by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Finance, Investing, Markets, News
By Porisma P. Gogoi,
Mumbai : Consistent investments by domestic institutions propelled the key Indian equity indices — the Sensex and the Nifty50 — to close the week’s trade at record high levels, continuing their winning streak for the sixth consecutive week.
Despite some volatility, the benchmark indices moved higher riding on optimism surrounding the ongoing earnings season, market observers said.
On a weekly basis, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) surged by 438.54 points or 1.28 per cent to close Friday’s trade at a fresh level of 34,592.39 points.
The wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) crossed the 10,600-points-level for the first time this week.
The Nifty50 closed trade at a fresh high of 10,681.25 points, up 122.4 points or 1.16 per cent from its previous week’s close.
The indices also touched their new 52-week highs. On Friday, the Sensex scaled a fresh intra-day high of 34,638.42 points and the Nifty50 of 10,690.25 points.
“With the constant inflow of funds in the domestic market, markets moved higher on optimism surrounding corporate earnings amid mixed global cues,” D. K. Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of SMC Investments and Advisors, told IANS.
During the week, two global software majors — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys — came out with their earnings for the third quarter of 2017-18.
While TCS reported 4 per cent annual decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 6,545 crore for the period under review, Infosys’ net profit was reported at a record 38 per cent annually in rupee terms.
“Continuous buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and expectation of recovery in this earnings season led to the rise in indices. Domestic institutions bought shares worth Rs 1,446 crore in the past 10 sessions,” Arpit Jain, AVP at Arihant Capital Markets, told IANS.
Provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that DIIs purchased stocks worth Rs 2,383.11 crore during the week, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold scrips worth Rs 965.16 crore.
Figures from the National Securities Depository (NSDL) revealed that foreign portfolio investors bought equities worth Rs 554.03 crore, or $88.34 million, during January 8-12.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said: “Liquidity from FIIs and DIIs continues to support domestic market sentiments. On the global front, strong global metal prices and rising crude prices continue attract positive investor sentiments.”
“Further, US investors remained optimistic on strong economic growth outlook led by better than expected quarterly earnings,” Nair added.
On the currency front, the rupee weakened by 26 paise to close at 63.63 against the US dollar from its last week’s close at 63.37.
In another economic development, the Union Cabinet this week opened up Air India for foreign investors and brought in changes in key sectors by allowing 100 per cent foreign investment in single brand retail and construction development through the automatic route.
“Besides spurring growth in the economy, this step is likely to contribute to growth of investment, income and employment,” Aggarwal said.
“Sectorally, the top gainers were the realty, IT, media and metal indices. The top losers were the PSU bank, infra and auto indices,” Deepak Jasani, Head – Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.
The top weekly Sensex gainers were: Coal India (up 9.96 per cent at Rs 306.50); Infosys (up 6.21 per cent at Rs 1,075); Wipro (up 3.13 per cent at Rs 319.45); Tata Consultancy Services (up 2.78 per cent at Rs 2,759); and Reliance Industries (up 2.26 per cent at Rs 943.85).
The losers were: Bharti Airtel (down 6.06 per cent at Rs 507.30); Bajaj Auto (down 3.43 per cent at Rs 3,165.25); NTPC (down 2.40 per cent at Rs 173.10); Hero MotoCorp (down 1.91 per cent at Rs 3,668); and Power Grid (down 1.79 per cent at Rs 197.30).
(Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Investing
Satish Mahana and Anup Chandra Pandey
Kolkata : The Uttar Pradesh government is expecting to sign MoUs worth Rs 1 lakh crore for investments during the upcoming investors’ summit scheduled to be held in February, an official said here on Friday.
“The MoUs worth Rs one lakh crore of investments are expected to be signed during the summit,” State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey told reporters here after a road show for the investors’ summit, organised in association with CII.
He said the state has come out with an overall industrial policy and 14 sectoral policies including in textiles, civil aviation, IT, MSMEs, food processing and among others.
“There are some futuristic policies that are coming in the next 15 days and these policies will be in the areas of electric vehicle, logistic and warehousing, defence manufacturing and pharmaceuticals sector,” he said.
The state will shortly unveil electronic clearance system which would not require any human interface and the system will be up and running before the summit, Pandey said while addressing the potential investors in the road show here.
State Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana said the has planned to organise a global road show after the summit which will be held in Lucknow February 21-22 and will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The state agencies has land banks of 10,000 acres which are ready for giving possession to industries, Pandey said, adding the state has come out with a policy for “private land banks” because somebody might find it cheaper to buy land in comparison to acquiring land and giving compensation.
Inviting investors to join the summit, Mahana said the state has large chunks of land for large industries.
“We have large chunk of land and particularly in the side of the Yamuna Expressway we have the biggest chunk of land. By the both sides of express highways, we are in process to acquire or purchase land also on mutual understanding,” he said.
Pandey said the state officials met industrialists from Kolkata and got positive response from them.
“Companies like ITC has expressed interest in setting up a food park and solar park in the state. Srei group has expressed its desire to invest in urban infrastructure,” he said.
The state government had organised four road shows in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad to attract investments and after the Kolkata one, another road show would be held in Ahmedabad.
The state is focusing on logistic sector as the dedicated freight corridors -the Western Corridor running between Delhi-Mumbai and Eastern Corridor from Amritsar to Kolkata-lie in Uttar Pradesh.
“We are planning to develop a number of industrial integrated townships across the highways and these could be linked to these highways,” Pandey added.
As many as 15 airports are being developed in the state and under the regional air connectivity scheme, the state has guaranteed viability gap funding to the airlines for running flights in these routes, he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Investing, Property
New Delhi : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth Rs 117.74 crore of three companies belonging to Indu Projects Ltd Managing Director Indukuri Syam Prasad Reddy for his alleged investments in a firm floated by YSR Congress Party President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The attached movable and immovable assets include undeveloped lands illegally allotted to the companies of Syam Prasad Reddy, properties of Indu Projects Ltd and fixed deposits held by Embassy Property Developments Pvt Ltd and Vasantha Projects Pvt Ltd.
The case is a follow up of money laundering offences in 11 chargesheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Jagan Mohan Reddy and others, an ED official said.
The ED attached the properties under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The present case is a quid pro quo investment where Syam Prasad Reddy made huge investments in the companies floated by Jagan Mohan Reddy for the favours received from Andhra Pradesh government by way of allotment of 8,844 acre of land for Lepakshi Knowledge Hub Private Ltd, 250 acres of land at Shamshabad for Indu Techzone Private Ltd and various housing projects to Indu Group.
At the time of the irregularities, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, father of Jagan Mohan Reddy, was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
The CBI filed three chargesheets in respect of undue favours received by Syam Prasad Reddy of which the ED has already issued provisional attachment orders in connection with two cases relating to Lepakshi Knowledge Hub Private Ltd and Indu Techzone Private Ltd.
The present attachment is in connection with the CBI chargesheet relating to various housing projects allotted by the then A.P. Housing Board to Indu Group.
The ED investigation so far has revealed that Syam Prasad Reddy paid bribe to Jagan Mohan Reddy in the form of investments at exorbitant premiums.
“In lieu of quid pro quo payments made by Syam Prasad Reddy, he was illegally favoured by the then Andhra Pradesh government by awarding housing projects at Kukatapally (65 acres), Bandlaguda (50 acres), Gachibowli (4.575 acres) and Nandyal (75 acres) by deviating all standard norms and without examining the technical or financial capabilities.
“Syam Pasad Reddy was also unduly favoured by Andhra Pradesh Housing Board (APHB) by granting huge chunks of land for housing projects at a very cheap price as compared to prevailing market rates which caused huge loss to APHB in the form of revenue generation,” an ED statement said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Investing, Markets, News, Politics
Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : India needs massive investments to boost GDP growth that is hovering around 6 per cent in recent quarters, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday.
His comments come at a time when domestic private investments in the country have fallen to record lows.
Addressing the 50th edition of the Skoch Summit here, the Minister said that private enterprises must be encouraged to ensure efficient investments in areas critical for the country’s development.
“India needs investments on a massive scale, because more the investments, more the growth,” Prabhu said.
He said that investments must be efficient, as poorly conceived and inefficient investments would not yield the desired results.
“We must use capital in the most efficient manner so that capital-output ratio is good. We need entrepreneurs who use capital in an efficient manner and thus boost growth,” the Minister added.
Reversing five successive quarters of decline, India’s Gross Domestic Product in the second (July-September) quarter of the current fiscal grew at 6.3 per cent, which was higher than the 5.7 per cent growth registered in the previous quarter.
