Indian consumers are likely to get respite from rising prices just before the festival season. Some consumer companies, including automakers, have indicated that they are planning to pause price hikes just before demand picks up in August, while keeping a close eye on volatile raw material prices.
The Oil ministry is set to raise the diesel prices by Rs 10 per litre over the next ten months. Planning Re 1 increase per litre per month for the coming 10 months. This means the wide-gap between diesel and petrol will reduce. Should a car buyer still buy diesel cars or opt for other options?
The steel industry on Thursday assured the government that it will hold the price line for this month, despite rise in input costs and pressure on their margins, to help it fight inflation.
Cites rising inputs costs, volatility of the rupee-euro, high interest rates for increased prices.
Leading computer makers, including Lenovo and HP, are set to hike prices of their products by up to 10 per cent in coming weeks, hit by increasing input costs due to rupee's southward journey.
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.
While traditional automakers in India are reeling under a global shortage of semiconductors, the country's electric vehicle (EV) makers, too, are now facing a shortage of lithium-ion batteries, a key raw material. The soaring prices of metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt, which are the primary constituents of the cell, as well as supply chain bottlenecks, are also pushing up the cost of batteries. Battery manufacturers say that prices have been increasing every quarter since the beginning of 2021.
The 62 per cent increase in natural gas prices by the Indian government will boost the profitability of upstream companies in the country and support their investment spending, Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday. The price for gas from fields that were assigned by the state to oil companies, mainly Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), increased to $2.90 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for October 2021-March 2022, from $1.79 per mmBtu in the previous six months. "Higher gas prices will increase the input cost for key end-consumer sectors, to the extent the price hike is passed on," Fitch said.
While investors might be jittery, experts say proposals from companies looking to raise funds through PEs have not decreased.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) on Monday said prices of its vehicles across models will go up by up to Rs 5,000 from November 1.
Under pressure from increasing input costs and shrinking margins, leading two wheeler manufacturer Hero Honda on Monday announced an increase in prices of its motorcycles by Rs 500 to Rs 2000 across various models.
The company sells a range of models starting with the small car M800 to the luxury sedan Kizashi, which are priced between Rs 204,000 and Rs 17.5 lakh or Rs 1.75 million (ex-showroom Delhi).
Notwithstanding the inflation pinch, analysts believe the Indian retail sector is on the 'cusp of accelerated earnings growth' as consumer sentiment and discretionary purchases bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic. "The shift in consumer preference from the unorganised sector to the organised, coupled with uptick in domestic demand as people resume work from office, will cheer the Indian retail sector," says Nishit Master, portfolio manager, Axis Securities. Shopping malls are witnessing increased footfall in lower tier towns and standalone stores as consumption picks up and mobility improves.
The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Thursday said it is considering increasing prices of its products from next week to offset the impact of rupee depreciation.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation is now projected to be at 5.3 per cent for 2021-22 with risks evenly balanced. In its August policy, the central bank had estimated inflation to be at 5.7 per cent due to supply side constraints, high crude oil and raw materials cost.
Auto Expo 2023 may not trigger a fresh rally in automobile stocks, say analysts, as this year's edition lacks participation from major listed players. It is also owing to the focus on electric vehicles (EVs), a segment where four-wheelers have minuscule market share. "In the passenger vehicles (PV) segment, Maruti Suzuki India and Tata Motors are the only listed players.
'If attacks escalate, there is a risk the Suez Canal may be closed.'
Reflecting a loss of "growth momentum", manufacturing activities in the country slowed down to a six-month low in March amid softer increases in new orders, production and employment, according to a survey.
Rising commodity prices are set to hurt margins of India Inc in the on-going fourth quarter of FY 11, even though revenues are seen higher than the previous year, ratings agency Crisil said on Monday.
Manufacturers indicated that the ongoing relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, better market conditions and improved demand helped them to secure new work in October.
'Somebody was using somebody to make statements that will stir the stock market and lead to a surge.' 'A sudden surge and a sudden crash is always an ideal situation for people to make illicit gains and then siphoning off the money.'
At this moment it is not possible to say whether any organisation or an individual was involved, the home minister said. There were certain theories during his visit to the cafe on Friday night, expressing suspicion that someone might have done it out of 'heartburn', unable to digest the cafe's success and expansion.
The IHS Markit India Manufacturing PMI rose from 51.2 in November to 52.7 in December. Factories benefited from a rebound in demand, and responded by scaling up production to the greatest extent since May. As per the survey, new work orders witnessed marked improvement, with the pace of expansion picking up to the fastest since July.
At present, the auto sector accounts for about 60 per cent of India's current machine tool demand.
CEAT has increased prices of its products across various categories by 2 to 10 pr cent, citing increasing input costs.
Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it is likely to raise in the next few weeks, the price of its entry level sedan Swift DZire to offset high input costs.Based on the Swift platform, Maruti has priced this entry level Sedan in Mumbai from Rs 4.70 lakh for petrol and at Rs 5.60 lakh for diesel (ex-showroom).
The US and European markets account for 35 per cent of export revenue and a big portion of volumes.
The government on Monday gave a massive thrust to services and exports, removed restrictions on exports and made the EPCG scheme more flexible.
Prices of air conditioners and refrigerators are expected to shoot up even as summer temperatures soar in major cities.
A computer with NPU can handle a wide range of tasks directly on personal devices without relying on a Cloud service.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) disappointed the Street with its results for the January-March quarter of the 2022-23 financial year (Q4FY23) due to weaker core engineering & construction (E&C) segment performance by the engineering giant.' Although core E&C order inflows for FY23 rose 19 per cent year-on-year (YoY), with orders from railways, metals and water sectors, margins in the infrastructure segment crashed to all-time low. Revenue at Rs 58,300 crore was up 10 per cent YoY but somewhat below expectations.
Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its vehicles across all models, except the entry level sedan DZire, by up to 3.4 per cent.
The price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) may be hiked by up to Rs 2 per kg in the next few days as rupee devaluation has pushed up input cost.
The Centre recently released the first advance estimates of kharif crops that, barring tur dal, showed a dip in production due to uneven monsoon and other natural calamities including pest attacks in cotton. The first Advance Estimates, released a few weeks back, are usually initial projections on the crop size and, more often than not, are revised as more inputs come from the fields. But, the findings have rung alarm bells in several quarters. The Centre, along with many others, is confident that as more details come, the estimates will be revised upwards.
The FMCG sector has grown consistently during the last three to four years and is expected to grow at 12-15 per cent over the next three to four years.
In its 'Asia Economic Alert', the banking and asset management behemoth also said that the Reserve Bank is likely to hike the short-term lending (repo) rate by 100 basis points in 2011 with the purpose of curbing inflationary pressure.
Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its diesel cars by up to Rs 10,000 with effect from Monday on account of higher input costs and appreciation of Japanese yen.
Harley-Davidson, which reported a two per cent drop in global revenues from motorcycles at $1.09 billion for the September quarter, is betting big on India and China.
Coal, natural gas and fertiliser showed decline in output raising concerns for the industry and government.
