Shortages of chips will impact the car market
Companies in the small-cap universe are having a dream run - the Nifty Smallcap 100 index has shot up more than 25 per cent on a year-to-date basis, even as the benchmark Nifty is up 7 per cent. This is the best start for the index since 2017 when the Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 32.3 per cent between January 1 and May 10. However, in terms of outperformance to the Nifty, this year's performance is the best in more than a decade. A combination of sectoral tailwinds and lack of institutional selling pressure has helped small companies escape from the correction triggered by the second wave of Covid-19.
From helping their employees infected with the Covid-19 virus to vaccinating them or supporting the families of those who might have succumbed to the infection, several companies in India are trying to do their bit in this difficult time. Some have even widened their support net to include all stakeholders as well as an extended community. To the families of the employees it lost to Covid-19, Noida-headquartered IT services and consulting company HCL Technologies is, for instance, paying salary for a year, medical insurance for three years and extending support for their children's education for five years.
Although the number of resignations came down at Cognizant in April and continued to slow in May, the impact of attrition would play out in the second quarter also because of the longer notice period in India.
To be able to manage any such uptick, Indian IT services players are hiring more locals, and relying on hybrid work models.
According to government data, the Centre procured only 35,179 ventilators out of the 50,000 originally ordered.
Attrition is driving the hiring effort on campuses.
'If Covid peaks at around 250,000 cases, I don't see the market fall much. If it becomes uncontrollable and goes up to 600,000 a day, then the market may fall.'
Infosys, Facebook, Genpact, and Cognizant, among others, have reached out to employees and offered support in different ways as the second wave of Covid cases sees an exponential rise. Companies are asking employees to stay indoors and prioritise the health and safety of their families. This is of significance as several information technology firms were going to take a call on work-from-home from June and had plans to allow some employees to come back to work.
There seems to be no dearth of funds to fuel this growth, report Peerzada Abrar and Shivani Shinde.
The listing day gain-to-loss ratio for FY21 was 71 per cent, the highest since FY17, when it was 85 per cent.
The IT services giant is also slated to hold a board meeting on April 13 and 14, to approve of and take on record the consolidated financial results of the company for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021. Indian IT majors will be announcing their fourth quarter (Q4) and 2020-21 results starting April 12. At the end of the Q3 FY21 Infosys had cash and investment of $4.5 billion.
'Whenever markets rally, the IPO pricing gets aligned to the prevailing market conditions.'
Listed companies have seen equity deals worth Rs 23,500 crore in March.
With the economy gaining pace and large deals back on the table, chief executive officers (CEOs) of tech companies believe global tech spending will witness growth this year. According to CEO Survey by Nasscom, about 71 per cent chief executives expect global spend to grow over 4 per cent. The figure is significantly higher than the previous two years - 41 per cent and 59 per cent in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The survey also said the recovery in global tech spending will be led by the digital segment.
The company is also looking at creating an algorithm-based talent marketplace and an internal gig workers' community. Talent Cloud will be powered by Algo Talent Development, enabling associates to move across different technologies and industry domains.
'With nearly double the market share of our nearest competitor, we are shaping the digital transformation journey of close to 1,000 clients in India.'
From the beginning of 2021 Wipro has moved on to a new organisational structure. Analyst tracking the company are now wondering if CEO Thierry Delaporte's attempt to bolster Wipro's presence in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) space by acquiring Capco for $1.45 billion is a step taken too early. Though many agree that Capco as a target may be good, but Wipro, which has been the most aggressive player in acquiring firms compared to its Indian players, does not have much to show in terms of performance as it continues to lag peers.
Banking and financial stocks got more than their fair share of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows in February. Overseas investors pumped in $3.56 billion into domestic equities last month. Of this $1.96 billion went into financial stocks, data analysed by Edelweiss shows. "The sector now has 34.8 per cent of FPI assets, up from 33.8 per cent in January.
The world's top brands across sectors might lose between $93 billion and $223 billion because of a data breach, a first-of-its-kind study by Interbrand and Infosys, called 'Invisible Tech, Real Impact', has found. This represents 4-9.6 per cent of their cumulative value. The study gains significance in the backdrop of yet another massive hack, this time of Microsoft's email software, which is estimated to have affected at least 60,000 known victims globally, according to Bloomberg. The study found that there is a long-term impact of data breaches on brands across sectors.