Digital Financial News

The cryptocurrency world is abuzz with significant developments today. Bitcoin is currently trading at $27,653, experiencing a 1% decrease on Tuesday. In a noteworthy political move, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a staunch advocate for cryptocurrencies, has decided to run for president as an independent, parting ways with the Democrats. 

Amit Sachdeva, India Equity Strategist, HSBC Securities, says “given the stable growth macro and where the world is today, India continues to be a very attractive destination for FIIs and that is not going to go away with one month of small short-term volatility or event. The larger game is set. If you look at the longer picture, what gives you confidence that India should do well? It is seen as a more structural market. But another factor that has worked in India's favour is that when you survive a crisis, the resilience is proven.” What are the triggers that will make FIIs come back to India equities. This is one of the largest selling sprees that we have seen in recent history, consecutive 14 days of sell-off from FIIs. What would have to change on ground for them to come back and would it only be a function of the way the US yield pans out? It is largely that factor, to be honest. If you look at FII flows and put that in the context of bull runs, we are about 0.6% of the market cap. In the last 12 months, every time you look at FII inflows, you have to look at accumulated flow of last 12 months because you may see some incessant flows in the last six months assuming that is the massive inflow that has already come, but it is true because the base is very benign. We are at about 0.6% of market cap which is way below the bull run averages at 1.7% and perhaps 3% of the bull run peak. So, in some sense, the base is extremely benign. We have seen large outflows last year, to be honest, minus 17 billion to be precise.

Manappuram Finance has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with construction equipment manufacturer JCB India to finance the latter’s range of equipment and engineering products. The agreement was signed by Kamal Parmar, Head, of Vehicle and Equipment Finance, Manappuram Finance, and JCB India representative the other day. As per the agreement, the finance options will be available across the country. The pact will go a long way in helping both sides increase their business volumes.

X on Tuesday said it has removed newly-created Hamas-affiliated accounts and purged tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas violence, as its CEO Linda Yaccarino cancelled her appearance at a key tech conference next week. The platform said it is also continuing to proactively monitor for antisemitic speech. «We have taken action to remove several hundred accounts attempting to manipulate trending topics. Community Notes are now live on posts and new accounts are being enrolled in real time to propose and rate notes,» said the social media network.

Flipkart suspended its grocery delivery services after suffering an outage on Tuesday as the rush of people overwhelmed the platform amid its annual ‘Big Billion Days’ festive sale. The Flipkart Grocery service was down on the app as well as the web. “Please come back tomorrow. We are overwhelmed by your response,” said a banner as users landed on the grocery section of the app.

AuditCue on Tuesday said it has raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital. Other investors who participated in the round included Java Capital and angel investors from San Francisco.

Rahul Shah, V-P, Equity Advisory, MOFSL, says “it looks like markets will continue to do well. It does not look like a sell-off is imminent. Maybe, the market will shed 4-5% and then stabilise there and again, build it back to the game. We should continue to hold on with this opportunity and in a sell-off, one should participate.” From a financial market standpoint, is it time to move on? We see a lot of concerns going on globally. From India’s perspective, there are two-three things. The markets are still trading at reasonable valuations. Midcaps and smallcaps valuations are rich and largecaps have underperformed. From the overall market perspective, there’s no big negative. Also, it looks like it will be a good earnings season. My sense is largecap stocks will outperform midcaps and smallcaps might take a breather, but whenever we see the largecaps performing, midcaps and small caps also rally. But after the midcap and smallcap rally, It is time for the largecaps. Usually in an election year, just before the elections, the last 20-25 years’ data suggests that markets have rallied between 10% and 32%,.

Amit Sachdeva, India Equity Strategist, HSBC Securities, says “there are two vulnerabilities for India; one is obviously a geopolitical crisis. If it spirals out of control, then it might weigh on India's investment case. But US bond yields have also risen quite sharply. That has seen some outflow as well. But if you look at the overall picture for India's Goldilocks scenario, I would hazard a guess that India is in a decisive bull run and we are in the middle of it right now.” What is your take on the Israel-Palestine war? The way both local and global markets have been resilient, it looks like markets are saying this is not Russia and Ukraine. This is very localized and is unlikely to have a financial disruption. Geopolitical situations are always interesting and also hard to predict. One thing can lead to another. I am not going to call that out, to be honest. But the market obviously has taken a view that the situation will be contained. It would not spiral out of control, et cetera. So at least the market has taken that view. My sense is that could probably be the fair view as well. But more importantly, India's context is very interesting because India has been an outperforming region three years in a row. That makes many people wonder whether these rallies can continue. But I think we need to drill down into the entire Goldilocks scenario of India.

