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Shares of state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) jumped 4% to Rs 874.95 in Friday’s session, supported by a 17% rise in Q3FY26 profit and a favourable brokerage note from Bernstein, which maintained a Market-Perform rating and set a target price of Rs 940.The insurer reported a 17% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 12,930 crore for the December quarter, compared with Rs 11,008 crore in the year-ago period.Net premium income stood at Rs 1.26 lakh crore in Q3FY26, up 17% from Rs 1.07 lakh crore in the corresponding period last year. On a sequential basis, profit after tax rose 28% from Rs 10,098 crore reported in Q2FY26, even as net premium income declined marginally by 0.7% quarter-on-quarter.During the nine months ended December 31, 2025, LIC sold 1,16,63,856 policies in the individual segment, slightly lower than 1,17,10,505 policies sold in the same period last fiscal year, reflecting a decline of 0.40%.On an Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) basis, total premium for 9MFY26 stood at Rs 44,007 crore. Of this, Individual Business contributed 62.61% or Rs 27,552 crore, while Group Business accounted for 37.39% or Rs 16,455 crore.Within Individual Business, Par products made up 63.54% of APE at Rs 17,507 crore, while Non-Par products accounted for 36.46% or Rs 10,045 crore. Individual Non-Par APE increased to Rs 10,045 crore for the nine months ended December 31, 2025, compared with Rs 6,813 crore in the year-ago period, registering a growth of 47.44%.The Value of New Business (VNB) for the nine-month period rose to Rs 8,288 crore from Rs 6,477 crore a year earlier, marking a growth of 27.96%. Net VNB margin expanded by 170 basis points to 18.8%, compared with 17.1% in the year-ago period.LIC’s solvency ratio improved to 2.19 as on December 31, 2025, from 2.02 a year earlier. Assets under management (AUM) increased to Rs 59,16,680 crore as of December 31, 2025, compared with Rs 54,77,651 crore on December 31, 2024, reflecting a rise of 8.01% YoY.The overall expense ratio for the nine months ended December 31, 2025 declined by 132 basis points to 11.65%, compared with 12.97% in the corresponding period last year.Brokerage viewBernstein maintained a neutral stance on LIC, assigning a Market-Perform rating with a target price of Rs 940.The brokerage said LIC delivered a strong topline performance in Q3FY26 despite ongoing GST-related pressures, while margins improved on the back of a healthier business mix and favourable yield curve movements.It noted that new business margins rose to around 21%, aided by a better product mix and yield gains, with the GST impact largely offset through tight cost discipline.On the strategic front, management indicated that the process for the government’s stake sale is likely to commence soon. Bernstein also expects greater clarity on LIC’s dividend policy following the transition to IFRS accounting standards, a key monitorable for investors.(Disclaimer: The recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday proposed tightening margin rules for a trading strategy in single-stock derivatives.Under the proposal, the benefit of offsetting positions across different expiries will not be available on the day of expiry for singlestock derivative contracts expiring that day.The review follows feedback from market participants flagging potential risks arising from calendar-spread benefits on expiry days for single-stock contracts. A calendar spread is when a trader holds the same stock’s derivatives with two different expiry dates, which lowers margin because the positions offset each other. The risk appears on expiry day when the near-month contract expires and the hedge no longer exists. This leaves the trader exposed to one-way moves on the remaining position.“It is clarified that the existing margin calculations for calendar-spread positions shall remain unchanged for calendar-spread positions involving all expiries other than the contracts expiring on a given day,” Sebi said in a circular. The new rule will take effect three months from the date of the circular.Currently, for index derivatives, calendar-spread benefits are already unavailable on the day of expiry for contracts maturing that day.Sebi said the proposal would align the treatment of calendar spreads in single-stock derivatives with that of index derivatives and give trading members sufficient time either to bring in additional margin on expiry day or roll over positions.“In the absence of such formulation, there remains a risk of sudden increase in margin on the day following expiry of one leg of the calendar-spread position, with limited recourse available to trading members in case of margin shortfall or an open leg showing significant adverse price movement,” it added.

