Ratings agency Moody's on Tuesday affirmed India's sovereign rating and upgraded the country's outlook to 'stable' from 'negative', citing receding downside risks to the economy and financial system.
Moody's Investors Service on Thursday said India's rising vaccination rate, low interest rates and higher public spending drive the positive outlook for corporate sector.
The Indian economy remains on track to regain its position as the world's fastest-growing major economy after official estimates on Friday put the expansion at a tempered 9.2 per cent this fiscal amid concerns over the impact of a resurgent virus on the fragile recovery. The growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) of 9.2 per cent in April 2021 to March 2022 fiscal (FY 2021-22) given by the National Statistical Office (NSO) in its first advance estimate compares with 9.5 per cent expansion forecast by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month. The economy had contracted by 7.3 per cent in the previous financial year.
Shareholders of the six listed Future Group companies voted on Wednesday. Bankers said all the large lenders had rejected the proposal.
Renowned women's rights activist and founder of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) Ela Bhatt passed away in Ahmedabad on Wednesday due to age-related ailments, her associates said.
Equity indices gave up early gains to close in the red for the third session on the trot on Wednesday, weighed by selling in banking and finance counters amid inflationary pressures and persistent foreign fund outflows. A weak rupee and lacklustre global cues also kept buying sentiment in check, traders said. The 30-share BSE Sensex opened on a firm footing but failed to hold on the momentum, finishing 237.44 points or 0.41 per cent lower at 58,338.93. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty dipped 54.65 points or 0.31 per cent to close at 17,475.65.
In many states, aggregators operate without a licence; in others, with the risk of the licence being revoked by any regional transport office on the slightest pretext.
Investor wealth has jumped over Rs 16.70 lakh crore as markets extended its winning streak to the sixth session on Monday. The BSE benchmark Sensex rallied 617.14 points or 1.22 per cent to close above the 51,000-mark for the first time on Monday. During the day, the benchmark index jumped to its all-time high of 51,523.38.
Investor wealth on Wednesday tumbled over Rs 3.27 lakh crore as markets witnessed massive selling pressure amid rising coronavirus cases in the country. The BSE benchmark index plunged 871.13 points or 1.74 per cent to close at 49,180.31. During the day, it declined 931.1 points to 49,120.34. Following the weak trend, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies tumbled Rs 3,27,967.71 crore to reach Rs 2,02,48,094.19 crore at the close of trade.
L&T was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, SBI, Maruti, Axis Bank and Bajaj Auto.
Be it roads, railways, ports, civil aviation, energy or electricity, the Narendra Modi govt has invigorated all these sectors since it took over, says Arvind Panagariya.
Oil and gas exploration in India has taken a quantum leap with three significant oil and gas discoveries and about $416 million already invested in less than three years, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik has said.
The percentage was 63.14 per cent in Hathras, 61.89 per cent in Firozabad, 63.04 per cent in Kasganj, 65.7 per cent in Etah, 61.51 per cent in Mainpuri, 59.13 per cent in Farrukhabad, 61.93 per cent in Kannauj and 58.35 per cent in Etawah.
Around 75 per cent, or 372 stocks, that are part of the BSE500 are trading at least 10 per cent below their all-time high levels, despite the index hitting a record high 20,515 points on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday, surpassing its previous high of 20,390 touched in March 12. The index, which accounts for 93 per cent of BSE listed companies' market capitalisation, has gained 8 per cent from its recent low of 18,983, touched on April 19. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 6 per cent over the same period, but is still nearly 4.5 per cent away from its all-time high of 52,517 that it hit on February 16.
Average wages paid by listed companies is more than twice the salaries paid by other enterprises, points out Mahesh Vyas.
After witnessing cloudy skies this year, the country's renewable energy sector is expected to boom with a likely investment of over $15 billion in 2022 as the government focuses on electric vehicles, green hydrogen, manufacturing of solar equipment as well as achieving the ambitious 175 GW renewable capacity target. India, which has an installed renewable energy generation capacity of a little over 150 GW, aims to reach 175 GW in 2022. Out of the total mix, 100 GW would be from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro power projects.
Salary increments in India will touch a five-year high of 9.9 per cent in 2022 as organisations are planning to invest in new-age capabilities to build a resilient workforce amid strong economic recovery and positive business sentiment, a survey said on Wednesday. According to leading global professional services firm Aon's 26th Salary Increase Survey in India, organizations across industries project a 9.9 per cent salary increase in 2022, compared to 9.3 per cent in 2021. The study that analysed data across 1,500 companies from more than 40 industries, noted that the industries with the highest projected salary increases are e-commerce and venture capital, hitech/IT and IT enabled services (ITeS) and life sciences.
Conversion of debt of the stressed telecom player Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) into equity could be an option to emerge out of the crisis, lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) have suggested to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). DoT had called senior bank officials on Friday to discuss the stress in the telecom sector arising out of the Supreme Court order last month on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues payable by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, sources said. The top court has given a time period of 10 years to telecom service providers struggling to pay Rs 93,520 crore of AGR-related dues to clear their outstanding amount to the government.
The economic impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on emerging economies will depend on a mix of government restrictions, public comfort with social interactions, and capacity of governments and central banks to provide additional policy support to the private sector, Moody's Investors Service said on Wednesday. The emergence of the new variant poses new risks to the global economic growth and inflation outlook, as concerns mount about the variant's health risks and several countries have imposed new travel restrictions in recent days. These restrictions will likely increase over the coming weeks until scientists learn more about the variant, it said.
