Extreme Financial News

Keki Mistry, Former VC & CEO, HDFC, says “there is a massive potential to grow, not just for mortgages, but for every single financial service product. If you look at retail credit to GDP in India, we are at around 18%. If you look at credit card penetration in India, it is extremely low by global standards. So whichever way, whichever product you look at, the growth opportunities in the banking system are phenomenal.” Banking is a bit of a cyclical business, where do you think we are in this cycle? Are we past the peak or at least very close to the peak? What is your analysis? Keki Mistry: I do not think we are anywhere even remotely close to the peak. The growth opportunities which are there for the economy as a whole and the banking sector is obviously part of the economy is phenomenal. I do not think any country in the world today has the potential to grow the way India has the potential to grow. We have demonstrated that consecutively year after year.

NPS contributions more accessible, efficient, and flexible. This initiative by PFRDA will empower NPS subscribers to take control of their retirement savings and benefit from the advantages of systematic investment planning. Under this new mechanism, subscribers can utilise the UPI QR Code to transfer their contributions.

funding drought to continue in the first six months of 2024, according to ETtech's annual State of Startups survey. Nearly 80% of the respondents to the survey conducted among 80 of India’s top founders, investors and internet executives, said they would not accept a lower valuation for their companies, while 74% said the funding freeze would only start to ease up in the second half of next year.

asset-liability positions by trimming dependence on short-term borrowing and increasing preference for long-term funding sources, but in case of extreme liquidity conditions, 34 firms may face stress, the Reserve Bank of India said. «The results (of stress scenarios) indicate that the number of NBFCs, which would face negative cumulative mismatch in liquidity over the next one year in the baseline, medium and high-risk scenarios, stood at 6, 17 and 34, respectively,» the RBI said in its December 2023 Financial Stability Report. Under the RBI's stress scenario, six NBFCs represent 1.3% of the asset size of the sample, 17 non-bank firms represent 10.4% and 34 firms account for 15%, respectively. Based on five-year data, a study of the asset-liability management profile of the top 50 NBFCs showed that 76% of bonds issued by the non-bank lenders had a residual maturity of up to five years in September 2023, down from 88% in September 2018. This indicates elongation in the maturity of bonds, the RBI said.

Mint. On 31 October, several individuals, including Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Aam Aadmi Party politician Raghav Chadha, were sent a threat notification by Apple that suggested government hackers had attempted to hack their iPhones.

India and the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea, the Chinese military on Thursday said defence cooperation between different countries should not harm the interests of third countries and regional peace. Answering a question from Chinese official media about naval exercises between an Indian naval ship and the Philippines naval vessel besides plans by France to hold naval and air drills with the Philippine Navy, Spokesman of the Chinese Defence Ministry Senior Col Wu Qian said China has taken note of the reports.

Noida and Greater Noida on Friday and Saturday. This decision comes in response to the prevailing cold weather conditions in the region.

Nirav Karkera, Head of Research, Fisdom, says: “I am not quite sure if 2024-25 will actually turn out to be the year of passives per se but definitely largecaps are expected to make a comeback. But at the same time, it is not expected to make a comeback at the cost of small and midcaps. So, there are a few good things that have been going in favour of small- and midcaps as a segment and we expect a lot of this to be carried forward into the New Year as well.” Before I ask you how you think midcap and smallcaps would be faring in 2024, let's just analyze the performance in 2023 where we have seen Nifty Small-Cap growing beyond 40%, Nifty Mid-Cap close to 38%, beating Nifty-50. Also, midcap and smallcap funds have given returns beyond 35%. It has been said that 2024 and 2025 are going to be years of passive funds and specifically focusing on large cap category. But then what is going to be the trajectory of midcaps and smallcaps going ahead? Nirav Karkera: Definitely one thing that is very clear that largecaps are once again gaining a lot of investor favour and investor interest and this comes on the back of a very stellar run-up in the mid- and smallcap segments. In fact, the run-up has been so good that it has pushed many investors to the edge of their seats, worried about what lies ahead after such a rally. Does it fizzle out from here or what is it that can keep the rally sustaining going ahead?

India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday released a dense fog advisory for Punjab, Haryana, Delhi Uttar Pradesh, north Rajasthan and north Madhya Pradesh. In a post on X, IMD wrote, “Dense Fog Advisory for Punjab, Haryana, Delhi Uttar Pradesh, north Rajasthan and north Madhya Pradesh: Be careful while driving or outing through any transport. Use fog lights during driving.

The letter cites «an alarming» Reuters investigation published on December 20 that exposed how Tesla has blamed drivers for frequent failures of components it has long known were defective.

As we approach the end of 2023, investors are proactively fine-tuning their portfolios for the upcoming year, 2024.

The Department of Finance on Dec. 20, 2023, released the short-term rental draft legislation as part of a small package of taxation proposals. For those who need a reminder, short-term rental owners/operators that are operating in a municipality that prohibits such rentals are apparently evil and need to be punished to the extreme from an income tax perspective.

