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Benchmark share indices continued their winning streak for the fifth day in a row led by heavyweights Titan, Maruti Suzuki, RIL and Bajaj Auto. Bajaj Finance remained the biggest laggard on the indices for most part of the day, closing 4% lower.
Sensex settled 304 points higher at 39,878, while Nifty ended at 11,748 above its psychological mark . Midcap and smallcap companies were the under-performers today. On the Sensex, 17 shares advanced and 13 declined.
On the Nifty, 26 shares gained and 24 lost. Nifty Bank and Auto rose, while Nifty Metal and Realty slipped.
Infosys bags order from Switzerland-based co Mobile Health AG for ePRO platform Consilium Care
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Wednesday appointed J Venkatramu as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) for a period of three years.
Venkatramu is professional with over 22 years of experience and has worked across various segments of banking services such as payments, mobile banking and retail banking products and has managed digital financial services projects. He is currently the Chief Digital Officer of Equitas Small Finance Bank.
India services PMI for has improved to 49.8 in September from 41.8 in August, signalling further improvement in the services sector. While the services sector has been recovering from post pandemic lows, the recovery is still weak as compared to the manufacturing sector which has been posting a smart recovery as signaled by the manufacturing PMI and auto sales numbers. Indian manufacturing PMI for September improved sharply to 56.8 in September from 52.0 in August and is the highest reading for the indicator since January 2012. The composite PMI reported an expansion for the first time in six months rising from 46.0 in August to 54.6 and signaled a marked improvement across the private sector economy. We expect the services sector to improve gradually from here as more parts of the economy are gradually opened up.
Eight people were injured in a major fire that broke out at an Indian Oil Corporation petrol pump in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, police said.
Two of the injured are critical and have been shifted to SCB Medical College and hospital in Cuttack, said L D Sahu, director of Capital Hospital, where the rest are being treated.
"Our priority is to ensure that the fire does not spread to the two other tanks containing petrol and diesel," Commissioner of Police S S Sarangi said.
Fintech unicorn PayTM today accused Google of double standards with respect to its policies around fantasy games on the Play Store. In a blog post announcing the return of PayTM First Games on the Play Store, PayTM today said that the tech giant doesn’t allow its real money app to be promoted on Google Play, but it can be promoted via YouTube “by paying hefty fees to Google".
The company said that while PayTM First Games is back on the store, the version you can download is a free app and doesn’t allow real money fantasy gaming. “To put it simply, the Play Store will ban the PayTM app or the PayTM First Games app if we promote our pro app. But it will freely allow YouTube to promote our free app, for a free," the post said. “If PayTM promoted PayTM First Games, then PayTM app would also be violating their ‘policies’. But when YouTube promotes the same PayTM First pro app (for a hefty advertising free), then it is not a violation of such ‘policies’ and suddenly does not create a risk to the customers," the company added.
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the guidelines for natural gas marketing sources told CNBC-Awaaz. Main thrust of the guidelines is to provide better price discovery of natural gas, through competitive method.
State-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. Ltd (IRCTC) said it will restart operation of its fleet of Tejas Express trains from October 17, after a hiatus of seven months. These trains will operate across--Lucknow-New Delhi as and Ahmedabad-Mumbai—to cater to the need of the growing passenger demand, ahead of the festive season.
The announcement comes a week after railway board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said that Indian Railways plans to run more than 200 trains during the festive season--October 15 and November 30.
Next airport privatisation phase is unlikely to see a cap on airports per bidder, govt official said, adding that, the Airport Authority will a sign concession agreement for Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram airport after mid-November.
The Indian rupee ended higher at 73.34 per US dollar, against Tuesday's close of 73.45. The domestic currency hit the day's high of 73.28 today.
IT industry body Nasscom said on Wednesday the changes announced to the H-1B visa programme will restrict access to talent and harm the American economy by endangering US jobs and slowing down research and development into solutions to the covid crisis. It is important for the US market to be able to access skilled talent for its businesses, especially during the covid recovery phase, it said in a statement.
Asian markets ended mixed with Hang Seng gaining 1%. Nikkei fell 0.02% while Australia's ASX rose 1.2%
European markets were largely flat after opening higher as investors digested tweets from US President Donald Trump that he would support alternative stimulus measures. London's FTSE 100 was up 0.02%. Germany's DAX gained 0.05%. Swiss Market Index was up 0.2%.
Piramal Enterprises-arm Piramal Pharma has completed sale of 20 per cent stake in the company for ₹3,523.40 crore to US-based global investment firm Carlyle Group Inc. Piramal Pharma has received ₹3,523.40 crore from CA Alchemy Investments, an affiliated entity of CAP V Mauritius Ltd, an investment fund managed and advised by affiliated entities of The Carlyle Group Inc. The transaction values the Pharma Business at an enterprise value of USD 2,775 million (over ₹20,300 crore) with an upside component of up to USD 360 million (over ₹2,630 crore) depending on the company's FY21 performance. This transaction is one of the largest private equity deals in the Indian pharmaceutical sector. It provides Piramal Pharma Ltd (PPL) growth capital that enables it to invest in accelerated business growth through both organic and inorganic opportunities. This is a very positive development for the company.
Workers in India are facing increased burnout due to lack of separation between work and personal life as well as concerns of contracting COVID-19, according to Microsoft's latest Work Trend Index report released on Wednesday.
Close to one-third of workers in India cited increased rates of burnout over the past six months with the lack of separation between work duties and personal obligations as negatively impacting their well-being.