This is the first decline since June this year when car sales declined by 11%.
Ad man Gerson da Cunha, a multi-faceted personality who was very passionate about civic activism in later years, died in Mumbai on Friday. He was 92.
The early bird results for the January-March 2022 quarter (Q4FY22) hint at a slowdown in corporate sector growth in the upcoming quarters. The combined net sales of the 81 early bird companies in the Business Standard sample were up 15.1 per cent year-on-year in Q4FY22; this was less than the 15.9 per cent YoY jump reported in Q3FY22. The slowdown could be much stronger for the domestic market-focused companies, including those in the banking, finance, and insurance (BFSI) space.
On the Sensex chart, NTPC, SBI, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv and Bjaja Finance were among the major laggards, shedding as much as 1.63 per cent.
Banks operating in India reported fraud of Rs 4.92 trillion as on March 31, 2021, which represents nearly 4.5 per cent of the total bank credit, showed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, which was sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by Saurabh Pandhare. The data showed 90 banks and financial institutions reported a total of 45,613 cases of loan fraud till March 31, 2021. State Bank of India - the country's largest lender - reported the highest amount of loans as fraud - Rs 78,072 crore as on March 31, 2021.
Fitch Ratings has cut India's economic growth forecast to 8.7 per cent for the current fiscal but raised GDP growth projection for FY23 to 10 per cent, saying the second COVID-19 wave delayed rather than derail the economic recovery. In its APAC Sovereign Credit Overview, Fitch Ratings said India's 'BBB-/Negative' sovereign rating "balances a still-strong medium-term growth outlook and external resilience from solid foreign- reserve buffers, against high public debt, a weak financial sector and some lagging structural factors". The 'Negative' outlook, it said, reflects uncertainty over the debt trajectory following the sharp deterioration in India's public finances due to the pandemic shock.
From the 30-share pack, Sun Pharma, TCS, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Infosys were the major gainers, jumping up to 3.99 per cent. In contrast, Tata Steel, Nestle, Titan Company, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries Limited and State Bank of India were among the laggards.
Moody's Investors Service on Thursday slashed India's economic growth projection to 8.8 per cent for 2022 from 9.1 per cent earlier, citing high inflation. In its update to Global Macro Outlook 2022-23, Moody's said high-frequency data suggests that the growth momentum from December quarter 2021 carried through into the first four months this year. However, the rise in crude oil, food and fertilizer prices will weigh on household finances and spending in the months ahead.
Growing for the third consecutive month, the country's exports rose marginally by 0.67 per cent year-on-year to $27.93 billion in February even as trade deficit widened to $12.62 billion, according to official data released on Monday.
On the Sensex chart, Axis Bank, Titan, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy's, HDFC and Asian Paint were major losers.
The second dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine will be administered to healthcare workers from February 13, the Centre said on Thursday, highlighting that 45 per cent of them have been inoculated so far.
Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala cumulatively account for 67.16 per cent of India's total active cases, the ministry said.
Maintaining a rapid pace of the vaccination drive and quickly bridging healthcare infrastructure gaps across both urban and rural areas would emerge as the most sustainable stimulus for durable recovery of the Indian economy, says a report by the department of economic affairs.
The country's exports in December surged 37 per cent on an annual basis to $37.29 billion, the highest-ever monthly figure, government data showed on Monday.
Equity benchmark Sensex rebounded 454 points on Thursday, boosted by gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries amid a positive trend in global markets.
Emerging technologies like cybersecurity and the Internet of Things have the potential to add 1.4 million new IT jobs in India by 2027.
The central government is devising a mechanism to step up screening imports to protect domestic manufacturers. The details of the online monitoring system may find mention in the foreign trade policy 2021-26, which will kick in next month. The online system will make the data available to the government as well as industry about the countries from where the goods are being imported, and their quantity and quality. The data can help domestic producers analyse the market potential for such goods, said a senior government official. In the past 16 months, the government had implemented a steel- and coal-import monitoring system.
The proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, that are envisioned to protect consumer interests, may further compound the impact of multiplicity of regulations on the e-commerce sector, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) had told the ministry of consumer affairs. IACC, the apex bilateral chamber for Indo-US business, had told the government that the proposed amendments would increase compliance liabilities that risk severely impairing the growth of the sector.
Close to $18 billion that Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail mopped up from a slew of private equity transactions in 2020 has pushed up the money inflows through this route by 108 per cent to $33.8 billion, according to an industry report. As per the data collated by Refinitiv, private equity investments increased 108 per cent in 2020 over the previous year, with the number of deals jumping from 665 in 2019 to 791 in 2020 at $33.8 billion, despite the pandemic. In 2019, total PE deals stood at $16.2 billion. Most of the fund inflows were in the third quarter, fetching $24 billion, which, however, tapered off in Q4 to just about $4.57 billion, as per the data from the agency that tracks financial transactions at a global level.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the Indian Railways' wholly-owned listed subsidiary, is eyeing partnerships to offset recurring costs incurred in train operations, which is part of its two-year-old diversification from core catering and ticketing businesses. To this end, it is courting public sector undertakings such as Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and others to create a special purpose vehicle for the routes for which IRCTC has bid. The Railway ministry opened bids for public private partnerships in passenger train operations in July 2021 and received bids to operate 29 pairs of trains with around 40 modern rakes that would entail an investment of Rs 7,200 crore.
We'll need to wait a couple of years to see how many restructured loans turn bad and whether some banks fall victim to their obsession for growth, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
