Tariff hikes may help Airtel pip Jio & Vi

Hi there, Good Morning. Welcome to ETMarkets Morning, the show about money, business and markets. I am Saloni Goel. Let's start with the headlines first.

- LIC board meet today to decide on proposed IPO
- Airtel eyeing 20 mn new users for paid OTT
- Hero FinCorp 1st to get new benchmark loan
and
- US inflation surges to 7.5% in fastest annual rise in 40 yrs

Now lemme give you a quick glance on the state of the markets.

Stocks were mixed and bonds fell in Asia Friday after Treasuries and Wall Street shares sank on a jump in US inflation to a fresh four-decade high that stirred hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official. US and European equity futures retreated, while shares fluctuated in China and Hong Kong.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced nine basis points to 2.03%. The dollar jumped to a five-week high of 116.34 yen during volatile overnight trade.

Oil prices eased early on Friday. Brent crude futures fell 40 cents, or 0.4%, to $91.01 a barrel at 0140 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude declined 25 cents, or 0.3%, to $89.63 a barrel.

That said, here’s what is making news.

Life Insurance Corporation of India's board will meet Friday to consider the insurer's proposed listing, setting the stage for the country's biggest initial public offering, said a senior government official aware of the matter. The draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for the proposed IPO will be filed after the board approval.

The Indian crypto community, in reaction to central bank governor Shaktikanta Das' statement that private cryptocurrencies are a big threat to India's financial and macroeconomic stability, has said crypto assets could help unlock the country's innovation, job-creation and economic potential. Also, the exchanges said they praised the stance of the central bank and the government that customer protection is a priority.

Bharti Airtel is likely to outperform its nearest rivals, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea (Vi) on revenue market share (RMS) gains in the coming quarters, helped by a combination of successive tariff hikes and SIM consolidation, said analysts.

LASTLY,

The aggregate bad loan provisioning by banks increased in the December quarter after falling for the previous two quarters. The trend reversal was mainly on account of higher provisioning by public sector (PSU) banks which focused on sequentially improving the provisioning coverage ratio (PCR).

NOW Before I go, here is a look at some of the stocks buzzing this morning...

The country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp on Thursday reported a 36.7 per cent decline in standalone net profit at Rs 686 crore for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2021, on the back of lower sales and a rise in commodity prices.

Zomato on Thursday reported a December quarter consolidated net loss at Rs 67.2 crore, narrowing it from Rs 352.6 crore reported in the same quarter last year. Revenue from operations came in at Rs 1,112 crore, up 82.47 per cent against Rs 609.4 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Quess Corp appointed Guruprasad Srinivasan as executive director and group CEO (ED and CEO) with immediate effect. The company said Suraj Moraje, incumbent MD and Group CEO, has stepped down with immediate effect from February 10, 2022.

Bharti Airtel is eyeing 20 million new users for its paid OTT content offering, Xtream Premium, and said it will have substantial play in the space, Adarsh Nair, CEO of Airtel Digital said.

Do also check out over two dozen stock recommendations for today's trade from top analysts on ETMarkets.com.

That’s it for now. Stay with us for all the market news through the day. Happy investing!