Gurugram and Kochi market has done well for Sobha Ltd in Q2FY21. Gurugram market clock sales volume of 0.082 Mn sqft in Q2FY21 as compared to 0.045 Mn sqft in Q2FY20 sales up by 82.22% along with this Kochi market was the out performer for Sobha Ltd, sales volume up 187% at 0.13 Mn sqft as compared to 0.045 Mn sqft in Q2FY20. Bengaluru market clock sales volume of 0.538 Mn sqft in Q2FY21 down by 31.11% as compared to 0.781 Mn sqft in Q2FY21, despite the local lockdown in Bengaluru. We expect performance in the Bengaluru market to improve once the local lockdown is lifted. Total sales volume for the quarter at 0.89 Mn sqft which is down by 14.42% as compared to 1.04 Mn sqft in Q2FY20.
The launch of several covid-19 drugs during the last month is driving a recovery in domestic pharma sales. The Indian Pharma Market reported one of the best months in sales growth since the pandemic struck. Sales growth came in at about 4.7% year on year (y-o-y) in September, the highest growth rates post the pandemic. Note that sales growth were down 2% in August.
“We expect COVID-19-related drugs to be an important growth driver for Cipla and Glenmark during 2QFY21. Cipla is likely to benefit from higher sales from Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. Similarly, Glenmark is expected to benefit from contribution from Favipiravir. We also expect marginal positive impact for Dr. Reddy’s and Cadila from Remdesivir sales during 2QFY21," said analysts at Nomura Financial Advisory Services Ltd in a note to clients. (Full report)
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Aditya Puri has assured employees of the country's largest private sector lender that their jobs and bonuses are secure. Puri, who retires later this month, said the bank is doing well, has sufficient capital and does not have any strain in the loans that it has made.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said no public spaces can be occupied indefinitely for protesting or expressing dissent. The judgment was passed on a batch of petitions seeking directions for removal of Shaheen Bagh protesters from a public road in New Delhi.
The bench passed the verdict on the issue of balancing right to protest and right to free movement of the citizens of the country.
Oil prices fell on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump dashed hopes for a fourth stimulus package to boost the coronavirus-hit economy and on a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories.
US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures declined 42 cents, or 1%, to $40.25 a barrel, while Brent crude futures fell 30 cents, or 0.7%, to $42.35 a barrel.
Shares of Titan Co. Ltd jumped close to 5% in early morning deals after it gave an update on how the September quarter has panned out.
Titan has said its jewellery division saw a recovery rate of around 98% (excluding the sale of raw gold) in the September quarter compared to the revenue of the same period last year. The company added, the walk-ins have been improving with conversion rates and average ticket size being higher compared to the same period of last year. Although, it’s worth noting here that the September 2019 quarter represents a comparatively low base wherein jewellery revenues had declined by 1.5% on a year-on-year basis.
Malaysian budget airline AirAsia X Bhd (AAX), the long-haul arm of AirAsia Group Bhd , said it has proposed restructuring $15.3 billion of debt and reducing its share capital by 90% to continue as a going concern, Reuters reported.
AAX said it has severe liquidity constraints and, with no return to normalcy in sight, "imminent default of contractual commitments will precipitate a potential liquidation."
Housing sales across seven major cities in the country fell 35% year-on-year to 50,983 units during the July-September period even as the demand recovered post lockdown, according to data analytics firm PropEquity. Sales stood at 78,472 units in the year-ago period in seven cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. On sequential basis, however, sales jumped over two-fold from 24,936 units in the April-June quarter of this year, PropEquity said.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel for investors in the Kansai Nerolac stock. Robust vehicles sales by its largest client Maruti Suzuki Ltd in the September quarter means better demand for industrial paints.
"Kansai’s industrial volume growth mirrors the trend of Maruti Suzuki sales, although the declines and growth are lower due to presence of non-Maruti auto and industrial paints. Maruti has reported 16% wholesale volume growth in 2Q21 which will enable positive volume growth for Industrial paints after seven quarters of decline" analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd said in a report on 6 October.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday filed a rejoinder affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the Bombay High Court's order granting bail to Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd, facing money laundering charges in the Yes Bank case.
The markets have opened on a flat note. However, it is still expected to achieve a target of 11750-11800. If it can sustain those levels, we can expect a new target of 12000 during the course of this month. A strong support has been formed around the 11300 level.
The company's arm Padget Electronics has been chosen as domestic mobile phone manufacturing partner by the government in the production-linked scheme.
Shares jumped 4% as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will invest ₹5,512.50 crore in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd for a 1.2% stake, in the seventh stake sale by the Mukesh Ambani-led company to as many investors in less than four weeks.
A Chinese experimental coronavirus vaccine being developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences was shown to be safe in an early stage clinical trial, researchers said.
In a Phase 1 trial of 191 healthy participants aged between 18 and 59, vaccination with the group's experimental shot showed no severe adverse reactions, its researchers said on Tuesday in a paper posted on medRxiv preprint server ahead of peer review.
The Indian rupee opened at 73.52 per US dollar on Wednesday against its close
of 73.45 per dollar on Tuesday
Titan said it returned to normalcy on the business front with recovery rate of 98%. September sales were "decent" with recovery rate in metros improving gradually. It sold raw gold of ₹390 crore.
Gold prices in India fell for the second day, tracking a decline in global rates after US President Donald Trump suspended stimulus talks with Democrats. On MCX, December gold futures were down 0.9% at ₹50,088 per 10 gram while silver futures fell 1.5% to ₹59,658.
The non-banking finance company said it added 3.6 million new loans during the September quarter. That is not even half of what it could add in the year ago period. Asset under management growth was a measly 1.3% year-on-year
