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Canara Bank on Wednesday posted 18% growth in its standalone net profit at Rs 3,757 crore for the quarter ended March 2024. The same stood at Rs 3,174 crore in the last year period.Net interest income (NII) for the reporting quarter increased 11% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 9,580 crore. The company's Board has also recommended a dividend of Rs 16.10 per share, 161% of face value each, for the financial year 2023-24.Operating profit (before provisions and contingencies) rose marginally by 2% YoY to Rs 7,387 crore in the fourth quarter. It was Rs 7252 crore in the last year quarter.The bank made provisions to the tune of Rs 2,482 crore in the January-March 2024 period, which fell 20% YoY. This compares with Rs 3,095 crore provisions in the corresponding period of last year.On the asset quality front, the gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio reduced to 4.23% in the March quarter, down from 4.39% in the December quarter. The net NPA ratio too reduced to 1.27% as of March 2024 down from 1.32% as of December 2023.The capital adequacy ratio for the fourth quarter was 16.28%, of which Tier-I is 13.95%. The December quarter CRAR was at 15.78%.The global business increased 11.31% YoY to Rs 2.27 lakh crore in the reporting period with global deposits growing 11% YoY to Rs 13.12 lakh crore. Global advances were at Rs 9.6 lakh crore at the end of the March quarter, showing a growth of 11% YoY.Domestic deposits of the Bank recorded a growth of 11% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 12.14 lakh crore with domestic advances rising 11% YoY to Rs 9.08 lakh crore.As of March 2024, the lender had 9604 branches, of which 3103 are in rural areas, 2751 semi-urban, and 1907 urban.On Wednesday, shares of Canara Bank were trading 0.5% higher at Rs 579.60 on NSE.

Retirement is that golden phase of a person’s life where he or she doesn’t have to work for money. They have lesser responsibilities, more time and freedom. This phase of a person's life can be a beautiful new adventure provided they are financially secured and ready for this transition. Let’s look at our preparedness for retirement, what financial resources one needs and how to be prepared for it. Globally, on an average, there are 3.4 working people to support 1 retiree. Fast forward to 2050 and this number will drop to 2. Japan is already there and in next two decades, more than 35 other countries would join Japan. Countries with aging population are already on their way to adapt to this challenge by improving financial literacy, raising retirement age, providing comprehensive sponsored medical facilities and even building” care robots” to assist their senior citizens. But what about a young country like India? While our median age is currently at 30, we would experience major demographic shifts in the next 20 to 30 years. We are living longer, thanks to the development in science and technology. Also, we are working for a lesser number of years, as we are studying more and joining the workforce later. Thus, the key risk in retirement now is outliving our finances. Are we prepared for this risk? Let’s look at a few facts to determine our preparedness. Taking a realistic approach at pillars of retirement incomeThere are 4 pillars of retirement income namely, social security, employment-based plans, personal retirement assets and family / social structure. Social security in India is not as developed or as widespread as the ones in advanced countries. Only people working in the organized sector and for the government are eligible for employment-based pension plans. With social structures changing, and people moving away from joint-family systems to nuclear family systems, one cannot depend on family support for retirement income. That leaves only one dependable retirement income pillar for Indians – personal retirement assets. Inflation the silent troublemakerInflation is always on the rise. From groceries to electricity cost, taxi fares to medical costs, inflation affects prices of all goods and services. For example, monthly expenses of mere Rs 30,000 will rise to Rs 1.40 lakhs in the next 30 years (assuming inflation rate of 5.3%). That is if we consider the same lifestyle. Adding lifestyle inflation to this calculation will shoot up, one’s monthly budget even further. This becomes critical in the post-retirement years where there is no inflow of new income and inflation can erode the accumulated retirement corpus. Hence adequate planning is imperative. How much are we investing? A study by the Indian Institute of Retirement, in collaboration with the CFA Institute and the University of Pennsylvania, found that the median retirement savings rate in India is just 8% of annual income. Assuming the average annual salary of a 30 something is Rs 10 lakhs. So, on an average, an they would put aside Rs 80,000 per year for retirement. If one continues this for the next 30 years, he or she will accumulate a corpus of Rs 1.75 crores. Is this enough? How much do we need?If we