Digital Financial News

Despite losing around $2 billion to crypto thefts, 2023 saw a slight decline in hacking incidents targeting the cryptocurrency industry. 

private equity and venture capital funds into domestic companies declined about 40 per cent to USD 27.9 billion so far this year, while the outflow increased marginally to USD 19.34 billion year-on-year. According to the numbers collated by Venture Intelligence that tracks private capital and debt flows, and industry body IVCA, investments by private equity and venture capital funds as of December 20, 2023, fell to a low of USD 27.9 billion across 697 transactions, as against USD 47.62 billion inflows in 2022 across 1,364 deals. The year also saw more money being pulled out from the country by private equity players with overall exits touching USD 19.34 billion from 248 companies as against 233 exists worth USD 18.45 billion in 2022, according to the data.

IT sector, which has seen a contraction in hiring amid global economic slowdown and funding winter, is likely to witness a positive turnaround with 8-10% increase in hiring in 2024, suggests a new report rom talent solution company NLB Services. Overall, the hiring in the IT sector is expected to surge by 12-15% in CY 2024, especially due to the surge in global capabilities centres (GCCs) and global economy settling down comparatively, according to the report.

Ashish Garg, MD, Happy Forgings, says “exports have risen from around Rs 50 crore in FY21 to almost Rs 300 crore this financial year. It has grown almost 6x and it was 3.7% last year in H1 we have clocked almost 21% as direct exports. So, we will be closing at about 20% direct exports this year. And going forward, we are looking between 27% and 28% going forward in the next financial year.” Happy Forgings has seen substantial growth over the last few years. Could you help us understand in terms of what worked well for the company and what is the sustainable growth trend that you are expecting? Ashish Garg: The company is able to perform at a CAGR growth of almost 25% in terms of EBITDA. So, it is not just the three years performance, if you look at the performance for the last 10 years, it has been very stable and in terms of numbers, we are improving our EBITDA margins and EBITDA per tonne on quarter on quarter basis because of the machining content in the business. Today almost 85% of the revenues are coming from complete machine products, not only the forged products which is the highest amongst our listed peers and also the value addition in the industrial business and the exports picking up is helping us.

China has launched its first automated digital yuan wallet-opening machine for overseas passport holders.

A wave of optimism has been created as a result of the recent statement made by the Federal Reserve of the United States of America to halt interest rates and hint at the possibility of rate decreases in 2024. This news has produced ripples across the financial markets. It is anticipated that this strategic choice would have a substantial influence not just on the cryptocurrency market but also on regular stock markets.

Gautam Adani and his conglomerate by storm. Since the turn of the year, Adani’s company was accused of corporate misdoings, the Opposition said the Centre favoured him over others, the Supreme Court got involved, and his investors lost money. Yet, as we approach the end of 2023, he has yet to be charged for any of the allegations.

Invesco and Galaxy Digital have proposed a spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently extended the period for making a decision about whether or not to approve or disapprove of the proposal. It is clear that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will continue to exercise caution with regard to financial products that are based on cryptocurrencies.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has taken a significant step in addressing the complexities of accounting for crypto assets. On December 13, 2023, FASB issued an Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2023-08, aimed at improving the accounting and disclosure of certain crypto assets. This update is a response to the evolving nature of digital assets and the need for more relevant financial reporting in this area.

The development of World ID 2.0 represents a huge step forward in the realm of decentralised identity verification. Worldcoin, a notable company in the blockchain technology industry, has taken this leap, according to official blog. Shopify, Minecraft,  Mercado Libre, Reddit, and Telegram are just some of the main digital sites that have been smoothly integrated with this breakthrough upgrade, which was revealed on December 12, 2023.

IndusInd Bank, said, "The introduction of India's first 'Corporate Credit Card' on the RuPay network is a testament to our constant endeavour in elevating the customer experience. The product comes from our deep understanding of the segment and we are delighted to introduce a compelling proposition for Indian professionals and businessmen who travel extensively and require lifestyle-related value-added benefits.

Bosch 6 kg model stands out as the standard by which competitors are compared in terms of functionality and efficiency. The article goes into great detail to compare them all, emphasising their unique qualities and strong points. The 6-kilogramme washing machine from Bosch is unique because of its small size and cutting-edge technology.

