Asian stock markets are trading on a negative note today. The Shanghai Composite is down 0.1% while the Hang Seng is down 0.2%. The Nikkei 225 is trading down by 0.5%.

Back home, India share markets have opened the day on a positive note. Sectoral indices have opened the day in green with energy stocks and power stocks witnessing maximum buying interest.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 116 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 20 points. The BSE Mid Cap index opened the day up by 0.1% while BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.2%.

The rupee is currently trading at Rs 70.98 against the US$.

Vakrangee share price is in focus today on news that the company launched over 3,300 Nextgen Vakrangee Kendras across India.

These outlets are spread across 20 states, over 340 districts and more than 2,000 postal codes of the country, of which more than 70% outlets are from tier 5 and 6 cities.

Overall, in the pilot phase, the company plans to have over 4,000 Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra stores.

The stock of the company closed around 5% higher yesterday on the back of the above news.

In the news from macroeconomic space, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it would inject Rs 100 billion into the system through the purchase of government securities on January 17 to increase liquidity. The purchase will be made through open market operations (OMOs).

As per the announcement, the eligible participants should submit their offers in electronic format on the RBI Core Banking Solution (E-Kuber) system on January 17. The result of the auction will be announced on the same day and payment to successful participants will be made on the following day.

Note that the RBI plans to inject liquidity under OMOs for Rs 500 billion in January 2019. It has so far injected Rs 200 billion through OMOs in January.

The above measure is to intensify cash injection into the banking system starved of cash.

The RBI had earlier stated that the system liquidity will move into deficit in the second half of FY19 and the evolving liquidity conditions would determine its choice of instruments for both transient and durable liquidity management.

OMOs is one of the tools which can be used to either inject or drain liquidity from the system.

It is employed to adjust rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis.

The OMO by the RBI will help in easing the cash shortage in the system and stabilize debt market rates.

It will also help ease tight liquidity situation triggered by series of default by group companies of IL&FS.

What effect the above measure will have on the banking system remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.

From the banking space, Yes Bank share price is in focus today. The stock of the company closed around 3.9% up yesterday amid reports that Deutsche Bank's India CEO, Ravneet Singh Gill is the frontrunner for the CEO's post.

Gill has spent his 32-year banking career at the German lender and taking over as India chief executive in July 2012. He has also handled capital markets, treasury, structured finance, foreign exchange, transaction banking, risk management and private banking.

As per an article in The Economic Times, two names went to the RBI and Gill, by being an outsider along with his experience as CEO of a bank is the frontrunner.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

• With Gill and Monga in the fray, the bank board thinks they have two strong candidates. Monga has been with the bank almost since inception and is ready to take over from tomorrow. Gill has been Deutsche India CEO since 2012 and has been granted an all-clear by RBI just in July 2018. His experience and pedigree cannot be ignored.

On Monday, the bank appointed Brahm Dutt as its non-executive chairman. Dutt has been on the board of the bank since July 2013 as an independent director and has contributed to almost all the sub-committees of the board over the past 5 years and a half.

Speaking of corporate banks, Sarvajeet offers an interesting observation on corporate bank stock.

Corporate Banks Underperforming Retail-focused Banks