Banking Sector

The state-owned lender's standalone net profit dropped 66 per cent year on year to Rs 201 crore in Q4FY22. The bank had posted a profit of Rs 586 crore in the same quarter last year -- Q4FY21. The stock traded at its lowest level since November 2020, as per reports.

The conglomerate also reported its biggest-ever quarterly net loss, 2.1 trillion yen ($16.2 billion) for the January-March quarter, reports Nikkei Asia. SoftBank also reported a historic $27 billion loss to its Vision Funds for the full year, owing to heavy losses in investments in tech companies like Coupang and Didi Global.

It received bids for 46.77 crore equity shares against IPO size of 16.2 crore equity shares. The portion set aside for policyholders has been subscribed 5.97 times, employees bid 4.31 times the allotted quota, and retail investors 1.94 times, while the reserved portion of qualified institutional buyers has booked 2.83 times and that of non-institutional investors 2.8 times, as per reports.

The remarks came after it was revealed that SEBI is examining whether fund managers at Axis Mutual Fund engaged in "front-running" or trading securities through their personal accounts ahead of the fund's transactions, multiple reports said. The asset management company (AMC) has used reputed external advisors to aid the probe, Axis MF said. "As part of the process, two fund managers have been suspended pending investigation for potential irregularities," the AMC said.

Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends short-term funds to banks. The RBI has cut the repo rate by 250 basis points since February 2019 to help revive the growth momentum. The Monetary Policy Committee has been on a prolonged accommodative stance to support the growth.

"Sectors such as IT, finance and banking have been the fast growing which provide support to other business either through funding or meeting operational requirements." These sectors continued to remain fully operational even during the lockdown period and hence added to the employment stream.

According to it, the merger between HDFC Bank and its shareholder HDFC may have long-term implications for the nation's banking and non-bank financial institution (NBFI) sectors. Besides, it said that the proposed merger could redefine the competitive landscape for banks, and increase the prominence of M&A among banks seeking to close the market-share gap with the merged HDFC Bank. "It could also influence the evolution of the NBFI sector, particularly for large entities that have nurtured banking ambitions amid tightening sector regulations," the agency said.

Growth sectors include the banking and financial services industry, property and construction, as well as manufacturing. Senior-level professionals with computer science backgrounds will be in an especially good position to negotiate for some of the highest paying jobs in India, due to the growth of e-commerce and entire sectors undergoing digital transformation, it added.

After over a month-long campaign, the striking employees and workers have decided to observe a strike on Monday and Tuesday in support of the their 12-point charter of demands including scrapping of the labour codes, no privatisation of government sector in any form, scrapping of the National Monetisation Pipeline, increased allocation of wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and regularisation of contract workers.

The banks are observing the strike on Monday (March 28) and Tuesday (March 29) to protest against the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and are opposing the privatisation of public sector banks. Apart from banking, the trade unions of telecom, oil, income tax, postal, coal, steel, copper, and insurance sectors might back the strike.