Jalan-led panel on new bank licences to meet today

 
The panel that is entrusted with the task of scrutinising applications for new bank licences will hold its meeting on Monday.

"We are having meeting on December 16 in Delhi," former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan , who is heading the panel, said.
The committee held its first meeting on November 1.

The other members of the high-level advisory committee (HLAC) are former RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat, former Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman C B Bhave, and Nachiket M Mor, Director of the Central Board of Directors of RBI.

Initially, 26 entities evinced interest in entering the banking arena . Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, withdrew its application last month leaving 25 players in the fray.

Public sector units India Post and IFCI, private sector Anil Ambani Group and Aditya Birla group submitted applications on July 1.

The RBI issued guidelines for licensing of new banks on February 22 and issued clarifications in the first week of June.

In the past 20 years, the RBI licensed only 12 banks in the private sector in two phases. Ten banks were licensed on the basis of guidelines issued in January 1993.

The guidelines were revised in January 2001 based on the experience gained from the functioning of these banks and fresh applications were invited. Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank were the last two entities to get banking licences from RBI in 2003-04.

India has 27 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks and 56 regional rural banks.

In the 2001 round of guidelines for new licences, the external committee members were C G Somiah, former government auditor CAG, I G Patel, former RBI Governor, and Dipankar Basu, former head of State Bank of India.

Mutual funds garner Rs 1.5 lakh cr in Apr-Nov

 
Investors have put in more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore in various mutual funds schemes in the ongoing financial year, nearly twice the amount pumped in by them in entire 2012-13 fiscal.

As per the latest data available with Securities and Exchange  Board of India (Sebi), there was a net inflow of Rs 1,50,675 crore during the 2013-14 fiscal (April-November) as against a net inflow of over Rs 76,000 in the preceding fiscal.

Prior to that, a net amount of more than Rs 22,000 crore and over Rs 49,000 crore moved out of the mutual funds' kitty during 2011-12 and 2010-11, respectively.

Mutual funds pool together money from many investors and invest it on their behalf, in accordance with a stated set of objectives.

At a gross level, mutual funds mobilised over Rs 63 lakh crore during April-November period of this year, while there were redemptions worth Rs 61.5 lakh crore as well. This resulted in a net inflow of Rs 1,50,675 crore.

According to industry experts, mutual fund investors have put in most of their money in debt schemes during April and May on the anticipation of interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"As prospects of faster interest rate cuts by the RBI spurred investors into buying debt schemes. They expected that investment into debt funds will give good return," Debashish Mallick, MD and CEO at IDBI MF said.

He further said that most of the inflows were into short- term debt schemes and liquid funds.

Of the total net investment made in the first eight months of 2013-14, the huge part of inflows in the mutual fund schemes came during April and May. Investors have infused a net amount of Rs 1.44 lakh crore during the period.

In April, mutual funds mobilised around Rs 1.08 lakh crore in various schemes. This was the highest net inflow by investors in such schemes in a single month since April 2011, when investors had put in a whopping Rs 1.84 lakh crore.

The significant level of fund mobilisation has also helped the total asset under management of mutual funds to grow to Rs 8.9 lakh crore at the end of November 30 this year from Rs 7.01 lakh crore as on March 31, 2013.

India Inc inks 393 PE deals totalling $9.67 bn in Jan-Nov

 
Indian companies signed as many as 393 private equity deals totalling $9.67 billion in the January-November period of this year, registering an increase of 36.38 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago, says a report.

According to global assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, in the January-November period of last year, corporate India had signed 380 private equity deals amounting to $7.09 billion.

Meanwhile, November saw 32 deals amounting to $708 million, which was almost double in value terms over last year when there were 35 transactions worth $388 million.

"The year-to-date deal value in 2013 increased by 36 per cent as compared to year-to-date November 2012 values," the report said, adding that "PE activity in November 2013 were largely driven by the pharmaceutical sector."

KKR's investment of $200 million in Gland Pharma Ltd was termed as the deal of the month.

