Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The Modi government's e-auction policy for coal, meant to shield the consumer against hike in electricity charges, has already led to serious allegations of cartelisation among the bidding corporates. Matters came to such a pass that the government at one point last week was considering inviting the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the matter, reports Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
After a 10-month probe, the Central Bureau of Investigation has decided to file a closure report in the coal block allocation case involving industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary P C Parakh as the agency could not find any evidence in this matter.
This is the first coal scam case in which the special court has delivered its judgement.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik may be questioned by CBI for writing a letter of support in favour of Hindalco, an Aditya Birla group company, after its bid for coal mines was rejected by coal ministry.
In 11 out of 29 coal mines successfully e-auctioned, a number of qualified bidders in the e-auction stage were from the same company/parent subsidiary company coalition/joint venture, CAG said.
The Congress on Wednesday said the Supreme Court judgment on certain matters relating to transactions by the Adani Group has proven to be 'extraordinarily generous' to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and asserted that the party's fight against crony capitalism and its ill-effects on prices, employment and inequalities will continue.
The headline for corporate profit growth has been very encouraging in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), with the combined net profit of listed companies up by 38 per cent year-on-year. However, the earnings distribution has been very lopsided, with most of the growth coming from public-sector oil-marketing companies (OMCs), banks, non-bank lenders, automobile (auto) companies, and cement producers. By comparison, companies from information technology services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, and consumer durables were disappointed, experiencing a sharp slowdown in net sales growth and a relatively muted increase in reported net profit.
A greater payment security mechanism for power generation companies to ensure timely payouts for supply of electricity will be in focus in 2022 as stricter rules are on the anvil for 24x7 power supply amid discoms' outstanding dues at a whopping Rs 1.56 lakh crore. Mounting outstanding dues of distribution companies (discoms) to electricity generation companies (gencos) have been a perennial issue affecting the entire value chain in the power sector and are also a hindrance for the ambitious goal of 24x7 power supply across the country even when the payment for coal is made in advance. The situation persists despite the fact that discoms' dues become overdue after 45 days of generating bills and they also have to pay penal interest on the overdue amount in most of the cases to gencos.
"We will complain. He can meditate, but televisions cannot show it," she said, alleging that this will amount to "violation of the MCC."
Parliament has cleared the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, recently. The objective of the Act is to invite investments from the private sector, including foreign companies, for mining minerals such as lithium and other critical minerals. Other than lithium, some of these minerals were classified as atomic minerals, including beryl and beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum and zirconium.
'Banks make money because they take the right credit calls. So they need to focus on risk mitigation rather than risk avoidance.'
Though the current National Democratic Alliance government has not endorsed the figure, it has not even repudiated it.
'Inter-ministerial coordination, information on the proposed PSUs, and due diligence are taking longer than expected to conclude the process.'
The Congress on Friday alleged that the electoral bonds data has exposed 'corrupt tactics' of the Bharatiya Janata Party such as quid pro quo, seeking donations for the company's protection, kickbacks and money laundering through shell companies.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Shares in Jindal Steel and Power Ltd were heading towards their biggest daily loss in almost two years on Monday.
The Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday reviewed the coal supply and power generation scenario as the government looks at ways to defuse the energy crisis being faced by several states.
IT, FMCG and manufacturing sectors are less attractive to foreign portfolio investors
Unfazed by the stalemate over the Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti issue, government has lined up a heavy legislative agenda in Parliament this week including a bill seeking to replace coal blocks allocation ordinance.
As many as 19 firms, including Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Adani Group and Tata have evinced interest for setting up solar manufacturing units under a production linked incentive scheme of the government. In April this year, the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 4,500 crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic manufacturing capacity of solar PV modules. The scheme is aimed at adding 10,000 MW manufacturing capacity of integrated solar PV modules entailing direct investment of Rs 17,200 crore.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Tuesday announced the acquisition of a 95 per cent stake in Gopalpur Ports in Odisha from Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Orissa Stevedores Ltd at an equity value of Rs 1,349 crore. In Gopalpur Ports, Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group) firm SP Port Maintenance Pvt Ltd has a 56 per cent stake and Orissa Stevedores Ltd (OSL) has a 44 per cent stake. Gopalpur Port is an all-weather deep-water berthing port with a capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) situated in Ganjam district of Odisha.
