by admin | May 25, 2021 | Marketing Basics, Markets
Mumbai : The upcoming monetary policy review coupled with macro-economic data points will influence the trajectory of key equity indices in the week ahead.
Market observers said that even direction of foreign fund flows, rupee’s movement against the US dollar as well as global crude oil prices will also affect investor sentiment.
“With an eight per cent gain in March, stocks are sitting in an overbought zone,” said Sahil Kapoor, Chief Market Strategist-Research, Edelweiss Wealth Management.
“However, the trend remains conclusively higher. The focus should continue to be stock specific and mid-small cap.”
According to D.K. Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director, SMC Investments and Advisors: “Going forward, market participants will closely watch the each development regarding progress in US-China trade talks.”
“Market is further expected to take cues from the RBI meeting that is scheduled next week.”
Besides the monetary policy review slated for April 4, investors will look out for macro-economic data points such as the eight core industries’ (ECI) output numbers.
In addition, the PMI manufacturing and services’ figures, along with monthly automobile sales data will be released during the week.
“India is likely to continue its outperformance among emerging markets due to FIIs inflow, expectation of revival in earnings growth and political stability,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
“Instances like stability in domestic economy, possible reaping from last reforms, post-election normalisation, reduction in domestic interest rate, pick-up in credit growth and reduction in global bond yields leading to higher inflows from foreign investors have deeply benefitted India, in which Mid and Small caps will outperform.”
Apart from macro-data, the movement of rupee against the US dollar will also dictate trend on the bourses next week.
On a weekly basis, the rupee weakened slightly to 69.16 per greenback.
“Expect rupee to be under some pressure as crude also traded firm above $67 to a barrel,” said Sajal Gupta, Head Forex and Rates, Edelweiss Securities.
“The coming general elections may also lead to slower inflows or profit booking. Rupee can test 70 level in May, with the broader range being 68.80 to 69.80.”
In terms of investments, provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrip worth Rs 32,371.43 crore during this month.
As per technical charts, the underlying trend for the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty50 remains bullish.
“Technically, with the Nifty continuing to rally higher and remaining in a firm uptrend, the index could attempt to target the current life highs of 11760 in the coming weeks,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
“It will be important that the Nifty holds above the immediate support of 11,452 for the uptrend to sustain.”
Last week, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.33 per cent while the NSE Nifty50 advanced by 1.46 per cent.
–IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Corporate Jobs, Employment, Investing, Marketing Basics, Markets, Online Marketing, Private Jobs, Technology, Venture Capital
New Delhi : Singapore-based social media platform BIGO Technology on Monday announced an investment of over $100 million to expand its business in India in the next three years, creating nearly 1,000 jobs.
As part of the investment, the internet company will start a regional centre by the end of this year in the country that will create employment opportunities for more than 1,000 tech professionals.
According to Jason Hu, Chief Technology Officer, BIGO Technology, as India is the second-largest market for smartphones amid growing internet infrastructure and has a huge young population, the company has taken the decision.
“India will act as a complementary centre to Singapore’s Research and Development Centre. This step is the first-of-its-kind for BIGO, and a testament to the growing need for overseas centres as our user base grows,” Hu said in a statement.
With over 40 patents in VoIP/video-related technology and over 60 patents under the process of application, BIGO Technology is one of the major companies globally in the field of app development and publishing of apps.
The company, which has built a strong team of over 100 Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts and engineers, recently received series D funding of $272 million.
In addition to the India Centre, BIGO would open two more regional research centres – one in the US and another one in MENA-Europe region by the end of this year.
The company’s live-streaming app BIGO LIVE currently has a registered user base of 200 million globally.
Another short video app from the company called “LIKE” has hit 20 million daily active users around the globe.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Marketing Basics, Markets, SMEs, Technology
San Francisco : Samsung, which unveiled its highly-successful Galaxy S series in 2010, is all set to launch new flagship devices on the 10th anniversary of the S series with never-heard-before features here on February 20.
The core of Samsung’s lineup will stay the same as there would a regular Galaxy S10 and a larger S10 Plus with 6.1-inch and 6.3-inch displays.
The first Galaxy S was launched with a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen in 2010.
In 2012, Samsung introduced multi-window (Android 4.1), ambient light and “smart stay” features in Galaxy S3.
Next year saw Galaxy S4 with features like “IR Blaster”, smart programme, smart rotation and smart scroll. A phone with an IR blaster can double as a universal remote, allowing you to control various electronic devices such as a TV.
Galaxy S5 came with “IP67 dust and water resistance and the very-first fingerprint scanner.
In 2015, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge were launched with wireless charging and curved edge screen.
Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge in 2016 saw “Dual Pixel Autofocus” coming onto smartphones.
Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ had Infinity Display while Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ last year housed Dolby Atmos Surround Sound, Dual Aperture and AR Emoji.
On the 10th anniversary of Galaxy S series, both S10 and S10 Plus are expected to feature new “Infinity O hole-punch” display.
According to The Verge, the S10 and S10 Plus will “both have AMOLED Gorilla Glass 6 panels at 3040 x 1440 QHD+ resolution”.
