In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
'Since God was being shown in live action on such a large scale, Prasanth was initially sceptical about going with an animated character.'
The total leasing of office space, which comprises demand for all grades of buildings, rose 93 per cent year-on-year in January to 3.2 million square feet across seven major cities, according to property consultant JLL India. However, the leasing fell 56 per cent, compared to December 2022, which had seen 7.4 million square feet office space absorption. In January 2022, the aggregate leasing activities stood at 1.7 million square feet.
The silver lining for India's presidency is likely to be the support by almost all G20 countries to its proposal to include the African Union as a permanent member of the bloc that has emerged as perhaps the most influential multilateral forum after the United Nations.
India's rupee is likely to remain under pressure due to high prices of crude oil and other commodities, and may stabilise at around 79-80 against the US dollar in the near term, say experts amid limited headroom available with the Reserve Bank to check the weakening of the domestic currency. The currency has slumped over 5 per cent this year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent international crude oil prices soaring to a decade high. On Monday, rupee ended at a fresh all-time low of 78.34 (provisional) against the US dollar.
India has one of the lowest cases per million at 1,469 as against the global average of 2,425, the government said.
India's information technology (IT) sector will witness subdued hiring in 2023-24 as macro uncertainties impact demand environment, with clients either taking a pause on spend or stopping discretionary spend, say human resource experts. To begin with, unlike earlier years, the three large IT players TCS, HCLTech, and Wipro have not provided any new hiring targets for the financial year. And Wipro has said that its hiring target will depend on the demand environment.
Investors have become poorer by over Rs 6.18 lakh crore as markets took a heavy beating on Friday. The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 1,093.22 points or 1.82 per cent to settle at 58,840.79. During the day, it tumbled 1,246.84 points or 2 per cent to 58,687.17.
In the months to come, the skies above promise to be a captivating theatre of action, where helicopters play starring roles, ferrying leaders, and echoing the pulse of democracy.
A study by an international team of researchers had warned two year ago that the South Lhonak lake in Sikkim may burst in the future and significantly impact the downstream region.
'It will dictate the flow of funds into the index. We will maintain caution on mid/smallcaps.'
Major General S C N Jatar, who passed into the ages on Monday night, thwarted anti-national forces at the peak of the Assam agitation. Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) salutes this officer and gentleman.
Sources said three cases of Omicron subvariant BF.7, apparently the strain driving China's current surge of COVID cases, have been detected in India so far.
Year by year, our cities remain defeated in the face of weather conditions, costing us time, money, resources and often lives, observe Amit Kapoor and Bibek Debroy.
'When manufacturing or even services cannot generate the kind of employment they are looking for, they prefer to be unemployed rather than under-employed.'
He also feels that the govt should hike diesel and petrol rates.
In his Independence Day address from the ramparts of Red Fort, Modi also reiterated his government's unwavering resolve to ensure national security amid the current global security scenario.
India and England have played with contrasting approaches in the World Cup so far, producing contrasting results. That is unlikely to change when the teams meet in Lucknow on Sunday.
'Indian equity valuations, although not very expensive, are not cheap either.'
'ISRO is resilient enough to spring back and come with a solution quickly.'
Nirmala Sitharaman's messaging was clear when she presented a well-balanced Budget with an eye on state elections in nine states followed by a general election next year, observes Ramesh Menon.
Indian equity markets have a limited upside potential in the near-term as they negotiate the ensuing cyclical slowdown, wrote analysts at Nomura in a recent coauthored report led by Saion Mukherjee, their managing director and head of equity research for India. He, however, believes that the foundations are in place for sustainable growth over the medium-to-long term, and hence suggests a 'buy on dips' strategy to equity investors. As an investment strategy, Nomura prefers domestic-oriented sectors and companies over exporters, and prefers stocks that provide valuation comfort. Industrials and banks are their overweight sectors, while IT services and consumer discretionary are their underweight sectors.
After raising interest rate by a cumulative 250 basis points in 11 months, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday unexpectedly kept benchmark rate unchanged as global banking woes added uncertainty to the economic outlook. Five out of six members of MPC voted to remain focused on the withdrawal of accommodation to ensure inflation aligns with target while focusing on growth, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday. The Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank decided to take a pause after a rate hike seen in previous six consecutive policies.
