Listen to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd. and Biocon Biologics Ltd. and Sambitosh Mohapatra, Partner and Leader - ESG, PwC India, unpick the key issues facing businesses as they align their strategies with larger ESG goals, on a special podcast of Ep.3 of PwC India presents 'ESG - A bridge to action', in association with Moneycontrol, hosted by Nisha Poddar. ​

Moneycontrol Podcast

3583: Embedding ESG into business strategy

An action-packed week (ended February 11) was seen in our domestic market with massive whipsaw movements amid the mixed global cues. The market started on a weaker note that further aggravated as a broad-based sell-off happened in the initial half of the week 

3582: Hot Stocks | Here is why you should bet on BSE, Mahindra & Mahindra for short term

The Nifty has taken a strong support near 17,000 mark in the post Budget correction and bounced back. From the last couple of sessions, it has maintained Higher Top Higher Bottom formation. On the weekly charts, it has been facing strong resistance near 20 Week SMA (17,616) since last 2 weeks. 

3581: Hot Stocks | Healthy double-digit rally in Canara Bank, TV18 Broadcast, GNFC possible in short term, here's why

In this episode of The Moneycontrol Real Estate show, Moneycontrol's Vandana Ramnani talks to Amit Goyal, CEO, India Sotheby's International Realty, to understand about the real estate investment opportunities in farmhouses which have become a popular asset class after three waves of COVID-19. With work-from-anywhere becoming the norm, it does not really matter where you reside even if it is a farmhouse. Listen for more Goyal tells Vandana Ramnani that you require at least Rs 20 crore to Rs 100 crore to buy a farmhouse spread across an area of 1 acre to 2.5 acres with a built-up area of 5000 sq ft and above. He also tells listeners that besides conventional farmhouses, there are developers who also sell built-to-suit farmhouses.  His advice to homebuyers is that a greater degree of due diligence is required when it comes to purchasing a farmhouse than a house in the city. He also tells listeners that banks do not fund farmhouses and maintenance costs are huge.

3580: The Moneycontrol Real Estate show | Planning to buy a farmhouse? Here’s what you should know

As per government data, 45-47 per cent of all jobs come from culture and creative industry, says Professor Rajendra Pratap Gupta who has come out with a paper on the need for a culture policy in India.

3579: Policy Talk | Culture is Capital, It Can Drive Economic Growth & Create Jobs – But First, We Need a Culture Policy

Nifty took support at upsloping trendline support after a vertical fall from 20-DMA (daily moving average) and witnessed a bullish Hammer candlestick formation that may witness a pullback rally where 17,500 is an immediate hurdle while 17,600-17,800 is a critical resistance zone. On the downside, 17,000-16,800 is a critical support zone. 

3578: Hot Stocks | Double-digit returns in Brigade Enterprises, Can Fin Homes, JB Chemicals possible in short term, here's why

Nifty plunged by 303 points on the back of selling mainly in technology, pharma and banking stocks to close at 17,214 levels, lowest since December 27. In the last three sessions, the Nifty has fallen more than 600 points from a high of 17,781 levels. Short-term trend turned bearish as the Nifty has closed below its 20, 50 and 100-day EMA (exponential moving average).

3577: Hot Stocks | Blue Star, Polyplex Corporation, JK Paper can fetch double-digit return in short term. Here's why