According to experts, the fundamental factor responsible for this situation is the decline in private investments in recent years, both corporate and households, accompanied by the burgeoning non-performing assets, or bad loans, of Indian government banks.
There has been a sharp fall in investment with the gross fixed capital formation rate falling steadily to touch 29.3 per cent in 2015-16 and 27.1 per cent in 2016-17.
Investments by the private sector during 2016-17 grew at 5.8 per cent, recording the slowest growth rate since 1992. The gross domestic savings rate fell from 34.6 per cent of the GDP in 2011-12 to 32.2 per cent in 2015-16.
The top 1,000 non-financial companies made fresh investments of Rs 2.07 lakh crore in 2016-17, which is lower than the Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2016-17, and all-time high of Rs 5.7 lakh crore in 2013-14.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing, World
Paris : The European Union on Tuesday announced 9 billion climate finance contribution — the first major announcement made on the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement’s second anniversary — to achieve climate goals.
The Paris climate-relevant investments are in three targeted areas — sustainable cities, sustainable energy and connectivity and sustainable agriculture, rural entrepreneurs and agribusiness.
These targeted areas are expected to generate up to euro 9bn investments by 2020, Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete announced at ‘One Planet Summit’, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron here.
“The Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC climate convention remain the only pathway to tackle climate change and this One Planet Summit demonstrates how the financial system is aligning to the objectives of the agreement,” UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said in a statement.
In a related announcement, 225 of the most influential global institutional investors with more than $26.3 trillion in assets under management launched a new collaborative initiative to engage with world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters so these companies step up their actions on climate change.
The initiative, known as Climate Action 100+, led and developed by investors and supported and coordinated by five partner organisations from around the world, was launched on the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement.
Betty T. Yee, a board member of California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest US public pension fund and a participant in Climate Action 100+, made the announcement during a panel discussion at the summit.
Canete said that the EU’s External Investment Plan, with its focus on sustainable development and the low-emission and climate-resilient transition, will scale up much-needed investments across Africa and the EU neighbourhood, adding that the benefits would be multiple: new jobs, accelerated and sustainable growth, enhanced resilience to climate change impacts, improved health, poverty reduction and better connectivity.
International Cooperation and Development Commissioner Neven Mimica said that these priority areas are setting the agenda for sustainable investments, and unlocking the potential of sustainable energy, promoting digitalisation for development or supporting micro, small and medium sized enterprises will help create sustainable development and reduce poverty.
The Paris gathering took place less than a month after the successful conclusion of the November UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (COP23) and was the first in a series of international summits to help countries to raise ambition and bolster their national climate action plans – crucial to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals.
Next year, California, the UN and other key partners will host another major conference to fast forward action ahead of the UN Climate Conference 2018 in Poland (COP24), and a summit to raise ambition will be convened by the UN Secretary General in 2019.
At the ‘Planet One Summit’, another 237 companies with a combined market capitalization of over $6.3 trillion publicly committed to support the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
This includes over 150 financial firms, responsible for assets of over $81.7 trillion.
The Task Force, led by Michael R. Bloomberg and established by the Financial Stability Board (FSB),chaired by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, developed voluntary recommendations on climate-related information that companies should disclose to help investors, lenders, and others make sound financial decisions.
The companies and organizations supporting the TCFD, which have more than doubled in number in the five months since the recommendations were published in June 2017, span the entire capital and investment chain.
“Climate change poses both economic risks and opportunities. But right now, companies don’t have the data they need to accurately measure the risks and evaluate the opportunities. That prevents them from taking protective measures and identifying sustainable investments that could have strong returns,” Bloomberg said, adding that the Task Force’s recommendations will help change that by empowering companies to measure and report risks in a more standardized way.
In a sign of the financial industry’s growing concerns over the climate and business risks of fossil fuels, French insurance giant AXA announced at the summit that it will cease insuring the tar sands sector and new coal projects, and will divest over 3 billion euros from tar sands and coal companies.
Tar sands oil is one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet and environmental and indigenous rights groups in Canada, the US and Europe are urging financial institutions to stop supporting it because of its climate and local environmental impacts.
In October, France’s largest bank BNP Paribas announced that it would stop funding tar sands projects and companies.
—IANS
