Some aircraft technicians at IndiGo are on sick leave since Friday demanding a revision in salaries. The protest comes days after the airline partially restored salaries of its pilots and cabin crew and made changes to its human resource (HR) policies. Some technicians in Hyderabad reported sick on Friday night while those from other bases skipped work on Sunday demanding a revision in salary, an industry source said.
IndiGo's management is of the opinion that Saturday's flight delays caused by sick leaves taken by many in the cabin crew are just an aberration. The airline's on-time performance nosedived to 45 per cent on Saturday as a large part of the cabin crew reported sick to participate in Air India's recruitment process. Privately, Air India executives denied holding interviews on Saturday and the airline did not issue any statement.
From the peak of $3.67 trillion in January, India's market cap has eroded by $676 billion amid rising bond yields and a record-breaking sell-off by overseas investors.
More than 1,600 employees of Air India, the former state-run carrier now owned by the Tata group, have opted for voluntary retirement under a scheme announced on June 1. These employees comprise 22 per cent of permanent staff (around 7,000). The airline has a total employee strength of around 10,800, including those on contract.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) board on Wednesday allowed foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to trade in exchange-traded commodity derivatives. The move, it said, "will enhance liquidity and market depth, as well as promote efficient price discovery." Overseas investors will only be allowed to deal in non-agricultural commodity derivatives and only cash-settled contracts.
Jet Airways has complained to India's aviation regulator about the use of its livery on SpiceJet aircraft, saying the practice could "mislead the public" and is a safety hazard. Jet collapsed in 2019 and lessors repossessed its Boeing 737s. Some of these aircraft were leased to SpiceJet, which operates them without changing the livery. Jet, which is now being revived by the Kalrock Jalan consortium and aims to restart operations in September, has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ask SpiceJet to stop using its livery.
Visa delays have perturbed Indian visitors this summer. But a solution could be in sight soon, as embassies gear up to address the challenges caused by a spike in applications and staff shortages. While the British High Commission has said it is working urgently to reduce the current visa processing time, the German Embassy has introduced extra shifts to process more visas. However, appointments with the latter are fully booked till August-end due to high volumes.
Six consecutive profitable quarters after an equal number of losses - for Bharti Airtel, the turnaround has been quick. But it is not a result of higher tariffs or absence of exceptional items alone. Execution and strategy are playing a part, too. Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer Gopal Vittal summed it up in a post-result conference call last month. "We track the profit in each of our 237,500 (cell) sites.
Inflation trajectory, domestically as also globally, is what will shape the economy, and therefore the market, over the next couple of quarters.'
Industry players credit Sebi's first woman chairperson with putting special emphasis on cyber security, use of tech and data, areas where Sebi is trying to 'stay ahead of the curve'.
'We should have calmed down the child. We will do an internal analysis on that.'
Air India is set to increase capacity on domestic and international routes over the next few months as it overhauls its grounded aircraft. Air India has the approval to operate 2,456 flights per week in the summer schedule. This is more than a 16 per cent increase over 2020. But its international schedule has declined 41 per cent (compared to winter 2019) to 361 weekly departures.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) could soon issue interim orders imposing a market ban on the two former fund managers of Axis Mutual Fund (MF) for suspected front-running of trades, said people with knowledge of the development. "The market regulator has gathered prima facie evidence that demonstrates that the duo has violated the integrity of the market. "While a detailed investigation is still pending in the matter, Sebi could take action under Section 11 (4) to prevent further harm to the investors and the securities market," said a source.
Overseas investors, as well as other key stakeholders, such as brokers, custodians, and clearing corporations, are yet to iron out critical issues, even as the shift towards a shorter trade settlement cycle approaches new phases. Several industry players said foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are still facing impediments over the trade confirmation timelines, foreign exchange (forex) bookings, and pre-funding requirements. This could potentially act as a roadblock when it comes to moving entirely to the new T+1 settlement cycle from next year.
Airports hold pride of place in the government's National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) programme to monetise public assets. Private airport operators, including the Adani group, Fairfax, GMR and Zurich Airport, are expected to evince interest in the next round of public private partnership (PPP) development of state-owned Airport Authority of India (AAI) airports. Industry analysts, however, do not expect bids to be as high as the last round, which saw Adani group gain control of six airports.
Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining allegations of front-running and other irregularities against a host of domestic fund managers across the asset management industry, said people in the know. Developments at Axis Mutual Fund have prompted the regulator to speed up probe to ensure that there is no drop in confidence in the Rs 39-trillion mutual fund (MF) industry. "We have received complaints against a few fund managers and are looking into possible violations, including those related to code of conduct," said a regulatory source, refusing to divulge names of fund houses as things are at a preliminary stage.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has mulled introduction of confidential initial public offering (IPO) filings and "pre-filing" of offer documents, a move aimed at giving issuers flexibility and alleviating concerns around privacy. Industry players said the concept, if implemented, would give a fillip to the domestic capital markets, ease the process and encourage more companies to go public. To be sure, the proposals are still at a discussion stage with Sebi just floating a consultation paper seeking public feedback.
'For the next two years, we expect the bulk of earnings growth contribution from sectors like financials and energy, where the outlook remains positive, while the sectors which are linked to domestic consumption and are currently witnessing strains on margins have low salience for Nifty earnings.'
Logistics services provider Delhivery is likely to launch its downsized initial public offering (IPO) this week, said people in the know. The Softbank-backed firm may trim its issue size from Rs 7,460 crore to Rs 5,500 crore to align with the volatile market conditions, sources said. Sources added the fresh issue component of the IPO could be reduced to Rs 4,500 crore and the OFS component to Rs 1,000 crore.
The outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and unprecedented lockdowns in China have roiled its equity market and also that of Hong Kong. After the crisis-hit Sri Lanka, China and Hong Kong are the worst-performing stock markets in Asia on a year-to-date basis.