Mutual fund (MF) schemes allowing investors to diversify their investments to global markets have been forced to suspend flows, following directions from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). While some schemes are only stopping fresh flows at present, some schemes have stopped both fresh flows, as well as flows from already existing systematic investment plans (SIP). For example, Mirae MF has stopped flows from existing SIPs, as well as fresh flows, to its international schemes. Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund is dealing with the issue differently. As a diversified equity fund that invests about 65 percent to domestic stock markets and about 28 percent in international stocks (balance held in cash), it is funneling all the flows coming through existing SIPs into domestic stocks. At the same time, fresh flows have been suspended. “We cannot remit further funds abroad starting February 2, till the time the limits are increased,” said Rajeev Thakkar, chief investment officer and director of PPFAs MF, in a recent note.  Among other fund houses, Motilal Oswal MF has also stopped accepting fresh flows into their international schemes. DSP Global Innovation Fund of Fund, which was recently launched by DSP MF, has tweaked its investment strategy. Instead of investing in units of mutual fund schemes abroad, it will be investing in overseas-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs). As the limits are on overseas stock investments and not on ETFs. This is not the first time these limits have got exhausted. The growing interest among mutual funds investors to invest in international markets has in the earlier instances led to AMC-level limits getting breached. However, this time even the overall industry limit of $7 billion has got breached. While the situation is expected to be resolved soon with SEBI expected to consult with RBI and increase the limits, in today’s episode Simply Save Podcast, Moneycontrol’s Jash Kriplani talks with Vishal Dhawan, founder and chief financial planner at Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors, to understand the ramifications if this situation continues and what regulators should do to avoid such situations from cropping up in the future.

3576: Simply Save | What does restriction of flows in international schemes mean for mutual fund investors?

Anshul Jain talks to Vandana Ramnani about what’s in the Budget for the middle class homebuyers and the real estate developers. He also explains what the Rs 48,000 crores allocated for the completion of construction of 80 lakh houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in rural and urban areas in the year 2022-23 mean for affordable housing. He tells listeners that the Budget lays emphasis on urban reforms, modernization of building by-laws, town planning schemes, transferable development rights, transit oriented multi modal corridors. He also explains what the proposed structural reforms such as the one-nation-one-registration in the country means and how it is expected to facilitate land transactions and sale deed registration from anywhere in the country. The Budget has also proposed an overhaul of the SEZ legislation which is expected to have a significant bearing on the commercial real estate sector, he signs off. 

3575: The Moneycontrol Real Estate Show | Decoding Budget 2022 for homebuyers and investors

The Nifty has maintained its lower top lower bottom formation on the daily charts, however, it has managed to sustain above the 17,000 mark consistently for the last three sessions and formed a reversal candle pattern like Piercing Line and Hammer candle pattern on the daily charts, indicating some kind of bottoming out for the short to medium term. The RSI (relative strength index) indicator on lower timeframes has placed below 40 mark, however, it is showing price momentum divergence. The Nifty has resistance at 17,450 and 17,776 levels, whereas the support lies at 16,836 mark. The index shows initial signs of bottoming out near the 17,000 mark and could give a pullback towards 17,450-17,776 levels. On the flip side, if the index breaks below 16,836, then it can move lower towards 16,600–16,410 levels. 

3574: Hot Stocks | Axis Bank, SBI, Maruti Suzuki may fetch double-digit return in short term. Here's why

The Nifty50 is trying to find its feet near a strong support zone of 16,850-16,600 after a brutal fall. The market was looking much oversold as Put-Call ratio (PCR) has slipped below the 0.7 mark and FIIs' long exposure in the index future dipped below 45 percent therefore a bounceback is due. Technically, 16,800 is long-term trendline support and a previous demand zone while 200-DMA (daily moving average) is placed around 16,600 level, therefore we can expect a pullback rally from here. On the upside, the 17,500-17,600 area will be the first resistance zone while above 17,800, we will get confidence that the market has reversed and is ready to go higher.

3573: Hot Stocks | Double-digit return possible in SBI, Praj Industries, Minda Corporation in short term

Gaurav Karnik tells Vandana Ramnani that there is a need to hike the Rs 2 lakh tax rebate on housing loan interest rates under Section 24 of the Income Tax Act to at least Rs 5 lakh. If that happens, then you may see more people wanting to buy houses because it will then become more viable to do so. With more money in their hands, buyers would be in a better position to service the loan, he explains. There may also be something for people who want to or have already put their house on rent as the focus of the Budget is expected to be on Housing for All. He also talks about the need to relook at the definition of affordable housing to extend the benefit of additional deductions to more buyers. Rs 45 lakh may be a good definition for affordable housing in smaller towns but not so in metros such as Delhi and Mumbai. This limit should be increased to up to Rs 1 crore, he signs off.

