Week ending 8th October 2023

Please read detailed blog with data points >> https://bit.ly/Weekending8thOct

Summary of the blog for a quick read.

India scripted history in Asian Games at China, by crossing the 100-medal mark for the first time, including a gold medal in hockey. ?Back in India, the broader markets remained within range, with the Nifty still struggling to stay above 20,000.

RBI maintained its hawkish stance in its latest policy review, driven by inflation concerns and higher global interest rates. The central bank retained its GDP growth and CPI inflation forecast for FY24 at 6.5% and 5.4% respectively.

SEBI announced a mechanism to report an investor's death through KYC registration agencies (KRA). This will make the process of transferring shares of a deceased investor faster and easier.

NSE changed its methodology to calculate the Price to Book (P/B) ratio of the Nifty index. This has made the Nifty's valuations cheaper on the basis of P/B ratio, but they are still higher than its regional peers.

Private Equity-Venture Capital (PE-VC) funds invested $6 billion in India-based companies in Q3'23, down 15% from the same period in 2022. Venture capital (VC) funding into Indian startups declined by 59% for the nine months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

The corporate credit market is also doing well, with Indian companies seeing higher credit upgrades in the first six months of FY24.

Rising US bond yields are putting pressure on Indian bonds and equity. The yield differential between US and Indian bonds has shrunk, making Indian bonds less attractive to foreign investors. At the same time, earnings yield on Indian equities are lower than bond yields, making the Indian equity market less attractive to foreign investors as well. This is having a negative impact on both Indian bonds and equity.