In the longer term, investing in selective quality mid and smallcaps names, which fall in the emerging sectors or segments of the economy, are always the best way to generate alpha, believes Madanagopal Ramu, fund manager and head — equity atSundaram Alternate Assets, who oversees more than Rs 7500 crore worth of assets. Ramu is of the view that the market is overestimating the earnings growth momentum for companies in the mid- and smallcap segment, which reflects in the rally seen this year. “In many of these companies which are part of the mid and smallcap indices, earnings momentum are cyclical and not structural, so it runs out of steam pretty quickly. Therefore, being selective is key to sustain long term performance,” Ramu said in an interview with ETMarkets. Edited excerpts: How has the year 2023 been for the funds managed by you? Madanagopal Ramu: It has been a mixed year, we saw a recovery and our funds performed in line with the market for most of the year, but alpha creation was challenging.

Deven Choksey, MD, DRChoksey FinServ Pvt. Ltd, says: “The government has made most of the PSU companies more accountable for the growth. And that is one of the reasons for which the market participants and investors have started buying into some of the PSU companies because there is a visibility of growth that one is seeing vis-à-vis the private sector players I think these companies probably require to demonstrate their amount of growth. If that is so, then I would justify the kind of rally which is right now in place as far as the PSUs are concerned.” You have been a market watcher for the longest time. Do you think we have the infrastructure in place for T+0, instant settlement for the equity cash segment? What will the impact of this be like? Deven Choksey: In a lighter tone, I think in our country we first create the product and then the infrastructure gets built. I am not going to be very surprised if infrastructure is going to get built over a period of time. However, the most important part out here is that this particular move is likely to work for the investors much more significantly. When you settle the trade on the same day, you probably bring in a significant amount of market confidence and the integrity quotient will probably increase significantly. So, from that point of view, I would think that it is going to benefit the investors the most. Whether we have the requisite infrastructure at this point of time in place, it will have to be tested.

Financial Planning: 4 experts share tips on how to plan your finances for 2024 Another channel to dupe new investors for money is to feed them with tips through social media platforms. Many times, investors are sent messages and they are introduced to a free social media handle or channel. Sometimes scamsters claim that these are run by successful traders, which is not the case.

artificial intelligence (AI) to discover content preferred by India's tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Flipkart is deploying such tools to strategically place sale banners on its mobile app, while P&G studied the subconscious preferences of consumers to improve the package design of its products. And, Star Disney tested six versions of the promo before launching a new primetime show to optimise promotion budget allocation. Brands are increasingly using facial expressions, eye tracking, voice modulation, body movements and several other concepts of 'emotion AI', to better their business offerings. The use-cases extend from digital advertising, mental health diagnosis, consumer research to enhancing safety in public spaces, etc.

December has turned out to be the busiest month of 2023 for risk capital investors, who have announced more than $1.5 billion funding till Tuesday. However, most industry watchers would be cautious about terming it the end of the funding winter. This month’s funding now tops January’s $1.4-billion raise, which was the highest for the year so far, data compiled until December 26 by Tracxn showed.

funding crunch hit Indian startups in 2023 with primary capital becoming hard to come by, there was a significant increase in secondary share sales across late-stage ventures. Risk investors ET spoke with said the trend is likely to continue in 2024, as the focus would be on the limited number of good assets where existing investors are looking to part-sell their stake.

As the cryptocurrency landscape continues to shift and evolve, NEAR Protocol has made a remarkable entrance, solidifying its position as a noteworthy player. Recently, NEAR Protocol has successfully breached the $4 mark, with its current price hovering at $4.23.

Amidst the turbulent waves of the cryptocurrency market, a recent downturn has sparked concerns over the future of Celestia (TIA), with its price dipping by 6.8%. This decline stands in stark contrast to the coin’s recent performance; as of December 26, Celestia had marked a substantial rise to $14.39, registering an 18.06% increase within just 24 hours.

While film music continues to top charts, independent artistes who bring out their own singles or albums, often backed by top music labels or streaming platforms, saw much traction in 2023. Languages like Bhojpuri, Tamil and Telugu are emerging as leaders in the independent music scene, other than Hindi, while names like King, Darshan and AP Dhillon have developed a loyal fan following. For these new artistes, however, getting discovered in an overwhelmingly crowded music milieu remains a great challenge.