Other major private equity deals of November include Baring Private Equity's $131.61 million investment in Hexaware Technologies; International Finance Corporation's $125 million investment in Yes Bank and Sequoia Capital and Info Edge's $37 million investment in Zomato Media.

According to the report, the top five PE deals accounted for 73 per cent of the total PE deal values.

A sector-wise analysis shows that IT&ITeS attracted deals worth $243 million that amounted to 34 per cent of the total deal pie, followed by Pharma ($201 million, 28 per cent); Banking and financial ($154 million, 22 per cent); Power & energy ($44 million, 6 per cent) and real estate ($40 million, 6 per cent).

BSE Sensex extends losses on rate hike fears

 
The BSE Sensex fell further in early trade on Monday, the fifth straight session of losses, due to sustained selling by funds on fears of a rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), amid a weak trend in other Asian markets.

Stocks of banking, FMCG, power, oil and gas and auto sectors were the major losers that pulled down the Sensex.

The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange fell by 36.56 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 20,679.02.

It had lost 611.03 points in the previous four sessions.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell 15.00 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 6,153.40.

Brokers said persistent selling by funds on fears of a rate hike by the central bank in its mid-quarter review of monetary policy on December 18 and a weak trend in the Asian region on speculation that the Federal Reserve will announce a cut in stimulus at its policy meeting this week, mainly dampened the trading sentiment on Dalal Street.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng traded lower by 0.16 per cent and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.65 per cent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 0.10 per cent higher on Friday.

RBI policy review, Federal Reserve meetings to set market trend this week

 
The market has already reacted badly to fears of a rate hike and on concerns that US Federal Reserve will reduce its quantitative easing - its $85 billion per month bond buying programme. The coming week will reveal if the fears were justified and the market will respond accordingly.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) meeting on monetary policy will be held on Wednesday (December 18) and the two-day policy meeting of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Tuesday and Wednesday (December 17-18).

The RBI meeting in turn is likely to be influenced by the wholesale price index (WPI) inflation data for November, which the government will announce on Monday. WPI inflation was 7 per cent in October.

In any case the consumer price index (CPI) inflation for November, already announced, has the market expecting the RBI to hike the repo rate (the rate at which it lends to banks) by 25 basis points, raising it to 8 per cent from 7.75 per cent at present.

Overall CPI inflation for November stood at 11.24 per cent compared to 10.17 per cent in October. Within this, food inflation was 14.72 per cent. The announcement, after market hours last Thursday, led to the BSE Sensex falling 210 points on Friday, erasing all the gains made during the week. Overall, across the week, the Sensex lost 281 points.

The market thus is already expecting the RBI to hike rates to curb food inflation. Whether it will actually reduce food inflation is questionable, but certainly a rate hike will help protect the Indian rupee which is highly vulnerable to even a small outflow of foreign currency.

Indeed, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, speaking on Saturday at a function to commemorate 20 years of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), voiced his concern at the exaggerated impact FII buying and selling has on the Indian market, since there is nothing to counter-balance this.

As India has hardly any foreign exposure in its bond markets, the reduction of quantitative easing - or tapering off as it is widely called - will not have any direct impact on it. But it will certainly lead to negative sentiment. If indeed the Fed decides on tapering off at its forthcoming meeting, there is a high possibility of FII funds moving out, which will lead to the market becoming volatile. Tapering can slow down the flow of money into our markets and exert pressure on the Indian currency as well.

The continuing policy paralysis of the government has been one of the dampeners for the economy. This has resulted in slowing down of investment. A reform-oriented and progressive government after the general elections scheduled for May 2014 will help reverse this situation. Equally if the government fails on this count, the impact will be negative.

GDP growth of 4.5 to 5 per cent is not enough for investors. The only way out is to grow at 7 to 9 per cent. For this, reforms are essential which will lead to investments and job creation.

The private sector is not willing to make investments as it is not confident about the government's policies. In the recent past, the biggest problem has been the reversal of government policies, especially relating to taxation. Irrational and unexpected tax demands have seen investors, especially foreign investors, shying away from doing business with India.

Until business confidence returns and the investment scenario improves, the markets will remain volatile.