Here are the top personal finance news for the day.
Dhara edible oil which you use for cooking food is going to become cheaper by Rs 15-20 per litre. Edible oils like mustard oil, sunflower oil, soyabean oil of the Dhara brand will become cheaper from next week. Cooking oils are sold under the Dhara brand by Mother Dairy. Next week, when you go to buy edible oil of Dhara brand, you will have to pay only Rs 150 for buying one litre of Dhara refined soyabean oil. Companies have reduced cooking oil prices as international prices of crude oil has fallen rapidly in the last six months.
MFs with highest return to be incentivised
Capital markets regulator Sebi will incentivise those mutual funds which generate highest return for investors. The watchdog’s executive director Manoj Kumar said Sebi will work to deepen the reach of the Mutual Fund industry. Sebi did not disclose the new fee structure, but experts said it may create a new category like direct plans. The capital markets regulator is working to revamp India’s mutual funds industry. Very soon changes will be implemented.
More than half of population uses internet in India
Next news is on number of internet users in India. Internet usage is rising at a rapid pace in the country. For the first time, it has happened in the country that more than half of population has become active internet users. According to industry standards, the term active internet users mean those users who access internet for at least once in a month. Number of such users in the country is 75.9 crore. Even more striking thing is that there are more active internet users in rural India than urban India. More than half of total internet users is in India is in hinterland. Rural India has 11% more internet users than urban India. This report was prepared by industry body IAMAI and market data analytics firm Kantar.
Employees can delete joint option form
On high demand, EPFO, is allowing employees to correct or update any information that they want to make on joint option application form that they have already submitted with the pension regulatory. Employees can go on EPFO’s website, click on Delete Application’ button. Submit a fresh application form with correct details. However, according to EPFO, only those employees can delete their forms whose employers had not update details for higher pension from their side. The pension regulatory had earlier extended deadline for submitting forms for higher pension to June 26, 2023.
Airfares skyrocket on busy Go First routes
After Go First suspended its flights, airfares could rise on those routes on which its flights used to operate. For example, airfares on Ahmedabad-Delhi route is expected to skyrocket in coming days as Go First had busy operation on his route. For Friday, May 4, 2023, airfares on this route have skyrocketed to up to Rs 64,580. Crisis-hit airline Go First has suspended sale of tickets till May 15. Already, airfares have shot up more than 2-fold in last one year or two. Due to recent correction in international crude oil prices, it was expected that airlines could reduce airfares after such a long time in the country. But looks citizens will have to wait a little longer for the fares to come down.
Gold price reach lifetime high levels on MCX
Gold prices on Thursday hit lifetime high of Rs 61,490 per 10 gram on the MCX. Gold futures on MCX rose to lifetime high levels on the MCX. According to analysts, US Federal Reserve’s hint that it would pause the rate hike cycle has given fresh impetus to the bullion. Fresh positions built up by participants led to rise in gold prices. This was the main reason behind rise in gold price on Thursday. Even in international market, gold prices touched lifetime high of $2081.80 per troy ounce. The US Fed had increased interest rate to 16 year high levels on Wednesday. Fed pushed its benchmark rate to between 5% and 5.25%. On MCX, by 4:30 pm today, gold future price was Rs 61,327 per 10 gram up Rs 362 from previous days closing price.
US Fed hikes interest rate to 16-yr high levels
The US Federal Reserve increased interest rate to 16 year high levels on Wednesday. Fed pushed its benchmark rate to between 5% and 5.25% up from near zero in March 2022.
To contain inflation, Fed has continuously hiked its key interest rate since 2022. Inflation has fallen from a peak of 9.1% in June, 2022 to 5% in March, 2023. But still remains well above the Fed’s 2% target rate. Chairman, Jerome Powell said there is a possibility that Fed may pause rate hike to avoid any further instances of banking collapse. Fed’s hint of rate hike pause drifted dollar index towards $101 level and bond yields remained under pressure, resulting in upward momentum for gold.
Palm oil import down 50% in last six months
Palm oil import is rapidly falling in the country. In last six months, palm oil import has fallen by almost 50% from 10 lakh tonnes a month during September-December period last year to 5.08 lakh tonne in April, 2023. This has raised concerns in the country that fall in palm oil import may lead to supply crunch. As a result, this may lead to rise in prices of those products which are manufactured by palm oil. There are concerns that this may also lead to rise in prices of cooking oil. But, experts have said that there are no reasons to worry. There are enough stock of edible oil available. Cooking oil prices will not rise for now.
Demand for essentials at 2-yr high level
According to a report by global consumer research firm, Kantar, demand for daily groceries and essentials shot up to 2 year high levels in March quarter of financial year 2023. In just one year demand for these two segments has risen by 3.9%. Only a year ago, these two segments of the FMCG industry were reeling with problem of muted demand. According to the report, revival in urban has brought turnaround in demand for daily groceries and essentials. Plus, impact of inflation and monetary policy tightening is slowing down on economic growth. This has increased discretionary spending by the people. All these factors combined have led to remarkable growth in demand for FMCG industry especially for daily groceries and essentials
Yes Bank, Unity SFB hike FD rates
Yes Bank and Unity Small Finance Bank have raised interest rates on fixed deposits. Yes Bank will give as high as 7.75% on FDs of 18 months. Senior citizens will get additional rate of 0.50% on all FDs of up to 3 years period. While, Yes Bank will pay 0.75% additional rate to the elderly on booking FD of more than 3 years tenure. On this FD, the private lender pays 7% interest to general citizens and 7.75% to senior citizens. Unity Small Finance Bank on the other hand has increased rates to as high as 9% on FDs of 1001 days. The Small Finance Bank gives 0.50% additional rate to the elderly. Senior citizens will get 9.50% interest rate on this FD.
HDFC climbs 3% after reporting March quarter results
HDFC has declared interim dividend of Rs 44 rupees per share for financial year 2023. Dividend payment date is June 1, 2023. Record date is Tuesday, May 16, 2023. Its shares on Thursday climbed nearly 3 per cent after the firm reported 20 per cent growth in net profit for the March quarter. PAT incresed to more than Rs 4,400 crore. Total revenue in Q4FY23 climbed north of 35 per cent and came at more than 16,000 crore rupees. On Thursday, the scrip closed at 2,862 rupees per share.
