Sebi slaps Rs 20 lakh fine on SIMR for flouting regulatory norms

Capital markets regulator Sebi has levied a fine of Rs 20 lakh on Star India Market Research for allegedly flouting regulatory norms.

Star India Market Research (SIMR) is a Sebi-registered investment adviser.

In its 52-page order on Wednesday, Sebi found that SIMR charged arbitrary fees from clients, sold multiple products in a short span to the same client and also sold products for overlapping periods.

This was done to defraud clients and earn maximum fees, the order said, adding that the noticee did not act honestly, fairly, and diligently in the best interests of its clients, thereby violating the code of conduct of Investment Advisers (IA) regulations.

Further, Sebi observed that SIMR induced its clients to trade in the market, contravening the Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) rules.

“I note that there were 24 unique complaints pending against the noticee (SIMR). The said complaints were forwarded to the noticee by Sebi, however, it failed to redress the complaints, and did not file ATR (Action Taken Report).

“By failing to redress the complaints it is established that the noticee has violated the provisions of IA Regulations,” Sebi‘s Adjudicating Officer Amit Kapoor said in the order.

In addition, the noticee did not submit accurate facts to the capital markets watchdog at the time of seeking registration as an IA and it was not appropriately qualified to seek registration, the order said.

Sebi also found that the noticee was supposed to carry out the risk profiling of the client for ascertaining the client’s risk tolerance, income, loss absorbing capacity, capacity of accepting loss of capital, liabilities/borrowings, etc.

However, it failed to do the same, resulting in violation of provisions of IA rules, Sebi said.

Bank ETF: An efficient way to tap into value unlocking in banking

By Chintan Haria

Banking as a theme has been in vogue of late. We are witnessing the creation of the world’s fourth most valuable bank, just behind large banks such as J.P. Morgan, ICBC of China and Bank of America. It would not be an overstatement to say that the banking sector is the backbone of the Indian economy. Over the past five years, the sector has seen a dramatic turnaround by cleaning their books and regained investors’ trust. It also stood up to the test when despite the banking crisis in US and other developed countries in February 2023, Indian banking system remained resilient and stable. The top-5 banks have witnessed strong credit growth even as the asset quality has been continuously improving.

Financials of PSBs are healthy today with the net profits almost tripled to Rs 1.04 lakh crore in FY23 as compared to Rs 36,270 crore earned in FY14. Simultaneously the Return on Assets (ROA) in PSBs rose from 0.51% in FY14 to 0.78%, while Net Interest Margin (NIM) has also increased from 2.73% to 3.23% in FY23.

Banking still remains an under-penetrated segment in India as compared to global standards. According to RBI statistics, there is one commercial bank branch for every 9,000 citizens. As India moves ahead to become a $5 trillion economy over the next couple of years, the banking sector is poised to play a key role in this journey. Historical trends show that banks tend to grow at 1.5-2x the rate at which the economy grows.

Participating in the Growth Story

In order to tap into the banking growth story, there are multiple ways in which an investor can take exposure to banks. The first option is direct investing. Here, one would need to shortlist and identify stocks to invest in. Direct investing could be a tough challenge since there are a plethora of players to choose from. Analysing balance sheets of each bank is a time-consuming and a research-intensive process for an investor who may not have the domain knowledge.

The second option is investing in an actively managed banking based sectoral and thematic fund. The third option is passive offering, where a variety of combinations is available to choose from. Within the ETF universe, investors can choose from Bank Nifty ETF, Nifty Private Bank ETF and Nifty PSU Bank ETF. 

To conclude, the banking sector is at the cusp of exciting times and may see a quantum leap in the years ahead. Depending on one’s portfolio requirement an investor can choose between an index fund or an ETF to gain exposure to the banking names. Those looking to make a staggered investment can consider investing through SIP in a Nifty Bank index fund.

(Chintan Haria, Head Investment Strategy, ICICI Prudential AMC. Views expressed are the author’s own. Please consult your financial advisor before investing.)

Analysts bullish on HDFC Bank’s long term growth despite weak show in Q2

Even as private sector major HDFC Bank on Monday reported a moderation in net interest margin (NIM) and higher bad loans for Q2FY24, analysts are bullish on the long-term prospects of the bank as they expect NIM and asset quality to recover from hereon, senior analysts say.

HDFC Bank had reported its first set of results on Monday after completing the long-awaited merger of erstwhile Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) with the bank on July 1.

