Prospects of a stable government at the Centre have prompted at least six economic forecasters to raise their growth estimates for the current fiscal, citing lower-than-expected political risk after the recent general elections.
Out of 150 India equity funds, 89 have outperformed Sensex.
Taking advantage of attractive valuations, life insurers bought equities in the bulk deal segment during the last six months against selling by them during June-November 2008.
What's worrying for the public sector banks is the rise in delinquency in the housing portfolio, which does not include real estate. But a bank chief said that with low exposure to the real estate sector, the state-run banks have fewer worries. The other area of concern is credit cards but the operations of public sector banks in this segment are small compared with the likes of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Citibank, the largest players in the business.
At a time when corporate India has seen its net profits shrink, banks, whose share prices have been hammered in recent weeks, have sprung a surprise of sorts reporting a 26 per cent growth in their bottom lines in the second quarter of 2008-09.
The six banks that have joined the major league are Syndicate Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, IDBI Bank and Allahabad Bank.
The Indian banking sector has overcome concerns pertaining to the rising cost of funds and an increase in provisioning requirements under the new RBI norms, to post a healthy rise in net interest income during the quarter ended March 2007.
The market value of the losers declined by an average of 20 per cent, while that of the 45 per cent that gained rose by 35 per cent.
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