Mahendra Jajoo, CIO, Mirae Asset Management, says “we have to wait till at least June ‘24 to see what we can expect because of the simple reason that now in February, we are not going to have a full year budget, it will be a vote on account. Then when the new government comes and the full year budget is presented in June, July, that is the time we can say if there is an environment building up for a rate cut. I would say for the next six months, first half of 2024, no change in the policy rates, then I think the room opens up if the inflation comes down for a rate cut by the RBI in the second half of 2024.” In June 2023, we all were anticipating or hoping for rate cuts to happen. But then we saw there was geopolitical tension and various triggers and data also that turned it around. And now the rate cut scenario has gone to 2024, maybe six months, eight months down the line depending on the data again. How would you analyse the first six months of 2023? Mahendra Jajoo: As we saw in 2023, things have been very volatile and as you rightly explained, the sentiments have gone from extremely negative to extremely positive and that is also a backdrop which the investors must consider while getting affected by the volatility.

AI Safety Summit" to discuss the extreme risks that AI models may pose. Governments cannot ignore a technology that could change the world profoundly, and any credible threat to humanity should be taken seriously. Regulators have been too slow in the past.

Jai Bala, Chief Market Technician, Cashthechaos.com, says, “the banking index is the most vulnerable for reversal. It is a very long-term setup and the medium-term setup that is coalescing around the current levels. So, the 49,000 to 50,500 levels for the banking index is going to be pretty significant. One has to be extremely cautious about the banking sector and there is a great potential for a reversal around the 49,000 mark for the banking index.” After three trading sessions Nifty is finally back to new record high levels. Where do you see this market headed? What do you think is going to be the contributing factor for the market going forward when you look at the Nifty? Jai Bala: The markets are clocking new highs, but it lost momentum in multiple sectors. But this does not mean the markets are not continuing to go up. It is going to continue to go up. But we need an abundant amount of caution here and your allocation has to be quite light because we are in the late stages of the rally for the market that started from the middle of 2023.

Sanjiv Bhasin, Director, IIFL Securities, says: “I cannot advocate buying into defence companies at the current prices. So do not chase them, there is less room for comfort on the valuations. I can see a plethora of other stocks, the intermediaries or insurance plays. I would go with a Max Finance or an HDFC Life, they have corrected recently. And like I said intermediaries, that is insurance, broking, AMC, custodian and exchanges, these are going to be there for the next 20 years or more.” Three listings are going to happen today. Are any of those companies on your radar or is there anything from primary markets which is on your radar? Sanjiv Bhasin: I recommended Electro Force last week when the issue opened. It has a profitability of Rs 15 crore on a turnover of Rs 80 crore and it will do Rs 150 crore in this year with a profitability of Rs 35 crore. It is a B2B business and its clientele include Siemens, Schneider. It deals with prototyping, precision metal stamping, tool designing, the entire works of insert moulding and anything to do with that.

On a sparkling, clear and calm day in early December, part-time Montreal model Kim Bruneau slipped into the ocean off the coast of Nassau in the Bahamas, wearing a pink tutu, setting her sights on a new Guinness World Record for underwater modelling.

Devang Mehta, Director-Equity Advisory, Centrum Wealth Management, says “we like a host of capital goods stocks, be it Siemens, be it in the bearing space or motion management, something like a Timken India. I am not suggesting any buys, but these are some companies which we track very closely that bring a lot of order activity, right from railways to ports to a lot of such companies doing greenfield and brownfield projects. This looks like an extremely interesting space, be it automation, be it capital goods ancillaries, power ancillaries. This pace, for the next two, three years becomes more structural rather than a short-term cyclical.” The J. Kumar Infrastructure management is quite bullish about the kind of order inflows they are seeing and very confident about beating their guidance as well. Do you have any view on J. Kumar or any other infrastructure name? Devang Mehta: I think, yes, clearly this is one space infrastructure, be it capital goods, be it infrastructure, roadways, ports, railways.

ANI. They added two persons roaming near the Israel embassy on Tuesday evening have emerged as suspects in the alleged blast incident. “We are trying to ascertain their identity and what were they doing in the area at the time of the call.

Mint takes a look into the mechanism, and potential risks. Currently in India, buyers and sellers of shares receive their respective proceeds a day after a transaction is completed–a transaction Day (T) + 1 settlement cycle. Sebi has proposed a mechanism in which a market entity can receive the proceeds instantly after an order is executed.

Apple is in advanced talks with component makers such as India’s Aequs Group and Taiwanese camera and lens maker Rayprus Technologies in the iPhone maker’s concerted move to deepen its manufacturing operations in the world’s second-largest smartphone market. Aequs makes high-quality toys, consumer durable goods and aerospace parts in India, US and France while Rayprus is a subsidiary of Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant Foxconn and makes high-quality precision camera and lens solutions.