprise in 4QFY24, among our largecap banking coverage, was HDFC Bank.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has refiled significant changes to its work-permit regime, allowing the creation of a "nomad visa" for remote workers. The changes, gazetted on May 20, became law after a previous withdrawal due to procedural lapses in public commentary periods. The new visa aims to attract remote workers employed and paid by foreign companies, provided they earn at least 1 million rand (approximately $55,404) annually. This visa also includes a short-term tax exemption. This move, recommended by the office of the president, addresses criticism from major foreign-owned employers struggling to get technicians and executives into the country due to South Africa's complex permit system. The system's delays, exacerbated by a lack of local skilled workers, have left companies in a bind, with some applicants waiting over a year for a work permit.

Balkrishna Industries Ltd's stock. But it seems like the worst of this problem is behind as demand is seen recovering in the end market. Inventory at the dealer level in the key European market normalized to 40-45 days in the March quarter, similar to what it was in the preceding three months, the management said.

Read here: Elections 2024 & Stock Markets: ‘Stop predicting, start…’ says Deepak Shenoy "In our view, a large part of the optimism is already priced in, while disappointment is not. Therefore, the risk-reward is skewed slightly towards a buy-on-dip strategy, rather than going all in," it said. Overall, it continues to believe the Indian equity market will deliver low double-digit returns in the current financial year after the positive performance YTD.

IT outsourcing firms are facing a reality check, as global investors’ rush into the artificial intelligence theme starts to leave pricey old-economy tech stocks behind. Unlike counterparts in the developed world and China, Indian software makers including leader Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. have yet to make significant advances in generative AI. That combined with a still cloudy outlook for client spending may soon leave them looking like the tech bets of yesterday.

Shiv Chanani, Fund Manager, Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, says he would probably look for definite signs before fully committing to the IT space. Compared with largecaps, one needs to differentiate among the midcap IT companies. There will be the usual run-of-the-mill IT services companies which are probably in a smaller format of the larger ones and then there are the vertical focused companies which have their own niche and will continue to do well. The largecap IT space overall has shown anaemic growth and nothing great is coming out of the commentary as well. What is your outlook there? Also talk to us about midcap IT where numbers are good, but their valuations are not very cheap either? Shiv Chanani: IT is a pretty interesting space at this point of time where probably the entire space is going through what we call the corridor of uncertainty. So, when you look at one layer below which is the underlying customers of the IT companies, most of them which are in the US, one can perceive the kind of uncertainty that they are going through because you do not know when the rate cuts are going to be, how much of those rate cuts would actually take place.

Renu Baid Pugalia, V-P-Research, IIFL Institutional Equities, says coming to valuations in capital goods stocks, on a relative scale Larsen & Toubro has disappointed on earnings and where the relative outlook in terms of margins was soft. From an earnings perspective, ABB saw almost 10% upgrade in earnings, Siemens saw 15% to 20% upgrade in earnings. Pugalia says that valuation is a pretty tough rope to walk for investors. The best strategy probably is to stay invested and hold on to these names, wait for opportunities for dips to add more. Pugalia does not see any deep value names, but probably some of the government owned companies, like Bharat Electronics on a relative scale given the kind of earnings growth momentum and visibility that they have, look much more attractive on valuations, trading at sub-30 times one year forward.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, in June, is going to feel different. For the first time in the history of the cricket World Cups – both 50-over and 20-over versions – the deaf and visually impaired people of country will be able to experience their favourite sport better than ever as the broadcasters – Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar – have added features to interpret live commentary for those who can’t hear or see. Disney Star has joined hands with India Signing Hands (ISH), a Mumbai-based broadcast company, to add Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpretation to its feed. There will be an audio descriptive feed for the visually impaired fans. The announcement was made on the Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which is observed on the third Thursday of May.

Oil prices edged higher on Monday after losing about $1 a barrel in the previous session on signs that U.S. policymakers are likely to keep interest rates higher for longer. Brent crude futures were up 55 cents at $83.34 a barrel by 1239 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 62 cents to $78.88.

Ruturaj Gaikwad at the start of the season. Later, Gaikwad even revealed in an interaction that MS Dhoni had hinted at handing over the CSK captaincy to him a few years back.