Latest news with #PankajPandey
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
UPPSC PCS Mains exam begins across Uttar Pradesh in two shifts
The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) PCS Mains Examination began on Sunday, in different phases for thousands of aspirants aiming for Civil Services in the state. In November last year, UPPSC aspirants supported the decision of the state government to conduct the examination in a single day.(PTI) The examination was conducted in two shifts. The first shift started at 9:00 am and continued till 12:00 pm, while the second shift began at 2:30 pm and ended at 5:30 pm. In November last year, UPPSC aspirants supported the decision of the state government to conduct the examination in a single day. The aspirants called off their protest over the UPPSC prelims after the government's decision. Pankaj Pandey, an aspirant, told ANI, "We had submitted four memoranda earlier, but no decision was made. Following this, we called a major agitation on 11th November. The agitation has continued since then. Students were creating. Finally, the government took cognisance of this and we thank them for this. The government made a decision in our favour. We had two demands, for PCS and for RO/ARO. 100 per cent of demands regarding PCS have been accepted. But there was a little confusion regarding RO/ARO. They then formed a committee for it. When the decision of the committee comes, we will decide our further course of action. As of now, we have called off our protest." Another aspirant, Narendra Tiwari, said that he is "satisfied" with the government's decision."We are satisfied with the decision of the Commission, Administration and Government. One remaining demand, regarding one shift exam for RO/ARO is yet to be received by us. A committee has been formed for it. We hope that the committee will decide in our favour... The students in my area believe that we need not protest there anymore. The protest has been completely called off," he added. Rajkumar Verma, a third aspirant, highlighted that the District Magistrate and the Secretary visited them too."DM and the Secretary came here yesterday. They decided to conduct the PCS exam on one day, and RO/ARO exam has been postponed. They have formed a committee for RO/ARO exam. We will decide the further course of action as per the decision of the committee. The PCS exam is scheduled to be held on 22nd December," he said. Last year, the Commission's release said that the exam will be conducted in two shifts: the first from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM, and the second from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM. "In view of the nature of the Combined State/Senior Subordinate Service Examination, the Commission has decided in principle to conduct it on a single day, as was done earlier," stated the UPPSC in an official statement.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
BFSI to metal: Pankaj Pandey's sector playbook for Nifty's run to 27,000
Valuations in the banking sector remain attractive, and foreign investor sentiment toward BFSI has notably improved since October. Further, signs of a capital expenditure revival are becoming more evident, with central government capex rising nearly 60% year-on-year in April. According to Pankaj Pandey, Head of Research at , this creates a favourable setup for sectors such as capital goods, cement, steel, and infrastructure. He sees these sectors to be well-positioned to ride the next leg of the market upcycle. ET Now: Help us understand that what is your view on the markets right now and which are the sectors that you will be focusing on. Pankaj Pandey: See, overall, our sense is that Nifty earnings for the next two years could be growing at about 12 per cent compared to 2% what we have seen last year. Last year, because a lot of things are going to normalise, and accordingly, our target for Nifty is 27,000. So, we feel very bullish on the markets across caps, be it large, mid or smallcaps. Now, coming to the sectors that we prefer, there are two sectors which are clearly in our preference list. One is BFSI. We would expect credit growth to recover going forward, which has come down to 10% or even below that, largely because of the relaxation in terms of some of the norms which the RBI had put in earlier. And banking overall is looking good from a valuation perspective. On top of it, since October, our sense is that the FIIs are no longer relatively negative on a big sector like BFSI, so that is one. The other is, we feel there will be a revival in the capex cycle. Last April numbers, the overall central government capex has been up about 60% compared to last year, and most of the conditions are quite conducive for capex to overall pick up. So, the entire capex beneficiary, be it capital goods, cement, steel, infra, so all these sectors or segments are looking positive to us. ET Now: What are you making of the sector churn that we are seeing in the market? Financials have been the market darling for a very long time now. You have had some up moves come in IT, and now metal is showing some positivity. Do you believe this sector churn is here to stay, or do