RETAIL HOLDINGS

Fintech startups Groww, Zerodha, Navi are venturing into asset management, focusing on passive funds and non-metro retail investors. Challenges include pricing competition and market size discrepancies between Amazon users and stock market investors.

The report underscores the significant role played by new incremental factors, particularly the surge in accumulation by Central Banks in emerging markets (EM) and increased retail buying in Asian markets including India have led to an increase in gold prices worldwide. Despite expectations of fewer Federal Reserve rate cuts, strong growth trends, and record-breaking equity markets, gold has rallied by 17 percent over the past two months.

About 22 stocks, including HMA Agro Industries, Mangalam Cement, HEG, Hindustan Copper, Motilal Oswal, Hariom Pipe have offered returns between 10-20% during the week.

The listing pop was expected after it received an overwhelming response, as the issue was subscribed to a whopping almost 30 times. The qualified institutional investors (QIB) led the pack, subscribing 48.57 times their allocation.

The post-pandemic boom for India's markets is well documented as millions of retail investors switched to capital markets from traditional avenues to grow their wealth.

Retail investors surged on Dalal Street, with 15 crore demat accounts. Mutual fund folios reached 11 crore, while equity assets grew. SIPs rose to Rs 19,000 crore amidst foreign fund selloffs, supported by financialisation of savings and digitisation.

Japan's Nikkei share average rebounded on Monday as investors scooped up beaten-down stocks on the dip, with risk sentiment running high after markets caught the tailwind from a bounce on Wall Street.

While today’s movies may not show that rural money lenders are nothing but shark, but the hard reality is that if you were to ask your driver, your help at home, or the small chai shop owner how much interest he pays when he or she takes an unsecured loan taken in the private loan market which his largely controlled by individual players. It might surprise you, he or she might be paying four to five times more than the interest rate which any regular bank charges on an unsecured loan. This is when it comes to some pockets in urban areas. In rural areas, the situation was even worse. That is what led to the birth of microfinance companies, now many of them are small finance banks. They are providing lending at the lowest end of the pyramid. Now they have reached a stage where they are increasing their product market size also. With technology coming into picture in a major way, will they be able to scale up better?

RBI Retail Direct Mobile App: The central bank announced the launch of mobile app for RBI Retail Direct portal for investing in government securities. This will make it easier for retail investors to buy, sell and invest in central government bonds, state government bonds, treasury bills, Sovereign Gold Bonds via Retail Direct Portal. The RBI launched the RBI Direct Scheme in November 2021 to make it easier for common man to invest.

India's central bank is likely to retain interest rates at 6.50%, emphasizing the balance between growth and stability. With strong economic growth and lower inflation, the bank aims to maintain policy until inflation aligns with the 4% target.

The Indian government has indefinitely extended the requirement for the wheat industry to declare their stock positions, which was initially set to expire on March 31. Traders, wholesalers, retailers, and processors are mandated to declare their stocks on a portal every Friday starting from April 1 until further notice.

On an average, Tata stocks gave a mindblowing return of 85% during the financial year. Retail investors ignored institutional investors who have been valuing holding companies at a discount to the underlying value of their holdings.

There are many industries which go through a trial by fire. The notable reasons being, evolving policy framework, requirement of extremely patient long term capital, intense competition coming from a strong player, basic structure being very low net margins, sudden change in technology coming as a threat. The five of the many reasons listed above, probably Indian retailers, is an industry which has seen all of them. Right from a policy framework on how much foreign equity can come ? Whether it can come in direct consumer retailing or only in wholesale trade? To a giant like Reliance Industries entering into this space to the birth of flipkart to the entry of Amazon in India. You name it, the Indian retail industry has faced headwinds of all sorts. But it is more than two decades since the birth of organised retailing in India and that is a long enough period for any industry to complete its trial by fire, leaving it with few companies which are able to finally grow. Has the industry reached that point or there is still a long way to go ?

Japan's Nikkei share average closed little changed on Tuesday, as gains in chip-related stocks offset declines by heavyweights such as Uniqlo-owner Fast Retailing and Nissan Motor.

The e-commerce giant continues to gain market share with highly competitive pricing in China and overseas as customers spend on affordable or discounted products in uncertain economic times.

Stock market investment rules: While most equity investors are aware about the fact that it delivers good return in the long run but very few know as what exactly is this period. Analysis of the rolling returns of NIFTY 50 TRI has given some interesting insights and 7 year period has emerged as the one of the best minimum holding periods where chances of above 10% returns are very high. 15 year has come out as the most rewarding among the different holding periods.

India's consumer landscape is shifting towards discretionary items and durables. A joint study by BCG and RAI reveals a projected $2 trillion retail market in next 10 years, positioning India as a bright spot among global economies with strong GDP growth and robust private consumption.

Shares of biotech firm Recursion Pharmaceuticals, in which Nvidia invested nearly $76 million, gained 5%. Last year, Nvidia had said it would invest in it to speed up training of the Utah-based firm's AI models for drug discovery.

The rally showed Nvidia's growing influence in the AI world as its market value grows at a scorching pace, making it the third most-valuable U.S. company. Its largest investment of $147.3 million was in Arm Holdings, the chip designer that Nvidia failed to buy after the $80 billion deal hit the antitrust hurdle two years ago.

Paytm, a troubled fintech, saw a significant increase in stake from retail investors, mutual funds, and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the December quarter. However, after a sharp fall in stock prices, many investors, including 11 lakh retail shareholders, 514 FIIs, and 97 mutual fund schemes, find themselves trapped. The top investors in Paytm include BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Mirae Mutual Fund, and Nippon Mutual Fund.

Sudipta Roy of L&T Finance Holdings, discusses the company's future targets and growth trajectory. He mentions that the retail growth has exceeded their Lakshya 2026 target for the third consecutive quarter, with all segments contributing satisfactorily. While the wholesale book has been reduced, the retail book is expected to grow strongly. The company's NII is higher than expected due to the shift towards higher-yield retail products. Roy also expects a slight increase in the cost of borrowing.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against a basket of six rivals, traded little changed at 103.36 in the Asian morning, after reaching 103.69 on Wednesday for the first time since Dec. 13.