Many investors want to exit equities now and re-enter when they begin to rise. Such timing is difficult to pull off.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a revision in the formula for pricing of natural gas and imposed cap or ceiling price to help cut CNG and piped cooking gas prices by up to 10 per cent. Natural gas produced from legacy or old fields, known as APM gas, will now be indexed to the price of imported crude oil instead of benchmarking it to gas prices in four surplus nations such as the US, Canada and Russia, Union I&B Miniser Anurag Thakur told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet. APM gas will be priced at 10 per cent of the price of basket of crude oil that India imports (Indian basket of crude oil).
Despite multiple headwinds at the start of 2023, the Indian markets delivered a strong performance, posting 19-20 per cent growth for the year. Even as new records were set, investor sentiment remains strong going into 2024, given the lower inflation, expectations of steady to lower interest rates, higher economic growth, and strong inflows. However, the overriding concern for most brokerages is valuations.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty Next 50 Index could undergo large-scale changes if the proposed tweaks to its computation methodology get implemented. In a discussion paper floated recently, NSE Indices, which owns and manages a portfolio of over 350 indices under the Nifty brand, proposed that only stocks that are traded in the futures and options (F&O) segment can be part of the index. Currently, as many as 11 non-F&O stocks are part of the Nifty Next 50 Index, which, as the name suggests, represents the next rung of large and liquid securities after the Nifty50.
Fresh buying by domestic institutional investors and better-than-expected June quarter results from some blue-chip companies boosted investor sentiment
India's imports of crude oil from Russia touched a new high of 1.64 million barrels per day in March and is now double of the purchases from Iraq - the nation's traditional top oil supplier. But the purchases appear to have plateaued as growth has slowed. Russia continued to be the single largest supplier of crude oil, which is converted into petrol and diesel at refineries, for a sixth straight month by supplying more than one-third of all oil India imported, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
Two traders - Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and GMR Energy Ltd - have already surrendered their licences.
The country must get its act on global alliances right in order to feed its fuel-hungry economy, points out Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Lower crude oil costs and higher marketing margins are expected to raise the fortunes of oil marketing companies (OMCs) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023-24 (FY24), while city gas distribution (CGD) companies could also benefit from lower spot prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, in a break from the past, growth trends are expected to diverge for various segments within the broad energy sector. Analysts expect the earnings from gas production to go down for upstream national oil and gas companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) due to the introduction of the new domestic gas pricing regime on April 1. After showing steep losses over the first half of 2022-23 (FY23), the marketing margins of OMCs have steadily recovered in four months.
'India has always been a bottom-up stock-picking market, and as growth recovers with higher liquidity, mid and small-caps always tend to outperform.'
India was the world's biggest importer of Russian oil in February, exceeding China by 20 million barrels.
Among the main gainers were Jio Financial Services which jumped 4.99 per cent, Tata Steel (2.09 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.87 per cent), M&M (1.31 per cent) and Infosys (1.19 per cent).
The market capitalisation of Reliance Industries plummeted by Rs 43,491.37 crore to reach Rs 17,26,714.05 crore.
India's trade account could come under pressure and there could be an inflation push if crude oil prices remain above the $90 per barrel (Brent) for a prolonged period since India imports over 85 per cent of its oil and roughly 50 per cent of its gas. A rebound in economic activity is bound to lead to higher fuel demand. While India is the third-largest importer of crude, it is a net exporter of refined products, which helps to compensate to some degree.
Even as the Group of Seven (G7) price cap on Russian crude oil enters into force as of December 5, India has been assured it will continue to receive the existing deep discounts on Russian oil, for the time being, informed officials. "We have been assured by our Russian partners of uninterrupted crude supplies at the existing rates for the time being. "There were a lot of reports of changes in (India's) buying patterns after the global price cap took hold.
Coal India fell the most by 2.58 per cent among Sensex scrips, dragging the index into the negative zone.
The power sector is always strongly correlated to economic activity and is receiving its share of investor attention as India's post-Covid-19 recovery continues. India's leading integrated power producer, the public sector undertaking (PSU) NTPC controls around 25 per cent of India's power capacity. It continues to increase installed capacity, in thermal as well as renewables (solar, wind, green hydrogen) and hydropower and pumped hydro, and also has backward integration into coal mining, and explored nuclear.