Russia's war on Ukraine has sent steel prices soaring to its highest levels in the domestic market since November 2021. But there is little cheer in the industry. That's because input costs are spiralling out of control, leaving the big boys nearly as high and dry as the small, medium and secondary steel producers. Russia and Ukraine are major providers of steel and raw materials to the world.
According to an Andhra government statement, Naidu 'reposed confidence' in the PM's leadership.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your stock market queries.
The incident took place at the unit, located 40 km from Nagpur, causing severe damage to the building, an official at Kondhali police station said.
Mining magnate Anil Agarwal's conglomerate on Friday announced a major business shake-up, with flagship Vedanta Ltd approving a spin-off of its metals, power, aluminium and oil and gas businesses into separate listed entities and an overhaul of lucrative zinc unit planned as part of value creation and reducing debt load. Vedanta will issue one share of the five demerged businesses for every share held in the company, the firm said in a statement. The entire exercise, which would require shareholder and lender approval as well as a nod from the stock exchanges and courts, is expected to be completed in 12-15 months, its president for finance Ajay Agarwal said.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your stockmarket queries.
Russia has welcomed India's decision to not support the price cap on Russian oil announced by G7 and its allies and offered it cooperation on leasing and building large-capacity ships to overcome the ban on insurance services and tanker chartering in the European Union and Britain to continue buying discounted oil. The offer came as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak held a meeting with the Indian Ambassador to Moscow, Pavan Kapoor, on Friday. "The Deputy Prime Minister welcomed India's decision not to support the price cap on Russian oil, which was imposed on December 5 by the G7 countries and their allies," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
During the Spring Meetings, the issue of Bank's involvement in Botswana and the Tata's Mundhra's plant in Gujarat is likely to come up during the interactive session. It is claimed that the Tata's plant will account for nearly 28 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission when fully operational. "In the Indian case there is the sense that if you look at India's energy needs, they are very, very significant and where we can we try to look for other sources.
The BSE Sensex was down 326 points at 23,277 and the Nifty was down 107 points at 7,056.
Investor confidence has evaporated amid fears over the rising cost of funding India's gaping current account deficit, prompting New Delhi to delay plans to raise much-needed funds through partial privatisations, finance ministry sources said.
Embattled Adani Group on Monday said it has put on hold major equipment procurement and site construction activities for the Rs 34,900 crore petrochemical project at Mundra in Gujarat as the project has not yet tied up finances. The group's flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, Mundra Petrochem Ltd in 2021 for setting up a greenfield coal-to-PVC plant at Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) land in the Kutch district of Gujarat. Asked by stock exchanges to comment on a PTI report on Sunday that the group has suspended work on the project, AEL said, "The financial closure of the Green PVC project of Mundra Petrochemicals Limited ( MPL) is pending with the financial institutions and it is in their active consideration."
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your stock market queries.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have accepted a new climate agreement after the COP26 summit in Glasgow concluded its extra time plenary on Saturday with a deal, which recognises India's intervention for the world to 'phase down' rather than "phase out" fossil fuels.
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Stocks of public sector companies, especially the oil refining and marketing companies (OMCs) - Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) - logged gains on Tuesday in a weak market. While the Nifty lost nearly 1 per cent in trade on Tuesday, the Nifty CPSE index - a gauge of performance of central public sector enterprises on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) - gained over 3 per cent in intra-day trade. The rally in PSU stocks comes on the back of the BPCL chairman, Arun Kumar Singh suggesting in the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday that the government intends to complete the divestment process in the OMC by March 2022.
India's economy grew 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022-23, pushing up the annual growth rate to 7.2 per cent, official data showed on Wednesday.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries
Wrestling coach Anoop Singh and Paralympics coach Naval Singh among other nominees get Sports Ministry approval