After the Trinamool's overwhelming majority in the West Bengal assembly elections last year, the SSC scam has given fresh ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Ishita Ayan Dutt reports.
'It could tempt investors to pick stocks that are not fundamentally sound.'
Bengaluru-based Prestige Estates Projects recently said it aims to double its annual residential sales bookings to Rs 25,000 crore by FY26 from its current markets and others such as Mumbai, Pune and National Capital Region (NCR). The company's chairman and managing director Irfan Razaq tells Raghavendra Kamath about his plans to achieve the target and outlook for the real estate market.
The recent NSEL crisis has prompted even rich and diehard equity investors to shift to safer fixed income products.
Domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales saw a significant growth in October due to increased availability of semiconductor chips and rising consumer confidence. The sales figures during the month - which coincided with the first post-Covid festival season - released by the top ten carmakers saw a jump of 30.7 per cent to 322,885 units in October. Auto companies count wholesales - units dispatched to dealers - as sales.
India's flagship motor show Auto Expo 2023 kicked off on Wednesday with the global unveiling of Suzuki Motor Corporation's concept electric SUV 'eVX' which is slated to hit the market by 2025. The company's Indian arm Maruti Suzuki India is among the major manufacturers participating in the show that has returned after three years. The Concept eVX is a mid-size electric SUV concept designed and developed by Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), Japan. It will be powered by a 60 kWh battery pack offering up to 550 km of driving range on single charge.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - the largest information technology (IT) services provider in India and the second-largest globally - recently set an ambitious goal of $50 billion in revenue by 2030. The growth required to reach this goal, however, is lower than the company's own standards. In the past decade, TCS revenues, or net sales in US dollar terms, have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5 per cent, from $10.2 in 2011-12, to an expected $25.3 billion during 2021-22 (FY22), based on its revenue trend in the first nine months of FY22.
The surge in the stock market has failed to stem the trend of small-sized brokers shutting operations.
The difference between what the banks play in the US and India is not that of soccer and football but rugby and football. SVB also has a unique character. But when risks are mispriced, the fallout could be very similar, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The groups plan to take on well-entrenched players like Amazon, Flipkart, and Paytm by merging their offline businesses with e-commerce initiatives.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulled out as much as Rs 17,537 crore from the Indian markets in just three trading sessions of March as investors' sentiment got dented by the uncertainty triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and rising crude oil prices. As per depositories data, they pulled out Rs 14,721 crore from equities, Rs 2,808 crore from debt segment and Rs 9 crore from hybrid instruments between March 2-4. This took the total net outflow to Rs 17,537 crore.
Domestic passenger vehicles sales rose by 23 per cent to a record of 37.93 lakh units in 2022 led by the likes of Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors as the companies rode on easing of pandemic related challenges and semiconductor shortages to cash in on pent up demand, specially for SUVs. Other manufacturers like Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Skoda India also reported record sales in 2022. "The industry wholesales in January to December 2022 were just short of 38 lakh units.
The RBI's financial stability report has on Wednesday highlighted the disconnect between the real economy and equity market yet again. The central bank observed that Indian equities were trading at rich valuations, with several metrics such as price to earnings multiples, price to book ratio, market cap to GDP and the cyclically adjusted P/E ratio, or Shiller P/E, at above historical averages. For instance, as on December 13, the one-year forward P/E ratio for India was 35.1 per cent, above its 10-year average, and one of the highest in the world.
Bird Group's executive director Ankur Bhatia died on Friday at the age of 48 following a massive cardiac arrest.
A depreciating rupee, which briefly hit 80 to the dollar on Tuesday, may boost India's exports but price-inelastic imports of crude oil and gold would mean limited relief on the trade deficit, which clocked a record $26.2 billion in June. Due to global risk aversion on the back of geo-political tensions and aggressive policy tightening by the Fed, the dollar has appreciated against most currencies, including the rupee. And, with other currencies depreciating, India's comparative advantage in this respect may be limited.
In the context of market integrity, the IRAI and RBI should go over the minutes of the LIC and SBI board meetings when the decisions to invest in Adani equity or debt were taken, notes Jaimini Bhagwati, former World Bank treasury professional.
Continuing its heavy selling spree for the eighth consecutive month, foreign investors pulled out nearly Rs 40,000 crore from the Indian equity market in May on fears of an aggressive rate hike by US Federal Reserve that dented investor sentiments. With this, net outflow by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from equities reached at Rs 1.69 lakh crore so far in 2022, data with depositories showed. Going ahead, FPI flows will remain volatile in the emerging markets on account of rising geo-political risk, rising inflation, tightening of monetary policy by central banks, among others, Shrikant Chouhan, Head - Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities said.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs 17,696 crore from the Indian markets in December so far amid uncertainty due to a new coronavirus strain, Omicron, and expectations of faster tapering by the US Federal Reserve. According to the depositories data, FPIs took out Rs 13,470 crore from equities, Rs 4,066 crore from the debt segment and Rs 160 crore from hybrid instruments between December 1-17. In November, FPIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,521 crore in Indian markets.
Sisodia was arrested after nearly eight hours of questioning on various aspects of the excise policy for 2021-22, which the probe agency says suffered from irregularities both in its formulation and implementation, allegedly intended to benefit people with links to the AAP.
The size of the Indian financial services market could touch around $340 billion in the next few years.