The drag down of margin was mainly on account of higher cost of HDFC’s Rs 4.8-5 trillion of total borrowings and partially on account of implementation of the incremental cash reserve ratio (I-CRR) measure by the Reserve Bank.

According to Santanu Chakrabarti, India analyst of BFSI division at BNP Paribas, it will be difficult for HDFC Bank to achieve its 4-4.1% historical NIM trajectory in near term and the bank will likely recover NIM to 3.8% by the end of FY24.

Chakrabarti said when HDFC Bank was reporting 4.1% NIM, the low-cost current account and savings account (CASA) ratio at the bank was very different than current scenario. His comments assume importance as the share of CASA in HDFC Bank’s overall deposit base reduced to 38% during Q2 from 42% a quarter ago.

The trend is in-line with industry as more customers are parking money in fixed deposits instead of savings or current account to gain higher returns. HDFC Bank’s overall deposits grew about Rs 1.1 trillion during the reporting quarter to Rs 21.72 trillion as of September 30.

The HDFC entity was also a lower margin one, Chakrabarti says, and financing of that entire new group of assets along with maintaining adequate priority sector loans, CRR and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) would mean that margins remain under pressure in near term.

However, it becomes pertinent to note that the cost to assets of the blended entity is much lower than what HDFC Bank earlier had.

“It is because at operating cost level, HDFC had a lower cost as it was a lean organisation with 4,000 employed or so. Thus, there is some benefit to that at the PPOP level,” he said.

According to another senior analyst at a large domestic brokerage, since the ICRR measure by the RBI has been relaxed and the fact that bank’s management has also said that additional liquidity will take about 2-3 quarters to either deploy or repay, during the next 2-3 quarters NIM could touch 3.6-3.65% level. “In long term, say 2 years, the focus on high yielding book and shifting of borrowings to deposits would result in further improvement of margins to 3.8-3.9%,” they said.

HDFC Bank’s asset quality also worsened during Q2, with gross and net non-performing asset (GNPA, NNPA) ratio rising to 1.34% and 0.35% as on September 30 from 1.23% and 0.33% a year ago.

Analysts say that asset quality from hereon is expected to remain broadly steady as individual home loan book of HDFC remains healthy while majority of stress has been recognised in the non-individual book of Rs 1 trillion.

“Asset quality ratios took a hit due to a 22 bps impact from HDFC’s non-retail portfolio. However, the bank has maintained healthy PCR (provision coverage ratio) at 74%. It also holds a 0.7% buffer of floating plus contingent provision, which provides comfort,” analysts at Motilal Oswal said, adding that HDFC Bank has made a good beginning post-merger and given a huge pace of capacity building, it believes there are levers in place to sustain this momentum in business growth. The bank’s overall advances rose 58% year-on-year to Rs 23.54 trillion as of September-end.

Indian Railways to start special trains during Dussehra, Diwali and Chhath Puja – Check schedule, destinations and other details

With a large number of passengers looking to visit their homes for Dussehra, Diwali, and Chhath Puja, Indian Railways have decided to run special trains from Anand Vihar to Saharsa, Jammu Tawi to Barauni and Firozpur to Patna.

Among the trains that will run include, Anand Vihar-Saharsa-Anand Vihar Festival Special, Jammu Tawi-Barauni-Jammu Tawi Festival Special, and Firozpur Cantt-Patna- Firozpur Cantt Festival Special.

Similarly, the return train number 01663 Saharsa-Anand Vihar Festival Special will start from Saharsa every Tuesday at 14:30 and will reach Anand Vihar station at 13.55 every Wednesday. During the journey from both sides, the trains will halt at a number of stations that include, Moradabad, Bareilly, Hardoi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Deoria Sadar, Siwan, Chhapra, Hajipur, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Dalsingh Sarai, Barauni, Begusarai, Khagaria and Simri Bakhtiyarpur stations.

Jammu Tawi-Barauni-Jammu Tawi Festival Special

Looking to accommodate a large number of passengers, train number 04646 Jammutawi-Barauni Festival Special will start from Jammu Tawi to Barauni from October 19, 2023 to November 30, 2023. The train will start every Thursday at 5:45 am. It will reach its destination the next day at 12.10 pm. From the opposite direction, train number 04645 Barauni-Jammu Tawi Festival Special will start from Barauni at 3:15 pm every Friday from October 20, 2023, to December 1, 2023. This train will reach Jammu Tawi at 10.30 pm the next day. Among the stations it will halt include Pathankot Cantt, Jalandhar Cantt, Ludhiana, Ambala Cantt, Saharanpur, Laksar, Moradabad, Bareilly, Sitapur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Chhapra, Hajipur, Shahpur Patori and Bachhwara stations.

