HDFC Bank on Thursday clarified that there is no evidence to suggest that any FPI selling in its stock is related to SEBI's circular on disclosure norms.
"HDFC Bank understands that companies with no identified promoters (like HDFC Bank) will not be impacted by the circular since the question of circumvention of Minimum Public Shareholding does not arise in such cases," said the Mumbai-based lender.
The norms are set to come into effect from February 1 and against this backdrop, the equity market has witnessed significant volatility, with the benchmark Sensex crashing over 1,000 points on Tuesday after shedding early intraday gains.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have been dumping shares in recent trading sessions. On Wednesday, HDFC Bank's scrip on BSE closed trading 2% higher at Rs 1,456.3.
In the past four trading days alone, FPIs have sold shares worth over Rs 27,000 crore after pumping in huge money that had also pushed the market indices to record highs.
The report also said that the lender isn't 'apologetic' about merger with parent Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) and is in fact "proud of it". The Mumbai-based lender sees its margin rising "in a secular fashion" and it won't be giving guidance quarter to quarter.
A top HDFC executive told CNBC TV18 that their growth plans faced a bump because of the RBI’s liquidity tightening policy, which may continue for the next few months.
While HDFC Bank's standalone net profit for the third fiscal quarter beat analyst estimates, its core net interest margin (NIM) on total assets fell to 3.4% from 3.65% in the previous quarter.
Those margins were above 4% for the bank before it merged with HDFC in July last year.
HDFC's higher borrowing costs and a lower-yielding loan book have weighed on the merged entity's margins in the two quarters it reported results after the merger.
Brokerage Jefferies said margins were a "key miss" and that higher retail deposit mobilisation and lending will be key to lifting NIMs.
With inputs from Reuters