India Financial News

Read here: Week Ahead: Inflation data, Q4 Results, FII activity, global cues among key market triggers this week On Friday, the Indian stock market benchmark indices ended higher, but lost over 2% each for the week, with heavy selling seen in broader markets. The Sensex gained 260.30 points, or 0.36%, to close at 72,664.47, while the Nifty 50 settled 97.70 points, or 0.44%, higher at 22,055.20. “Heavy FII selling, and concerns over the outcome of ongoing general elections added to the overall pressure in the markets.

Srinivas Pallia replaced Thierry Delaporte in the corner room of Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro Ltd, the company is attempting to settle lawsuits it had filed against two former senior executives, according to a review of court filings and two executives aware of the development. Jatin Dalal, former chief financial officer of Wipro, and Mohd Ehteshamul Haque, the company’s former senior vice president and head of healthcare and medical devices business, were sued by India’s fourth-largest IT services company for breach of employment contracts. Both had joined rival Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp less than 12 months after resigning from Wipro.

FPIs) pumped $991 million in April, a Mint analysis showed, betting on the revival of Vodafone Idea Ltd, expected tariff hikes and rising phone usage. FPIs jostled for shares in Vodafone Idea's ₹18,000 crore follow-on public offering (FPO), India's largest, also sparking interest in tower company Indus Towers, which stands to gain from the telco's planned rollout of 4G and 5G networks. Bharti Airtel picked up as well, as investors eye long-awaited tariff hikes later this year.

Sensex gained 260.30 points to close at 72,664.47, while the Nifty 50 settled 97.70 points, or 0.44%, higher at 22,055.20. Nifty 50 formed a small positive candle on the daily chart with minor upper and lower shadow. “Technically, this pattern indicates temporary pause in the market after a sharp decline.

Indegene IPO: The listing date of the initial public offering (IPO) of Indegene Limited has been fixed on 13th May 2024. According to the official BSE website information, Indegene shares will be listed on the BSE and NSE in a special pre-opening session on Monday, 13th May 2024. Meanwhile, ahead of the Indegene share price debut on the Indian bourses, the grey market, an unofficial market where IPO shares are traded before they are officially listed, has gone highly bullish on Indegene IPO.

Mint had reported that Accenture, which earns twice as much as TCS in annual revenues, had taken a swipe at TCS’s digital offerings under Business 4.0, via its digital solutions platform, Accenture X.O. “Stop playing catch-up and start applying digital at the core of your business to reinvent for a new era of industry. Go beyond Industry 4.0: If you think Industry 4.0 is the epitome of industrial digitization—think again.

outflow of ₹396 crore last month, making it the first withdrawal after March 2023, owing to profit booking. Despite the decline, the asset under management (AUM) of gold funds rose 5% to ₹32,789 crore at April-end from ₹31,224 crore in the preceding month, according to the data with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in key industries across India reached approximately 48% in FY2024, with expectations to expand by an additional 5-7% in FY25, data from staffing firm Teamlease Digital showed. “Nearly 75% of organisations across various sectors are actively considering integrating AI into their operations within the next year,” Krishna Vij, business head, Teamlease Digital, told ET.

Foreign investors in local markets have historically factored in the rupee's depreciation versus the US dollar, but stronger macroeconomic fundamentals, sweeping improvements in market infrastructure, and formidable central bank reserves have started to reverse that template, a top DBS Bank executive said. «Vis-a-vis, the rest of the world, the earlier story of a regular rupee depreciation will start to dissipate. While we are going to be a function of global markets, the rupee bonds will actually outperform the US and the rest of the developed markets,» Ashhish Vaidya, head, treasury & markets, DBS Bank, told ET.

IIHL BFSI (India) has sought the banking regulator's approval to pledge 100% shares of Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital, the company it acquired in a bankruptcy resolution, to raise ₹8,000 crore, people with knowledge of the matter told ET. IndusInd International Holdings (IIHL), a holding company of IIHL BFSI (India), received the NCLT nod to buy the financial services firm for ₹9,661 crore.

How RBI is upping the scrutiny on credit cardsIncreased regulation in the Indian fintech sector will significantly benefit the industry by driving away bad actors and enhancing the competitive advantage of those who abide by the rules, said Nigel Morris, managing partner, QED Investors. In an exclusive interview to ET, he said that the recent clampdown by India’s central bank on various segments of new-age financial services was a move in the right direction and that it did not deter investors with vast operating experience such as his firm from betting on Indian fintechs.

Flipkart has begun active discussions to move its domicile back from Singapore to its country of origin, said people aware of the matter. The 17-year-old company is the country’s biggest consumer internet firm with a foreign domicile. The homecoming for India’s best-known technology startup, which is now valued at around $33 billion, could also potentially deliver a handsome tax gain for the Indian government. Flipkart Pvt Ltd is the holding company based in Singapore.

