Companies and Markets

Disposable incomes to decline moderately on rising EMIs

With the rise in repo rates, the cost of funds for banks and housing finance companies has risen as well, but rising rates are being passed on to the consumer. HDFC has raised its lending rates thrice this year. With the latest hike, lending rates have gone up by 45 bps. RBI, on the other hand, over the last two policy meetings, has hiked rates by 50 bps. On a Rs 40-lakh, 15-year loan at an interest rate of 8.6 per cent, the latest 20 bps points hike would raise EMIs by Rs 500 approximately.

The divergence between large-cap and mid/small-cap has never been starker in the past 20 years than it is now. This has put stock investors in a dilemma. The two questions facing them today are: one, with large caps delivering well, does one need to bother with mid caps and small caps? Two, with markets running up to new all time highs, is this a good time to invest?

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State-run Punjab N-ational Bank (PNB) is in negotiation with a few government departments, including income tax and central excise, to sell its erstwhile headquarters situated at the Bhikaji Cama Place in New Delhi, managing director and chief executive officer Sunil Mehta said on Wednesday.

The bank is going for a second round of valuation of the south Delhi property due to high-demand, he said.

The RBI on Wednesday decided to pay Rs 50,000 crore as dividend to government in line with the Union Budget provisions, helping the Centre stick to its fiscal roadmap.

At a time when public trust in state-owned banks is probably at its lowest, top posts, along with several executive director positions, in many of them remain vacant, as the prime minister-headed panel is yet to clear appointments. The chief executive officer (CEO) post at seven public sector banks has been vacant for the last several months.

Punjab & Sind Bank, Andhra Bank and Dena Bank have been without a CEO since January. Rajeev Rishi of Central Bank of India and Rakesh Sharma of Canara Bank retired on July 31.

Keen on bringing a closure to the long-running co-location issue, NSE has initiated fresh talks with market regulator Sebi to settle the probe through consent mechanism, and said gaps have been fixed and technology has been changed.

A consent settlement allows entities to settle charges by paying a penalty without admission or denial of guilt. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued a revised show-cause notice to NSE, its executives and a few brokers.

Even though the government is dilly-dallying over filling CMD-level vacancies at three state-owned general insurers, it has moved at an unexpected pace to appoint the head of GIC Housing Finance, a listed subsidiary of GIC Re.

The market consolidated on Tuesday and closed almost unchanged, albeit at a new all-time high. The Sensex touched a new high of 37876.87 intra-day but volatility led to a negative close. The market moved higher after opening higher on positive global cues but profit taking set in towards the close of the trade. After opening 157 points higher on firm Asian market cues, the Sensex gains withered away amid low-key volatility as the index touched a low of 37,586 intra-day. The Sensex fell 26.09 points, or 0.07 per cent, to settle at 37,665.80.

Domestic savers continue to reduce their fresh allocations to mutual funds, the monthly data released by the Association of Mutual Fund in India (Amfi) for July showed.

Inflows to equity funds fell further last month. The combined inflows to equity mutual funds and equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS) slumped to to Rs 9,452 crore in July from Rs 9,660 crore in June and Rs 11,350 crore in May 2018.

Newly introduced arbitrage fund, however, saw an inflow of Rs 1,133 crore. In June arbitrage fund had seen an outflow of Rs 1,423 core.

Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday posted a loss of Rs 940 crore for the June quarter of 2018-19 against a net profit of Rs 343.40 crore in the April-June quarter of 2017-18 with a marked improvement in asset quality.

The PNB shares crashed 8.1 per cent to Rs 82.85 on the BSE post-results as the lender reported gross fresh slippages of about Rs 5,000 crore for the April to June period.