you believe that strong themes that we have seen continuing to be good so far, could lead the market ahead? Pankaj Pandey: So, you are right, there is some sector churn definitely happening. For example, metal as a sector is down about 5% in last one year, but our sense is that post 12% kind of a safeguard duty numbers for some of the steel companies will start perking up, especially for a company like say Tata Steel, because overall sense is that we have seen about $10 kind of a decline in a key input which is coking coal, that should help. On top of it, the price hike of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 is also going to help. While the prices might be slightly soft near term because of the early monsoon, we would want to believe that overall, you will see better volume growth, plus pricing benefit also kicking in. So, Tata Steel, for example, in steel is our top pick. Same is the case with say a sector like cement, that is another sector which has not done much from a price performance perspective, but our sense is that once the monsoon is over, you will see pick up both in terms of capacity utilisation and also in terms of the volume growth and also a bit on the pricing as well. So, from that perspective, that is another sector which we feel is looking good. One needs to be selective in a sector like the auto industry. Auto is disappointing from the perspective of broader growth. You have only selected segments which are delivering well. But on the consumption side, one needs to be very selective. So, again, preference would be real estate. You will have to select autos and hospitals, and hotels is what we prefer. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bank Owned Properties For Sale In Thanh Binh (Prices May Surprise You) Foreclosed Homes | Search ads Search Now ET Now: I just wanted to have your take on what sort of a sense you are getting on the public sector bank side because though you are positive on financials, but the interest is not really getting into the public sector banking space and we also have news flow suggesting that SBI is getting ready for a very big QIP. Amidst all of this, do you believe there is any pocket or any stock that you can highlight for us, which looks good, and what is the overall sense? Pankaj Pandey: Oh yes. So, within banks, we are relatively more positive on PSU banks largely because for them, the proportionate share of external benchmark-linked rates is higher. So, their impact on the margins is expected to be less. Just to put some numbers, we were expecting about 12 to 13 odd bps kind of a decline in margin for a bank like HDFC Bank, and some bit of a recouping of this will happen because of the CRR cut to the tune of about four to five bps. But relatively, PSU banks will face lesser margin pressure and credit growth for them is largely on similar lines to what you see for private banks. So, SBI, I cannot talk about, but in the PSU stock, what we are clearly liking is Indian Bank. This is one of the few banks which has consistently maintained ROAs of about 1.3, and we feel that there is a decent amount of valuation catch-up to happen. There we have a target price of 740. But in general, we are liking relatively PSU banks more compared to their private counterparts. ET Now: They say that there is a Pied Piper effect in the market. Largecaps, they move up and when they start moving up, they have this Pied Piper effect. So can I say that it is soon going to be the midcap private banks and then the midcap PSU banks and then the smaller private banks, then the smaller PSU banks. Pankaj Pandey: Oh yes. So, large banks have started to do well, especially a bank like HDFC Bank, where we have a target price of about 2200. Our sense is that a lot of these relaxations, which have started to come from the RBI, are pretty positive. Take a look at a segment like, say, banks' loan to NBFCs, now that segment used to grow in double digits, literally it was flat last year. So, with the RBI's relaxation, we would want to believe that overall, you will see far better credit growth for the banking sector as overall whole. And of all the major sectors, banking is the only sector where the valuations are okay or reasonable. So, banking, our sense is that, is going to do the heavy lifting in the near to medium term, and all signs are pointing to this sector to do well, and eventually it will percolate to tier II banks and also to even the smaller banks. And NBFCs relatively will do slightly better in the near to medium term, largely because of the lesser impact, or also because of the fact that the overall margin decline is expected to be a lot less for them, in fact, it is beneficial for them. ET Now: Of late, the digital stocks have taken a step back, Zomato, Paytm, I am just talking about the near-term price action. Is it in line with this broader sectoral rotation? Pankaj Pandey: Probably the challenge with some of these new-age companies is that the path to profitability is still not very clear. So, we are very selective in this entire space. What we are liking in new-age companies is something like, say, for example, Dixon or Syrma, where our sense is that the opportunity pie is quite large. So, for a company like Dixon, our target is 20,000. We feel that they can grow their top line by about closer to 35-37 odd percent, bottom line growth could be even more higher given the fact that we would expect a higher value addition and accordingly margin should perk up, but one needs to be very selective because a lot of these businesses are already getting very rich multiples and if path to profitability is not very clear, then somewhere down the line you cannot expect a sustained performance from most of them. Live Events
