The share of public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the total market capitalisation of listed companies--at an all-time low of 10 per cent currently --- may get a leg-up from the government's divestment push. Recently the government announced the successful sale of national carrier Air India to Tata Sons, India's first privatisation of a PSU since 2002-03. The transaction is expected to be completed by December.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's top oil firm, has bought as much as 3 million barrels of crude oil that Russia had offered at steep discount to prevailing international rates, sources said. The purchase, made through a trader, is the first since Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine that brought international pressure for isolating Putin administration. Sources aware of the matter said IOC bought Urals crude for May delivery at a discount of $20-25 a barrel to dated Brent.
Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty halted their five-day rally on Tuesday and settled deep in the red, mirroring weak global markets, with decline in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC Bank. Despite opening with gains of over 200 points, the 30-share Sensex turned highly volatile and tumbled 709.17 points or 1.26 per cent to close at 55,776.85. During the day, the benchmark index plunged 1,067.07 points or 1.88 per cent to 55,418.95. The broader NSE Nifty also declined 208.30 points or 1.23 per cent to close at 16,663.
'You may see some movement indicating a simpler tax regime with less exemptions but with fewer tax rates making life simpler for taxpayers.'
'Returns can be very variable in equity markets.' 'That is why I tell small investors don't put 100 per cent of your money in equities, even if you are young.'
Equity markets began the new financial year with smart gains on Friday, with the Sensex rallying over 708 points to recapture the crucial 59,000-mark following gains in index majors HDFC twins and Reliance Industries, along with foreign fund inflows. On the first day of trading in the new financial year, the BSE barometer rallied 708.18 points or 1.21 per cent to settle at 59,276.69. During the day, it jumped 828.11 points or 1.41 per cent to 59,396.62. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 205.70 points or 1.18 per cent to settle at 17,670.45.
The rupee appreciated 7 paise to 79.74 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday as a positive trend in domestic equities supported the local unit. However, a strong American currency overseas and forex outflows restricted the rupee's gain, dealers said. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 79.72 against the American dollar, then went lower to trade at 79.74 against the greenback in early deals, registering a gain of 7 paise over the last close.
Gautam Adani was the world's third and Asia's richest man a month back but a damning report by a US firm triggered a massive sell-off in shares of his apples-to-airport group, plunging his own wealth by $80 billion and the tycoon slipping to No.30 on the world billionaire index. Adani's sprawling conglomerate, which spans from sea ports to airports, edible oil and commodities, energy, cement and data centres, is under attack by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, which successfully deflated electric-vehicle maker Nikola Motors in 2020. Hindenburg, which held short positions in unidentified shares of Adani Group firms through its US-traded debt and offshore derivatives, on January 24 accused the conglomerate of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" and using a number of offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.
Import is returning to the normal prevailing three years ago
India's GDP may turn positive at 1.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2020-21, having witnessed contraction in the previous two quarters due to the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of cases is falling and public spending has started rising, according to a report. The government will release the GDP numbers for the October-December quarter of the current fiscal on Friday. Projecting that the gross domestic product (GDP) may have returned to the black in the last quarter of the calendar year 2020, DBS Bank in the report said the full-year growth in real terms may be at a negative 6.8 per cent.
ITC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding nearly 3 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, TCS, HCL Tech, HDFC and Kotak Bank.
'We have entered the commodity space with a long-term view.'
Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise, taking the total increase in rates since resumption of daily price revision less than a week back to Rs 3.70-3.75 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.11 per litre as against Rs 98.61 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.87 per litre to Rs 90.42, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
There is no direct impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on India in terms of bilateral trade but a surge in oil prices poses considerable risk to the economy, an analyst report said on Friday. International oil prices which have surged past $100 per barrel "pose risks to external stability and currency movement," a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report said. Russia has launched military operations against Ukraine, stoking fears of significant disruption in the region, including loss of life. The West is ramping up financial sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine.
In a statement in the House, the chief minister said air ambulance service would be started at a cost of Rs 10 crore to transport critical patients to hospitals.
Is chocolate a spice or a vegetable or a fruit? Test Your ChocoQ On World Chocolate Day!
Equity benchmark Sensex ended marginally higher after a choppy session on Friday as concerns over the economic impact of the second wave of Covid-19 and pace of vaccination weighed on investor sentiment.
Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) witnessed a net outflow of Rs 248 crore in February, making it the second consecutive month of withdrawals as investors preferred equities over other segments on record SIP flows. Net outflows from the gold ETFs were at Rs 452 crore in the month of January. Prior to that, the asset class had seen a net investment of Rs 313 crore, according to the data of Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). Despite the outflows, the category witnessed an increase in net assets under management (AUM) of gold ETFs to Rs 18,727 crore at the end of February from Rs 17,839 crore in January-end.
Back-to-back droughts in India, the world's largest importer of edible oils and pulses, has boosted prices and made pulses attractive to Canadian farmers.
Equity benchmarks continued their winning momentum for the third day on Thursday and jumped over 1.50 per cent, tracking an overall bullish trend in Asian equities. On the political front, the BJP headed for a second straight win in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and dominated the trends chart in three other states. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex opened in the green and further zoomed 1,595.14 points or 2.91 per cent to 56,242.47 during early trade.
So which sectors are likely to do well in 2022? Should you focus on domestic economy-related sectors or export-oriented ones?