Stung by the government's punitive action on electric two-wheelers, registrations in April fell by nearly a fourth to 62,581 from 82,292 in March, according to data from VAHAN. Electric two-wheeler companies, including Okinawa, Hero Electric, Ather Energy, and TVS, have all clocked their lowest registrations in the four months of this calendar year. Ola Electric has been the only exception to this bloodbath, and has crossed its March numbers, hitting 21,560 registrations in April, which is its highest in this calendar year. As a result, there have been some interesting changes in the electric two-wheeler pecking order.
Don't exit from growth-style funds as they may benefit next from a shift in investor preference.
Shares of Adani Green Energy (AGEL) continued their upward movement, hitting a new high of Rs 1,955.90, up 2.6 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade in an otherwise weak market. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.77 per cent at 60,285 at 11:01 am. In the past 14 trading sessions, the stock of the renewable energy arm of the diversified Adani Group has zoomed 50 per cent from Rs 1,307.05 on December 30, 2021. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 4.3 per cent during the same period.
'We suggest investors with suitable risk appetite to consider allocating 40-50 per cent in large-caps, 25-30 per cent of funds in quality mid and small-caps and the rest in debt and high yield products.'
'For me, this competition comes first and I want to save all my energy for tomorrow's game because we have a new battle ahead of us and we will need all our strength.'
The government on Tuesday said it has notified the Green Open Access Rules 2022 to further accelerate India's renewable energy programmes. These rules are notified for promoting generation, purchase and consumption of green energy including through waste-to-energy plants. It enables a simplified procedure for the open access to green power, the power ministry said in a statement.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
After a turnaround in performance by Indian equity markets since July that has seen the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 wipe out the year-to-date losses, analysts suggest investors start nibbling into stocks that are focused on the domestic economy. While they say intermittent corrections, led by policies of global central banks and other economic data, cannot be ruled out, analysts expect India's relative outperformance among global equity markets to continue as it looks better placed with a healthy economic recovery, and remains one of the fastest growing major economies. In this backdrop, Neeraj Chadawar, head of quantitative equity strategy at Axis Securities, believes that amid global slowdown, aggressive tightening by the central banks, and preference for domestic interests first (by the local government), export-oriented themes are likely to be muted or will deliver conservative returns in the near-term.
What is more surprising is that a surge in Russian oil supplies has come after the G7 imposed stringent sanctions on Moscow.
"In principle, the ask in return is that India should not support the G7 (Group of Seven) proposal. "A decision on this issue will be taken later following talks with all the partners," an official with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.These "substantial discounts" will be steeper than those offered by Iraq in the past two months, officials said.
Briefing reporters at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of 17 major economies on climate change and energy, prime minister's special envoy Shyam Saran said there has to be a balance between historical responsibility and current emissions.
The combined market-cap of all listed Adani group firms has plunged nearly Rs 7.11 trillion since January 24 when the Hindenburg report was made public.
The Rs 500 crore cap in the event of an accident, proposed in the controversial nuclear liability bill, could be raised as part of government's efforts to address concerns of the opposition over the issue. Indications to this effect were given by government officials at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology and Environment on Tuesady.
India has substantially increased its crude oil imports from the US, with the country's share in India's crude basket hitting a record 14.3 per cent in December, commerce ministry data showed.
The Archies is an evergreen thought passed on from generation to generation. But Sukanya Verma wishes it had some of the comic's tee-hee humour and hyuk hyuk too.
While the corporate sector has benefited from massive capital expenditure, leading to sky-rocketing stock prices, investors would do well to keep an eye on the macroeconomic picture and government finances, not just corporate profits, for signs of trouble, alerts Debashis Basu.
Earnings growth, attractive valuations and change in FPI flows from negative to positive over the next 12 months are some of the key triggers for an upside. "A poor monsoon, high inflation and further rate hike are some of the key risks
The ruling AIADMK is leaving no stone unturned to win the Vellore Lok Sabha poll and push its tally to two in the state, with its candidate even donning the skull cap to woo minority votes. But the DMK's stars are clearly on the ascendant in the lone constituency that goes to the polls on August 5. A Ganesh Nadar reports.
Puri said the government has a moral duty to provide energy at affordable rates to consumers.
Spain were Nations League runners-up two years ago to France and success will come as a major fillip after a disappointing World Cup in Qatar, where they were upset by Morocco in the last-16.
'How do you stay so energised? So young?' 'Dev Anand flashed that familiar crooked grin and told me, "The mind never grows old. It urges you to surge ahead".'
Equity benchmarks shrugged off lacklustre global cues to clock smart gains on Tuesday, buoyed by strong buying interest in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC twins. However, a depreciating rupee and unabated foreign fund outflows capped the gains, traders said. The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 562.75 points or 0.94 per cent to settle at 60,655.72.
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