Narendra Modi gave a detailed interview to HT today.
My takeaway from that interview:
Q. You are heading for France, Germany and Canada in the second week of April. What are your expectations from the visit?
A. I like to combine visits to more than one place when I go on my international tours in order to get more done. I’m from Ahmedabad where we have a saying, ‘single-fare, double journey‘.
(Disclosure:I am market making in the shares of ICICI Lombard)
Among the private insurers, ICICI Lombard clocked the highest health premium business of Rs 900 crore in April-November, FY15. This made up for 20 per cent of its total premium business in the same period. The corresponding health-to-total share in premium business for the other four private insurers were lower than that of ICICI Lombard — 18 per cent in the case of HDFC Ergo, 15 per cent for Bajaj Allianz, and 10 per cent each in the case of IFFCO Tokio and Tata AIG.
Clearly, ICICI Lombard’s relative higher focus on health insurance was also helping it record better business from it than private sector rivals covered in our analysis.
Among the analysed five private insurers, ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz and IFFCO Tokio were the largest premium collectors from motor insurance with motor premium business figures of Rs 2,230 crore, Rs 1,880 crore and Rs 1,350 crore respectively. Their respective motor-premium-to-total-premium ratios were 50 per cent, 55 per cent and 64 per cent. Clearly, higher premium collections from motor insurance were seen dominating the total general insurance business of these three companies.-from MyDigitalFC
Wise words from Lee Kuan Yew which people in risky professions (think trading,glamor etc) might do well to heed:
“I was dead set against the system. But going into politics meant a hazardous, peril-fraught career.
“It’s not a career, it’s a vocation. You’re taking a plunge, no return. And if you fail, you pay for it with your life. The communists, if they fix you, they fix you good and proper.”
But, he admits, he had the luxury of allowing his convictions to rule his decision as his wife, Kwa Geok Choo, was herself a successful lawyer.
“My great advantage was I have a wife who could be a sole breadwinner and bring the children up. That was my insurance policy.
“Without such a wife, I would have been hard-pressed. To be fair, I was able to make these decisions because I had this fall-back position, I was insured.”-said Lee Kuan Yew
(Disclosure:I am market making in the shares of ICICI Lombard)
India’s largest mortgage lender State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to lower its stakes in its general insurance joint venture to 51 percent and has decided to begin the process, the bank said on Thursday.
In a regulatory filing in BSE the bank said its executive committee of the central board (ECCB) on March 25 decided to initiate the necessary action as per the joint venture agreement for dilution of its stake in SBI General Insurance from 74 percent to 51 percent.
SBI said the other partner, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) of Australia would increase its holding in the general insurance company from 26 percent to 49 percent.
According to SBI, the process for diluting its holding in favour of IAG would begin as per the joint venture agreement which includes the appointment of valuer to estimate the enterprise value and the price discovery.
The bank’s decision comes in the wake of Indian parliament passing amending the insurance laws to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) up to 49 percent subject to the condition that the management control remains with Indians.-from Money Life
Says Mehraboon Irani, head of the private client group business at Nirmal Bang Securities: “The only factor the market looks forward to is corporate earnings. Now, it is going down in the minds of markets that earnings are not going to improve in the next two to three quarters. What has happened is that analysts, after elections last year, projected a sharp recovery in earnings. Whether things improve in FY15-16 or in FY16-17 is under question. So, valuations have risen ahead of the earnings. The consensus view is that the March quarter numbers will also not be good.”
Among other things, Irani says the market is looking at passing of important legislation by Parliament. “Third is the dollar strength. Fourth is the US interest rate cut, which I think will not happen in 2015. With not many positive triggers and some negative triggers, the markets are likely to correct,” he says.
While the jury is out over when the US Fed will take its first step on rates, certainty over a delayed pick-up in earnings is slowly sinking in. That could trigger a sell-off or at least lead to under-performance of stocks riding the hope rally.
Hence, investors would be wise in being selective while picking stocks. The fact that the markets are sensing many stocks have run up without reason can also be seen in the unwinding across counters. A large number are quoting at prices below the levels in September last year, says Irani.
“So, it is more important to focus on stocks with high earnings growth and reasonable valuations. That’s also one reason why many such stocks are getting expensive,” says Irani. he adds that even as the Nifty will be higher a year down the line, there will be stocks that will be lower than today’s. That would apply to half the market.-from BS