Indian Indices End Higher, Franklin Templeton Crisis, Stocks in Focus, and Top Cues to Track Today

Wed, 29 Apr Pre-Open

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Indian share markets ended on a strong note yesterday.

Benchmark indices rose sharply in the afternoon session, backed by gains in private bank stocks and finance stocks.

At the closing bell yesterday, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 371 points (up 1.2%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 99 points (up 1.1%).

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.8%.

On the sectoral front, gains were largely seen in the banking sector, finance sector and realty sector.

Speaking of Indian share markets, the coronavirus impact has shaken markets worldwide. Indian stock markets have felt the full impact too.

For the BSE Sensex, FY20 was the second worst year post FY08, the year of the global financial crisis.

Good Time to Start Investing Now?

Naturally, there is an atmosphere of fear all round.

Is it time to sell stocks now? Will the correction get worse?

History has shown that after years like the one we had just now, the next 3 years are good for the markets. In fact, these corrections are the rare times when you find businesses with solid fundamentals at reasonable valuations.

If you can find good businesses that can survive the current crisis, you will do well in the long run.

Also, speaking of Indian share markets and the coronavirus sell-off, our special report, How to Trade the Coronavirus Crash, is the most comprehensive report on how to trade the coronavirus, both from a short-term and long-term perspective. You can claim your FREE copy here...

Top Stocks in Focus Today

Just Dial share price will be in focus today as the company has announced that it will consider share buyback proposal on Thursday.

In an exchange filing on Monday after market hours, the company said, "A meeting of the board of directors of Just Dial will be held on Thursday, April 30, 2020 to inter-alia consider and approve the proposal for buy-back of fully paid up equity shares of the company and matters necessary and incidental thereto."

HDFC Life Insurance share price will also be in focus today as the company reported a 14.4% decline in its net profit for the quarter ended March, hurt by losses on investments.

The life insurer reported a net profit of Rs 3,117.1 million in the March quarter, compared with Rs 3,640.1 million in the same quarter a year ago.

The company's premium income in the quarter edged up 2.1% to Rs 104.6 billion from Rs 102.5 billion in the same period a year before. The company has set up a Covid Reserve Fund with reserves to the tune of Rs 410 million, covering around 4,500 lives.

Market participants will also be tracking Axis Bank share price and Atul share price as these companies are announced their March quarter results (Q4FY20).

You can check recently released Q4FY20 results of other companies on our website here: Wipro, TCS, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tata Elxsi, ACC, CRISIL.

From the Franklin Templeton Fiasco...

In news from the mutual funds space, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Monday said it is committed to returning investor money at the earliest.

The asset manager shut down its six debt schemes last week on Thursday. Reportedly, the six debt schemes had assets under management of over Rs 250 billion.

It said that winding up of the schemes does not mean that investor money is lost.

The fund has also marked down its Fund-of-Fund (FoF) exposure by 50% to the debt schemes.

In other news, as per an article in The Economic Times, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund was pushing distributors to sell the six debt schemes just before the fund house announced the decision on April 23.

The asset manager had launched a sales campaign for distributors that required them to push Systematic Transfer Plans (STPs) - a system that involves a regular shift of money from a debt scheme to mostly an equity scheme - in these products among others for additional commissions.

The report stated that the fund house promised to pay an additional trail brokerage fee of 10 basis points to distributors who mobilised money between April 1 and September 30.

Speaking of mutual funds, Ajit Dayal, founder of Quantum group, talks about the corruption in the Indian mutual fund industry, in his latest article.

You can check the same here: Black swans, Black crows and Fund lies

Crisil Downgrades India's Growth Forecast

Crisil has cut its projections for India's economic growth rate to 1.8%, from 3.5% it had earlier predicted for 2020-21.

Its parent Standard & Poor's has (S&P) forecast the world economy to contract 2.4%, against its earlier estimates of 0.4% growth.

Crisil had a gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate of 6% for FY21, which was revised to 3.5% in late March.

Among the major economies, India and China are the only exception to the declining economic activities in 2020 or FY21 in India's case.

The agency projected total losses of Rs 10 trillion or Rs 7,000 per person due to the disastrous lockdowns to control the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, how this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the developments from this space.

LIC's New Policy Volumes at 6-Year High

Moving on to news from the insurance sector, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said it underwrote the highest number of policies in over six years during the previous financial year despite a washed-out closing fortnight in March, when life insurers typically process higher volumes of business.

In terms of individual new business, LIC issued 21.9 million policies in the fiscal year.

The insurer's first-year premium income grew 25% to Rs 510 billion compared to an industry growth of about 11.6%, LIC said in a round-up of its performance in the just concluded financial year.

LIC collected single premium of Rs 219.7 billion and non-single premium of Rs 292.6 billion, with a mix of about 43% for single premium and 57% for non-single premium.

LIC said that its composite market share in number of policies touched 75.9% in 2019-20, increasing by 1.2% over the period.

Speaking of the insurance sector, this is one sector which is a clear outperformer in this volatile market.

With the huge future potential of the sector, the outperformance is not surprising. India's life insurance penetration i.e. insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP, is very low compared to the global average.

The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11-13% over the next five years. India's large youth population and growing awareness about insurance is bound to accelerate growth.

As per Tanushree, this is one of the megatrends that will help what she calls the Rebirth of India.

She has identified the 7 best stocks that will profit from the Rebirth of India. You can read about these top 7 stocks here.

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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