A few days back, Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India, presented a grim scenario of the crop's prospects in the 2024-25 season that starts in October. Addressing the association's annual general meeting, Ganatra said the area under the crop could go down by at least 10 per cent in the coming season due to falling yields and realisation, leading to farmers losing interest. The fear of a decline in acreage comes against the backdrop of India's cotton production probably falling to its lowest in a decade, according to estimates.
Funding for Indian startups dropped by 33 per cent to $24 billion in 2022 as compared to the previous year though it was nearly double the amount recorded in 2019 or 2020, said a PwC India report on Wednesday. Global investors were still positive about the Indian startup ecosystem despite the global slowdown, as per the report titled 'Startup Tracker-CY 22'. "Funding for Indian startups in CY22 was nearly $24 billion, a drop of 33 per cent in comparison to CY21 but was still more than twice the funds raised in CY20 and CY19 each", it said.
With so many releases in 2023, not all got their due. Subhash K Jha picks his underrated films of the year.
The re-opening of the Chinese economy, as it moves away from its zero-Covid policy, could help stabilise commodity prices, according to some of the country's top metal companies. They view this as a positive for demand, at a time when markets such as the US and Europe have been largely weighed down by slowdown concern now. "Most of us in the metals business are hoping the Chinese economy picks up because half of any metal demand, including demand for aluminium, comes from China.
'We plan to add over 100,000 square kilometres every year, to reach an ambitious target of 500,000 square kilometres by 2025.'
Just when stocks are seen as invincible, we should worry, warns Akash Prakash.
After declining for three consecutive quarters, the value of FPI investment in Indian equities rose 8 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $566 billion in the July-September period, according to a Morningstar report on Wednesday. A fast-changing global macroeconomic landscape, sentiments and opportunities that the Indian equity markets have to offer impacted the direction of flows by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs). Through the quarter, the value of the FPI holdings in domestic equities surged by 8 per cent to $566 billion from $523 billion recorded in the previous quarter.
According to the health department, both samples have been sent for whole genome sequencing.
The Euro 2-billion German multinational Schott AG, a world leader in pharma pack glass tubing, has plans to make India its global hub for production.
The value of foreign portfolio investors' (FPI) holdings in the domestic equities reached $584 billion at the end of December 2022, which was 11 per cent lower from preceding year, according to a Morningstar report. This was largely on low return given by the Indian equities and exodus of foreign money from the domestic stock market. Going by the report, the value of FPIs investments in Indian equities dropped to $584 billion as of December 2022 as compared to $654 billion at the end of December 2021.
'Valuations are very attractive, and most companies are cash-rich with strong dividend yields.'
Don't exit from growth-style funds as they may benefit next from a shift in investor preference.
The ongoing Greece economic crisis poses a little threat to the rest of the world as the global economy has withstood the stress tests of the last two weeks fairly well.
Strong macroeconomic headwinds causing turbulence in the $245-billion Indian IT industry are yet to calm down. Top Indian IT services companies are likely to post a decline or just marginal growth in sequential revenue in Q1FY24 because of a soft discretionary spending environment. Though the first quarter is seasonally strong for IT firms, "June 2023 will be an exception", according to analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities.
The weak April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) results of the largest listed specialty chemical maker, SRF, and multiple global headwinds for the sector are expected to weigh on the prospects of Indian specialty chemical companies in 2023-24 (FY24). Stocks in the sector (down 7-18 per cent) have underperformed the benchmarks (up over 10 per cent) in the past three months, and given the multiple challenges, the trend is likely to continue. Kotak Institutional Equities expects a very weak quarter (Q1FY24) for the sector due to destocking, demand weakness across certain critical end-use industries, and price erosion amid intense competition from Chinese suppliers.
The 55 basis point (bps) spike in the US 10-year bond yield, triggered by a combination of FOMC's hawkish commentary and BOJ's relaxation of the yield control curve (YCC) has made analysts cautious on Asian equities and expect them to trade sideways in the short-to-medium term.