Firozpur Cantt-Patna- Firozpur Cantt Festival Special

For passengers looking to visit from Ferozpur to Patna or vice versa, the Indian Railways have decided to start Firozpur Cantt-Patna- Firozpur Cantt Festival Special for both sides. While Train no. 04678 will start from Firozpur Cantt from October 25, 2023 to November 29, 2023 every Wednesday at 1:25 pm, it will reach its destination the next day at 5 pm. Similarly, train number 04677 will depart from Patna at 6:45 pm from October 26, 2023, to November 30, 2023 and reach its destination at 10:4 pm the following day. Among stations that train from both sides will cover include Kot Kapura, Bathinda, Rampur Phul, Dhuri, Patiala, Rajpura, Ambala Cantt, Yamunanagar Jagadhri, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Lucknow, Pratapgarh, Varanasi, Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn., Buxar, Arrah.

Rural workers’ earnings grew at quickest pace in 5 years in Q1: Survey

The monthly earnings of regular workers in rural areas grew sharply by 11.6% year-on-year in the April-June quarter of the current financial year, the fastest rate in at least five years.

While this was revealed by the latest periodic labour force survey (PLFS) annual report, the unemployment rate in rural India in 2022-23 (July-June) was also the lowest in five years at 2.4%. This augurs well for rural consumption.

However, the regular workers’ monthly earnings growth is in contrast with that of casual workers, whose monthly earnings showed a modest growth rate of 5.2% year-on-year in April-June, which is the second lowest in the past five years.

In Q12019-20, the quarter in which a nationwide lockdown was imposed, growth in monthly earnings of rural casual workers had slipped to 2.2%, but in the subsequent two years, the growth soared to 11.2% and 16.1%, respectively.

The PLFS defines regular workers as persons who worked in others’ farm or non-farm enterprises (both household and non-household) and, in return, receive salary or wages on a regular basis. Whereas, casual workers are the ones who receive wages according to the terms of the daily or periodic work contract.

Casual workers, in particular, constitute the workers who have been employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

“The MGNREGA wage rose sharply during the pandemic and then has settled at a modest level thus lowering the growth rate. Therefore casual workers get a deal equivalent to that of MGNREGA,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Bank of Baroda.

“For regular workers there was a tendency for wages to go up since the supply of labour came down due to urban migration which pushed them up. These are typically workers with skill sets unlike casual who are unskilled and hence get tagged to MGNREGA which is also not skill-based,” he said.

However, former member of PM’s Economic Advisory Council Surjit Bhalla said, “since 2011 onwards, there has been hardly any increase in the real earnings of salaried workers, whereas, casual workers have shown a large increase in earnings per annum. The data for just one year (2022-23) doesn’t show a true picture.”

As per the labour bureau, real wages in rural India were at the lowest in 16 months in March, 2023. The labour bureau publishes wage data for ploughing/tilling and sowing workers.

Bhalla observed that the labour bureau data on real wages is not “meaningful.”

Stock-holding limits likely on chana

After wheat, tur and urad, the government is likely to impose stock holding limits on chana (gram) due to a spike in prices. Sources told FE that despite adequate availability of chana, the recent rise in prices is a concern and there is a possibility of some hoarding of stocks by traders.

With mandi prices of chana this month ruling above the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,350/quintal for the first time in many years, the government wants to avoid a possible spike in prices in the coming festive season.

Sources said chana prices are not softening despite farmers’ cooperative Nafed selling about 0.6 million tonne (MT) in the open market from buffer stock of about 3 MT.

To curb hoarding and speculation amid rising prices, the government in May had imposed limits on the stocks of tur and urad dal till October 31. The import duty on tur, urad and masur has been abolished to improve domestic stocks.

In June, the government had imposed stock-holding limits for wheat till March 31, 2024.

Inflation in chana was 1.72% in July year-on-year while the prices were in the negative during January-May period this year.

The retail inflation in the “pulses and products” category rose to 13.27% in July on year from 4.27% in January, 2023.

