With Rs 17,087 crore raised so far this calendar year, the total is already 2.4 times that of the full year of 2023, which stood at Rs 7,266 crore.
Collapse of the mobile operator could translate into total loss of nearly Rs 44,000 crore for the AV Birla group.
Selling in index heavyweights, including Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries, dragged the benchmark indices into the negative for the second straight session, analysts said. Among the Sensex shares, Asian Paints fell the most by 3.9 per cent as analysts expressed concerns over rising competition in the domestic paints market following the entry of Aditya Birla group company Grasim Industries into the paints segment. IT shares Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra continued to slide amid inflation concerns in the US market.
Equity markets would take cues from domestic inflation data announcement, global trends and trading activity of foreign investors in a holiday-shortened week ahead, analysts said. Markets would remain closed on Tuesday for 'Diwali Balipratipada'. "As we enter a truncated week with Muhurat trading on Sunday, global cues will play a pivotal role in shaping the market direction.
The group firms reported combined losses of Rs 6,134 crore in FY19 against a net profit of Rs 5,414 crore a year ago. Excluding Vodafone Idea, the group reported a net profit of Rs 8,470 crore, down from a profit of Rs 9,582 crore a year ago.
Engineering giant Larsen and Toubro and Aditya Birla group firm Grasim Industries are set to settle their long-standing dispute over the sale of cross-holdings out of court. Both the companies are believed to be in consultation with Chennai-based chartered accountant S Gurumurthy to act as arbitrator.
With the Securities and Exchange Board of India giving its go-ahead, Grasim's open offer for acquiring 20 per cent more of Larsen and Toubro is scheduled to open at the original price of Rs 190 per share on May 7.\n\n\n\n
Markets this week would be guided by the ongoing quarterly earnings, macroeconomic data announcement and global trends, analysts said. The government will release industrial production data for June and inflation data for July this week. The RBI has revised its retail inflation forecast to 5.7 per cent, up from the earlier 5.1 per cent due to price pressure on account of supply constraints and high crude oil prices.
It also asked why the data shared pertained to a period from April 2019 even though the scheme for anonymous political funding was introduced in 2017.
Tatas agreed to a joint venture, competed with it, later walked out and are now filing 'frivolous' petitions against it, Birlas told Supreme Court in reply to Tata Industries' plea for arbitration on mobile firm Idea Cellular.
The NSE Nifty settled flat at 5,054. The market breadth was fairly positive, out of 2,843 shares traded, 1,599 advanced and 1,166 declined on the BSE.
Grasim Industries, a part of the Aditya Birla group, has decided to sell 53.3 per cent stake in Shree Digvijay Cement Company (SDCC) to Cimpor, a Portuguese cement maker, for Rs 322 crore (Rs 3.22 billion).
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Securities and Exchange Board of India has let off Reliance Industries Ltd and its chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil, who is vice-chairman and MD, from charges of insider trading
Future Gaming and Hotel Services whose director is the lottery magnate Santiago Martin is the top purchaser of electoral bonds having purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368, according to data uploaded by the Election Commission of India on its website on Thursday.
Jaybharat Textiles & Real Estate, a textile company that forayed into real estate three years back, today has a market capitalisation higher than Grasim Industries or Tata Motors.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd on Monday posted a massive jump in its second quarter net profit at Rs 371.98 crore (Rs 3.71 billion) as against Rs 81.26 crore (Rs 810 million) in July-September 2003.
A weaker-than-expected sales performance, concerns about higher competitive intensity in the current year, and earning cuts by some brokerages have weighed on the stock of the country's largest paint maker, Asian Paints. While the Q3 volume show was slightly below expectations, the company's operational and bottom line beat estimates, benefiting from the falling raw material costs. The stock ended the day with a decline of over 2 per cent at Rs 3,175 apiece.
Anil Manibhai Naik, managing director and CEO, Larsen & Toubro, has stayed away from the media glare ever since the A V Birla-owned Grasim Industries Ltd made an open offer for the engineering and cement major about six months back.
Shares of cement companies rallied on Tuesday on hopes of improved quarterly results.
The domestic benchmark indices - the S&P BSE Sensex and the National Stock Exchange Nifty50 - had lost close to 1.5 per cent in three days recently before gaining slightly. Notwithstanding weakness and volatility, the Nifty50 has managed to hold on to the 18,000 mark, while the Sensex has managed to stay above the 61,000 level. The performance of the stocks that comprise these front-line indices remains polarised.
A likely turnaround in profitability margins in the March quarter (Q4FY23) will not be enough to lift the outlook for paint stocks due to volatile crude oil prices and rising competition in the sector, analysts say. Hence, they advise investors to avoid the sector over the short-to-medium term despite the heavy correction in the stocks since last year. Shares of Asian Paints, Berger Paints, Indigo Paints, Nerolac and Pidilite have shed 6-32 per cent over the last 6 months versus a 3 per cent rise in the benchmark Sensex.
Kansai Nerolac Paints has seen its market capitalisation (mcap) erode by over 5 per cent since May 3 after posting a subpar performance in the fourth quarter of 2023-24. Weighed down by stiff competition, the company has shed Rs 1,172 crore over the past two weeks in mcap. India's largest paint maker in terms of mcap, expects double-digit growth in the industrial segment and aims to maintain margins, but its performance in decorative paints could suffer amid competition.
While the four largest listed paint companies have seen marginal negative returns, the S&P BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and the National Stock Exchange Nifty FMCG indices have delivered a solid 16 per cent return during the same period. Initially, volume growth and reduced costs bolstered the sector's sentiment, but brokerages have grown cautious due to increased competitive pressures.
SBI was the top gainer after it reported lower-than-expected rise in bad loans
The post-Covid pandemic boom in corporate revenues appeared to have faded away in 2023-24. Yet, companies have reported a sharp recovery in their profits in FY24, driven by high margins. Their combined net sales, including gross interest income for lenders, rose by a modest 4.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in FY24.
While UltraTech Cement has been the biggest value creator adding nearly Rs 99,000 crore to its market capitalisation, Grasim Industries has added around Rs 27,000 crore to its market cap.
India Inc is gearing up for a slugfest this year and from tech to paints, new battlegrounds are emerging, observes Indrajit Gupta, co-founder, Founding Fuel.
Together, the top 10 business groups reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 19,342 crore during the January-March 2020 quarter, as against a profit before tax of around Rs 48,500 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 39,600 crore during the December quarter. While Vedanta was the worst hit. others included Aditya Birla, Bharti, Adani, Mahindra, and Tata.
The first spending item on the chopping block is capital expenditure, followed by operating costs and overheads, including sales and marketing expenses.
Berger Paints, the country's second-largest decorative paint maker, continued to outperform its peers and gain market share in the 2023-24 (FY24) October-December quarter (third quarter, or Q3). The company posted a consolidated revenue growth of 7 per cent compared to the year-ago quarter, surpassing Asian Paints (5.4 per cent) and Kansai Nerolac Paints (5.7 per cent).
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