The new devices will reportedly house Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 processor or Samsung’s in-house Exynos 9820 chipset, depending on the region.
According to WinFuture, the S10 will offer a 128GB model with 6GB of RAM and a 512GB / 8GB version, while the S10 Plus will offer 1TB of storage and a massive 12GB RAM.
“S10 has a 3,100mAh battery, while the S10 Plus offers a larger 4,100mAh battery,a said the report.
A new, cheaper S10e variant may also be launched at the San Francisco event.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Commodity Market, Investing, Large Enterprise, Marketing Basics, Markets, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
Rivian Automotive
San Francisco : US online retail giant Amazon is leading a $700-million funding round for electric truck startup Rivian Automotive, Rivian has said.
The latest funds will help produce its first all-electric vehicles — the R1T pickup truck and the seven-seat R1S SUV, which were revealed in the November Los Angeles Auto Show, Xinhua news agency reported.
“This investment is an important shift to sustainable mobility,” said RJ Scaringe, Rivian founder and CEO on Friday.
Scaringe said it was expected to deliver its R1T and R1S SUV to customers by late 2020. “We’re inspired by Rivian’s vision for the future of electric transportation,” said Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer.
The two vehicles will have up to more than 400 miles (about 644 km) of range with extraordinary performance, off-road capability and utility, said the auto company.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Large Enterprise, Marketing Basics, Markets, Technology, World
San Francisco : Electric car maker Tesla has acquired US-based energy storage company Maxwell Technologies in an all-stock deal valued at $218 million, a deal aimed at helping the electric automaker improve its batteries and lower costs as more competitors enter the market.
According to the report, the offer will value each of Maxwell’s 45.9 million shares at $4.75. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.
“We believe this transaction is in the best interests of Maxwell stockholders and offers investors the opportunity to participate in Tesla’s mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable transport and energy,” Franz Fink, CEO and President, Maxwell, was quoted as saying by TechCrunch on Monday.
Maxwell Technologies’ primary focus has been on ultracapacitors — energy storage devices that can charge and discharge rapidly, perform at a wide range of temperatures and have high power density and long operational life.
In December, the company sold its high-voltage battery product line to Renaissance Investment Foundation for $55.1 million in cash and up to $15 million in potential future milestone payments.
The company says that Maxwell’s dry electrode technology — used to make the ultracapacitors — which can be applied to batteries of varying chemistries, boosts performance and is more cost-effective than the more commonly used wet electrode technology.
That application could give Tesla a boost in an increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, the report said.
A number of automakers are introducing, or have introduced, electric vehicles in the past several months, including the Jaguar I-PACE, Audi e-tron SUV, Kia e-Niro and the Hyundai Kona.
“We are always looking for potential acquisitions that make sense for the business and support Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” a Tesla spokesman said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Marketing Basics, Markets, SMEs, Technology
New Delhi : Riding on the success of its latest popular “F” series smartphone — “F9 Pro” — Chinese smartphone maker OPPO recently launched its new offering in the “A” series” — the “A7” — for Rs 16,990 in India.
The dual-SIM handset comes with a water-drop notched display, a mammoth 4,230mAh battery, and face-recognition feature in 3GB and 4GB RAM variants. With a memory card, one can extend the 64GB internal storage of the phone up to 256GB.
Of the two colours in which the phone is available — glaring gold and glaze blue — we reviewed the former, which we found a little too flashy. People may find that glaze blue variant more subtle and chic.
Here’s what worked for us.
Even though the design of the phone appears textured with thin glazing lines, the feel of the back, however, is smooth.
The fingerprint sensor is pretty crisp and lies below the 13MP+2MP dual rear camera set-up on the back along with an LED flash.
The rear-camera app comes with several modes — time-lapse, portrait, stickers and panaroma.
The volume buttons, along with the SIM-slot that comes with a dedicated space for the memory card, sits on the left of the phone and the lock button is positioned on the right edge.
The phone sports a 6.2-inch display and a resolution of 1080×2340. The screen displayed vivid colours and the size was very comfortable for watching videos and playing games with decent sunlight legibility.
The 16MP selfie camera is staged in the top centre of the phone, semi-circled by the notch.
Because of the central position of the front shooter, the selfies are at just the right angle you intend them to be at — which is great — rather than being displayed tilted on screen.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor supported multi-tasking and running multiple apps simultaneously smoothly making the overall performance of the phone satisfactory.
Even after running several social media apps multiple times a day along with gaming and video-browsing, the battery lasted more than one day.
The bundled charger — which is not a VOOC (Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging) technology-enabled fast charger — in the package took more than an hour to completely charge the battery.
What does not work?
We found that the phone heats up a lot, but only while charging. The face-recognition feature appeared to be a little slower than expected, especially in low-light conditions.
Given that the brand’s reputation is fuelled by its camera technology, in the “A7” — where the selfie camera is quite impressive, the rear cameras work just alright — there is nothing exceptional. The phone could have included more features to the camera app.
The phone does not support the company’s patented flash-charging VOOC technology, which was also slightly disappointing.
Conclusion: Selfie lovers and those who yearn for a big battery are likely to find the OPPO A7 very attractive although the absence of its flash charging system may disappoint others.
—IANS
