IRDA Allows Banks to Sell Insurance Products of Multiple Companies

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The Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) is likely to permit banks to sell insurance products of more than one company.

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The move will allow banks to retail insurance products and not just be distributor for one insurer.

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A panel, set up by the IRDA to look into bancassurance, is finalizing its report, an IRDA official said.

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From 2002, IRDA had allowed bancassurance.

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A bank was allowed to act as an agent for only one life and one general insurer according to the norms.

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Bancassurance is a delivery channel in which an insurance company uses a bank”s sales channel to sell its products.

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At present, bancassurance garners more than a quarter of the entire premium collected by the insurance industry.

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Combining scheduled commercial banks, co-operative banks and regional rural development banks, India has close to 1,70,000 bank branches.

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IRDA has been concerned about tie-ups between banks and insurance companies and is considering a regulatory framework for an open architecture for such arrangements

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🙂

Mid-cap and Small-cap Shares Outperformed Blue Chips in 2009

mid-cap and small-cap shares outperformed blue chips

2009 was a year when stock market minnows beat the big boys of Dalal Street.

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🙂

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This year, mid-cap and small-cap shares outperformed blue chips, setting the momentum for 2010.

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Stocks of companies with medium and small market capitalisations shot up more significantly than the scrips with larger valuations.

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This was all happening when stock market  was witnessing a recovery across the board in the year.

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Market experts said the smaller capitalization stocks do not need huge amounts of investments to rally and so managed to outperform their peers in the benchmark index, Sensex in the year.

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According to an analysis of the performance of mid-cap and small cap indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the small-cap index has given a return of as much as 115 per cent, while the mid-cap index has gained nearly 100 per cent so far in 2009.

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In comparison to the performance of its smaller peers, the 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, gave a return of 75.3 per cent to investors.

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“The rally in the mid-cap and small-cap have been stronger than that of the large cap index of Sensex.

Mid-cap and small-cap indices comprise stocks require relatively smaller investment as they are available at cheap rates in the market,”

SMC Capitals Ltd Equity Head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.

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The mid-cap and small cap indices track the performance of companies with market capitalisations that are a fifth or tenth of that of blue chip firms.

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🙂

INFLATION – “THE SILENT CREEPER” Final Part

Hello Friends here we come up with an extension of our previous blog, INFLATION

–  “THE SILENT CREEPER” Part 2.

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INFLATION – “THE SILENT CREEPER” Part 3

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In previous Blog we had touched upon the possible Measures to check inflation.

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Now in this part we would look into other concerns in Indian economy regarding the parameters to check inflation.

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Concerns in Indian Economy Regarding Inflation :

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Apart from reasons and measures to check inflation, other concern in Indian economy is the parameters to check inflation.

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It is well known that India is the only country which considered WPI (Wholesale Price Index) while rest of the countries measured CPI (Consumer Price Index).

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WPI consists of 435 goods over 1993-94, as base year in which the weightage of food items is only 16%, which has large weightage of consumer spending in India.

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Though WPI in India is still in single digit, if we consider CPI it is already in double digit due to dearer farm articles and their higher weightage in measures.

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In CPI, food articles have 50% weightage.

Hence there is a wide gap between the weightage of food articles of WPI and CPI, which are unable to give the clear pictures.

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Furthermore, 2/3rd of the price quotations used to calculate the WPI are sourced from only four metros.

Hence to get the real picture, area should be widened.

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comparison between food inflation and WPI from January, 2008 to October, 2009.

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In the above chart, it is a comparison between food inflation and WPI from January, 2008 to October, 2009.

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Line chart is representing WPI monthly inflation whereas bar chart is indicating food article inflation.

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It appears that food article inflation is on continuous rise while WPI monthly inflation saw both side movements.

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It has started its northward journey in the month of March-April and it is still continued.

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Arrival of kharif crop is less likely to cool it as we are expecting 18% decline in kharif crop.

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Hence downside will be limited, rather it may move in a range with upside bias.

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The words of future RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has revised its outlook for inflation and expecting that it should be between the range of 5% to 6-6.5% for the year ending March 2010.

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There is a fear in the economy that the real impact of almost 18% drop in kharif rice production is to reflect in inflation.

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It would occur when kharif produce; rice, pulses, oilseeds and cereals would start coming in the market.

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With witnessing favourable weather conditions, economy is expecting strong rabi produce, which may cool off inflation of food articles to some extent.

However, we cannot rule out the possibility adverse weather.

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Ultimately what matters is final produce and yield.

Government has to take care of everything like, demand –supply equilibrium, money supply, distribution etc.

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Otherwise it will become nightmare for “aam admi” and hamper the economic growth.

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🙂

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