Eid al-Adha 2023: Here’s a glimpse of the preparations for Bakrid from around the world – Photos

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Muslim community across the world is gearing up Eid al-Adha festival, commonly known as Bakrid (Feast of the Sacrifice). It will be observed between 28 June and 29 June. This is the second and the largest of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr).The festival honours the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God’s command. Interestingly, before Abraham could sacrifice his son in the name of God (and because of his willingness to do so) Almighty provided him with a lamb to kill in place of his son.Here are some photos from around the globe that provide a sneak peek into how the preparations are going on. Have a look:

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A man pushes an animal at a livestock market as Yemenis are left compelled between the choice of purchasing new clothing for their children or buying sacrificial animals for the Eid al-Adha celebrations amid an economic crisis, in Sanaa, Yemen. REUTERS

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A shepherd looks after his sheep in a livestock market waiting for customers ahead of Eid al-Adha, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. REUTERS

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Sayed Hussein, 8-years-old son of a cattle trader, poses for a photograph in front of a livestock market, ahead of the Muslim festival of sacrifice Eid al-Adha on the outskirts of Giza, Egypt. REUTERS

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A man carries a sacrificial animal at a livestock market as Yemenis are left compelled between the choice of purchasing new clothing for their children or buying sacrificial animals for the Eid al-Adha celebrations amid an economic crisis, in Sanaa, Yemen. REUTERS

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A vendor carries a sacrificial animal after selling it to a customer at a livestock market, ahead of the Muslim festival of sacrifice Eid al-Adha on the outskirts of Giza, Egypt. REUTERS

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A vendor arranges colorful garlands, ribbons and other items used to decorate the sacrificial animals, at a cattle market set up for the upcoming Muslim Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice holiday, in Peshawar, Pakistan. (AP Photo)

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Vendors wait for customers as people look to buy sheep at a livestock market in preparation for the upcoming Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, east of Gaza City. (AP Photo)

Global Markets: Asian shares set for worst month since Feb on China gloom

Asian shares were set for the worst month since February, with sentiment hurt by still-gloomy China factory activity, while investors were also cautious ahead of a barrage of U.S. data that could add to bets that interest rates have peaked. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1% but was still headed for a monthly loss of 5.9%, the largest since February. Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.5%, bringing its monthly loss to 2%. Data on Thursday showed China’s manufacturing activity contracted for a fifth straight month in August, and the expansion in services sector lost a little momentum.

Chinese blue-chips were flat but a 2.5% rebound in property stocks boosted Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, which rose 0.7%. Two of China’s biggest cities on Wednesday eased mortgage curbs, allowing home buyers to enjoy preferential loans for first-home purchases regardless of their previous credit record. However, concerns remain, with China’s largest private property developer Country Garden warning of default risks if its financial performance continues to deteriorate, after posting a record first half loss.

Overnight, Wall Street rose after a slew of U.S. economic indicators generally surprised to the downside, adding to bets that the Federal Reserve is done tightening and rate cuts next year could amount to more than 100 basis points.

Private payrolls clocked a 52.3% monthly drop, adding to signs of a softening in the labour market, while second-quarter GDP was revised lower. Attention now turns to inflation numbers as measured by the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) on Thursday – the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation – and non-farm payrolls on Friday. Action in the Treasuries market was muted. Two-year yields stood at 4.8901% on Thursday, after briefly dipping to a three-week low of 4.8360% overnight. Ten-year yields held at 4.1178%, having also ended the session flat.

There was less cheer in Europe on the inflation front. Annual inflation in Germany and Spain barely slowed in August, against expectations, raising the stakes for the europe-wide inflation numbers later in the day. Bets that the European Central Bank will have to hike in September saw the euro surge on the yen, hitting a 15-year high of 159.76 yen overnight. It last hovered at 159.61 yen on Thursday. Oil prices were mostly flat. Brent crude futures were little changed at $85.88 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 0.1% at $81.74. The gold price was 0.3% higher at $1,94.35 per ounce.

Rs 200 LPG price cut on oil cos, govt unlikely to give subsidy

Bumper earnings in the first five months of the current fiscal and international benchmark coming off its highs will help state-owned oil companies absorb the Rs 200 per cylinder cut in cooking gas LPG prices, sources said indicating there may be no government compensation for that.On Tuesday, the government announced a Rs 200 per cylinder cut in prices of domestic cooking gas to soften the impact of rising inflation on households as well as counter the promise of cheaper LPG made by the Congress party in upcoming assembly elections.

