“In the backdrop of the NBFC liquidity crisis, credit flow to the real estate sector has been squeezed. This measure by the central bank is aimed at easing credit flow to NBFCs, which is welcome. However, its impact still depends on banks’ confidence to lend to this segment in the current environment.” – Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director, Knight Frank India.
Diamond trading network Rapnet launches new Trade Centre
RapNet, the world’s leading diamond trading network, is proud to announce the launch of the RapNet Trade Center. This marks a major strategic development for RapNet by providing members with an efficient, secure and intuitive system to trade diamonds in a smarter trading environment.
The RapNet Trade Center offers members a suite of tools to manage their offers and inquiries, negotiate terms, close deals and issue invoices in one streamlined process. The Trade Center provides verified RapNet members with the ability to trade efficiently and safely. All communications are secure, without the use of email, which is subject to fraud.
“We are investing millions of dollars in new electronic infrastructure to ensure that our members have simple, smart tools that will manage and grow their business,” said Saville Stern, CEO of RapNet. “With over one million trades a year, the Trade Center is a significant step in the evolution of the RapNet platform. Additional initiatives lined up for 2018 and 2019 will provide members with the ability to increase profits.”
June IIP at 7% was a big positive surprise, higher than market and our expectations of less than 6%. In addition to a weak base, the strong headline number was aided by broad based pick-up in production activity. The strong recovery in manufacturing and consumer durables is particularly encouraging as is the continued strength in infrastructure and construction sector. This is in tandem with credit growth in the construction sector at ~8% during the last 12 months. However, we are slightly concerned with the weakness in consumer non-durables, though this could reverse on the back of normal monsoons and government support aiding rural income as we go ahead. The resultant Q1 average of 5.2% YoY for IIP will help to support the headline GDP print for the period. We expect a GDP growth of 7.3% for Q1. – Mr. B Prasanna, Group Executive and Head- Global Markets Group of ICICI Bank.
RBI rate hike seems to be with an intent to durably reduce long-term inflation. With crude prices going up, depreciation of the rupee, increase in MSP and 6% below normal rainfall, the upside risks to inflation had gone up. This will potentially impact flows in long-duration bond funds. Investors should focus on short duration funds. The GDP growth rate and rural consumption are sound, the medium term equity risk reward is still favorable. – Mohit Ralhan Managing Partner & CIO, TIW Private Equity
“Markets have hit an all time high after remaining rangebound and volatile for quite some time. The rally can be attributed to an expectation of a robust growth in earnings during the ongoing result season.”- Nitasha Shankar, Sr. Vice President and Head of Research at YES Securities (I) Ltd.
“Dock-less scooter sharing service for point to point connectivity is the way forward for this industry. ONN Bikes launched the hourly rental model which became an instant hit with the metro population where people started using the service as an alternate to cab transport for one way commute. This is the perfect precedence for the launch of one way rentals and dock-less rental service”- Namit Jain, Founder, ONN Bikes
“Traditionally a lean period, monsoons have become the most awaited travel time of year in India over the years. Travellers who wish to avoid peak summer holiday season and enjoy the lucrative off-season deals often prefer to travel during monsoons. At Travel Tours, we have observed rising interest in queries for destinations such Goa, Kerala, Andaman, Darjeeling, Mysore, Ooty, Kodaikanal and more. The locales offer refreshing mid-year breaks into the lap of nature and truly enhance the flavour of monsoon. This year we have seen a steady uptake of 28% in monsoon bookings over last year. Additionally, the rise in bookings can be appropriately attributed to various promotional deals offered by airlines.”- Rakshit Desai, Managing Director of FCM Travel Solutions – Indian Subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group, Australia
“Government of India’s initiative to push affordable housing under PMAY has now reached its desired potential with the recent announcement by MoUD to increase the prescribed carpet area for MIG under CLSS. The carpet area definition of MIG as a category is relatively broader than the earlier eligible CLSS criteria and buyers who were buying flats or constructing houses, with carpet areas over 120 sq m or 150 sq m were not being able to avail benefits under the scheme. In general, the overall market performance and buyers sentiments has just started to return to levels seen pre- demonitization and other policy level interventions in the past 2 years. MoUD’s initiative to increase the carpet area for MIG category coupled up with RBI’s recent move to increase the loan limit will generate positive momentum and surely work in favour of the industry players and in the best of interest of the home buyers.”- Rakesh Reddy, Director of Aparna Constructions
