Experts Financial News

Paytm (One 97 Communications) shares will be in focus on Wednesday after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) granted the company approval to onboard new UPI users, subject to adherence to all procedural guidelines and circulars. «We would like to inform you that vide letter dated October 22, 2024, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted approval to the company to onboard new UPI users, with adherence to all NPCI procedural guidelines and circulars,» the company stated in a stock exchange filing.

Hemant Soren from Barhait and Kalpana Soren from Gandey segments. The assembly polls will be held in two phases — on November 13 and 20 — while the results will be declared on November 23. Hemant Soren is the sitting MLA from Barhait (ST) constituency in Sahibganj district. He won the seat by 25,740 votes over his nearest BJP rival Simon Malto in the 2019 assembly elections. His wife Kalpana Soren had won the Gandey bypoll by 27,149 votes over her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma. The seat had fallen vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.

Tokyo Metro jumped 36% in their Tokyo market debut on Wednesday after an initial public offering proved popular among investors. Tokyo Metro, one of the capital's two major subway operators, opened at 1,430 yen ($9.44) after shares were initially untraded with a glut of buy orders.

E. coli outbreak across 10 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The outbreak, caused by E. coli O157, sent 10 people to the hospital. This strain was also responsible for the deadly 1993 outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants. The CDC reported that everyone affected had eaten at McDonald's prior to their illness, with most recalling having a Quarter Pounder. Investigators are focusing on slivered onions and fresh beef patties as potential sources, though the exact ingredient has not yet been identified. McDonald's has removed the slivered onions and beef patties from stores in the affected states, including Colorado and Nebraska, as a precaution. U.S. food safety attorney Bill Marler noted that onions have been tied to past E. coli outbreaks, while beef contamination is rarer due to strict food safety measures.

inflation falling below the central bank's 2% target, signalling a change in their focus after years of excessive price growth. Inflation in the euro zone dipped to 1.7% last month and could be back at 2% on a durable basis in the first months of 2025, ending three years of excessive price growth, when inflation even briefly rose into double digits.

food delivery company Zomato will be in focus after the company's profit in the second quarter missed the Street estimates. The bottomline zoomed nearly 389% YoY in the reporting period to Rs 176 crore from a year ago, but an ET Now Poll was expecting PAT to be around Rs 260 crore.

Sampath Reddy, Founder & CIO, Azurean Investment Managers, says overall, the steep growth in the earnings that we had seen in the last several quarters, is getting decelerated. As a result, overall the valuation premium that we used to enjoy vis-a-vis most other global markets is getting slightly compressed. So, we could see a subdued trend in the market for some more time, more so in the midcap and smallcap segments. I am guessing the portfolio is not looking a very pretty picture right now and if possible, perhaps one should stay away from looking at the portfolios today with the kind of weakness that we are seeing. But do you expect this to be only a transient issue or are the next couple of weeks and months going to be full of turmoil and volatility for individual investors? Sampath Reddy: The way the markets have moved up over the last few years, overall valuations are on the higher side, especially more so in the midcap and smallcap segment where the valuations are much more steep. Because of which, there could be a subduedness in the market overall for the very near term and even if we were to look at the quarterly numbers of the Q2, most other places, the numbers are coming slightly below expectations.

Indian nationals in the Russian Army during his bilateral meeting on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan. Addressing a media briefing, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the two leaders also shared perspectives on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Prime Minister reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy was the way forward to achieve resolution of the conflict. He briefed President Putin about his engagements with the Ukrainian leadership and noted that India stood ready to contribute in bringing peace to the region. «An important issue that came up was the issue of early discharge of the remaining Indian nationals in the Russian army. This figured from both sides in the discussion and with the support of the Russian side, a number of Indian nationals have, in recent months, been able to return to India. We understand that currently the embassy is pursuing around 20 cases with the Russian side and we very much hope that all of these individuals can be released at an early date and be repatriated to India very soon,» he said.

Mumbai: Spare a thought this Diwali for stockbrokers and their staff—they’re feeling a little less cheery this festive season. Blame it on T+0, also known as same-day settlement, and other reforms. Every year, the start of the Hindu calendar year is marked by the Muhurat trading session, a bit of Diwali ceremony carried over from the days of open outcry. Brokers and their employees had asked the BSE and NSE to advance the hour-long session to 10-11 in the morning from the traditional 6-7 pm, as this would allow them to complete post-trading operations by noon and give them enough time to celebrate Diwali with their families on Lakshmi Puja. That request has been rejected by the exchanges, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

interest rate cuts. Stocks moved between losses and gains in Japan and South Korea, with those in Australia modestly higher. Futures pointed to gains in Hong Kong. US contracts were flat after the S&P 500 closed little changed. Treasury 10-year yields hovered near 4.2% after topping that level for the first time since July.

Kazan [Russia], October 23 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan on Tuesday. PM Modi invited Putin to visit India next year for 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit. The two leaders reviewed bilateral cooperation in various sectors, including political, economic, defence, energy, and people-to-people ties, Prime Minister's Office said in a press release. This was their second meeting this year as the two leaders had earlier met in Moscow for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit in July 2024.