assume monthly expenses of Rs. 30,000 growing at an inflation rate of 5.3% will reach Rs 1.40 lakhs in the next 30 years. Assuming life expectancy is 90 years, one needs a retirement corpus of Rs 5.1 crores to sustain the same lifestyle. There is a sizeable gap of Rs 3.5 crores between the retirement that we want and the one that we are preparing for. So, what is stopping us from investing in retirement? Psychological MyopiaPsychological Myopia means our tendency to focus on today’s needs, neglecting the distant future. This is what happens in the case of retirement planning where we prioritize the immediate needs and desires, leading to under saving for retirement. Retirement may seem far away, and it can be difficult to grasp it’s importance. Overcoming this mental hurdle is crucial for a long, happy retired life. Here are a few steps to overcome this problem: Following the age-old advice: Start Early, Invest Regularly and Retire PeacefullyGoing back to the previous example, to build a corpus of Rs 5.3 crores in 30 years, one needs to invest Rs 17,000 per month assuming a return of 11.50% p.a. (Returns calculated by taking mean of 10-year rolling returns between 01/06/13 and 30/05/23 for Sensex and Nifty. Rate of return prescribed by AMFI for SIP illustrations). Consistent and disciplined investing helps build a long-term corpus. Start early. Starting early and investing consistently over a long term gives investors the opportunity to benefit from the power of compounding. Starting just a few years later will burn a significant hole in your retirement corpus. The best time to start your retirement planning is as soon as start working, and the second-best time is today!SIPs are a great tool for retirement planning.SIPs in solution-oriented retirement funds are a great way to build your retirement income. SIPs help build discipline in investing. One can also benefit from the rupee cost averaging i.e. buying units of mutual funds at different prices, which brings down the average cost. Do not put all your eggs in one basket.Retirement is a long-term investment product. Depending on investors’ risk appetite, one should allocate a good proportion of their investments to equities. However, equity as an asset class comes with inherent volatility. To balance out the volatility one can allocate some portion in fixed income securities. Alternatively, one can also invest in a retirement fund which allocates at least 65 to 70% of the portfolio in equity and the balance in fixed income securities. Equities aims in wealth creation while fixed income aims to bring stability to the portfolio. Moreover, retirement funds also come with Auto - SWP (Systematic Withdrawal Plan) which helps investors get a regular cashflow at retirement age in a tax efficient manner. Beyond finances Retirement is a phase for major change in an individual's life. Leaving the “work” which often defines us, can be slightly stressful and confusing, leading to a question – what next? Not going to work and meeting colleagues can also disrupt one’s social life and wellbeing. Hence investing in strong and happy relationships during your working phase and retirement phase is equally crucial. Finding interests that you may want to pursue full time after retirement can add color and excitement during the “golden years”. Not having to stress and worry about money can significantly enrich your retired life. Remember this: Retirement is a phase where you stop working and start living. Making the best of this phase is in your hands. Start early, invest regularly and retire peacefully. (Suresh Soni, CEO at Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund)

Sanjiv Bhasin, Director, IIFL Securities, says “three sectors – autos, specialty chemicals and metals or commodities are going to be the play from China. China has seen a re-rating and we have seen a strong accumulation. In fact, some FIIs have now started to sell here and buy some of the Chinese, particularly these three sectors. I would look for the language of Tata Motors. JLR has been a sweet spot as far as the UK goes, but let us see how China plays out, because that is where their main emphasis lies.”What is your take on PB Fintech? What is your outlook given that it has been pretty strong and in terms of quarterly performance, they have turned profitable and have 93% market share among the online aggregators. Sanjiv Bhasin: It has been a star outperformer in the fintech space along with Zomato and the business is only growing. We had a buy call at Rs 750, 800. We have reiterated this will be an outperformer. Yes, it ran up far ahead at 1500, but we still think this is one of the best plays as far as insurance and as a platform on fintech. So, buy on decline would be the key. This is a star. This must be in your portfolio. We are overweight. As a disclosure, this is in our portfolio. What you are anticipating from L&T coming out with its quarterly performance today.Sanjiv Bhasin: The numbers will be reasonably strong given that there is a backdrop of huge execution and somehow you have seen some cooling