Dear Shareholders,
As I write to you, life and lifestyles across the world are undergoing a radical
change. The coronavirus pandemic hasn't ended yet; these are difficult times and we must
prepare to embrace the radical changes in our lives and the way we work.
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on both the global and domestic economies has been
unprecedented and largely disruptive. The overall business environment remained muted with
demand slackening in almost all sectors.Financial markets also went through extreme
volatility owing to stringent lockdowns. However, the second half of the year saw a
quicker and remarkable recovery due to unlocking of restrictions, pick-up in economic
activity, favorable government reforms, and mass disbursement of vaccines to halt the
spread of the virus. Financial markets soared to all-time highs, reflecting improvement in
investor sentiment. As the pandemic spread, our topmost priority was to ensure the safety
of our employees and facilitating uninterrupted services and support to our customers. Our
technology team played a vital role in providing adequate systems to employees so that
they can operate smoothly out of the safety of their homes. We provided remote working
technology and protocols, used video calling and virtual meeting platforms to keep our
operations running. During the lockdown, our technology platform worked successfully and
facilitated in servicing our customers efficiently.
When the global economy went into recession in 2020 due to the COVID-19 impact, central
banks embarked on record monetary stimuli and governments across theglobe adopted a
counter-cyclical fiscal policies by embarking on unprecedented fiscal spending to pull
their respective economies out of the recession caused by the once-in-a-century crisis;
these measures met with visible success. Growth recovered in the second half of Calendar
Year 2020 and high frequency economic indicators such as global Purchasing Managers' Index
(PMI) showed that the momentum in economic recovery continues.
At home too, the Indian government took series of measures to minimise the impact of
the pandemic and to kick-start the economy. Measures like the stimulus package, the
Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign, liberalisation of FDI rules, focused industry- specific
incentives, and financial and food assistance to the needy helped to cushion the dire
effects of the pandemic. Steps like support to MSMEs, permission for commercial mining,
agri reforms etc. are expected to further help in achieving the broader goals of economic
growth and self-reliance. Gradually, after the government eased Covid related restrictions
on mobility, economic activity has started limping back and we closed the year with
Q4FY2021 real GDP growth of 1.6%, which was the strongest quarter of the year. The IMF
expects India to be the fastest growing economy in the world during CY2021 at 12.5% GDP
growth. Structural reforms and pro-growth policies of the Government have the potential to
extend the growth momentum for India beyond CY2021. The global GDP too is expected to grow
by 6% in CY2021, after contracting by 3.3% in CY2020. Emerging economies are expected to
grow faster at 6.7% than advanced economies at 5.1%.
The Indian equity markets had an eventful year: first, the bourses dipped into bear
territory but soon reversed to a spectacular bull run, with the benchmark index NIFTY50
rallying 71% during FY2021. The rally was secular and broadbased, with small and midcaps
outperforming headline indices. This was on the back of mirroring global markets as well
as the expansionary FY2022 Union Budget which incorporated a countercyclical fiscal policy
with focus on reviving growth. The year saw record number (up ~3x Y-o-Y) of new demat
account holders entering the market. There was significant surge in trading volumes
(average daily turnover almost doubled) led by historic levels of volatility arising out
of the pandemic, lower interest rate regime in the market, and aided by the work-from-home
environment.
Your Company has immense reserves of inherent strengths to capitalise on the
opportunities. The biggest amongst these is its ability to constantly reinvent itself to
remain relevant for the customer's changing and evolving needs. The Company has constantly
innovated and added products, features and services to its arsenal, many of which have
gone on to become industry standards.
I would like to reiterate that Khandwala Securities Limited is an over 90-yearold
company but yet a young enterprise in mindset. It works with the maturity of an
established firm and agility of a start-up. As a consumer-centric organisation, while we
are proud of our legacy, we do not rest on our laurels. We have kept augmenting customer
trust, refreshed our talent, invested substantially in technology, maintained high level
of corporate governance, and constantly endeavoured to give back to the society. We
continue to invest in people, processes, and technology towards greater stakeholder value
creation.
I take this opportunity to thank all of you - and our customers, partners, associates,
employees, communities, and the regulators - for the continued support and trust by all in
our long-term story, and solicit your continued support going forward. And finally, along
with all of you, we look forward to a brighter, stronger post-covid future for our country
and its people.
| Pranav Khandwala |
| Whole-time Director & CFO |