Money on the markets

ICICI Bank rises

Shares in ICICI Bank rose over 5 percent on Friday after the Reserve bank of India left its short-term interest rates unchanged and only hiked banks’ CRR by 75 bps.

The counter ended 5.3 percent higher at 830 rupees with volumes of over 2.5 million shares.

Peer banks such as Canara Bank rose 4.6 percent, Allahabad Bank ended 4.3 percent higher, and SBI closed 2.7 percent up.

Do you think it is the right time to invest in this sector?

Banks lead Sensex rise

BSE Banking Index ended 1.16 percent higher on Tuesday powered by gains in India’s top private lender, ICICI Bank which contributed most of the rise.

Shares in ICICI Bank, (up 1.9 percent), SBI, (up 0.9 percent), Yes Bank, (up 4.3 percent), Kotak Mahindra Bank, (up 2.04 percent) and Axis Bank, (up 1.34 percent).

HDFC Bank and Karnataka Bank remain in negative territory.

The Banking Index rose over 70 percent in 2009 alone while for the month of December it posted a negative return of over 3 percent.

Analysts expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to tighten policy as early as this month, starting with a hike in banks’ cash reserve requirements followed by interest rate rises.

Do you think this is the right time to invest in banking shares or will the Index go further down post a possible rate hike?

Banks slide

The BSE banking index ended 2.9 percent lower on Tuesday, making it the top sectoral loser of the day.

Concerns over higher-than-expected inflation for November triggered worries the Reserve Bank of India may start tightening liquidity soon.

The fall in the Bankex was led by Andhra Bank (down 5.3 percent), Allahabad Bank (down 4.3 percent) and Indian Overseas Bank (down 3.7 percent).

Second-largest lender, ICICI Bank, ended 2.9 pct lower at 825 rupees.

Shares of SBI ended 3 percent lower with volumes of over 8,70,000 shares. The bank has paid 17.95 billion rupees as Oct-Dec advance tax.

The Bankex has risen over 70 percent for the year so far and over 3 percent since November.

Banking Index gains

The BSE Sensex posts its first weekly gain in three weeks helped by India’s top lender SBI and Sensex heavyweight ICICI Bank. Shares in SBI ended 3 percent higher at 2204 rupees posting its biggest rise in three weeks, while ICICI Bank which holds over 7 percent weightage in the 30-share Sensitive index ended 0.48 percent to 848 rupees.

The BSE Banking Index ended 1.7 percent higher on Friday while for the year it has gained over 70 percent.

Other gainers included were Yes Bank (up 6 percent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 5.98 percent), HDFC Bank (up 0.77 percent) and Bank of India (up 3.4 percent)

Banks gained after Standard and Poor’s statement which came yesterday that banks stands to gain more than to lose after RBI provisioning requirement to tighten provisioning norms.

Do you think banking stocks are a safe bet and will gain in near future?

Banking index drops after RBI move

The BSE banking index slid more than 1.8 percent on concerns bank profits would be hit after the RBI raised the provision ratio for bad debts on Tuesday.

The RBI on Tuesday asked banks to increase the minimum provision ratio for bad debts to 70 percent from 10 percent by September 2010.

Top private lender ICICI Bank, which has over 7 percent weightage in the 30-share sensitive index, slipped 3.1 percent to 810 rupees.

Shares in State Bank of India (SBI), which had their biggest fall in 10 weeks on Tuesday, gained 0.69 percent in today’s trade to 2218 rupees.

The BSE Realty Index ended 1.5 pct down, with the main losers being HDFC Bank (down 3.1 percent), Canara Bank (down 2.2 percent), Karnataka Bank (down 2.26 percent) and Axis Bank (down 2.4 percent).

Do you think banking stocks will fall further on RBI’s move?

Banking index drops

The BSE banking index dropped 1.2 percent on Wednesday in a broader market which ended flat.

The benchmark 30-share Sensex has more than doubled from the lows in early March, registering a rise of more than 78 percent with foreign funds infusing nearly $14 billion in Indian equities.

The BSE banking index on the other hand has risen nearly 90 percent in 2009.

Private lender ICICI Bank, which has a weightage of over 8 percent in the Sensex, dropped 1.6 percent to 928 rupees. The scrip has more than doubled since the start of this year.

The other Bankex stocks that declined were Bank of Baroda (down 4.4 percent), SBI (down 3.2 percent), HDFC Bank (down 1.6 percent) and Union Bank (down 1.2 percent).

Yes Bank today said July-Sep net profit had jumped 75.6 percent from the previous year. The stock ended 3.8 percent down at 244 rupees. The bank plans to raise $150-250 million via equity by March 2010 to meet expansion targets, a senior official said.

Do you think it is a good time to invest in this sector?

BSE Sensex surges past 17,000

The Sensex rose 1.5 percent on Wednesday to close above the 17,000 mark for the first time since May 2008.

The rise in the benchmark was led by SBI, Maruti Suzuki, BHEL and ICICI Bank.

On the sectoral front, the banking sector led the indices gaining 3.6 percent followed by the Auto index, which rose 2.1 percent. The Capital Goods ended 1.7 percent higher.

India’s benchmark index hit a 16-month high last week. It has gained over 70 percent in the current year and almost 18 percent in September quarter.

Among sectors, the banking index rose over 70 percent in 2009 while the auto index surged over 170 percent.

Do you think the start of earning season in the second week of October will lead the Sensex ato new highs?

ICICI Bank rises in weak market

Shares in ICICI, India’s top private sector bank, gained 3.12 percent on Thursday in a market that ended just 33 points higher.

The banking index rose over 1 percent helped by gains in ICICI Bank, which also ended as the top Sensex gainer.

Its shares, which ended at 815 rupees, have gained 145 percent since April.

However, analyst Sudarshan Sukhani says ICICI Bank is likely to underperform, given that it is a beaten down stock.

Would you put your money in this stock, or wait for a correction?

Banking index slides for 4th day in a row

The BSE Sensex closed 2.28 percent lower on Friday, extending losses for the week to 3.25 percent.

Leading financial stocks like ICICI Bank and SBI pulled the Banking Index down, which registered a drop of nearly 4 percent – its 4th fall this week.

The banking sector has seen an upsurge of almost 53 percent for the period December 31, 2008 to August 6, 2009.

Correspondingly, there has been an increase in Sensex heavyweights like ICICI Bank, which has gained over 70 percent, and SBI which has seen a growth of almost 40 percent over the same period.

The recent decline in banking stocks poses a concern. It could well be attributed to heavy selling by FIIs in almost all counters today.

Data from SEBI shows FIIs sold a net of $51.8 million on August 7 vs $100.8 million in the previous session. Rising NPAs, slow loan growth, central bank guidelines on reducing interest rates (thus resulting in reduced spread) and access to outside markets with competitive rates, all indicate reduced margins for banks.

Over the past few months, we have seen a record number of companies taking the equity route of QIP (qualified institutional placement) as a better means of raising funds than approaching banks for the same.

ICICI Bank leads Sensex decline

The BSE Sensex ended 0.85 percent down on Tuesday, as investors saw an opportunity to book profits after the market rallied 13.4 percent over the past five sessions.

The 30-share sensitive index swung from an intra-day high of 15,234 to an intra-day low of 14,955 and closed 128 points lower at 15,062.

The fifty-share Nifty ended 0.74 percent down to 4,469.

The fall in the Sensex was led by ICICI Bank, ITC and Infosys.

IT stocks felt some heat after a sharp rally triggered by better-than-expected Q1 June 2009 results by TCS, India’s top software services firm by sales.

The decline in IT stocks was led by TCS which fell 4.5 percent after surging over 15 percent on Monday. Infosys dropped 1.5 percent and Wipro was down 0.46 percent.