This resulted in the price of a 14.2-kg LPG cylinder in the national capital coming down to Rs 903 from Rs 1,103 earlier. For Ujjwala beneficiaries, the price will be Rs 703 after considering the continuing Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy.State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) posted bumper earnings in the April-June quarter and the trend is continuing in thereafter, government and industry sources said.Also, Saudi CP – the price to which domestic LPG rates are benchmarked due to high import dependence – declined from USD 732 per tonne in March 2023 to USD 385 in July. Rates have gone up in August to USD 464 per tonne but still provide enough cushion for oil companies to cut LPG prices, they said.

A mix of propane and butane results in the creation of LPG.An industry source said if the reduction in benchmark rate was the only criterion for deciding the price cut, LPG rates should have then been cut in July.But the decision is political.Cooking gas prices have shot up in the last couple of years and have become a major election issue.The Congress party used the high LPG prices, which had burnt a hole in the budgets of households already reeling under high inflation, effectively in the recently concluded assembly elections in Karnataka.

It has promised to give LPG at Rs 500 per cylinder if voted to power in Madhya Pradesh, where elections are due in November-December. The Congress is also providing the LPG at the same price in Rajasthan, where elections are due in November-December.The Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy provided to Ujjwala consumers would cost Rs 7,680 crore in the current financial year ending March 31, 2024 (April 2023 to March 2024).While Ujjwala beneficiaries are only 9.6 crore, there are some 33 crore domestic cooking gas users in the country.

The government in June 2020 stopped giving LPG subsidies. Cooking gas across the country was priced at market rate, which rose to Rs 1,103 in the national capital.The only subsidy that was available was for poor women who got free connections under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. The government gave Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy for up to 12 refills in a year. This subsidy was transferred into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, who bought LPG at market price from the dealer.The government in October 2022 provided a one-time grant of Rs 22,000 crore to oil companies to cover for the losses they had incurred on selling LPG at below cost in the previous two years.

This is not going to be repeated this time, another source said.The three firms posted healthy profits in April-June as the freeze on petrol and diesel prices revision despite the fall in oil prices helped margins.IOC reported a net profit of Rs 13,750.44 crore, BPCL Rs 10,644 crore and HPCL a net profit of Rs 6,203.90 crore. This compared to heavy losses in the same period of last year.Last year, the three froze retail petrol and diesel prices to cushion domestic consumers from rising international oil rates.That freeze led to the three retailers suffering heavy losses in not just the April-June 2022 period but also in the subsequent quarter.Margins on petrol and diesel turned positive earlier this year on the softening of international oil prices, but rates were not revised, and the companies recouped losses they incurred last year.

IOC, BPCL and HPCL temporarily abandoned the daily price revision last year and have not revised petrol and diesel prices in line with the cost. And the losses they incurred when the oil prices were higher than the retail selling prices were recouped with rates dropped. The same is true for LPG as well.Petrol and diesel prices have been on a freeze for a record 16 months in a row.Puri said the government ensured that affordability and availability of fuel and the common man is not hit by the volatility in oil prices that followed the Russia-Ukraine conflict of February last year.

Rupee settles on flat note, up 1 paisa at 82.63 against US dollar

The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled for the day higher by 1 paisa at 82.63 against the US dollar, as the support from positive domestic equities was negated by rising American currency and recovery in crude oil prices.

Forex traders said the Indian rupee witnessed modest gains on Monday on positive domestic equities. However, rising US dollars and recovery in crude oil prices capped sharp gains.At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 82.58 and finally settled for the day at 82.63 against the American currency.

The US dollar gained on somewhat hawkish comments from the Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole Symposium, said Anuj Choudhary – Research Analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.“We expect the rupee to trade with a slight negative bias on the strong dollar and recovery in crude oil prices. Selling pressure from FIIs may also weigh on rupee,” Choudhary said.

However, a positive tone in domestic markets and a rise in risk appetite may support the domestic currency at lower levels.

“Any intervention by the RBI may also support rupee. Investors may remain cautious ahead of jobs data from US and India’s manufacturing PMI and GDP data later this week. USDINR spot price is expected to trade in a range of Rs 82.30 to Rs 83,” Choudhary added.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.04 per cent to USD 84.51 per barrel.On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex closed 110.09 points or 0.17 per cent higher at 64,996.60. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 40.25 points or 0.21 per cent to 19,306.05.

“There were no fresh triggers as Jackson Hole was a non event, as Fed spoke on expected lines.Over this week, the US jobs report and the Chinese currency will be key events to watch. We expect a broad range of 82.40 and 82.80 on spot,” Anindya Banerjee, VP – Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives at Kotak Securities Ltd, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in capital markets on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,393.25 crore, according to exchange data.

