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India share markets ended their day marginally lower on Thursday.
At the closing bell on Thursday, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 152 points (down 0.4%) and the NSE Nifty stood down by 45 points (down 0.4%).
The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down 0.4%, while the BSE Small Cap index stood down by 0.5%.
Stocks in the energy sector and IT sector witnessed huge selling pressure, while metal stocks and telecom stocks were trading in the green.
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Automobile dealers' body FADA said passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales in January declined 4.61% YoY to 2,90,879 units. The fall here was seen on the back of tepid response by end customers.
According to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), which collected vehicle registration data from 1,223 out of the 1,432 regional transport offices (RTOs), PV sales stood at 3,04,929 units in January 2019.
Two-wheeler sales declined 8.82% to 12,67,366 units last month as compared with 13,89,951 units in January 2019.
Commercial vehicle sales declined 6.89% to 82,187 units as compared to 88,271 units in January 2019.
Three-wheeler sales, however, rose 9.17% to 63,514 units last month as compared with 58,178 units in January 2019.
Total sales across categories declined 7.17% to 17,50,116 units last month as against 18,85,253 units in the year-ago month.
FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said that overall weak economic sentiment continues and even the Budget 2020, although an inclusive budget with growth drivers for the mid to long term, did not have any direct measures nor any immediate growth enabling initiatives for the auto sector.
On sales outlook, Kale said with continued weak consumer sentiment and the overall economic situation as well as the upcoming transition to BS-VI regime, the near-term demand situation will continue to be dynamic.
Note that India's automobile industry is bracing itself for a unique challenge in the first quarter of 2020 when the transition of BS-IV to BS-VI emission norms has to be made at the stroke of midnight on 31 March 2020.
No BS-IV vehicle could be sold from 1 April 2020, which means automakers would have to reduce their inventory on BS-IV models to zero by then.
The exercise is likely to see companies show extra caution in dispatching cars to dealers in the next few months, which may cause a continuation of the decline in wholesale numbers.
However, despite the slowdown in the auto sector, the sales volume of electric vehicles (EVs) are growing at a robust pace.
Electric vehicles are very much on their way to invading Indian roads. The threat of disruption in this era is something you cannot ignore.
The recently announced government incentives will give a further boost to EV sales.
The coming one year will be a real test for India's auto companies.
It will also tell us if this slowdown is temporary or if there has been a structural change in the sector.
In our view, companies in the sector adapting their business models to the rapidly changing environment will survive and thrive.
We will keep you updated on all the trends shaping up in this space. Stay tuned.
Also, speaking of auto sector, Tanushree Banerjee is counting on two listed automobile companies from the Indian market. The Rebirth of India stocks she has identified, are set to leave their mark on the global EV revolution.
These stocks may not have the 4x vertical ride like Tesla within a few months.
But for patient investors, these are the stocks which will soar like Tesla, more gradually.
As per Tanushree, now is the right time to buy these stocks to profit from the Rebirth of India. You can read about them here.
In news from the banking sector, as per a leading financial daily, the initial public offer (IPO) of SBI Cards and Payment Services will be kept open for four days.
Currently, IPOs are open for subscription only for three days.
As per sources, the fourth day will be exclusively for retail investors, HNIs and shareholders and the bidding will be compulsory closed at 5 pm on the last day.
Last week, the markets regulator had cleared the IPO of SBI Cards after raising some doubts with its lead manager.
SBI, along with its nominees, currently holds 689.9 million equity shares, constituting 74% stake of the pre-offer issued, subscribed and paid-up equity share capital of the company.
SBI Cards offers a wide range of credit cards to individual and corporate clients including lifestyle, rewards, shopping, travel, fuel, banking partnership cards and corporate cards.
As of 30 September 2019, SBI Cards had a 18% share of the Indian credit card market, the second largest credit card issuer in India with 9.46 million credit cards.
HDFC Bank has the largest credit cards business in the country with 13.3 million cards issued, while ICICI Bank stood third with 7.9 million credit cards, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to the data on the Association of Mutual Funds in India, the average asset under management (AUM) of overnight funds has grown five times over the last nine months.
In the last 10 months, the AUM of overnight funds has increased to Rs 525.2 billion as on 31 January 2020, from Rs 115.7 billion as on 30 April 2019.
Not only AUM, but even the number of investor folios under Overnight Funds has more than doubled to 46,763 as on 31 January 2020, from 21,363 as on 30 April 2019.
Meanwhile, mutual funds focused on investing in fixed-income securities saw an inflow of over Rs 940 billion in three months ended December 2019, driven by infusion in liquid and overnight funds.
This comes following an outflow of Rs 50.6 billion in September quarter and fund infusion to the tune of Rs 196.9 billion in June quarter, as per the reports.
In addition, overnight funds, which invest in securities with maturity of one day, received inflows of about Rs 175.3 billion, higher than Rs 39.1 billion in the three months ended September 2019.
Interestingly, co-head of research, Tanushree Banerjee recently wrote about an irreversible megatrend in the mutual funds space.
It is the growth in the AUM of the Indian mutual fund industry.
Here's a snippet of what Tanushree wrote about it in one of the editions of The 5 Minute WrapUp...
We will keep you updated on all the trends shaping up in this space. Stay tuned.
And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.
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