ITC Ltd on Friday reported a 23.09 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,070.09 crore for the third quarter ended December 2022, helped by growth momentum across its operating segments. The diversified company had posted a net profit of Rs 4,118.80 crore during the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal, ITC said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue from operations was up 3.56 per cent to Rs 19,020.65 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 18,365.80 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the energy portfolio, held a meeting with trade union representatives and later said the government had no intention to privatise state-run power utilities.
Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is looking to divest its exposure to road and power concessions and incubate digital and e-commerce businesses as part of its new five-year plan ending 2025-26 (FY26). The base year for the plan is 2020-21 (FY21). The blueprint, called Lakshya 2026, is intended to help the company exit sub-scale businesses, concentrate on high-technology (tech) manufacturing, construction and green energy projects, and increase its share from information technology (IT) and digital services. The lending operations of the financial services business, meanwhile, will be reorganised, with focus on retail lending.
After a turnaround in performance by Indian equity markets since July that has seen the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 wipe out the year-to-date losses, analysts suggest investors start nibbling into stocks that are focused on the domestic economy. While they say intermittent corrections, led by policies of global central banks and other economic data, cannot be ruled out, analysts expect India's relative outperformance among global equity markets to continue as it looks better placed with a healthy economic recovery, and remains one of the fastest growing major economies. In this backdrop, Neeraj Chadawar, head of quantitative equity strategy at Axis Securities, believes that amid global slowdown, aggressive tightening by the central banks, and preference for domestic interests first (by the local government), export-oriented themes are likely to be muted or will deliver conservative returns in the near-term.
'Devika is a people's person, who simply loves what she does. This reflects in her work; the insights she brings to the table and the way she interacts with people and clients. She has the demeanour of a good captain. Her success is well-deserved.'
The Adani group will have understood the fragility of investor trust in the group. The group needs to improve transparency including in areas like share-ownership (which they have long and mistakenly believed can be side-stepped) and related-party transactions, among others, Amit Tandon and Hetal Dalal point out.
'Investors should plan and make investments strictly on the basis of their risk profile.' 'They should not bite more than they can chew.'
When shares of Nykaa's parent FSN E-Commerce Ventures skyrocketed in debut trade on Wednesday, founder Falguni Nayar and family also saw their wealth surge to nearly $7 billion. And when the markets closed for trade, the wealth was well over $7.5 billion. The dream debut of Nykaa, in a market being flooded with initial share sales, sustained the momentum till the close of the trade as the scrip registered a staggering gain of over 96 per cent to end at Rs 2,206.70 apiece on the BSE.
Consumption of gold is the highest among middle-income households - those with annual income between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh - who account for an average of 56 per cent of gold sales over the last five years, according to a nationwide survey conducted by India Gold Policy Centre (IGPC) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). "Per capita consumption is highest among the rich, but total volume still rests with the middle-income group. "With increasing income, there is an increasing propensity to consume gold, although the share of gold in the portfolio does not increase with the same proportion of income," the survey report says.
Strengthening the portfolios of the home minister and the finance minister is a message that should not be missed, points out A K Bhattacharya.
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Ola has reported its first operating profit of Rs 89.82 crore for 2020-21, even as the ride-hailing company's revenue declined 65 per cent to Rs 689.61 crore amid COVID-19 induced lockdowns. As per regulatory documents filed by ANI Technologies - the parent company of Ola - it had logged standalone operating profit (profit before finance cost, depreciation, amortisation and tax (EBITDA)) of Rs 89.82 crore in FY21 on a standalone basis, while it had registered a loss of Rs 610.18 crore in the preceding fiscal year.
Waves of foreign portfolio investments worth over Rs 51,000 crore splashed into the Indian market in 2021 as overseas investors turned net buyers of domestic securities for the third straight year while excess global liquidity and other factors steered the ebb and flow of their investing ways. With the global financial system still flush with liquidity, emerging market assets, especially equities, might well remain the preferred investment avenue for many more months to come, experts opined. As the equities sizzled during most of 2021, that also saw economy slowly coming back into the recovery path, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) turned net buyers but their investment is much less compared to net inflows of Rs 1.03 lakh crore in 2020.
The regulations will only apply to the share purchases that have been done after October 1, 2004
Even as India's internet base continues to widen, with the country set to have over 900 internet users by 2025, a parallel rise in cyber threats has become a matter of huge concern. Experts say that the sudden surge in digital adoption left little time to develop a cybersecurity backbone for the country. This has put large amounts of data at risk.
Sebi on Monday imposed a penalty totalling Rs 15 crore on senior officials of Franklin Templeton AMC and its trustee for violating regulatory norms in the case of winding up of six debt schemes in 2020. However, a spokesperson of Franklin Templeton said they disagree with the findings in Sebi's order and intend to file an appeal with the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). A fine of Rs 3 crore has been levied on Franklin Templeton Trustee Services Pvt Ltd and Rs 2 crore each on Franklin Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd President Sanjay Sapre and its chief investment officer Santosh Kamat, according to the Sebi order. In addition, the regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 1.5 crore each on fund managers -- Kunal Agarwal, Pallab Roy, Sachin Padwal Desai and Umesh Sharma -- as well as former fund manager Sumit Gupta.
'People are doing a lot of trading.' 'Short-term euphoria can be seen.' 'Retail participation is best through MFs and PMS.'
Besides their country of origin, General Motors, Ford Motor and Harley-Davidson have another trait in common: all three have failed in India, the world's fifth largest automobile market. All three of them took a tough call to de-prioritise India as a market amid disruption from heightened regulations and sharper focus on capital allocation by the parent.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Treat silver as part of the procyclical or growth assets in your portfolio, advises Sanjay Kumar Singh.