The Nifty and the Sensex opened the day on a positive note with decent gains.
Join us as we follow the top business news through the day.
Reddit forums turn to cannabis sector as stocks hit new highs
Shares in cannabis companies surged on Wednesday, extending a months-long rally due to bets on decriminalisation under the Biden administration, as the Reddit community behind a recent trading frenzy talked up the stocks.
One post on WallStreetBets, the Reddit forum linked to the past month's surges in GameStop Corp, AMC Entertainment and others, told users that shares of producers Tilray Inc and Aphria Inc have more room to rise.
That post was liked by around 10,000 other users in just twelve hours and shares in the two companies jumped by 21% and 10%, respectively.
The forum has become a must-watch for traders at financial institutions since concerted action by some of its 8 million participants proved enough to overturn hedge fund "short" bets on GameStop and others in January.
Mastercard to open up network to select cryptocurrencies
Mastercard Inc said on Wednesday it was planning to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its network this year, joining a string of big-ticket firms that have pledged similar support.
The credit-card giant's announcement comes days after Elon Musk's Tesla Inc revealed it had purchased $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment.
Asset manager BlackRock Inc and payments companies Square and PayPal have also recently backed cryptocurrencies.
Mastercard already offers customers cards that allow people to transact using their cryptocurrencies, although without going through its network.
Rs 819-cr RailTel IPO to open on Feb 16; price band set at Rs 93-94
The IPO boom continues.
PTI reports: "State-owned RailTel Corporation of India on Thursday fixed a price band of Rs 93-94 a share for its initial share-sale, which will open for public subscription on February 16.
The initial public offer (IPO) is entirely an offer-for-sale through which government will offload 87,153,369 equity shares, amounting to 27.16 per cent stake, the company said in a statement.
At the upper end of the price band, the government would raise a little over Rs 819 crore.
The three-day issue would close on February 18 and the anchor investors portion would be open for subscription on February 15.
The mini-ratna PSU is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country owning an optic fiber network on exclusive Right of Way (RoW) along railway track.
The company provides broadband telecom and multimedia network across the country.
Half of the issue is reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35 per cent for retail investors, 15 per cent for non-institutional bidders.
As on June 30, 2020, its optic fiber network covers over 55,000 kms and 5677 railway stations across towns and cities in the country.
ICICI Securities, IDBI Capital, SBI Capital Markets are merchant bankers to the issue.
In December 2018, the cabinet had approved IPO of RailTel Corporation by diluting up to 25 per cent government stake."
SBI eyes 40% increase in home loans to ₹7-lakh cr.
State Bank of India (SBI) plans to build home-loan business worth ₹7 lakh crore by FY2024.
The bank crossed the ₹5 lakh-crore mark on Wednesday.
“The real estate and housing business unit of the SBI has grown five times in the last 10 years with AUM (assets under management) of ₹89,000 crore in 2011 to ₹5 trillion in 2021,” SBI said.
Despite a massive setback to the real estate sector triggered by pandemic-induced lockdown, this vertical registered unparalleled growth in the home-loan business, it added.
“We feel that combining technology with personalised service is the key in the current scenario,” said Dinesh Khara, chairman.
Page Q3 profit jumps 77% to ₹154 crore
Apparel maker Page Industries’ reported third-quarter revenue rose almost 17% to ₹9,27 crore and net profit by almost 77% to ₹154 crore.
The firm maintained cost-optimisation efforts and reduced other expenses by 5% to ₹142 crore. This was achieved without any employee/worker lay-offs and salary cuts, it said.
“We are encouraged by the strong demand in all our product categories and channels,” said Sunder Genomal, MD.
Petrol price close to Rs 88-mark in Delhi, diesel near Rs 85-level in Mumbai
Fuel prices at another all-time high.
PTI reports: "Petrol price in the national capital closed in on record Rs 88 per litre mark while diesel neared Rs 85 in Mumbai after rates across the country were hiked for the third day in a row on Thursday.
Petrol price was increased by 25 paise per litre and diesel by 30 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
This took petrol price to an all-time high of Rs 87.85 a litre in Delhi and to Rs 94.36 in Mumbai.
Diesel rates rose to Rs 78.03 per litre in the national capital and to an all-time high of Rs 84.94 in Mumbai.
Rates vary from state to state depending on the local incidence of taxation (VAT) and freight.
In three days, prices have gone up by 90 paise per litre each.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday had told Parliament that the government is not considering a reduction in excise duty to cool rates from their record highs.
Rates have risen as international oil prices touched USD 61 per barrel for the first time in more than a year on improving demand outlook amid the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, he had said.
Central and state taxes make up for over 61 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and about 56 per cent of diesel.
Retail petrol rates have risen by Rs 18.26 per litre since mid-March 2020 after the government raised taxes by a record margin to mop up gains arising from fall in international oil prices. Diesel rates have gone up by Rs 15.74."