down in input costs. Margins may be slightly above 11-12%, but what has happened is in this whole gamut, a large part of the capex stocks have now run full on valuations, which is why we have been suggesting that some of the FMCG were the stocks which you had to buy. So, in line numbers and we will wait for the commentary. The stock already prices in a large part of the positives. We know there has been some sort of an impact as far as the Middle East goes but I would wait for the conference call. The stock seems to be fully priced at the present moment. We will wait for earnings and the outlook which the management have, which should be very positive. We were just discussing FMCG yesterday and what a big move is coming in across the sector. Be it Marico, Godrej Consumer, Unilever, the entire pack was abuzz. Have you extended your list from Unilever, added more names to it perhaps?Sanjiv Bhasin: For once, we caught the bottom of Unilever at Rs 2,200 and that is where we said that there cannot be a better stock to buy and that is evident now. Marico, Unilever, Nestle, Colgate, all four are in our portfolio. We have not extended. We would wait for some decline before adding, but we have turned overweight on this and technology. We think they are going to take the mantle forward and you should take some money off PSU banks, capex stocks, which are fully priced now on earnings. But yes, Lever is our star and we still think Lever is headed to Rs 2,700 in the next six months. Given that Tata Motors is coming out with their quarterly performance, autos by and large as well have been at the forefront. How are you looking at earnings? Where are you finding comfort within auto ancillary and auto?Sanjiv Bhasin: The good news came that they have extended 18th as a trading day but they have given up the concept of extending trading hours. I had prepared my bed over here in the office and that will be done with. I am very pleased with that. It leaves more time for us. Coming to Tata Motors, a large part of the best news may be in the price at Rs 1,000, maybe it is fully priced, but if you are looking for the next six months and a China comeback, especially for JLR, that is seen very strong. I think three sectors – autos, specialty chemicals and metals or commodities are going to be the play from China. China has seen a re-rating and we have seen a strong accumulation. In fact, some FIIs have now started to sell here and buy some of the Chinese, particularly these three sectors, which I have said. So, I would look for the language of Tata Motors. JLR has been a rather sweet spot as far as the UK goes, but let us see how China plays out, because that is where their main emphasis lies. What are you making of Voltas’ numbers because the fact that there was all around margin disappointment, that does come as a surprise.Sanjiv Bhasin: Correct and we expected that, the stock had already run up fairly when there was a strong winter. But Voltas is not a one-day or a three-week story or a three-month. It is going to be the consumer facing arm of the Tatas and they are putting a lot of emphasis on that. Now, we know that some sort of margin pressure played out on the engineering side in the Middle East and that could be a one-off. But at this price, I would not advocate a buy. I would say, let it settle down, look through the numbers, give it some time. The stock has almost doubled from Rs 750, 800, where we had a buy and we think a large part of the good news is already there, even though we are at the onset of a very strong summer where sales will be very strong. We have spoken about real estate quite extensively, but do you believe that it has the momentum to continue for this year? Would you be looking at infra as well?Sanjiv Bhasin: You cannot believe it. The prices, at least where I stay in Gurgaon, are hitting the roof, and there is no let-up. DLF is selling like hotcakes, so is Godrej and this triple effect of wealth, gold, silver, stocks, all-time highs is seeing a large part of the overall inventory reduced in prime cities. I think it is the same case with tier II, tier III. Look for the input cost, cement, steel, those are going to do well but a large part of that is in the price. We think Indiabulls Real Estate is the best proxy play we have with Rs 6,000-crore market cap and Rs 4,000-crore capital infusion. On 22nd May, I think they will get the NCLT merger move nod where Embassy will take over. For Embassy itself, commercial rates are hitting new three-year or four-year highs, which is telling me that they are in a very sweet spot. Maybe a part of the stock prices are already priced in and we have to look at the horizon. If you have a longer-term horizon, then you can still buy or wait for a correction if you have a shorter horizon

Shares of Pharma major, Dr Reddy Laboratories fell 5.2% in Wednesday’s session on BSE to hit the day’s low of Rs 5,952.10 as the brokerages were not impressed even after the company reported a 36% year-on-year (YoY) jump in quarterly net profit.The company said that the jump in YoY net profit was largely driven by growth in global generics revenues in North America as well as emerging markets. DRL’s revenue also increased 12% YoY to Rs 7,083 crore.However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the net profit was down 5% and revenue dropped 2%. The EBITDA margin was down by 290 basis points.Here’s what brokerages said about the performance of the company:JP MorganJP Morgan stated that DRL’s revenues were in line with the estimates, however, margins were a miss. The US market was softer than expected while the Indian market surprised positively. It is anticipated that the Nestle JV is likely to contribute by FY27.With limited visibility on the pipeline, the brokerage maintained its ‘underweight’ rating on the stock and cut the target price to Rs 5,170.Motilal Oswal“After delivering 30% YoY earnings growth in FY24, we expect earnings growth to moderate to a 3.5% CAGR over FY24-26, partly due to a gradual build-up of market share of g-Revlimid. The investment in the JV with Nestle and in the biosimilar segment should give commercial benefits after FY26. We believe that the valuation adequately factors in the upside in earnings,” said a report by Motilal Oswal.The brokerage maintained its ‘neutral’ rating with a target price of Rs 6,258.Kotak Institutional EquitiesDRL delivered a subdued 4QFY24, which was much lower than Kotak’s estimates, which was driven by lower gRevlimid sales, muted growth across markets and higher R&D spends. KIE also highlighted that a further pick-up in base domestic growth and profitability will be critical in the post-gRevlimid era for the company.KIE has a ‘reduce’ rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 5,935 as they believe that the stock is fairly priced.NuvamaNuvama reckons that the core business EBITDA margin (ex-gRevlimid) corrected 200–300bp YoY to 17%, which implies a weakness in base profitability. DRL’s complex product R&D coupled with weakness in the domestic business may keep base profitability tepid while growth initiatives (biosimilar, Nestle JV) would kick in beyond FY27.Nuvama recommended a ‘reduce’ rating for the stock with a target price of Rs 5,028.Prabhudas Lilladher“Dr. Reddy’s (DRRD) Q4FY24 EBITDA was 6% below our estimate led by higher R&D spend. The base business margins and US sales ex of Revlimid and PLI incentives continued to remain weak. Further thin US pipeline in near term and competition in certain key products remains a key risk. Our FY25 and FY26E EPS broadly remains unchanged,” said a report by Prabhudas Lilladher.They have maintained a ‘reduce’ rating for DRL while sharing a target price of Rs 5,700.Also read: Aurobindo Pharma Options Radar: Use Bull Call Spread to capture uptrend(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

The Rs 3,000 crore IPO of Aadhar Housing Finance opened for subscription today. Ahead of the issue opening, the company raised Rs 897 crore from anchor investors.The IPO comprises a combination of a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 1,000 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of shares worth Rs 2,000 crore by promoter BCP Topco.Aadhar Housing intends to utilize the net proceeds for meeting future capital requirements related to onward lending and general corporate purposes.Aadhar Housing Finance IPO previewAnalysts advised investors to subscribe to the issue as the company boasts of strong financial performance reflecting consistent growth over the years."While the IPO valuation of 22.8x P/E and 3.36x P/BV might appear fair, Aadhar's high reliance on borrowing necessitates a cautious approach. Therefore, we recommend this IPO only for high-risk investors seeking long-term exposure to the affordable housing sector," said Swastika Investmart.Aadhar Housing Finance IPO price bandThe company has fixed a price band of Rs 300-315 per share, where investors can bid for 47 shares in one lot. At the upper end of the price band, the valuation exceeds Rs 13,000 crore.Also Read: Aadhar Housing Finance IPO opens Wednesday. 10 things to know before subscribing to the issueOther detailsThe company is a HFC focused on the low-income housing segment, with a ticket size of less than Rs 15 lakh. It had the highest AUM and net worth among analyzed peers in the six months that ended September 2023.The financier offers a range of mortgage-related loan products, including loans for residential property purchase and construction, home improvement and extension loans, and loans for commercial property construction and acquisition. It has an extensive network of 471 branches including 91 sales offices.According to a peer set analyzed by Crisil, Aadhar Housing Finance had the highest number of live accounts in FY2023. The company mainly services economically weaker and low-to-middle-income customers.The average ticket size of the loans was Rs 9 lakh with an average loan-to-value of 57.6% and 58.1%, as of September 30, 2022 and September 30, 2023, respectively.ICICI Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) and SBI Capital are the book running lead managers to the issue.