Sebi's whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia said on Tuesday, while cautioning investors about the risk associated with complex financial instruments. «F&Os cannot be and should not be a national pastime which actually means that savings of retail participants move into the pockets of institutional hands,» Bhatia said while speaking at an event here.

City Union Bank (CUB) after the better-than-expected second-quarter results. The price targets imply a 1-19% rise in the stock over its Tuesday closing price of ₹168.5. City Union Bank shares rallied 11.9% on Tuesday in a weak market in response to the September quarter earnings.

mutual funds over the last one year. These as well as existing investors are keen to track the performance of their mutual fund portfolio. Since the net asset value (NAV) is declared every working day, it is easy to track performance over both short and long periods of time. WHAT ARE THE FACTORS TO LOOK AT WHILE EVALUATING RETURNS OF A MUTUAL FUND? Financial planners believe investors should not just look at returns in isolation, but should look at many other factors while evaluating performance. An important thing would be to compare rolling returns with the right schemes and peers, study expense ratio, look at statistical factors like standard deviation and beta. They should also be looking at fund manager tenure. HOW SHOULD ONE COMPARE SCHEME RETURNS WITH PEERS? The right way to look at your scheme returns is to compare it with the benchmark and peers. For example, a large-cap equity scheme’s performance should be compared with the Nifty 50 or Nifty 100 and not with the Nifty Smallcap 250 or other mid- or small-cap schemes. Similarly, returns from equity mutual funds should not be compared with fixed income or gold funds. A largecap active fund must be compared with another peer in the same category. If the average return from the largecap category over three years is 20% annualised and your scheme has returned 14%, it indicates your fund is not faring well. Financial planners feel a fund has performed well when it does better than its benchmark and category. If there are 10 funds in the category and the fund is amongst the bottom three, and not able to beat category average, it indicates that there are better funds out there.

Bajaj Finance, SBI Life, HUL, Adani Energy, Fedbank Financial among others will be in focus due to various news developments and second quarter results. SBI Life, HUL, Bajaj Finserv Shares of SBI Life, HUL and Bajaj Finserv will be in focus as the companies will announce their quarterly results for the July-September 2024 period.

Mumbai: India’s stock market slumped on Tuesday as continued selling by foreign investors, amid concerns over slowing earnings growth, heightened risk-off sentiment. The selloff was broad-based with mid-cap and small-cap stocks bearing the brunt of the souring mood among investors, resulting in flight of money to safe-haven assets such as gold, which extended its record-breaking streak. The NSE Nifty fell 309 points, or 1.25%, to close at 24,472.10. The BSE Sensex declined 930.55 points, or 1.15%, to end at 80,220.72. Out of the 50 shares on the Nifty, 47 ended lower, while three notched up gains.

«The outlook suggests further downside, particularly in the midcap and smallcap spaces. On the index front, the next major support is around 24,000, with potential resistance between 24,700 and 25,000 in case of a rebound. We recommend adjusting trades accordingly and advise against adding to losing positions,» said Ajit Mishra – SVP, Research, Religare Broking.

certificates of deposits (CDs) jumped 69% on-year to ₹5.58 lakh crore in FY25 up to October 4, as lenders turned to short-term debt instruments for their funding needs instead of raising deposit rates and facing pressure on net interest margins. In its October bulletin, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said primary market issuances of CDs by banks were at ₹5.58 lakh crore from April 1 to October 4. The RBI noted that banks preferred to bridge a funding gap through short-term debt instruments «rather than raising deposit rates.» Banks have faced pressure to mobilise funds through various avenues over the past couple of years as credit growth has outpaced deposit growth, although the extent of the wedge between the two has narrowed over the last couple of months. As on October 4, bank credit growth was at 14.1% year-on-year, while deposit growth was at 12.2% over the same period, RBI data showed.

investment firm M&G Prudential is in talks to lead a new funding round of $80-100 million for Bengaluru-based business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce firm Udaan, several people aware of the development told ET. The new funding round, when closed, will boost the UK-based company's shareholding in Udaan from about 15% now, the people cited earlier said. M&G Prudential is the second largest shareholder in the company after Lightspeed Venture Partners, which holds about 40% stake. Udaan, which saw a 44% cut in valuation at around $1.8 billion last year, may see the latest round at the same flat valuation, the sources said, adding that a term-sheet has been signed and the deal contours are being finalised.

Acko General Insurance is closing a $100-120-million secondary deal that will see some of its earliest backers including Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's venture capital firm Catamaran Ventures and private equity fund Chrys Capital’s founder Ashish Dhawan selling stakes in the new-age insurer. Incoming investors include Enam group’s family office led by Akash Bhanshali, CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti, Arpwood Capital and public market veteran Madhusudan Kela of MK Ventures, people familiar with the development told ET. Existing shareholder private equity major General Atlantic will also shore up its position by acquiring additional stake, one of the persons said.

Avaana Capital, an early-stage investment firm that has backed startups in the consumer, food and agri sectors, has made the final close of its dedicated climate and sustainability-focused fund at $135 million. The firm which was initially targeting to raise $100-125 million had made the first close of this fund at $70 million in June last year. Through this specialised fund, Avaana Capital plans to invest in 20-25 early-stage companies. The average first cheque size will range from Rs 10 crore to Rs 30 crore, and it plans to double down on successful investments.