COST Financial News

Fed rate cut and the US presidential election, global brokerage firm Bernstein has booked profits in Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank while maintaining large, stable stocks such as REC, SBI Life and D-Mart in its India Model Portfolio’s August update. This year, unexpected election outcomes partly materialized, and concerns about a recession also surfaced, though only to some extent and the markets experienced significant downturns at regular intervals, but thanks to strong domestic institutional investor (DII) inflows and robust retail participation, the Nifty benchmark index has risen by 15% year-to-date.

«We do not see any major upheaval in either direction negative or positive in the second half. Earnings are probably the most stable we have seen in the last two or three years,» says Seshadri Sen, Emkay Global Financial Services. Well, I am just going through your latest note and it seems like you have raised your target for the Nifty all the way to 26,000 now for September 25. Earlier it was close to 22,000 for June 25. Is it just the market momentum that has made you change it because we are very close to that mark already or do you see a further uptick in the fundamentals versus what you anticipated earlier? Seshadri Sen: No, the primary driver is that there were a few speed bumps that we were anticipating in the first half and those played out. The market through those speed bumps quite strongly. But we are looking at a much smoother ride in the second half in terms of fundamentals which is why we raised our multiple and that cascaded into a raised Nifty target.

Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch on Monday announced that single filing with exchanges would become a reality very soon. «It is a work in progress. If you file your disclosure in one exchange, it will automatically populate on the website of the other exchanges,» Buch said at a CII Summit.

Data from a Bank of Baroda report shows that the aggregate sales and net profit of 3,000 companies grew at 7.7% and 3.5%, respectively, on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis. These numbers witnessed a growth rate of 2.3% and 37.1%, respectively, in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Most of the growth has been contributed by the banking and financial services sector. The sector has benefitted from an uptick in business upcycle and registered a robust performance on all financial metrics. Excluding this, the sales growth of 2,539 companies softened to 5.2%, whereas the net profit registered a decline of 3.1%. “The continued drag on sales growth is alarming as it signals weak domestic demand,” the report states.

high-demand areas like Mumbai and Pune. Additionally, an out-of-series VIP number can now cost up to Rs 18 lakh in major cities, equivalent to the price of a mid-segment car. The fee revision will apply from August 30, following a draft notification issued on September 16, 2022, and is the first update since April 20, 2013. For four-wheelers, the fee for '0001' will rise from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. In high-demand areas such as Mumbai, Pune, Thane, and Nashik, the fee increases to Rs 6 lakh from Rs 4 lakh. For two and three-wheelers, the cost will double from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. If the '0001' number is unavailable in the current series, an out-of-series number will cost Rs 15 lakh for four-wheelers and Rs 3 lakh for two- and three-wheelers. The notification states, «The revised 'three-time basic fees' will be Rs 15 lakh for four-wheelers and more-wheeled vehicles and Rs 3 lakh for two- and three-wheelers if the number '0001' is unavailable in the current series for that particular type of vehicle and if it needs to be given from another series as per the rules.»

«They are still at about 20 times FY26 earnings at the index level. So, I would not call it that this valuation is so far stretched that there are no opportunities. At the same time, are the valuations at a level that you can say with a lot of certainty that anything you buy will make you money? I do not think we are there also,» says Abhay Agarwal, Piper Serica. Given the fact that we are hitting fresh record high now on the markets once again, do you believe that the market valuations is now looking a bit stretched or do you think that it is not that expensive yet? Abhay Agarwal: If we look at by traditional standards, the valuations are definitely on the higher side. I do not think the valuations or the index, when we look at valuation, we typically talk about the valuation of the Nifty Index stocks, the 50 stocks. So, they are not in the exorbitant range yet.

Gala Precision Engineering, a component manufacturer with applications in wind power generation, industrial, and automotive sectors, plans to raise ₹167 crore through an initial public offering (IPO). Of this amount, ₹135 crore will be from fresh issuance to fund brownfield and greenfield capacity expansions, which could potentially double the company's revenue over the next three years. The remaining amount is an offer for sale by the promoter, reducing the promoter's stake from 75% to 55% post-IPO. Gala Precision is focused on non-commodity product offerings where competition is lower and is gradually increasing its exposure to the mobility segment through its fastener products, driving incremental growth. The strong prospects for wind power capacity expansion, with increasing contributions to renewable energy, are expected to drive the company's earnings growth. Given these factors, long-term investors may consider subscribing to the company's IPO.