Economic Times
20-06-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Mid-cap and small-cap stocks decline as investors take profits amid stretched valuations
Agencies Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel Mumbai: Mid-cap and small-cap stocks - the outperformers in the recent market rebound - led the declines in equities on Thursday as investors grew wary of stretched valuations. The Nifty Midcap 150 and Small-cap 250 indices fell 1.6% and 1.9%, respectively, on Thursday, while the benchmark Nifty ended 0.1% lower."Post the outperformance in May, mid-cap and small-cap stocks are witnessing profit taking at higher levels as the valuations have become slightly stretched," said Nilesh Jain, head of derivatives and technical research, Centrum Broking. "Typically, quick up moves are followed by such retracements."The Nifty Midcap 150 and Small-cap 250 indices surged 6.3% and 9.3% each in May, outperforming the benchmark index, which gained 1.7% in the same period. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks have performed better than large-caps as the perception that smaller companies are less impacted by the ongoing global uncertainties has fuelled domestic investor appetite in these purchases from domestic equity mutual funds - flush with flows from individual investors - also drove up their share prices, pushing valuations back to their near-peak levels."Mid-cap and small-cap stocks have rallied up to 35% from the April lows and outperformed the benchmark Nifty, which gained around 16% in the same period," said Pankaj Pandey, head of retail research, ICICI Direct. "Post the sharp rally, there is some consolidation in the market."Jain does not rule out further declines of 2-4% for now, but recommends buying the weakness."While the short-term structure remains weak, most of the companies reported fairly inline earnings in this quarter and investors can accumulate quality picks in a staggered manner at further declines," he said investors can 'buy on dips' as the global uncertainty is expected to have a limited impact on these stocks, and the RBI interest rate cut has boosted liquidity, which is incrementally optimistic.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Mid-cap and small-cap stocks decline as investors take profits amid stretched valuations
Mumbai: Mid-cap and small-cap stocks - the outperformers in the recent market rebound - led the declines in equities on Thursday as investors grew wary of stretched valuations. The Nifty Midcap 150 and Small-cap 250 indices fell 1.6% and 1.9%, respectively, on Thursday, while the benchmark Nifty ended 0.1% lower. "Post the outperformance in May, mid-cap and small-cap stocks are witnessing profit taking at higher levels as the valuations have become slightly stretched," said Nilesh Jain, head of derivatives and technical research, Centrum Broking. "Typically, quick up moves are followed by such retracements." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Philippines: Affordable Refrigerators for Sale - Check Out the Prices! Refrigerators | Search Ads Search Now Undo The Nifty Midcap 150 and Small-cap 250 indices surged 6.3% and 9.3% each in May, outperforming the benchmark index, which gained 1.7% in the same period. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks have performed better than large-caps as the perception that smaller companies are less impacted by the ongoing global uncertainties has fuelled domestic investor appetite in these stocks. Continuous purchases from domestic equity mutual funds - flush with flows from individual investors - also drove up their share prices, pushing valuations back to their near-peak levels. Agencies "Mid-cap and small-cap stocks have rallied up to 35% from the April lows and outperformed the benchmark Nifty, which gained around 16% in the same period," said Pankaj Pandey, head of retail research, ICICI Direct. "Post the sharp rally, there is some consolidation in the market." Live Events Jain does not rule out further declines of 2-4% for now, but recommends buying the weakness. "While the short-term structure remains weak, most of the companies reported fairly inline earnings in this quarter and investors can accumulate quality picks in a staggered manner at further declines," he said. Pandey said investors can 'buy on dips' as the global uncertainty is expected to have a limited impact on these stocks, and the RBI interest rate cut has boosted liquidity, which is incrementally optimistic.
Mint
16-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Nifty 50 up 5% YTD: Can it give a double-digit return this year amid favourable inflation-growth dynamics?