MSMEs and large firms, digital technology is a leveller for small enterprises, according to a pan-India survey done by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). The survey’s findings — which were released on October 9 in the report Annual Survey of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India: Leveraging e-Commerce for the Growth of MSMEs — showed low awareness among MSMEs with regard to the benefits of integrating their operations with e-commerce platforms. Policymakers have to roll-out a multi-pronged strategy to change the status quo, it said. Mentioning some of the key benefits of leveraging e-commerce platforms for MSMEs, Radikha Kapoor, Professor at ICRIER, said, “E-commerce platforms have been found to enable them (MSMEs) to access wider markets, boosting their sales and revenue.

Sandip Sabharwal, asksandipsabharwal.com, says “OMCs have become uninvestable because of the price gaps which have been put on petrol, diesel prices. We do not know what profits will come as the free pricing regime has virtually effectively ended. I do not think these companies are investable. On the other hand, Oil India, ONGC etc are very inefficient companies. So some price uptick will lead to some uptick in stock prices, but they are more trading plays.” What is your outlook on how things are shaping up within the entire pharma space? Going by the valuations and the kind of domestic market growth that we have seen, are you being very selective when it comes to pharma? Yes, I am always very selective. Although some of the smaller pharma companies have done well, many of the smaller pharma companies do not have cash flows to support their valuation. I just try to stick to the larger ones. We have Sun Pharma as our core holding, Lupin as a contrarian bet, which we took a year-year and a half back. That is doing well. So these are the two holdings we have. But overall, pharma is still a reasonably under-owned space. So if the performance is improving, we could see the stocks do better.

Vinit Bolinjkar, Head of Research, Ventura Securities, says “Haifa port was a crucial cog in the wheel of Adani Ports. As the Adani group is in infrastructure, debt is a large part of their programme. That stock is taking a hit because of the uncertainty created by the Middle East tensions. Also the Supreme Court hearing on the Hindenburg Report is on October 13. So, we might as well wait until that before taking any fresh exposure to Adani stocks.” On PSU banks In the last runup, they were the ones that had outperformed the most.

“The Microcap and Small cap look risky and overheated at this point of time as the stocks have reflected a sharp rise in their prices during the past few months,” says Girirajan Murugan, CEO, FundsIndia. In an interview with ETMarkets, Murugan said: “The small cap and microcap stocks are more sensitive to macroeconomic changes that lead to more volatility in the short term” Edited excerpts: Nifty hit 20200 levels and then we saw some bit of healthy profit-taking amid muted global cues. What is your take on markets for the medium to long term? Our medium to long-term view remains bullish on the Indian stock market. We believe that the current correction in the Nifty of around 4% from the all-time high has offered a good opportunity to accumulate fundamentally strong stocks for the medium to long term at reasonable valuations.

Sam Altman, the founder of Worldcoin and CEO of OpenAI, has voiced his concerns regarding the escalating efforts by the US government to regulate and exert authority over the cryptocurrency market. 

Chinese officials say uptake for the digital yuan is rising among overseas visitors – while more citizens are receiving their salaries in CBDC wallets.

Bitcoin (BTC), the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, could not break the $28,000 mark over the weekend, showing sluggish movement. 

Kristina Campbell, who served as Ripple's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for approximately two and a half years, has recently left the company.

Ethereum and Bitcoin Spark are at the forefront as projects break through limitations to foster the growth of Web3. These two networks provide platforms for growth by going beyond just offering a digital currency that can be used to buy goods and services, as well as an investment vehicle that stores value and hedges against inflation.

Greece has become a late but enthusiastic convert to new technology as a way of displaying its famous archaeological monuments and deepening visitors' knowledge of ancient history

Click here! "They will bring new athletes to the Games, engage diverse fanbases and expand the Games' presence in digital spaces, further amplifying LA28's mission to deliver an unparalleled experience," he added. "We are delighted that LA28 have recommended cricket for inclusion in the Olympics" espncricinfo quoted ICC chairman Greg Barclay as saying.