Ericsson India sales up nearly four times in July-September

While global communications service provider Ericsson reported an overall weak earnings performance in the July-September quarter, the company in India witnessed nearly a fourfold increase in sales year-on-year (y-o-y). Ericsson’s India sales in the quarter rose to 9.6 billion Swedish crowns ($880 million) from 2.7 billion Swedish crowns ($248 million), according to the company’s earnings.

The reason for the strong growth in India can be attributed to sales of telecom equipment due to the continued deployment of the 5G network by Airtel and Jio. In other markets like the US, telecom operators have lowered the pace of 5G network deployment and continue to maintain higher inventory of network equipment, which has affected Ericsson’s sales in these regions.

India is now the second biggest market for Ericsson with a 15% market share, compared to the US which continues to be the largest market for the company with a share of 31%.

However, last year India contributed only 4% to Ericsson’s revenue, while the USA contributed about 44%.

In India, the company is supplying network equipment such as 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) to telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Concerning the 5G network rollout, the company is ramping up its production with its contract manufacturing partner Jabil in Pune. Ericsson is also bullish on the opportunity of fixed wireless access (FWA) in India.

In the July-September quarter, Ericsson’s total sales fell 10% y-o-y to 64.5 billion Swedish crowns ($6.3 billion). In the combined Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson’s revenue grew 74% y-o-y to 13.8 billion Swedish crowns ($1.35 billion). In other markets such as North America, Northeast Asia, the company’s sales fell by 49% and 4%, respectively.

In markets such as Europe and Latin America, and West Asia and Africa, the company’s revenue grew 1% and 14%, respectively.

Ericsson also reported a net loss of Swedish crowns 30.5 billion ($2.8 billion), compared to profit of Swedish crowns 5.4 billion in the year-ago period.

Due to lower capital expenditure by telecom operators in major markets except India, Ericsson’s gross margins in July-September dropped to 38.4% from 41.4% in the same period in 2022.

“In a challenging operating environment, Ericsson delivered third quarter results in line with our guidance. Consistent with the rest of our industry, we expect the macroeconomic uncertainty to persist into 2024, which impacts our customers’ investment ability,” Ekholm said.

“For Q4 we expect similar market trends as in Q3, while the cost-out impact will increase,” Ekholm added.

The company said that, given the current uncertainty, it will not provide guidance beyond Q4, 2023. “As the timing for the market mix recovery is in our customers’ hands, we prudently plan for current market conditions to prevail into 2024,” Ekholm said.

Market seems to have bottomed out: HCLTech’s Vijayakumar

Days after bagging the $2.1-billion Verizon deal, C Vijayakumar, CEO and MD, HCLTech, in a recent investor meet, said that the company will see an incremental growth going forward as the market has bottomed out.

“While a lot of us got impacted due to a cut in spend of late, it is not true that a big part of the tech spend got cut,” Vijayakumar said at the the JP Morgan APAC IT Services C-Suite fireside chat held on August 30.

Despite its lacklustre June quarter earnings, the third-largest IT services firm maintained its revenue guidance of 6-8 % for FY24 in constant currency. It also maintained its guidance for operating margin between 18-19% for FY24.

Speaking about Generative AI, Vijayakumar said that Gen AI is providing one more growth opportunity for service providers. “For clients to leverage Gen AI, they need data strategy to be in place. They also need to do data transformation. Cloud is also an important component to make your Gen AI capability realisation much more holistic. Security and privacy become much more important. All of these core components that need to be in place, and they provide sweet spots to the IT service providers.”

Elaborating on the Verizon deal, he said the deal is a very unique service deal. The deal is not about servicing an internal IT organisation or an internal business process transformation. “It is all about the services that Verizon offers to all its enterprise customers. The enterprise networking services that Verizon offers to its end-customers, who are more than 1500.”

He added, “Network transformation is becoming super critical for these clients, especially with much more cloud adoption, the dynamic nature of demand that is placed on these networks is very high.”

He explained that some of the traditional way of doing it is getting transformed. “We are becoming a strategic partner for them. We are taking over a lot of managed network services – deployment operations, modernisation, automation, using automation platforms.”

He further stated that the Verizon deal is a 100% services deal. It doesn’t have any assets and software hosting. “Some of the Verizon’s works were in-sourced and some of them were outsourced, which is now getting consolidated into one single partnership with us.”