The stock markets ended last week marginally lower as most benchmark indices witnessed selling pressure. Banking led the way in losses like you can see under markets update. The losses can be explained by Covid-19’s resurgence as the second wave threatens economic recovery. Moreover, investors were nervous ahead of RBI’s monetary policy meeting this week, which led to some broad-based selling.

Before moving into market updates, below is a quote for this week. 🙂

Quote of the week

Investing is one of the only fields where doing nothing is a competitive advantage.

Markets Update

The Big Picture

• Deposit growth, which measures the growth in commercial bank deposits stood at 11.4% in the fortnight ended March 26th, 2021 when compared to the same period last year.
• Loan growth, which measures the growth in commercial bank loans stood at 5.6% in the fortnight ended March 26th, 2021 when compared to the same period last year.
• Repo and reverse repo rates are the primary tools that the RBI uses to control the level of interest rates in the economy. RBI kept repo and reverse repo rates unchanged at 4% and 3.35% respectively.
• The India Manufacturing PMI measures the performance of the manufacturing sector. In March, the Manufacturing PMI stood at 55.4, the lowest since August 2020.
  The India Services PMI measures the performance of the services sector. In March, the Services PMI declined to 54.6 from 55.3 in the previous month, slightly above market expectations of 54.5.
• Foreign Exchange Reserves in India decreased to $576.87 billion on April 02 from $579.29 billion in the previous week.

Ok, so?

The non-bankers will bank!

The banking and financial services industry forms the backbone of an economy. It ensures the smooth flow of resources to relevant pockets of the economy which helps spur growth. However, because of its importance, there have always been restrictions in banking procedures to keep the system secure and risk-free.

Recent developments from the government have strived to maintain utmost security while also relaxing some of the norms in banking. One such is the fact that non-banking institutions like e-wallets and credit cards will enjoy some relaxed procedures. This will help banking and financial services to reach a wider set of people. Okay, so how does this affect you? Click below to find out!

That’s a wrap for this week. Happy Investing! 🙂