Despite US tariff-related uncertainty, weak earnings, stretched valuations and foreign capital outflow, Indian stock market has seen decent gains in the first half of the calendar year. Benchmark Nifty 50 is up about 5 per cent year-to-date (YTD), thanks to sustained buying by domestic retail investors amid healthy domestic macroeconomic outlook. The key factor that has kept the domestic market resilient amid global chaos is the favourable growth-inflation dynamics. India's retail inflation cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May. Consumer Price Index (CPI)- based inflation eased to 2.82 per cent year-on-year, down from 3.16 per cent in April and 4.8 per cent in May last year. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra lowered the CPI outlook for the financial year 2025-26 to 3.7 per cent from 4 per cent projected earlier, following the central bank's June policy meeting. Meanwhile, India's economic growth is expected to witness healthy gains in the current financial year. The RBI projects India's real GDP growth at 6.5 per cent in FY26. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections are buoyant, exceeding ₹ 2 lakh crore in the past two months. In April, gross GST collection was at a record high of ₹ 2.36 lakh crore and in May, it came at ₹ 2.01 lakh crore. The RBI's ₹ 2.69 lakh crore dividend payout to the central government for FY25 has further bolstered confidence in the Indian economy's outlook. The recent fourth-quarter results (Q4FY25) lifted market sentiment and strengthened expectations of improved earnings in the upcoming quarters. Rating agency ICRA forecasts India Inc's operating profit margins (OPM) at 18.2-18.5 per cent in Q1FY26, following the sequential recovery over the past few quarters. ICRA said this, coupled with a moderation in interest costs, will improve India Inc.'s interest coverage ratio to around 5.1-5.2 times in Q1FY26, compared to 5 times in Q4FY25. Another key factor boosting the domestic market is the strong influx of retail investors. As of June 15, the number of registered investors on the BSE stood at 21.85 crore, up nearly 24 per cent year-on-year. The rising influence of retail investors has stabilised the market, cushioning it against sharp declines during periods of foreign capital outflows. Experts remain positive about the Indian stock market for the medium to long term. However, they underscore that geopolitical tensions and tariff-related uncertainties may cap its gains. Experts believe the domestic market benchmarks may hit fresh highs this year, but they can still yield returns in the high single digits. "While returns may remain in the single-digit range for the year, they are expected to be sufficient to push the index to fresh highs," said Pankaj Pandey, the head of research at ICICI Securities. The key concern is the geopolitical issues. However, the market impact of the Israel-Iran conflict is likely to be limited, with little indication of a sustained negative effect. Ultimately, the focus will come back to earnings, market valuations and macroeconomic trends. "The Nifty could potentially scale a new high in the second half of the year, supported by favourable macroeconomic conditions and greater clarity on key global factors, including US tariff policies," said Pandey. Tensions in the Middle East have raised risks of disruption in crude oil supply. In case of a prolonged conflict, crude oil prices could remain elevated for a longer period, which would be negative for the Indian economy and stock market sentiment. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, highlighted that the market's trajectory this year will largely hinge on the duration and intensity of the Israel-Iran conflict, as well as broader developments in the Middle East. "A key variable to watch is the movement in crude oil prices. If geopolitical tensions ease, markets could stage a meaningful rebound," said Vijayakumar. Vijayakumar believes a high single-digit return remains within reach for the year. He said investors should stay invested and focus on protecting capital. The safest bets continue to lie in high-quality large-cap and mid-cap stocks. Dharan Shah, the founder of a research-driven AI-powered investment platform by Jamnadas Virji Group, believes geopolitical risks could trigger near-term volatility, but India's strong macro fundamentals- easing inflation, robust growth, and resilient earnings- offer support. "While Nifty's returns may face periodic headwinds, structural prospects remain intact unless global conditions sharply deteriorate," said Shah. "The smart strategy now is to stay invested in quality names, maintain sectoral balance, and use any corrections as opportunities. Disciplined, long-term positioning will likely outperform reactive moves in a geopolitically uncertain environment," Shah said. Read all market-related news here Read more stories by Nishant Kumar Disclaimer: This story is for educational purposes only. The views and recommendations above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, not Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions, as market conditions can change rapidly, and circumstances may vary.