India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped by USD 7.273 billion to USD 594.888 billion in the week ended August 18, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.

In the previous week, the overall reserves had risen by USD 708 million to USD 602.161 billion.

ICICI Prudential Life Q2 profit rises 23% to Rs 244 crore

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company on Tuesday reported a 23 percent increase in its net profit at Rs 244 crore in the quarter ended in September 2023 despite lower income.

The company’s net profit in the same quarter a year ago stood at Rs 199 crore.

The net premium earned by the private sector insurer during July-September was up at Rs 100.22 crore as against Rs 95.82 crore in the same period a year ago, ICICI Pru Life said in a regulatory filing.

The assets under management of the company grew by 11.3 per cent from Rs 2,44,279 crore as on September 30 last year to Rs 2,71,903 crore as on September 30, 2023.

The company had a debt-equity mix of 54:46 as on September 30, 2023 and 96.4 per cent of the fixed income investments were in sovereign or AAA-rated instruments.

The solvency ratio was 199.4 per cent as on September 30, 2023 against the regulatory requirement of 150 per cent, it said.

For the first half ended September 30, the insurer’s profit grew by 27 per cent to Rs 451 crore as compared to Rs 355 crore in the same period of previous fiscal.

However, Value of New Business (VNB), a key measure of profitability, declined to Rs 1,015 crore as compared to Rs 1,092 crore in the first half of previous fiscal.

Stocks to watch: Zomato, L&T, Sun Pharma, LTIMindtree, Schaeffler India

Here is a look at some of the top stocks to watch out for in trade today-

Zomato: A Tiger Global-backed VC fund, Internet Fund III offloaded 1.43% stake via a block deal on Monday. At Rs 91 a share, the deal value amounted to Rs 1,115 crore. The stock closed Monday’s trade up 1.5% and the key buyers included Kotak MF (41 million shares), Societe General (38.4 million), Axis MF (19.7 million), and Morgan Stanley Asia (15.3 million). Goldman Sachs Singapore, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, and BNP Paribas Arbitrage were other buyers.

Sun Pharma: The drugmaker is in news on plans to allocate 7-8% of sales this financial year towards R&D. It aims to increase specialty and also widen the range of products across categories.

LTIMindtree: The company announced a strategic collaboration with CAST AI, a leading SaaS company that specializes in automated cost optimization for customers who run their cloud-native applications on Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure. The partnership will help companies save, on average, over 60 percent on cloud costs as they modernize legacy applications for cloud migration.

Schaeffler India:The company has approved the acquisition of 100 percent of the shares of KRSV Innovative Auto Solutions (Koovers), a Bengaluru-based spare parts solutions company for approximately Rs 142 crore. This company serves the aftermarket workshops via a B-to-B e-commerce platform.

Investment-tech platform, Grip secures OBPP licence under new regulatory framework

Multi-asset alternative investment platform, Grip has obtained the Online Bond Platform Provider (OBPP) licence under the new regulatory framework established by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The company is now a Stock Broker in the Debt segment with the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

SEBI introduced the OBPP regulations in November 2022 with the intention of democratizing investment opportunities for retail investors, while simultaneously enhancing the corporate bonds market and safeguarding the interests of retail investors. These changes were implemented to enable retail investors to participate in private corporate debt issuances, such as corporate bonds, at a reduced transaction value of Rs 1 lakh, all while ensuring heightened transparency and safety.

On securing the OBPP Licence, Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Grip, stated, “We deeply appreciate SEBI’s forward-thinking approach to support the growth of the wealth-tech industry and create an enabling regulatory regime for retail investor participation. The OBPP regulations have combined measures to grow the market while also protecting investor interests. The addition of products like SDIs which are listed and credit-rated will be game-changers to ensure more Indians can access wealth-creation options with the comfort, security and low transaction costs possible through an online platform. We believe these regulations will help with the creation of a very large and sustainable alternative investment industry and we are committed to continue operating in compliance with current and future regulatory frameworks.”

Co-founded by Nikhil Aggarwal, Vivek Gulati, and Aashish Jindal in June 2020, Grip is India’s leading multi-asset alternative investment discovery platform. It is also the first platform to list Securitized Debt Instrument (SDI) on the NSE in October 22 and introduced products such as leasing (LeaseX), invoice discounting (InvoiceX), loan securitization (LoanX) and portfolio of bonds (Bondx).

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.