Equity indices gave up early gains to close in the red for the third session on the trot on Wednesday, weighed by selling in banking and finance counters amid inflationary pressures and persistent foreign fund outflows. A weak rupee and lacklustre global cues also kept buying sentiment in check, traders said. The 30-share BSE Sensex opened on a firm footing but failed to hold on the momentum, finishing 237.44 points or 0.41 per cent lower at 58,338.93. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty dipped 54.65 points or 0.31 per cent to close at 17,475.65.
'India's manufacturing will take 10-15 years to catch up with China.'
After a stellar run that saw the frontline indices - the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 - clock gains of around 21 per cent and 24 per cent respectively in calendar year 2021 (CY21), the year gone by in real sense belonged to the mid-and small-cap segments. Thus far in CY21, the mid-and small-cap indexes on the BSE have far outpaced the run in the frontline indices and notched up a gain of around 38 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively during this period. Though analysts expect the outperformance to continue in 2022, they caution against the multiple headwinds in the year ahead that may dent the overall market sentiment.
Mutual funds have launched a clutch of new fund offers in the silver ETF (exchange traded fund) category this year and collected Rs 1,400 crore in assets after the introduction of the newly-created investment asset class by market regulator Sebi in 2021. Further, fund houses including Kotak Asset Management Company have filed draft documents with the markets regulator to float silver ETF as well as silver ETF fund of funds for investors, information with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed. These NFOs (new fund offers) are providing an opportunity to the investors to digitally invest and own silver which is easily tradable during market hours.
India will need to travel back in time and seek inspiration from football greats Tulsidas Balaram and Chuni Goswami to deftly dribble around and sidestep the West-imposed price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil. India depends on imported oil to meet 86 per cent of its needs, of which nearly a quarter now comes from Russia. The copious flows are roughly 10 per cent cheaper than competing suppliers helping India save billions of dollars in fuel costs.
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.
Where do the four members of the Supreme Court appointed panel to interface with farmers stand on the Modi government's farm laws?
With retail inflation witnessing significant uptick in May, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to maintain status quo in its August monetary policy review, according to a report. According to the SBI's research report- Ecowrap, inflation may remain elevated in the coming months due to several global and domestic factors. "We expect a status-quo in August. We believe RBI would still try to find a marriage of convenience of regulatory and developmental measures and monetary policy in August policy," the research report said on Wednesday.
A few years ago, when top officials of Indian state-run refiners went to Dubai to negotiate a crude oil supply contract, a senior official from state-owned Saudi Aramco told them, "We can negotiate on anything, but I am the last man standing for you. "Nobody can offer the range of crudes we do with certainty," an official who was part of the negotiating team recalls. Perhaps that explains why Saudi Arabia is less concerned about losing its place as India's premier oil supplier to an upstart like Russia, which emerged from nowhere to become India's biggest crude oil supplier in September and October.
After three consecutive years of infusing huge funds, foreign portfolio investors retreated from the Indian equity markets in a big way in 2022 with the highest-ever yearly net outflow of nearly Rs 1.21 lakh crore. The huge outflow, which surpasses by a big margin the previous record of Rs 53,000 crore net withdrawal in 2008, came amid aggressive rate hikes by central banks globally but 2023 is expected to be better on positivity about overall macroeconomic trends in India, experts said. Apart from global monetary tightening, volatile crude, rising commodity prices along with Russia and Ukraine conflict led to an exodus of foreign money in 2022.
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.
Amid fears of a third wave of coronavirus pandemic and hardening of retail inflation, the Reserve Bank is likely to maintain status quo on interest rate and watch the developing macroeconomic situation for some more time before taking any decisive action on monetary policy. The RBI is scheduled to announce its bi-monthly monetary policy review on August 6 at the end of the three-day meeting -- August 4-6 -- of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The RBI Governor-headed six-member MPC decides on the key policy rates.
US-based global tech giants, including IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, have partnered with the White House to "unleash the power of American supercomputing resources" for combating the novel coronavirus, President Donald Trump has said. From volunteering to manufacturing masks and ventilators to ramping up production of essential medical supplies and general items, the country's private sector have joined America's war against coronavirus in a big way, Trump said on Sunday, while launching a new public-private consortium organised by the White House, the department of energy and tech company IBM.
Gold is usually seen as a safe-haven when stocks are falling or when inflation is rising. With prices of the yellow metal hovering near record highs, people are also putting off their jewellery purchases. Along with a subdued marriage season, the orders with price open and settled on delivery day, too, are getting cancelled. Apart from high, volatile prices, there is no gold rush yet for the safe-haven asset, crimping demand.
India's growth projection released by the latest World Economic Outlook remains unchanged from its previous WEO (World Economic Outlook) update of July this summer but is a three-percentage point in 2021 and 1.6 percentage point drop from its April projections. According to the latest WEO update, released ahead of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, the world is expected to grow at 5.9 per cent in 2021 and 4.9 per cent in 2022.
Strict lockdown-like restrictions are already in place in the southern stateand the Pinarayi Vijayan government decided to clamp the complete shutdown in the wake of severe spike in the positive cases.
Mandatory hallmarking of gold would be a positive in making the gold market more organised. Mandatory hallmarking would come into effect from January 15, 2020, with a one-year transition period for trade to sell existing inventories. Experts also expect more policy measures next year to bring in more transparency in terms of gold as an asset class.
Quinoa is said to play a role in the treatment of as many as 20-odd ailments, including liver problems, angina, notes Surinder Sud.
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.
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