The operating margin of India Inc is likely to drop in the December quarter with a 100-120 bps year-on-year decline, as 27/40 sectors are set to see crimped margins despite higher revenue, according to a report. Surging commodity prices and price hikes may help companies report a healthy 16-17 per cent revenue growth to Rs 9.1 lakh crore during the quarter ending December, the Crisil report said on Tuesday. Software major TCS will open the earnings season Wednesday.
The uptick in prices ranging from steel to wheat could benefit lots of commodity-based companies -- from State-owned SAIL to the agro exporters.
In December 2019, the India arm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu surprised many with its ultra-competitive bid to become the transaction advisor for the country's largest strategic divestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). The multinational major quoted just Rs 1; the second-highest bidder, SBI Caps, reportedly quoted Rs 15-17 crore. For Deloitte, the motivation was to bag a prestigious deal adding a national energy company to its portfolio. No doubt, it expected BPCL to go to a marquee buyer in quick time.
The acquisition of stake in Progress Energy Resources Corp's shale gas assets and Pacific NorthWest LNG for 1 billion Canadian dollars ($900 million) marks IOC's maiden entry into North America.
The domestic supply of diesel has been constrained on rapidly growing demand. The diversion of supplies from Reliance Industries, which was given export-oriented unit status last year, has added to the shortage. Reliance produces 10 million tonnes of diesel from Jamnagar.
Reliance Industries will sell 20 per cent stake in its oil and chemicals business to Saudi oil giant Aramco for about $ 15 billion and nearly half of its fuel retail business to BP of UK for Rs 7,000 crore. Aramco, the world's biggest crude exporter, will also supply Reliance's twin-refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat with 7,00,000 barrels of oil a day on a long-term basis, Ambani said.
The record contraction in the growth rate of eight core sectors will have its impact on IIP.
Indian rupee, which earlier this week touched an all-time low, is likely to remain under pressure and may test new levels as a fallout of the US Federal Reserve indicating more interest rate hikes, experts said. The aggressive rate hikes will dampen demand and increase the possibility of a recession in the US. This could accelerate the pace of capital outflows, weaken the rupee and raise the threat of imported inflation.
This is the highest any Indian company has been ranked on the Fortune Global 500 list.
'When resources are few; when frugality demands repairing a broken thing rather than replacing it with a brand new and expensive option, enterprising commoners in rural and urban India improvise on a daily basis and solve their problems with whatever they have,' observes Shivanand Kanavi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said even though India's options have increased, Russia will remain the country's "most important" defence partner as Moscow offered to fully manufacture in this country one of its most advanced helicopters.
'It will be best for investors to have a systematic investment plan in mid-cap and small-cap funds with a three-/five-year horizon.'
US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea.
Sectors which recorded positive growth were coal, refinery products and fertiliser.
The output of eight core infrastructure sectors grew marginally by 0.1 per cent in January, mainly due to growth in the production of fertiliser, steel and electricity. The core sectors had expanded by 2.2 per cent in January 2020, according to the provisional data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Friday. Coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, and cement recorded negative growth in January.
With economic activity still to reach pre-pandemic levels, the RBI may slow down the pace of rate hikes until next year to quell soaring inflation while supporting growth, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in its latest report. The Manila-based multilateral funding agency has raised the inflation forecast for the current fiscal year ending in March 2023 to 6.7 per cent from its earlier projection of 5.8 per cent. For the next fiscal year too, the forecast has been revised upwards to 5.8 per cent from 5 per cent earlier.
Countries with abundant resources are faring worse in terms of development than those with less.
A weaker rupee could aid corporate earnings through its positive impact on export intensive sectors such as information technology services, pharmaceuticals and commodity producers such as metal and mining, and oil and gas companies.
The Saudi and Iraq offer to replace Iranian crude supplies comes with a catch: Higher prices for the same quality of crude. The new government will face a tough decision over fuel price hike, says Aveek Sen.
'When you need to revive the economy, when you need to revive aggregate demand, you cut taxes.' 'But what's this government doing?' 'It's increasing taxes for the middle class and the vast majority of the poor on fuel, which has a ratchet effect on most other products.'
Emissions would still keep rising till 2030, and the path towards global warming would improve to 2.7c.
In the domestic segment, demand is currently led by rural markets, oil and gas, LPG and B2C segments like roofing and sheeting.
With India's imports exceeding exports, weak rupee does more harm than good. Analysts, however, say that rupee depriciation is positive for export-oriented sectors such as IT services, pharmaceuticals, textiles and automobiles
A strong performance by sectors including banking raised the profits of Indian companies by 28 per cent in the three months ended March 2022. The rate of growth is, however, lower than the 30 per cent seen in December. Growth in net sales was also lower than what was seen in the December quarter for the sample under consideration.
OVL, the overseas investment arm of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, holds 40 per cent stake in the San Cristobal oil project in Venezuela.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said inflation management cannot be "singularly" left to the monetary policy as a majority of activities are outside its purview in the current context. Speaking at a seminar organised by economic think-tank Icrier, the finance minister said that both the fiscal policy and the monetary policy have to work together to contain inflation. Consumer price index (CPI) based inflation or retail inflation is ruling above the Reserve Bank's comfort level of 6 per cent since January.
The Nifty, retained the 5,000 level and ended at 5,088 -- up 71 points. Exports in January grew as services and manufacturing activity jumped.
This State-corporate 'cooperation' didn't begin with the arrival of the Modi government.
Many of the big licences, contracts, and even environmental clearances for the Adani group had come in the UPA's time, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Indian companies place orders worth $600 million for US crude, which is likely to increase by nearly $2 billion in the near future.
We have not suffered such huge price shocks across so many basic commodities, at the same time, in decades. Has the inflationary impact of all this been factored into stock prices as yet, asks Debashis Basu.
'And Joshimath has already shown the dangers ahead.' 'We have to acknowledge that our mountains are still young babies.' 'You don't put an extra load on the back of a growing child!'
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday said his infrastructure conglomerate will invest between $50-70 billion in organic and inorganic growth opportunities across the entire energy value chain over the next decade. Speaking at an industry event, he said the port-to-energy group will invest over $20 billion in renewable energy generation alone. "Over the next decade, we will invest over $20 billion in renewable energy generation.
After missing two self-imposed deadlines, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday announced recalibration of a proposed $15 billion deal to sell 20 per cent stake in its oil refinery and petrochemical business to Saudi Aramco, saying the two firms have agreed to re-evaluate the proposed investment in light of the Indian firm's new energy forays. The stake sale talks, which were first officially revealed in August 2019, are being reset in light of Reliance making forays into new energy business in recent months by investing $10 billion in alternative energy over three years. To pivot to green energy, it has already bought a German maker of photovoltaic solar wafers and signed a deal with a Danish company to manufacture hydrogen electrolysers in India.
Top losers in the Sensex pack include Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Asian Paints, RIL, Coal India, HDFC Bank, HDFC, TCS, ONGC and M&M, falling up to 3.09 per cent.
ONGC signed an agreement with the Norwegian deepwater export to develop deepwater oil and gas blocks on Monday evening.
The acquisition of stake in Progress Energy Resources Corp for 1 billion Canadian dollars ($900 million) mark IOC's maiden entry into North America.
The excise duty cut will translate into a reduction of Rs 9.5 a litre on petrol and Rs 7 a litre in diesel after taking into account its impact on other levies.
Gains in realty, teck, IT, power, consumer durables, banking and oil & gas stocks helped both the key indices to score gains.
These core industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production.