Passenger vehicle sales in India up 11% in January: SIAM
Good news from the auto sector.
PTI reports: "Passenger vehicle wholesales in India increased by 11.14 per cent to 2,76,554 units last month, auto industry body SIAM said on Thursday.
Passenger vehicle sales in January 2020 stood at 2,48,840 units.
As per the latest data by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler dispatches to dealers also rose 6.63 per cent to 14,29,928 units, compared to 13,41,005 units in January 2020.
Motorcycle sales increased 5.1 per cent to 9,16,365 units as against 8,71,886 in January 2020.
Scooter sales were also up 9.06 per cent at 4,54,315 units from 4,16,567 units a year ago.
Three-wheeler sales, however, declined by 56.76 per cent to 26,335 units as compared with Rs 60,903 units in January last year.
Vehicle sales across categories rose by 4.97 per cent to 17,32,817 units last month as against 16,50,812 units in the year ago period."
Exporters send an SOS after Budget jolt
India’s exporters have red-flagged proposals in the Budget that aim to disallow IGST refunds for exports and empower customs officials to confiscate goods for making a ‘wrongful claim’, warning that these changes will severely hurt exports and could impact India’s image as a reliable global supplier.
Asserting that exporters were flush with orders and in a position to deliver high growth provided working conditions were easier, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the Budget’s proposals had come on the back of other policy ‘missteps’ that were taking the system towards ‘Inspector Raj’.
More than 2,000 exporters had recently been served notices by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) for what exporters contend are ‘revenue-neutral’ issues. About 5,000 exporters continued to be tagged as ‘risky’, which was leading to delays in their shipments and tax refunds, said the FIEO’s top officials.
Rupee opens on flat note against US dollar in early trade
A flat opening for the rupee, in line with stocks.
PTI reports: "The rupee opened on a flat note and edged higher by 3 paise to 72.81 against the US dollar in opening trade on Thursday, amid positive domestic equities and sustained foreign fund inflows.
At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 72.81 against the US dollar, registering a rise of just 3 paise over its previous close.
On Wednesday, the rupee had settled at 72.84 against the American currency.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.02 per cent to 90.38.
Forex traders said rupee is trading in a narrow range as gains due to a weak greenback could be offset by the Reserve Bank's presence in the markets.
The key trigger point for the markets will be Friday’s CPI and IIP numbers, they said.
"Technically, the USD-INR spot pair could continue to trade sideways in the range 72.80-73.00 for the next couple of sessions," Reliance Securities said in a research note.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 150 points higher at 51,459.39, and the broader NSE Nifty advanced 37.35 points to 15,143.85.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,786.97 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.47 per cent to USD 61.18 per barrel."
Amazon appeals to India's Supreme Court in Future deal dispute-sources
The legal battle between the business giants looks set to continue.
Reuters reports: "Amazon.com Inc has mounted a legal challenge against its partner Future Group's $3.4 billion retail assets sale in India's Supreme Court, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, marking the U.S. firm's latest effort to block the deal.
Amazon, locked in legal disputes with Future, alleges the Indian firm violated contracts by agreeing to sell its retail assets to Reliance Industries last year. Future denies any wrongdoing.
A New Delhi court this week dealt a blow to the U.S. firm by revoking a previous court decision that effectively blocked the deal, and Amazon has filed an appeal against it in the Supreme Court in the capital city, the two sources said."
Sensex jumps over 100 points; Nifty tests 15,150
A good start to the day for stocks.
PTI reports: "Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 100 points in opening trade on Thursday largely tracking gains in index-heavyweight Reliance Industries and a positive trend in global markets.
After opening on a negative note, the 30-share BSE index reversed all losses to trade 133.94 points or 0.26 per cent higher at 51,175.45.
In a similar movement, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 41.55 points or 0.28 per cent to 15,148.05.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and SBI were among the top gainers in the Sensex pack, rising up to 2 per cent.
On the other hand, Titan, HDFC, Infosys, ONGC, ITC, Maruti and ICICI Bank were among the laggards.
In the previous session, Sensex ended 19.69 points or 0.04 per cent lower at 51,309.39, and Nifty slipped 2.80 points or 0.02 per cent to 15,106.50.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,786.97 crore on Wednesday, as per exchange data.
On the global front, US equities ended mixed with Dow Jones scaling at new highs.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with gains in mid-session deals.
Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.63 per cent lower at USD 61.08 per barrel."
Govt. pegs AI provisional loss for FY20 at ₹7,982 cr.
Air India incurred a loss of ₹7,982 crore in the financial year 2019-2020, according to provisional figures shared by the government in Parliament.
The national carrier also incurred a loss of ₹2,570 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, when there was a nationwide lockdown and flights were grounded, against a loss of ₹785 crore in the comparable period of the previous fiscal, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The government helped the debt-laden carrier in multiple ways to sail through the year, which included a guarantee support of ₹964 crore to enable the airline to raise new loans for its working capital requirements.