Cycling Financial News

Air India employees, CEO Campbell Wilson expressed gratitude for their hard work and dedication, which he credited for the airline's progress over the past year. He also announced that the annual appraisal cycle is currently underway and will be retroactively effective from April 1. «The end of the Financial Year also caps off the annual appraisal cycle which has been underway for some time, as well as allows us to tally our annual financial results,» he added in the first 'Friday Message' of 2024-25 to employees. «Please bear with us whilst this important but necessary process runs its course.» Wilson highlighted Air India's ambition to become «a world-class, global airline with an Indian heart,» noting the accelerated progress of its Vihaan.AI initiative. He also mentioned the successful onboarding of the first batch of cadet pilots, who are set to begin ground training in the US. Additionally, he acknowledged the cabin crew for clearing the backlog of training batches, leading to the addition of the 4,000th crew member since privatization.

RBI reports that for Q1FY25, services sector companies and infrastructure firms expect higher input costs. While services sector firms expect selling prices to rise, the same is not expected by the infrastructure firms. In PMI surveys, manufacturing firms indicated a rise in input prices, but do not expect output prices to rise.

Investors are still flocking to cash funds, and Bank of America Corp. strategists say history suggests redemptions won’t begin until a year after the Federal Reserve starts cutting interest rates.

Read RBI Monetary Policy 2024 LIVE Updates here Under these circumstances, monetary policy must continue to be actively disinflationary to ensure anchoring of inflation expectations and fuller transmission of the past actions, he added. Economists believe that the RBI now seems to remain more confident of growth conditions than that with inflation trajectory.

investing in real estate? Here’s the story from a book we read a while ago… Otis Booth, an American billionaire newspaper executive and investor, came to Charlie Munger when he was studying law, asking Charlie to handle the sale of some real estate assets. Considering the location that Booth was looking to part with, Munger immediately advised him to keep the property and develop it by building his own apartments. To this, Booth reverted… Charlie, if this is such a good idea, and you’re so sure it will work, why don’t you put up some of the money and join me. I won’t do it without you. What followed was Munger and Booth joining forces and investing around $100,000 to build that property.

Pashupati Advani of Global Foray says pharma is back in fashion again. With the pricing pressure in the US to lower drug prices, it is going to be the day of the generics again and India will be back in that space and we are seeing it already. Coming to IT, Advani says: “I am not as wild about IT names. However, with the dollar getting stronger against the rupee, they are going to make money without doing anything. I actually see a big move with ChatGPT, AI, stuff like that which is actually going to hurt our IT names unless they are able to move fast.” Let’s talk about FMCG stocks because Dabur on Thursday had a fall that came in from that front as well. Nothing in terms of a participation is coming in for the FMCG pack, even when we are seeing a bit of a run up. What should one watch out for from the FMCG sector? Pashupati Advani: The FMCG sector has chugged along and has been the first place to put money because we need the FMCG to go. But it looks like there is some pushback from the organised sector. I do not know whether it is actually getting replaced by the unorganised sector or if there are new players, because we are seeing downtrends in Lever, Dabur and other big names.

SIBUR, Russia’s largest producer of plastics and rubbers, is collaborating with Indian businesses to process plastic waste. At the end of last year, EcoPartners, co-founded by the Indian entrepreneur Gaurav Sood, opened the largest plant in Russia for recycling plastic packaging waste. The plant has been gradually ramping up to its full capacity of 40 thousand tons per year. Called Total Cycle, the plantis located in the Tver region, which is between Moscow and St Petersburg – two major Russian cities that produce a large volume of waste. Total Cycle processes plastic packaging waste into secondary raw materials, including PET flakes.

Chakri Lokapriya, Managing Partner, RSB LLP, says among T&D companies, Skipper is one of the largest companies globally and in India, they are present not just in manufacturing but also in EPC. The stock has valuations on its side. Demand has been weak for the last two years for well-known reasons. Now the cycle is picking up; Second is JTL Infra, again a bet on the manufacturing theme. They are doing capacity expansion to meet demand and valuations are on its side. These are the bets largely revolving around manufacturing and capex themes.” There are two moving parts, especially when it comes to the commodity construct. A) The rip-roaring ride that we are seeing in metals and B) the uptick in crude that the market is sort of ignoring. What do you make of the move in metals so far? Chakri Lokapriya: If you look at what is happening in metals both domestically and globally, the US data has come out stronger than expected.

«So, regardless of what happened in the past month when people got a little worried about the impact on mid and smallcap due to some notification by the industry body or by a certain other notifications, I guess on average you have a decent medium term time horizon. Things are looking fine to us, we have enough ample opportunities to invest and we are looking for ideas all across,» says Harish Bihani, Kotak Mutual Fund. Just to get a sense from you, this entire debate which everyone is having is it going to be the year of a complete reversal from a largecaps of their underperformance or is it going to be a year of the continued momentum in midcap and smallcap, what is your view on the same. I think from a US perspective it is very difficult for anyone to take a call whether it will be a largecaps’ year or a mid or smallcap year. If you have a longer time horizon like next three to five years across caps, across sectors there is enough opportunity in the market today which is what market and the market participants have recognised over the past few years and that has kept the market buoyant.

