According to the SEBI chairperson, the inclusion Indian bonds into the global bond indices of JP Morgan and Bloomberg; will substantially increase the interest of investors in corporate paper. Meanwhile, SEBI plans to further reduce the investment limits for REITs and INVITs so they can become retail products. She expects that the interest in sovereign bonds will spill over to corporate bonds, so the downstream impact of inclusion could be much bigger. SEBI is comfortable with the disclosure standards of REITs and INVITs.
The Ministry of Finance directed all PSU banks to review their gold loan portfolios for compliance with the regulatory norms. Recently, the RBI had pulled up several NBFCs for lapses in compliance in IPO funding and in gold loans. Some of these anomalies pertain to the collection of fees and interest and closure of gold loan accounts. In many cases, the gold collateral was also insufficient and did not meet LTV norms. There has been a surge in gold funding demand due to the elevated prices of gold and easy gold loans.
It was a day of carnage at Dalal Street on 13th March, as investors lost nearly Rs13,50,000 crore in a single day. The Sensex fell as much as 1,152 points during the day, before closing the day 906 points lower. The Nifty breached the 22,000 mark in the day and closed with loss of 338 points. The BSE Small Cap and the BSE Mid-Cap were hit by over 4.5% during the week. In the last 3 days, the BSE market cap has fallen by nearly Rs20.7 trillion, which is a lot of money. Speculative bubbles and froth concerns were the big reason.
Tata Motors plans to set up a manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs9,000 crore in the next 5 years. It is likely to create more than 5,000 jobs in TN. This will be over and above its existing units at Dharwad, Jamshedpur, Pune, Lucknow, Pant Nagar and Sanand. Tamil Nadu has been trying to get investments in Tamil Nadu on a war footing. On behalf of Tata Motors, group CFO, PB Balaji, signed the deal with the TN government. It will manufacture vehicles with ultra-modern research and development.
Sanofi India and Emcure Pharma signed an exclusive distribution agreement under which Emcure will distribute the cardiovascular products of Sanofi in India. This includes some of its iconic brands. Sanofi India will continue to manufacture and import these brands and retain ownership, while Emcure will utilize its reach and marketing prowess to give a wider market to these cardiovascular medications. Many of Sanofi’s cardiovascular formulations are leaders in their respective categories, so it will be symbiotic.
Vedanta Ltd will appeal against Sebi levying Rs77.62 crore penalty on the company for delayed payment of dividends to erstwhile shareholders, Cairn Energy. According to Vedanta, Cairn Energy forfeited its right to claim interest when it settled the retrospective tax demand with the government. SEBI also barred the family members of Anil Agarwal from accessing the capital markets for the same. According to SEBI order, Vedanta violated the law by withholding dividends that should have been paid to Cairn in 2014 and 2017.
Even as there have been concerns over valuations, capital markets and banking veteran Uday Kotak has held that Indian market were nowhere close to bubble territory. He added that while there was froth, there were no signs of irrational exuberance in the markets. Just a day earlier, Madhabi Puri Buch, SEBI Chair, had hinted at froth in mid-cap and small-cap stocks. Kotak also underlined that there were enough checks and balances in the system to avoid bubble territory. Kotak called for streamlining equity taxation.
L&T Finance Holdings has just signed a financing deal with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for $125 million financing support in rural and semi-urban areas to women borrowers. This is in addition to the $125 million that L&T Finance had raised from the ADB. Under the deal with JICA, not less than 40% of the proceeds will be allocated to women borrowers. The balance will be allocated to support farmers, MSMEs, and for 2-wheelrs; especially EVs. This is a long term loan and diversifies funding sources.