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Markets Open on a Positive Note
Wed, 29 Jun 09:30 am

Major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a positive note. The stock markets in Hong Kong and Japan are trading higher by 0.71% and 1.89%, respectively. Major indices in Europe ended their session in the green. US markets also ended their previous session on an encouraging note. The rupee is trading at 67.83 per US$.

Indian stock markets have opened the day on a firm note. The BSE Sensex?is trading higher by 141 points (up 0.5%) and NSE Nifty?is trading up by 41 points (up 0.5%). The BSE Mid Cap?and the BSE Small Cap indices are also trading in the green, up by 0.7% and 1%, respectively. Sectoral indices have opened the day on a positive note with stocks from realty, auto and consumer durables sector leading the gains.

Twice a year, the Reserve Bank of India releases the Financial Stability Report (FSR). The latest report was released yesterday (i.e. June 28, 2016). As per the report, the performance of the corporate sector has improved in the past year. This is believed to be on the back of decline in the number of leveraged companies and the amount of debt in their books has also declined.

The report stated that the proportion of both leveraged and highly leveraged companies fell in March on a YoY basis. The number of leveraged companies, with a negative net worth or a debt-to-equity ratio of 2x or more, dropped to 14% of the RBI sample size. Further, the debt of these companies also dropped 20.6% of the total corporate debt compared to 33.8% last year.

As for stressed assets, the report pointed that three sectors viz.- infrastructure, metal and textile have contributed most to stressed loans in the banking sector. On the other hand, retail loan segment continues to be the least stressed.

Reportedly, the report stated that the share of gross NPAs (non-performing assets) of the top 100 large borrowers rose 22.3% in March from 3.4% six months ago. The gross NPAs for the banking system rose 79.7% as of March over the previous year (subscription required). It was noted that the sharp rise in NPAs resulted from the asset quality review (AQR) exercise undertaken by the RBI.

The above data states while the number of leveraged companies have fallen, the banking sector still remains in the mess of NPAs. The clean-up exercise undertaken in line with RBI's Asset Quality Review (AQR) will keep a check on the bad loans of banks going forward.

In another news update, imports of truck and bus radial tyres (TBR) surged 57% in the first two months of 2016-17 fiscal.

Reportedly, in April-May period of this fiscal, 2.8 lakh TBR tyres have landed in India compared with over 1.8 lakh in the corresponding period a year ago. The Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) said that the imports of TBRs in May alone reached 1.5 lakh units, which is almost 40% of the replacement demand of TBR tyres in India per month. The association further said that China dominates as the source country for imports to India. It was noted that China's share in import of TBR in India has gone up to an unprecedented 95%in 2016-17, up from 90% in 2015-16, 70% in 2014-15 and 40% in 2013-14.

This rise in imports have prompted the industry body to ask the government to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of tyres from China.

The performance of major tyre companies for the quarter ended March 2016 was below consensus expectations. This was seen on the back of rising commodity prices, rising imports, and yuan's devaluation. One of our premium editions of The 5 Minute WrapUp offers some investment insights on the Indian tyre industry (subscription required).

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