Asian stock markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is flat while the Hang Seng is up 1.3%. The Nikkei 225 is trading up by 0.2%. Wall Street's main stock indices ended modestly higher on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and signaled that borrowing costs are likely to remain unchanged indefinitely.
Back home, India share markets opened higher. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 109 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 36 points. Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.
Barring telecom stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in green with realty and automobiles stocks witnessing buying interest.
The rupee is currently trading at 70.70 against the US$.
In the news from the banking sector. The Union cabinet on Wednesday moved to prevent frivolous bankruptcy filings and shield potential bidders from the crimes of previous managements, besides liberalizing a budget initiative to boost liquidity for non-bank lenders.
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Financial creditors such as homebuyers and bondholders represented by an authorized representative will now have to meet an additional threshold, which is yet to be specified to take a company to bankruptcy courts.
The large number of such creditors and the existing low threshold of Rs 1 lakh exposure had made many corporate debtors vulnerable to bankruptcy cases even for the slightest delays.
The change is expected to deter creditors, who have aggressively used IBC as a loan recovery tool.
The second major change is to ring-fence a company undergoing bankruptcy proceedings so that a successful bidder bringing in the much-needed investment to turn it around is protected from criminal proceedings against offences committed by the previous management and promoters.
The amendments will make IBC prevail over other laws including the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The move will help in the rescue of bankrupt Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) by the second-largest private steelmaker in the country, JSW Steel Ltd, a transaction which has got complicated due to a probe by the Enforcement Directorate and the attachment of BSPL's assets.
The government also cleared tweaking the partial credit guarantee scheme in what may improve liquidity for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies.
The revised scheme will make NBFCs that show signs of stress and have slipped into a class called special mention account in the one year leading up to August 2018 eligible for the credit guarantee scheme.
The scheme, announced in the July budget, seeks to enable cash-strapped NBFCs to raise money from banks for on-lending to the priority sector, which includes small and medium businesses and the farm sector.
According to the latest announcement, NBFCs with lower rating or "investment rating" but with good quality loans will be included in the partial credit guarantee scheme.
How this pans out going forward remains to be seen.
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Moving on to the news from the IPO space. After a massive 166 times subscription to its initial public offering (IPO), all eyes are now on the listing of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank scheduled today.
Strong response to the Rs 7.5-billion public issue suggests a stellar opening.
Speaking of IPOs, 2019 has seen some of the most mindbogglingly profitable IPOs.
The top six IPOs of the year have given high double-digit and triple-digit returns so far - IRCTC (180%), IndiaMART InterMESH (121%), Affle India (105%), Neogen Chemicals (73%) and Polycab India (72%).
In a recent edition of The 5 Minute WrapUp, Ankit Shah shares how IPOs offer insights into the mood of the stock markets.
He picked the six most successful IPOs of the year and checked the retail investor enthusiasm for them.
Obviously, all these IPOs were oversubscribed across investor categories. But the level of retail investor enthusiasm differed widely, depending on the overall market sentiments. This can be seen in the chart below:
Here's what Ankit wrote about it...
Does this hint that retail investors are coming back to the markets? Could we witness of flurry of IPOs in the coming months?
Ankit is keeping a close watch and going to pick all the profitable IPOs for his readers at Insider.
To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.
For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!
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