The combined profit before tax of 748 companies, which have declared their results for Q1FY21, is down 46 per cent YoY. Their net sales went down by a quarter as the Covid-19 lockdown led to a sharp fall in economic activity.
Bharti may look at gaining market share pre-merger and benefit from a lower capex intensity
While Airtel's India wireless operational performance was one of its worst in recent times, Jio surprised the Street by reporting a higher expected operating and net profit.
The companies that have seen sharp erosion of market wealth include YES Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Zee Entertainment, Vodafone Idea, and Bharat Heavy Electricals.
The earnings are, however, expected to be down around 2 per cent on a sequential basis due to pent-up demand getting exhausted and the adverse impact of rising metals and energy prices on consumer goods and manufacturing companies.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd's plans for investing Rs 75,000 crore in solar, batteries, fuel cells and hydrogen could create valuation of $36 billion (Rs 2.6 lakh crore) for the new energy business, Wall Street brokerage Bernstein Research said in a report. Reliance currently has three verticals -- oil-to-chemical (O2C) business that houses its oil refineries, petrochemical plants and fuel retailing business; digital services that comprises telecom arm Jio; and retail including e-commerce. New Energy will be the fourth vertical. At the company's annual general meeting of shareholders last month, Ambani announced a plan to invest Rs 75,000 crore in a new energy business over the next 3 years in the next stage in its transformation.
From spending a little less than three hours on making voice calls, Indians are spending well over 5 hours. So, while people make more calls, they are spending less than ever, reports Romita Majumdar.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Reliance Industries was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging over 3 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, HDFC twins and Kotak Bank. NSE Nifty surged 143.25 points or 1.18 per cent to 12,263.55.
Some of the firms that have witnessed major drop in analysts' coverage include Dish TV, YES Bank, and JSW Energy.
While she primed up spending on infrastructure to create jobs and boost economic activity, Sitharaman did not tinker with income tax slabs or tax rates. Her Budget for the fiscal year beginning April 2022 proposed a massive 35 per cent jump in capital expenditure to Rs 7.5 lakh crore, coupled with rationalisation of customs duty, an extension of time for setting up new manufacturing companies and plans for starting a digital currency and tax crypto assets.
The government on Thursday made it clear that BlackBerry services may be banned if its maker, Research-in-Motion, fails to provide a monitoring solution in the next five days.
The broader NSE Nifty fell 78.75 points, or 0.70 per cent, to close at 11,234.55.
The SBI report, however, said the economic growth rate will pick up pace in 2020-21 to 6.2 per cent.
Not surprisingly, equity investors are bidding-up stock prices across sectors and the broader market is now more valuable than pre-Covid levels.
'Earlier-than-expected tapering from the US, followed by rate hikes, and locally, a potential third wave, which mimics the second wave in terms of severity.'
On the Sensex chart, Sun Pharma was the top loser, followed by Maruti, L&T, Hero Motocorp, Infosys, ONGC and RIL.
Telecom software and service solutions provider Mahindra-British Telecom has acquired privately-held US-based Axes Technologies for $54 million to consolidate its position as a leading services provider in the sector.
Kotak Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, ending 4.31 per cent higher. PowerGrid, TCS, ICICI Bank, SBI, HCL Tech, NTPC, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, HDFC duo, ONGC, Vedanta and IndusInd Bank too rose up to 2.84 per cent.
Voice calling will be free on Jio phones for life and post December 31, 10 data plans will be offered
The optic fibre cable infra was with Jio Digital Fibre and the tower infra with Reliance Jio Infratel
Mahindra and Mahindra was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging over 16 per cent, followed by Maruti, Titan, Bajaj Finance, HDFC, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp. On the other hand, HUL, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank and Nestle were the laggards.
The sources said Gandhi wants India to lead in the niche area which comes after software development.
After taking over scam-hit Satyam, Techn Mahindra has made many structural changes in the latter to turn it around.
Faced with August 31 deadline to address the country's security concerns, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Friday said it was "optimistic" of resolving with the government the issue of lawful interception of its services.
C Vijayakumar, the reticent chief executive of HCL Technologies, India's third-largest IT services firm, was recently appointed managing director, succeeding the founder, Shiv Nadar. Back in October 2016, when CVK, as he is popularly called within and outside of HCL, was named CEO, it had been somewhat of a surprise - his elevation being the result of his predecessor, Anant Gupta, suddenly stepping down to "pursue personal interests". CVK, 53, has since taken the firm from under $7 billion to over $10 billion in revenue.
Blackberry services have become a bone of contention between government and telecom service providers, who are questioning the rationale behind making them respondent to the concern of security agencies.
Used smartphones are gaining popularity in the hinterland, the main market for JioPhone. Share of JioPhone in the feature phone market had shrunk from 47% in Q2 of 2018 to 28% a year after.
US-based telecom infrastructure company, Unicorn Communications, is planning to enter the Indian market. It intends to commence operations in about three months and will offer telecom infrastructure such as mobile towers.
'The market won't wait for earnings to recover.'
Pending final approvals, Huawei would become the first big-name Chinese phone maker to manufacture hardware in India's growing market.
RIL has been talking to groups including Gionee, Huawei and Xiaomi
According to experts, the Nifty has continued to form lower top-lower bottom formations, a trend seen in the last five weeks, and witnessed sharp selling towards 9,700 zones.
Indian Police Services lost the race for having one of its officers as the head of National Technical Research Organisation, the country's top intelligence and surveillance agency, with the government appointing a retired Indian Administrative Services officer to the post.
They should keep themselves out of the race for the time being and wait for a better time, suggests a recent report by research firm Strategy Analytics. Foreign operators like AT&T, Deutsche Telecom, NTT Docomo and others who have been eyeing the domestic market for a long time now finally got a chance to enter world's fastest growing telecom market but looking at the current 3G auction policy, it is advisable for them not to participate in the race, it said.
Zuckerberg is kicking off a tour of Europe on Monday.
Mid- and small-cap indices have outperformed the frontline benchmarks - the S&P BSE Sensex (up around 10 per cent) and the Nifty50 (13 per cent) - in the first half of calendar year 2021 (H1-CY21) by rallying 26 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively. The trend, analysts believe, is likely to continue in H2-CY21 as well. The outperformance in H1-CY21 comes on the back of improved earnings and strong inflows from the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in Indian equities. However, good monsoon so far, gradual opening up of the economy and the pick-up in the pace of vaccination provides support to the market.
Yes Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack rising 5.80 per cent, followed by Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank and Tata Steel.
Markets
More than India's alignment with the Quad, India's defence cooperation and partnership with the USA is of critical importance, notes Rup Narayan Das.