Apple has started FY25 with a bang in India — exports of iPhones made in the country nearly doubled in April to $1.1 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) from $580 million a year ago, according to official data reviewed by ET. April is typically a low-export month as there aren’t too many festive sales in any part of the world during the month, experts said. Based on this, they expect the US giant to achieve the Rs 1 lakh crore export mark in FY25 as India emerges as the firm’s second manufacturing base for iPhones outside China. iPhones are only made in India and China and experts estimate that 14-15% production has shifted to India and is likely to reach 26% by 2026. Apple exports a bulk of its total India production. In FY24, Apple’s total production in India touched $14 billion (Rs 1.2 lakh crore). The company’s exports crossed $10 billion (Rs 85,000 crore). Both these figures were the highest achieved by any company in India till date for a single financial year.

interview with Times Now/Telly Talk India, Hargit Singh said Gurucharan was with him on his birthday (father's) on April 21. "The next day, he was supposed to fly to Mumbai. He told me, 'mai aa jaunga. 1-2 din me aa jaunga [I will come back in 1 or 2 days]'.

factor market reforms like land and labour to propel India's growth to a double-digit trajectory, ADB Chief Economist Albert Park has said. «There are still concerns that the basic factor markets like land and labour in the formal sector of unemployment in India are still small. So, you really want to formalise those,» he told PTI in an interview. The factor market reforms include land, labour, energy, and access to credit, among others, which are critical factors for production. Labour reforms have been approved by Parliament in 2020, but it has not been implemented. In 2019 and 2020, 29 central labour laws were amalgamated, rationalised and simplified into four labour codes — the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions Code, 2020.

Restaurants of all formats — from fine dining to casual dining and food aggregator platforms — saw a record number of diners on Mother's Day surpassing the bookings typically seen on New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day and even on regular Sundays,multiple restaurant owners told ET . EazyDiner, a table discovery, reservation, and payment platform that has over 15,000 restaurants listed on it, corroborated the trend. Kapil Chopra, founder, EazyDiner, said the bookings on its platform for May 12 were more than double of what it was last year-which was also a Sunday. The lunch and dinner bookings on the app were up 62% and 198%, respectively, he said, which pulled up the average occupancy across the restaurants to 92%. «Overall, it's an absolutely crazy day. It's 50% higher than New Year's Eve for us. It's a great day for Indians eating out in food and beverage,» Chopra told ET. The maximum growth this year is in Bengaluru, followed by Mumbai and Delhi, he said.

drug regulator has formed an expert panel to evaluate several currently prescription drugs that can be sold over the counter (OTC) after various pharmaceutical companies lobbied the regulator to make their drugs an OTC product, people in the know told ET. The sub-committee, which includes various doctors from the country's top government hospitals, representatives from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), drug controllers from various states, will develop a mechanism for the drugs to be sold OTC, considering globally prevalent regulations and practices. The sub-committee formed last week has been asked to submit the report within three months.

Demand for daily groceries, essentials and household products will likely be muted in the current quarter, global research firm Kantar said, but it indicated a rural-led recovery in the second half of FY25 even though urban consumption could remain a relative straggler. Overall volumes, which indicate the number of products consumers bought, expanded 5.2% in the March quarter, unchanged from the three months to December. Sales volumes in rural markets climbed 5.8%, and in cities by 4.7%, from a year earlier, data from Kantar showed. Kantar monitors branded and unorganised products, including unpackaged voluminous commodities. Nielsen, on the other hand, tracks primarily branded retail sales. «There was significant inflation that led to shrinkflation, or consumers downgrading. But the worst is behind us and there is visibility of better growth,» said Saugata Gupta, managing director, Marico. «There will obviously be volume improvement although there will be some pricing growth as well. We definitely see a double-digit revenue growth.»

India is in a «great spot» and could realise a growth rate of about 7.6% or more in 2024-25, said Sanjay Nayar, the new president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham). However, a lot hinges on the monsoon rains and global inflation, which influences the interest rate regime, he said. The National Statistical Office, in its second advance estimate, pegged the country's 2023-24 growth at 7.6%, which Nayar said was «like hitting the ball out of the park» given the global turmoil. In an interview to ET, Nayar called on the government to maintain its capital expenditure push for some more time to «crowd in» private investment.

Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran will also assume the role of chairman, Tata Electronics, at a time when the Tata group company has earmarked about $14 billion in investments to spearhead its entry into the semiconductor business. Chandrasekaran will take over from Banmali Agrawala who has held the post for the last few years. Chandrasekaran who is already chairman of many key Tata group companies will take charge after requisite regulatory approvals. Agrawala, a key Tata Sons aide, has taken on an advisory role recently in the group. Chandrasekaran's role as chairman is seen as significant as it signals the importance of the semiconductor business to the conglomerate, say insiders.

high growth though geopolitical uncertainties and tepid consumption remain a concern, say economists. CII's business confidence index touched a 12-quarter high in Q4FY24, with 51% of firms expecting capacity utilisation of 75% and above. Moreover, 71% expect an improvement in private capex in the first half of FY25 compared with the second half of FY24. Private investment proposals sanctioned by banks rose by nearly Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 3 lakh crore in the last year alone, according to India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra).