Tuesday, October 8News That Matters

News

SBI MF, Axis MF launching inflation indexed funds

News
SBI Mutual fund & Axis Mutual Fund have filed papers with Sebi to launch mutual fund schemes linked to inflation-indexed bonds. These will be open-ended debt funds  which will invest money in government's inflation indexed securities. they will aim to provide inflation--adjusted returns to investors. SBI MF will invest 70%  & Axis MF will invest 65% of thr fund in inflation- linked bonds.   However, details about amount to be raised and launch date were not mentioned. Deutsche Asset Management India last month became the first fund house to launch an inflation-indexed fund. Last year, RBI has issued Inflation indexed bonds where Interest rates is linked to Inflation & will be fixed twice a year. These bonds are launched every month and government is expecting Rs 15000 crore...

Pre 2005 currency notes – exchange by Jan 1 2015

News
RBI has extended the timeline to get pre-2005 currency notes exchanged at banks. On Jan 22 2014, RBI said that it would wiothdraw all pre-2005 currency notes from April 1 2014 and advised public to get it exchanged at banks. Now, they have extended this timeline to Jan 1 2015. What is the timeline to get the notes replaced? You can get your notes exchanged by Jan 1 2015 . In the meantime, you can freely use the currency as before .  It is still a LEGAL TENDER. How to identify pre 2005 notes ? Currency notes issued before 2005 do not have the year of printing on the reverse side. In notes issued after 2005, the year of printing is visible at the bottom of the reverse side. Why RBI is doing this  ? Post-2005 notes have added security features and help in curbing the menace of fake currenc...

Last date for filing ITR-V extended for 3 AY till 31-March-2014

News, Taxation
CBDT Circular 04/2014 dated 10-Feb-2014 CBDT has extended the Last date for filing ITR-V for 2 assessment years AY 2009 - 2010, 2010 -2011, 2011-2012 for returns which were filed electronically & any refund was due. Please note that this extension is only for returns where REFUNDS were due. The  taxpayer need to send a duly signed copy of ITR-V to the CPC by Speed Post. Normally, when the tax payer files his Income tax returns online without digital signature, he need to take the print it of ITR V acknowledgement, sign it & send it to IT CPC. So if you have filed return online and are waiting for your refund for last few years, just check whether your ITR V was received by CPC or not. if not, then you can send it again by Speed post. How to check if CPC has received your ITR V or ...

HDFC MF to raise Rs 1500 crore for real estate via HDFC AIF

News
27-Feb-2014 (ET) HDFC Mutual fund is planning to raise Rs 1500 crore to invest in real estate through its new division HDFC Alternate Investment Fund (AIF). The company has received its licence for alternative investment funds in 2013. Earlier HDFC Mutual Fund was investing in real estate through its division HDFC Portfolio Management Services. They had raised Rs 3,800 crore in 2008. In May last year, SEBI has notified the guidelines for alternative investment funds. The minimum investment under this category in Rs 1 crore.  These funds will be close-ended with a tenure of not less than three years and the maximum number of investors will be 1,000 entities. Other AIF Jones Lang LaSalle India's Segregated Funds Group closed its first real estate fund — Residential Opportunities Fund-I —...

Mutual Funds industry set to consolidate

News
13-Feb-2014 Market regulator SEBI has now raised the minimum net worth requirement of Asset management companies (known as Mutual funds companies) from Rs 10 crore to Rs 50 crore. This will also ensure that only serious players are active and the mutual funds are of reasonable size & help in financial inclusion across the country.  This will effectively reduce the entry of new players & thereby de-clutter multiple similar schemes. A mutual fund investor will have to look at lesser number of mutual funds before short-listing where to invest. To encourage merger and consolidation of equity mutual funds schemes, the SEBI said that “similar to merger/consolidation of companies, the merger/consolidation of equity mutual funds schemes also may not be treated as transfer, and, therefore...

Single DMAT Account for all financial investments by 2015

News
Feb 4 2014 Finance minister P Chidambaram has asked financial sector regulators to prioritise moving to a single DEMAT account for all financial investments. Chidambaram was chairing a meeting of the Financial Stability Development Council and asked regulators to priortise common demat account for financial assets, which will add considerable benefits to consumers. 6-Feb-2014 Few days later, Market regulator SEBI said investors will soon be able to have a single dematerialized account for all classes of their financial investments. SEBI, Joint Director, Prabhakar R Patil at an annual national conference at Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology (GJUST) said -  "All financial instruments can be operated through single dematerialized account and this facility will be op...

FIIs invests Rs 11000 crore in Debt Market in Feb 2014

News
23-Feb-2014 Because of stability in foreign exchange and interest rates,  FII inflows into debt are returning. They have invested almost Rs 11000 crore in debt market in Feb 2014. In 2013, FIIs were net seller in Bonds.  In 2013, they withdrew Rs 50,847 crore (USD 8 billion) from the bond market and infused Rs 1.13 lakh crore (USD 20.1 billion) in equities. Till February 21 2014,   FIIs were gross buyers of debt securities worth Rs 21,210 crore and sellers of bonds to the tune of Rs 10,219 crore till February 21, resulting in a net inflow of Rs 10,991 crore (USD 1.77 billion)

Moody’s offer to buy majority stake in ICRA

News
Feb 21 2014 US based credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has proposed to increase its stake in its Indian arm ICRA by purchasing an additional stake of at least 21.5% in the company through a share buyback, taking its holding to 55%. Currently, Moody’s is the single largest shareholder in ICRA with a 28.51% stake it holds through its subsidiary Moody’s Investment Co. India Pvt Ltd.  Under the offer, Moody’s Singapore Pte Ltd will pay Rs.2,000 for every ICRA share, which is a 25% premium to the India company’s closing price on Friday. At present, around 54 per cent of ICRA’s equity are held by institutions, while the rest are spread among individuals, corporate bodies and NRIs. For the quarter ended December 31, 2013, ICRA reported an 11 %  rise in operating income at Rs 42.53 ...

Income Tax Dept to send notices to further 21.75 lakh “non-filers”

News
The Income Tax Department has now performed the 2nd round of data matching and identified additional 21.75 lakh potential non-filers     The department had initiated a business intelligence project in February 2013 to identify PAN holders who have not filed I-T Return and about whom specific information is available in Annual Information Return (AIR), Central Information Branch (CIB) data and TDS/TCS Returns.  The department has already sent letters to the 50,000 potential non-filers in the first batch..  The results of this initiative are very encouraging and 5,36,220 returns have been received from the target segment. Self assessment tax of Rs 1,017.87 crore, and advance tax of Rs 898.22 crore has also been paid by the target segment IT dept has urged all tax payers to d...

V-Mart Retail – Institutional Investors acquire 10% stake

News
Feb 18 2014 Kotak Mahindra (International) Limited bought 1.02 million shares Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Private Limited bought 0.72 million shares The deal represents approx 10% stake in the company and on an average price of Rs 300. The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 14.04 per share. (Dec, 2013). The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 19.94. The latest book value of the company is Rs 82.22 per share. 52 week high price - Rs 300 52 weak low price - Rs 104 Market Cap - RS 485 crores  FIIs are showing interest in this stock as during April 2013 - Dec 2013 , they have acquired almost 15% stake.  FII Holding in Mar 2013 was 0.18%  ,  which is increased to  15.13 % in Dec 2013.