3572: The Moneycontrol Real Estate Show | Here's what homebuyers can expect from Budget 2022

Term insurance premiums have been on the rise since March 2020, with several life insurance companies having hiked their rates across age bands. This space has seen several rounds of hikes, the latest one being in December 2021, when ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance increased their term insurance rates. Some other companies have indicated that they will raise their premiums in the months to come. One of the reasons is higher mortality – or deaths – across and the world and in India due to COVID-19 that prompted global reinsurance companies to increase their rates and, in turn, forced Indian life insurance companies to pass on a part of the hikes to their customers. But this apart, a correction in term rates was due as premiums in India have been on the lower side compared to global markets over the last ten years. Despite the rate hikes, term insurance premiums in India continue to be cheaper compared to global markets. In addition, life insurance companies have also tightened their underwriting norms in the aftermath of COVID-19, with income levels, educational qualifications and of course, policyholders’ COVID-19 history, becoming key parameters in the insurance application evaluation process. Medical check-ups prior to policy issuance are now the norm, particularly for high-value covers. “Better analytical models have entered the picture and our claim experience has now become richer. Medical underwriting in integral part of the evaluation process. There is significant difference in claim experience between medically-underwritten polices and others. In our case, 97 percent of pure protection policies go through medical underwriting,” says Kamlesh Rao, MD and CEO, Aditya Birla Sunlife Insurance. For more insights into COVID-19’s impact on the Indian life insurance industry and policyholders, tune into Simply Save. 

3571: Simply Save | How COVID-19 has affected Indian life insurance sector and policyholders

The market kicked off the last trading week on a positive note on Monday, which was then followed by yet another head start to test the 18,350 mark. However, traders turned nervous all of a sudden there, resulted in a decent profit booking below 18,100 on the same day. After this the global markets became jittery which triggered sustained selling thereafter. As the week progressed, Nifty went on to thrash all intermediate supports to eventually test sub-17,500 levels on the last session of the week. Fortunately, few banking heavyweights provided much needed helping hand there to pull the Nifty beyond 17,600 at the close. Due to this week's sell off, Nifty finally snapped its four-week winning streak and is placed at a very interesting juncture now. Honestly speaking, although we were seeing 18,350 as a mild hurdle, we did not expect Nifty to come off at such velocity. In fact after breaching 18,100, we did anticipate further decline towards 17,800. But whatever happened in last couple of sessions to even test 17,500, has surprised unpleasantly to some extent. Now with reference to our intra-week commentary, we have been mentioning how 17,650 is important in a short term and the real damage of the recent upward trend would start below it. Today, we did slip below it but the way market recovered in last one hour, we need to revise our levels a bit. We generally do not do this, but it should be taken as an exception. Taking a glance at the daily time frame chart, we can see Nifty retracing almost by 50 percent of the recent rally and saw some respite after nearing the '89-day EMA' (exponential moving average). Hence, for the coming week, 17,500 – 17,400 should be considered as crucial supports. Although the global picture is not good, we still would like to back our inclination towards some relief move. If any recovery has to happen there would not be better levels than this. On the upside, first sign of strength would start above 17,800 and then we can reclaim the 18,000 terrain ahead of the budget itself. First couple of sessions would be important for market as it will set the tone ahead of the mega event. One should focus on Financial and Auto space because in case of a recovery, they are the ones to be the frontrunners.

3570: Hot Stocks | Bet on Time Technoplast, HDFC for healthy returns in short term, here's why?

Nilanjan Roy, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys, and Vivek Prasad, Markets Leader, PwC India, share their insights on the role of governance in helping businesses become more sustainable, in line with their ESG goals. Hosted by Nisha Poddar, the discussion highlights how a robust governance mechanism can help organisations navigate possible challenges in their ESG transformation journey and become fit for future.

3569: ESG: Better governance for an authentic identity

The Moneycontrol Podcast is your daily source of business news, investment analysis and advice on stocks and the markets. Tune in to broaden your horizons with podcasts by journalists, experts and analysts giving you a head-start in the investment game.

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