It may be a little early to cheer the recovery in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space as a deceleration in discretionary demand, after the festival season, may offset fragile rural recovery, analysts have cautioned. "The overall demand environment for staples remains muted, while discretionary demand trends have seen some deceleration after the festival season. "We believe margins in staples have bottomed out, but we expect only a gradual uptick with the ongoing softening in raw material prices.
Open order books in February breach 700,000; wait period for some models exceed a year.
Sliding for the fifth straight session, the rupee fell 3 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 79.06 against the US dollar on Thursday amid a strong greenback overseas and unrelenting foreign fund outflows. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 78.92 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 78.90 and a low of 79.07. It finally settled at 79.06, down 3 paise over its previous close of 79.03.
Indian rupee is likely to test 76-76.50 levels as a relatively strong greenback, boiling crude prices and COVID headwinds deepen the depreciation bias for the domestic currency, according to experts. One of the significantly-hit Asian currency in recent months amid uncertain economic times, rupee is expected to see a consolidation in the vicinity of the current level before being pulled towards the depreciation bias. While the equity market has been surging with occasional blips, the rupee has mostly been weak against the US dollar in recent months.
Home-grown companies, including electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firm Dixon Technologies and mobile device maker Lava International, have started exploratory talks with Chinese sub-assemblies and component players for setting up joint ventures (JVs) in the country. Sources in the industry say many domestic companies have also had preliminary discussions with original design manufacturers (ODMs) in China to look at a JV model for manufacturing smartphones. Key ODM players in mobile devices in China include Longcheer, Huaqin, and Wingtech, which has already set up a plant in Tirupati.
From hitting the 1,000-mark on July 25, 1990 to reaching the 60,000-mark for the first time on Friday, it has been a historic and memorable journey for the benchmark index Sensex. It has taken a little over 31 years for the Sensex to traverse from 1,000 level to the famed 60,000 level now. Over the years, the frontline index has climbed several record levels. The index had reached the 10,000-mark for the first time on February 6, 2006.
On a year-to-date basis, gold prices have gained 23 per cent as the dollar weakened and as demand for the metal from central bankers rose.
Analysts suggest investors remain in a wait-and-watch mode and not jump in to buy stocks across-the-board.
'Funds based on this theme offer socially conscious investors an option to invest in a portfolio that is aligned to their beliefs.'
Stock markets are expected to remain under pressure this week due to the overhang of US presidential polls and uncertainty over global growth due to resurging cases of coronavirus, according to analysts.
Indian equity markets are likely to witness volatility this week due to concerns over rising cases of coronavirus and expiry of derivatives contracts, analysts said. Further, progress surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine, related updates, US stimulus talks and global cues would dictate the market trend, traders said. "Going ahead, the market is likely to be volatile as sentiments oscillate between fear of rising COVID cases globally and optimism over vaccine progress. Investors would closely watch out development over the US stimulus talks," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
With the Budget overhang gone, investors are breathing a sigh of relief and are back to make fresh calls.
'Avoid going overweight on gold. But maintain a 10 per cent allocation via sovereign gold bonds,' Bajaj Capital MD Sanjiv Bajaj tells Sarbajeet K Sen.
The sudden movement of the rupee - post the monetary policy - is not a reason to panic, said currency dealers. According to them, a correction was overdue for the rupee that remained the best performing currency in the region for well over a month. The rupee closed at 74.72 a dollar on Friday from its previous close of 74.60. It had dropped 1.52 per cent against the dollar on April 7 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its monetary policy, committing to buy Rs 1 trillion of bonds in the June quarter. A weak rupee goes well with the export narrative of the government, and is consistent with the RBI's intervention strategy that prevented an appreciation.
Given that there has been no negative news flow around Zomato, analysts believe it's time to lap up the shares at lower levels.
Severe price cuts help multinationals ramp up growth, gain market share.
Overseas investors had put in a net sum of Rs 45,981 crore in March and Rs 11,182 crore in February in the capital markets
Geopolitical tensions in different parts of the globe and slowdown in global economy led investors to opt for safe-haven like gold over the last one year.
The market was expecting the October-December 2007-08 quarter to be subdued for most mid- and small-cap IT firms. However, most results fell below analysts' expectations.
With the auto sector headed for slower growth in FY08, investors may need to reassess their auto portfolio.
Not surprisingly, equity investors are bidding-up stock prices across sectors and the broader market is now more valuable than pre-Covid levels.
Such an economic environment tends to be positive for gold, the ultimate safe-haven asset. Since gold cannot be debased by central banks, it naturally gains in value.
While festive season spends by consumers did contribute to the uptick seen in Q3, experts said greater aggression displayed by retailers to corner a larger share of the shopper's wallet also worked.
State-owned banks have amassed bad loans faster than private sector lenders.
The government has last month significantly liberalised the FDI regime, putting most of the sectors on the automatic route
The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday night hiked interest rates by 0.25%.
The buyback price is at around 28 per cent premium to the current market price of Rs 67 on the Bombay Stock Exchange
PepsiCo is now betting aggressively on Kurkure, as its offering goes more and more local in its branded snacks.
The size of the organised baby diaper market in India is Rs 5214 crore, with the year-on-year rate of growth pegged at 14%
Rating agency Moody's on Tuesday cautioned that a third front government created by regional parties could lead to capital flight and delay economic recovery.
Three stockmarket experts give their best picks for the New Year.
This is an increase of 4% over 2014, ans will be fuelled by rising mobile users and availability of cheap smartphones.
Investors across age groups and risk appetite can invest in these schemes.
Investor wealth on Thursday soared by Rs 1 lakh crore, triggered by heavy buying in the stock market, with the BSE benchmark Sensex surging about 382 points to close at near six-week high levels.
Fourth quarter earnings of blue-chips such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro, RIL and inflation data for March will dictate the trend on the bourses in a holiday-shortened week ahead, experts said.
The biggest challenge is crude oil's sustained rally - it is nearing $80 a barrel - stoking inflationary pressures and consequent price hikes in the sector.
'When users sign up for free apps and services, they are giving up data. They fail to realise the impact of their data in the public domain, which is something that corporations have been monetising on for some time now.'
Analysts are of the opinion that given the change in the business model, which is resulting in smaller deals spreading across the whole year, clients may be already renegotiating prices.
The mobile user base is expected to grow to 815 million this year, from 755 million connections in 2013.
Moody's said domestic growth will offset global headwinds.
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