Rajat Sharma, Founder & CEO, Sana Securities, says “real estate has a very long cycle. Once they do become the flavour to be bought, then the stocks move up really sharply and that typically happens in the post-correction period of the market. Right now, I do not think any investors are going to get attracted to real estate.” The auto numbers for March were rather disappointing. What is your top bet within the auto sector – be it the two-wheeler space, passenger vehicles, or commercial vehicles? Rajat Sharma: I think the only number that was disappointing is Hero Motocorp’s, where the overall sales were 8.6% down. But again, the silver lining there was that export sales were up by a mile actually. And it is very difficult to say the reason why sales dipped. Just to give you a disclosure, I hold Hero Moto and I have been consistently recommending the stock on your show. I really like two-wheeler space and I have recommended buying this stock.

There’s a super-cycle playing out in the markets that’s being led by AI, says James Demmert, chief investment officer at Main Street Research.

Vistara’s public image has taken a severe beating in the last few days. Aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday asked the airline to file daily reports on flight cancellations and delays. A senior airline official said that the airline is analysing the reason for disruption and expects to bring it under control by this week.

A good shower head not only enhances water flow but also contributes to relaxation and rejuvenation. With Hindware, you can transform your bathroom into a sanctuary of tranquility, where every shower becomes a revitalizing escape from the stresses of daily life. So, do read this article till the end to elevate your bathing routine with Hindware's commitment to excellence and craftsmanship.

Mint takes a look at how the health of Indian banks has improved over the years. Data from the RBI showed that in FY14 — the fiscal year preceding the start of the NDA government’s first term — the gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio was at 3.8%. The bad-loan crisis peaked in FY18, when 11.2% of loans had soured.

Shares of metal companies surged Monday, leading gains in a session where benchmark indices hit lifetime highs. The Nifty Metal index also surged to a record, ending with near 4% gains on positive manufacturing data from China amid brightening prospects of a June start to the US rate easing cycle. Shares of companies in this space ended 4-11% higher, with state-owned companies clocking in relatively higher gains. This outperformance was driven by them being relatively under-owned, said experts.

₹1.21 lakh crore in India’s debt market during the financial year 2023-2024, the highest yearly inflow in more than nine financial years. As per the data on National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), FPIs’ net investment in the country’s debt markets stood at ₹121,059 crore for FY24. This was the highest FPI inflow in the debt market since FY 2014-15, when they infused ₹130,302 crore.

After enduring a disappointing bear market between 2022 and 2023, the crypto market rebounded in 2024. The new year induced bullish momentum and an overall positive sentiment into the crypto market. The rising investor confidence and liquidity prompted investors to pump in fresh capital, pushing the prices of crypto currencies further up. 

It was in 1867 under the British Raj that India adopted a fiscal year starting 1 April, when James Wilson was finance minister. Not only was the date arbitrary, so was annual accounting, drawn as it was from agriculture. Although other institutions traceable to early farming—like patriarchy—have been challenged, the idea of an annual reckoner has endured for centuries with little resistance.

RBI) is likely to keep interest rates unchanged this week as it weighs both robust domestic economic growth prospects amid prickly food inflation and a delayed start to the now-evident shallower monetary easing cycle in the US, where policymakers have already announced fewer reductions next year than indicated by earlier dot plots. An ET poll of 14 respondents said the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.50% at the conclusion of the panel's three-day meeting on April 5. This would mark the seventh consecutive time the rate-setting committee is expected to maintain the repo rate at its current level.

Swiss National Bank became the first major industrial economy to unexpectedly reduce rates, raising the question whether the pivot has finally arrived for more central banks around the world to follow the example of its conservative European counterpart. Ahead of this week's scheduled review meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), market watchers and investors are keen to know the timeline for India's rate easing cycle. However, the texture — and driver — of India's robust economic growth rates suggest their wait will perhaps be of some duration. The chances of a rate reduction in the first half of the fiscal year beginning Monday look wafer thin, with policymakers likely waiting for higher neutral rates before nudging the rate lever. The primary reason behind such overwhelmingly short odds on the 'higher-for-longer' rate trajectory is the nature of the ongoing economic expansion, which has made New Delhi a distinct outlier in a rather circumspect world. For more than 30 straight months, the gauges for purchasing managers have stayed in the expansionary mode, while the percolation effects of unprecedented capital expenditure in helping broad-base the texture of economic growth is becoming increasingly evident.

National Testing Agency (NTA) today extended the application deadline for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG. As per NTA, candidates can now apply for CUET-UG till April 5th. This is the second time that the agency has extended application deadline for the exam. Earlier this month, the deadline was extended till March 31 from March 26. The application deadline thus was to end today at 9:50 PM. In a press release, NTA today said that it has decided to extend the deadline «on request received from candidates and other stakeholders».