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Mumbai: Retail investors used the sharp dips in the market in October to add to both their lump sum equity mutual fund schemes and systemic investment plans (SIP), taking both to record highs.Investors bought equity funds worth ₹41,887 crore in October, the highest ever in a month, compared to ₹34,419 crore in September. SIP purchases amounted to ₹25,323 crore, up from ₹24,509 crore in the previous month. Debt funds saw inflows of ₹1,57,402 crore, largely from overnight and liquid funds. Strong flows and an increase in stock market valuation took the total average assets under management of the industry to ₹68.5 lakh crore, against ₹68 lakh crore in the previous month."We have seen heightened volatility in markets with FIIs (foreign institutional investors) selling due to major global events, including the US elections. The healthy net flows is a testimonial to the resilience amongst domestic investors to continue investing in equities despite market volatility," said Akhil Chaturvedi, executive director, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund. 115196447Investors continued to put money into sectoral and thematic funds, with these funds attracting ₹12,2278 crore in October.Within equities, all categories saw robust flows from investors. Flexicap funds got the highest inflows of ₹5,181 crore, followed by large- and mid-cap funds, which attracted ₹4,857 crore. Large-cap funds attracted ₹3,452 crore, while multi-cap funds, which invest in a mix of large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap funds, saw inflows of ₹3.597 crore.Flows into mid-cap funds increased to ₹4,683 crore in October from ₹3,130 crore in the previous month while small-cap funds got ₹3,772 crore compared to ₹3,071 crore."Investors continue to navigate market volatility through SIPs, STPs (systematic transfer plans) and occasional one-time purchases on days when markets witnessed corrections," said Manish Mehta, national head - sales, marketing & digital business, Kotak Mahindra AMC.Liquid and overnight schemes saw inflows of ₹83,863 crore and ₹25,784 crore, respectively, while money market funds saw inflows of ₹25,303 crore. In the hybrid segment, arbitrage funds, a product investors have been using to park idle money and get better tax adjusted returns compared to liquid funds, saw inflows of ₹7,182 crore compared to outflows of ₹3,532 crore in the previous month.Multi-asset allocation funds, which invest in a mix of debt, equity and gold, saw inflows of ₹3,797 crore. Balanced advantage funds saw inflows of ₹1,371 crore and equity savings funds saw inflows of ₹1,748 crore.Gold exchange-traded funds saw inflows of ₹1,962 crore in October as many investors bought digital gold on the auspicious occasion of Dhanteras.

MUMBAI: Stung by high default rates in the personal loan, credit card and microfinance (MFI) portfolios, Indian banks are slashing credit card limits and restricting pre-approved personal loans. Some of the lenders have also reduced loan-to-value (LTV) ratios on mortgage loans, bankers told ET."We have identified stress segments in our unsecured portfolio based on customer segment, geographies, credit scores and sectors that are showing signs of trouble," said the retail head of a private sector lender. "We have reduced risks in these segments by lowering credit card additions, reducing credit card limits, lowering LTV and keeping away from segments which have thrown up high risk."Several lenders said that they now prefer offering loans to customers with credit scores of more than 750 from a cap of 720 seen prior to the onset of stress. Banks are also keeping a very close watch on days past due (DPD), where collection machinery gets triggered at day zero DPD."We have taken a very granular look at our own portfolio and found multiple variables which are actually the drivers of credit cost," Arjun Chowdhry, group executive at Axis Bank had said in the post-earnings call with analysts. "Things such as the obligation to income ratios, degree of indebtedness, the number of inquiries, the nature of the loan, the nature of the geographies, the nature of the occupation, multiple things. We continue to calibrate both our acquisitions and our existing stock of loans and cards in line with what we see."The Reserve Bank of India has been continuously flagging the buildup of risks in the unsecured segment, saying that more than half of consumer loan borrowers are repaying at least three loans simultaneously. It also said delinquency levels among borrowers with loans below Rs 50,000 were extremely high. The microfinance and fintech industries have been grappling with the issue of customers having more than four loans with a total outstanding of more than Rs 2 lakh. 115191891Banks are also de-risking themselves from MFI loans by restricting book growth. Another way banks are eliminating risk is by moving away from the young millennial population which is considered to be the largest culprit in maxing out credit cards and not repaying them."Our customer level indebtedness reduced 6% sequentially with average loan exposure per customer at Rs 39,685, amongst the lowest in the industry," Sumant Kathpalia, MD, IndusInd Bank had said in a recent post-earnings analyst call.The stress due to overleveraging along with the slowdown in the rural household incomes, has prompted an increase in delinquency that could play out over the next two to three quarters."Growth in excess of 20% has resulted in over-leveraging and this segment is very vulnerable. When MFI slips you don't recover much and I don't think MFI is a book that banks can stomach well," said Suresh Ganapathy, managing director, financial sector research at Macquarie Capital.The RBI has highlighted its apprehensions around a few outliers who charge usurious interest rates along with unreasonably high processing fees and frivolous penalties.

MUMBAI: The central bank Monday laid down the rules a foreign portfolio investor (FPI) must follow, including seeking the Centre's approval for raising equity ownership, once its holding in an Indian company breaches the prescribed 10% regulatory threshold. These norms come in the wake of additional scrutiny by New Delhi to monitor ownership of local financial assets by countries with which it shares a frontier.The current law says an FPI cannot hold more than 10% of the total paid-up equity capital as portfolio investment in an Indian company. The investment is categorised as foreign direct investment (FDI) if the holding exceeds the 10% limit.Until now, there was lack of clarity on how the offshore portfolio manager could go about classifying and reporting the stake once the holding crosses 10%.On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) clarified that FPIs need to obtain necessary approvals from the government, especially for investments from land bordering countries. They must adhere to all FDI regulations, including sectoral caps, entry routes, pricing guidelines, among others.Under the regulations, if a foreign fund already holding about 9% buys more shares, say, another 3% in a company, the entire holding of 12% is considered FDI. 115190741This communication from the central bank, pertaining to reclassification of FPI holding into FDI, assumes significance given the screening mechanism that has been put in place since 2020 for FDI from China and other countries with which India shares a frontier. New Delhi has looked at investments from certain destinations with greater scrutiny in national interest.According to the RBI notification published Monday, the FPI should "clearly articulate its intent to reclassify existing foreign portfolio investment held in a company into FDI and shall provide the copy of the necessary approvals and concurrence to its custodian."MNC banks and local financial institutions act as custodians (or bookkeepers) for FPIs.After completing the reporting, the FPI requests its custodian to transfer the shares from its FPI demat account to its FDI demat account. The custodian would unfreeze the shares after verifying the reclassification process. The date of investment causing the breach is considered as the reclassification date.

The Paris climate agreement's goals "are in great peril" and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku.The period from 2015 to 2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report based on six international datasets.WMO chief Celeste Saulo said she was sounding the "red alert"."It's another SOS for the planet," she told reporters in Baku.The warming trend is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers and sea-level rise, and unleashing extreme weather that has wrought havoc on communities and economies around the world."The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril," the WMO climate and weather agency said as global leaders gathered for high-stakes climate talks in Azerbaijan.Under the Paris agreement, nearly every nation on Earth committed to work to limit warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably to below 1.5C.But the EU climate monitor Copernicus has already said that 2024 will exceed 1.5C.This does not amount to an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests the world is far off track on its goals.The WMO, which relies on a broader dataset, also said 2024 would likely breach the 1.5C limit, and break the record set just last year.'New reality'"Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit," UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.Analysis by a team of international experts established by the WMO found that long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3C, compared to the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency said."We need to act as soon as possible," Saulo said, insisting that the world must "not give up on the 1.5 (ambition)".Monday's report cautioned that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which lock in future temperature increases even if emissions fall, hit new highs in 2023 and appeared to have climbed further this year.Ocean heat is also likely to be comparable to the record highs seen last year, it added.Saulo insisted that "every fraction of a degree of warming matters, and increases climate extremes, impacts and risks. "Temperatures are only part of the picture. Climate change plays out before our eyes on an almost daily basis in the form of extreme weather," she said.Saulo pointed to how "this year's record-breaking rainfall and flooding events and terrible loss of life... (had caused) heartbreak to communities on every continent."The incredible amount of rain in Spain was a wake-up call about how much more water a warmer atmosphere can hold," she added. She warned that the string of devastating extreme weather events across the world this year "are unfortunately our new reality".They are, she said, "a foretaste of our future".

Jubilant FoodWorks reported its second-quarter results for the period ending September 2024 on Monday, posting a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 66.53 crore, marking a 31.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline. Despite the drop in profit, the company's revenue grew by 43% YoY.The revenue from operations for the reporting quarter stood at Rs 1,954.70 crore against Rs 1,368.63 crore in the year-ago period.The total income also surged to Rs 1,984.93 crore, up from Rs 1,375.69 crore reported in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.Jubilant Foodworks’ EBITDA was reported at Rs 398.6 crore for the July-September quarter, up by 43.8% YoY and 4.1% QoQ, while the EBITDA margin stood at 20.4%, an increase of 14 bps YoY.The company added 73 stores in the quarter, making the total store count stand at 3,120 stores.New customer acquisition for Domino’s India growth (29% yoy) continued to be at an elevated level and the copy posted its record high monthly active users (MAU)at 1.28 crore (+18.5% YoY), the highest ever app conversion and app installs at 1.09 crore.Also read: India Inc earnings downgrades worst since 2020. Are we staring at a bear market?Jubilant FoodWorks, incorporated in 1995, ranks among the leading emerging markets’ food service companies. Its Group network comprises 3,130 stores across six markets – India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia.The Group has a strong Portfolio of Brands in emerging markets with franchise rights for three global brands - Domino’s, Popeyes and Dunkin’ – and two own-brands, Hong’s Kitchen, an Indo-Chinese QSR brand in India, and a CAFÉ brand - COFFY in Turkey.The company declared its results post-market hours and the shares of the company ended the day 0.88% lower at Rs 601.70 on BSE.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)