Banijay Asia plans to invest $50 million (over Rs 400 crore) in a «first-of-its-kind» reality series tentatively titled 'Race to Space', making it India's most expensive television show, sources close to the development said. The investment will cover the licensing fee to the US-based Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) as well as production and talent costs, they added. Industry watchers said 'Bigg Boss Hindi', hosted by Bollywood star Salman Khan, is currently the country's most expensive non-fiction show, with budgets exceeding Rs 150 crore. «Given the scale and scope of the project, this is not just a documentary series or just a reality series — it is a 'space programme',» Banjay Asia CEO Deepak Dhar said. The new reality format will revolutionise competitive reality television and rekindle interest in space exploration, he added. Expressing optimism about the show's success in India, SERA co-founder Joshua Skurla cited the interest in last year's Chandrayaan-3 moon landing live-stream.

Kerala headed to assembly polls in two years, the southern states are carefully weighing their response to the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) announced by the Centre on August 24. Less than two months ago, Karnataka announced a major increase in salaries of government employees, entailing an additional annual expenditure of Rs 20,206 crore. The UPS features have put the southern states in a bind as four of them are ruled by opposition parties and have been bogged down by welfare expenditures and additional burden arising out of implementation of pre-poll guarantees.

northern India. Air pollution is back on the agenda. Last week, the Supreme Court criticised air pollution boards of Delhi/NCR, Punjab and Haryana for being 'ineffective' due to inadequate staffing.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed a lawsuit against the State Board of Elections in North Carolina seeking to omit his name from the state's ballot ahead of November. Earlier, the elections board rejected Kennedy’s plea to remove his name ballots citing the move would cost hundreds of dollars to reprint the ballots. The lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court Friday says the board's denial of his request to remove his name as a third-party presidential candidate violated state election law and his right to free speech, according to The News & Observer and WRAL.

SEOUL—A push by Netflix to keep its subscribers hooked involves 90-minute cram sessions on South Korean culture and expressions to ensure better-quality dubbing and translations. Dae-bak expresses a pleasant surprise. Aish means disappointment.

Hotel housekeepers have for years waged a fierce battle to restore automatic daily room cleaning that was scaled back at many properties during the pandemic

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have starkly different visions on how to address a changing climate while ensuring a reliable energy supply

₹5 lakh to clean a water body, which greatly increases water storage and helps replenish groundwater. Farmers benefit from better crop yields and the reduced need for fertilizers that using silt assures them. Many similar success stories across India show how community-driven water body rejuvenation can change lives.

NBCC has approved a bonus issue of shares in a 1:2 ratio, meaning shareholders will receive one additional share for every two shares they currently hold in the company. The board has set October 7 as the record date to determine the eligibility of shareholders for receiving bonus shares.

Europe, setting the stage for policymakers in both regions to lower interest rates in September. On a three-month annualized basis, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying US inflation advanced 1.7% in July, the slowest this year. In Europe, consumer prices rose 2.2% in August from a year ago — the tamest since mid-2021 and significantly lower than the 2.6% pace a month earlier. Meantime, inflation in Tokyo — a leading indicator of the national data due in September — picked up speed in August, supporting the case for the Bank of Japan to continue raising rates at a gradual pace as the bank balances the need to support the economy.

India isn’t against investments from China or doing business with companies from there, but it’s common sense to have the investments scrutinised because there is a “general China problem”, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday. “It has never been the government’s position… But on the investment issue, it is common sense that investments from China would be scrutinised. I think the border and the state of relations between India and China call for it,” Jaishankar said at a session on ‘New India's Risks, Reforms, and Responsibilities’ at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum. China in many ways is a unique problem because of its distinct political and economic systems, and it’s not just a problem for India, he said. “We are not the only country that is having a debate about China. Go to Europe, and ask them what is today among your major economic or national security debates? It’s about China. Look at the US. It's obsessed with China, and rightly so in many ways. So, the fact is, let's not make out as though it's only India which has a China problem,” the minister said.

Kyiv now offers Heorhii Samofalov a safer and more stable life than his high-rise apartment in the Ukrainian capital. He doesn't need to use an elevator and has access to an uninterrupted supply of water and other amenities. «Power issues made it extremely challenging to reach the thirteenth floor,» the 75-year-old retiree said. «It's a problem even to make tea, as everything runs on electricity.» Russia's massive attacks on Ukraine's power grid have forced many like him to consider their options as a grim winter without heating looms. This week's air raids on Kyiv and other cities across the country were the largest since Russia's full-scale invasion began two and a half year ago.

One of the biggest challenges of international travel is the additional cost of foreign exchange (forex) markups. Whether you swipe a debit or credit card, you pay an extra 1.5-4% charge on every transaction.

Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft are in talks to invest in OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, at precisely the moment when it’s become apparent that the company will face tougher competition than ever in the burgeoning artificial-intelligence market. Much of that new competition is coming from startups that promise to undercut OpenAI’s services with ones that could be cheaper to use, and also better at certain narrow tasks. At least one tech giant sees promise in the new crop of AI startups.