Mumbai : Atechnical glitch at National Securities Depository (NSDL) resulted in a delay in settlement of trades executed over the past three days. Shares bought by several investors associated with the depository since Tuesday are yet to reflect in their demat accounts, preventing them from selling those holdings, said officials at multiple brokerages on Thursday.The likely cause is a technical disruption inside NSDL that affected its ability to process inter-depository transfers with its bigger rival, CDSL. Since several trading settlements often require securities to move across the two depositories––a routine process, any snag in NSDL’s inter-depository routing hinders the credit of shares to individual client demat accounts.As a result, securities have been credited to broker pool accounts but have not been allocated to end-investor demat accounts, leaving clients temporarily unable to trade those holdings, sources said.“This was not some isolated case; clients of all broking firms face issues because of the issue in inter-depository transfer emanating from NSDL,” said the chief of a brokerage on condition of anonymity.While brokers did not report similar settlement delays at rival depository CDSL, NSDL is understood to have moved to its Disaster Recovery (DR) site to address the issue. The exact reason behind the snag at NSDL could not be ascertained. Email queries to NSDL remained unanswered until press time.India’s equity settlement process follows a T+1 cycle. After trades are completed on the exchange, the clearing corporation settles them the next day before 10:30 am by collecting securities and funds from brokers and releasing payouts by the afternoon, around 3:30 pm. After this, depositories credit shares to investors’ demat accounts.This week, the technical disruption at NSDL delayed this final step.“Due to a glitch on NSDL’s end, inter-depository transfer of shares has been impacted, due to which brokers were unable to complete pay-ins to clearing corporations,” said the chief operating officer of a retail brokerage who did not want to be named. “Clearing corporations have transferred some shares from CDSL to the brokers’ CDSL Pool account, which ideally should have gone directly to customers’ Demat accounts. NSDL was unable to do BOD (Beginning Of Day) of its systems to the next working day until this afternoon, due to which operations have been delayed.”BOD is the depository’s opening snapshot of the investors’ demat account. If shares aren’t there at the start of the day, investors can’t use or sell them that day.

Two back-to-back events—the union budget, and the finalisation of the India-US trade deal—have put the spotlight on various stocks and sectors that are poised to benefit. Here are the top 15 high conviction stock ideas from leading brokerages following the key events this week. These stocks are forecast to return 10-37% from here.127963676

NEW DELHI: India and the US are expected to finalise and sign a joint statement on the first part of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in four-five days and aim to conclude a formal, legally binding pact by midMarch, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Thursday.“India and the US are having a meaningful dialogue. The first tranche of the BTA is almost ready. We will finalise and sign the joint statement in fourfive days. Based on the joint statement, the next leg of the partnership will start,” Goyal said.The formal agreement is being drafted, a process that may take a month or a month and a half. “We plan to sign the formal agreement by mid-March,” he said. The minister ruled out any investment commitments in the pact.The US will slash tariffs on India to 18% from 50% after the joint statement is signed virtually on the first part of the BTA. Washington will issue an executive order to implement the lower tariffs on India a day or two after the joint statement. “Indian tariff reductions (will happen) only after a legal agreement,” said commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal. Indian tariffs are most favoured nation (MFN) levies and US import duties are executive tariffs, he said.A Key Milestone“We hope to do things fast because there are further concessions that we will get after the legal agreement,” Goyal said.Also Read: India sets sail to add more trade muscle as it signs FTA terms with Gulf Cooperation CouncilPrime Minister Narendra Modi and US president Donald Trump announced the trade deal on Monday. This had been preceded by longdrawn negotiations and marred by Trump’s decision to slap 50% tariffs on Indian goods in August, half of that being a penalty for buying Russian oil that’s also being dropped.“Out of friendship and respect for Prime Minister Modi and, as per his request, effective immediately, we agreed to a Trade Deal between the United States and India, whereby the United States will charge a reduced Reciprocal Tariff, lowering it from 25% to 18%,” Trump had said in his post on Truth Social Monday.127952022Modi had welcomed the move.“Delighted that Made in India products will now have a reduced tariff of 18%,” he posted on X on Monday.“When two large economies and the world’s largest democracies work together, it benefits our people and unlocks immense opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation.”'US-India trade deal in final stages', says Jaishankar; expected to be completed 'soon'Calling the accord a milestone, Goyal said India has already entered into a record eight trade agreements, and the first part of the BTA with the US will soon become the ninth.The US is India’s largest export destination. India exported goods worth $86.5 billion to the US in FY25 while importing goods worth $45.6 billion.$500 BILLION PURCHASESPurchases of US goods worth $500 billion, which Trump had mentioned in his posts, exclude agriculture, Indian officials said.The minister said to meet the $500 billion bilateral trade target as set out in February 2025, India will certainly need to step up exports and sourcing.The US is expected to emerge as a major supplier with a 25% share in India’s estimated procurement of $2 trillion in five years of oil, LPG, LNG, aircraft, smartphones, laptops, semiconductor components and data centre equipment. India currently buys $300 billion of these products annually from several countries.Given India’s rapid growth pace, the country will need large volumes of energy, data centre equipment, and ICT (information and communication technology) products, Goyal said.“Our steel capacity will double from today's 140 million tonnes to about 300 million tonnes in the next few years,” Goyal said. “And therefore, when we estimated what we will need from the US, we came to a figure of at least $500 billion. We can clearly see before our eyes the potential that we can procure from the US over the next five years.”India’s aircraft orders could account for a big chunk.“Orders placed on Boeing, and yet to be placed but ready, are nearly $70-80 billion. If you add the engines and other spare parts, it will probably cost $100 billion,” Goyal said, while pointing out that the budget had announced substantial concessions for data centres.