NPS to add systematic withdrawal plan

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Here are the top personal finance stories of the day.

PFRDA Chairman Deepak Mohanty said National Pension System will soon give option of systematic withdrawal plan to subscribers. Investor will get credit of money at monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annual intervals. Mohanty said NPS could add the SWP feature as early as October quarter in 2023. Subscribers will get SWP feature on 60% of corpus accumulated at time of retirement. Currently, subscibers are allowed to withdraw this 60% at one go and the rest 40% is used to buy annuity. This option will continue to exist even after the SWP option is thrown open to public. Along with that, they can choose to get pension under the SWP on this 60% at regular intervals. But the SWP will be available only till the subscriber attains 75 years of age.

No rail concession for seniors In a big below to senior citizens, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking restoration of concession to senior citizens on Railway ticket prices. The government of India had earlier withdrawn concession given to the elderly on Railway ticket prices. Interestingly, a parliamentary standing committee had recently recommended resumption of the concessions to the government. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had requested the PM to restore the concession amount. But to no avail. The apex court said this does not fall under its jurisdiction The ball is in Centre’s court now.

APY returns at 8.69% The finance ministry said investors got 8.69 per cent return by investing in Atal Pension Yojna. A return of 8.69% is more than what bank FDs fetch. More and more people are joining Centre’s flagship pension scheme for lower strata of the economy. As of FY23 end, Atal Pension Yojna subscriber base was 5.20 crore. Total AUM stood at 27,200 crore rupees. Most people have opened Atal Pension Yojna account through public sector banks. Under APY, a subscriber receives a lifelong minimum guaranteed pension every month after the age of 60. The same pension is paid to the spouse of the subscriber after his demise. After demise of both the subscriber and spouse, the pension wealth as accumulated till age the subscriber had attained 60, is returned back to the nominee.

Sensex back at Mt 61,000 The Sensex reclaimed 61,000 mark. While, its counterpart, Nifty closed above the 18,000 level on Friday. The stock market rally was propelled by robust buying in index majors Reliance Industries and ITC. Wipro was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, followed by Nestle, SBI, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance. Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was hovering near 78 dollar per barrel.

TechM too misses target Next news is for shareholders of IT sector major, Tech Mahindra. After the IT juggernaut missed analyst estimates in March quarter, brokerage have revised stock’s price target. Nuvama has retained its ‘Hold’ rating on the stock with target price of 1,070 rupees. Reliance Securities has SELL rating on the stock. Investors should look at brokerage view before deciding whether they want to hook to the stock or exit.

Axis target price revised Next news is for shareholders of private sector lender, Axis Bank. After the private lender reported loss of more than 5,000 crore rupees in March quarter, several brokerages have revised target price targets on its counter. Brokerage firm, Jefferies has set a target price of 1,150 rupees per share. Morgan Stanley has a target price of 1,200 rupees per share. Macquarie sees the scrip at just 940 rupees. Emkay Global has revised its target to 1,225 rupees. Motilal Oswal and Nuvama Institutional Equities sees the stock at 1,100 rupees. Nirmal Bang has revised target price to 1,025 rupees. Antique Stock Broking has increased its target on the stock to 1,050 rupees.

Wipro buyback boosts share Buyback Next news is for shareholders of India’s third largest IT firm, Wipro. The stock of the company closed 3% in green even after reporting marginal fall in profit growth in March quarter. According to stock market experts, Wipro witnessed rally on Friday because of the 12,000 crore rupees buyback announced on Thursday. Wipro announced buyback at the price of 445 rupees per share. This was over 19% premium to Thursday’s closing price. This is what led to the rally in its share price on Friday. The stock closed at 385 rupees on the bourses.

Embassy declares Rs 5.61/unit payout Unitholders of Embassy REIT will get Rs 5.61 distribution on holding every unit of the REIT for quarter four of financial year 2023. Embassy REIT has declared a total distribution of Rs 532 crore for Q4 FY 2023. In FY23, Unitholders got total of Rs 21.71 of purchasing every unit of the REIT. The record date for distribution paid for the March quarter is May 6, 2023. The distribution will be paid on or before May 12, 2023. Embassy REIT is India’s first listed REIT. Vikaash Khdloya, CEO of Embassy REIT, said, their strategy is to create long-term value for our investors.

Karvy barred to take new clients Next news is for clients of Karvy Investor Services Ltd. On grounds of violating regulatory norms, capital market regulator SEBI, has barred Karvy Investor Services from taking new clients. It is still unclear what would happen to those clients who had already opened their accounts with Karvy. This is the same Karvy group whose demat account opening unit was banned by SEBI. And its another unit is caught up with violation of SEBI’s regulatory norms.