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STAAH, has revealed the top channels across its network of over 19,000 properties. Gobibo and MakeMyTrip owner, GoMMT took the top spot for six years running.

Narayan Murthy refuses to back down from his contentious views regarding work-life balance. The Infosys co-founder, who created an uproar last year for suggesting that the millennial and Gen Z employees should work for at least 70 hours a week so that the Indian economy could progress, doubled down on his views in a recent interview with CNBC-TV18. Referring to his controversial statement, the billionaire pointed out that if farmers and factory workers could dedicate themselves to work, so can employees hailing from the middle class. He also claimed that hard work is ingrained in the Indian culture, since many people take up jobs that are physically demanding.

GST increase by the Finance Minister, that it has been hit with last year." Singh pointed out that this borderless industry, fueled by innovation, is facing an unlevel playing field for Indian companies, leading to closures, downsizing, and razor-thin profit margins. He highlighted the global scale of the Online Games industry, which is nearly three times the size of the combined worldwide Movie and Music industry.

Investing.com -- Stock futures in New York tick lower as investors gear up for the release of the closely-watched U.S. jobs report for December. Economists are projecting that nonfarm payrolls were less than the prior month, although recent data has pointed to resilience in labor demand that could boost the Federal Reserve's bid to engineer a soft landing for the world's largest economy.

OY, PIONEERS! Please tell me you’re not taking the average compact crossover wagon into the boonies. The salesperson might have told you it had all-wheel drive, and it probably does, sort of. But such systems are often surprisingly feeble off road.

Union Budget 2024-25: Four income tax benefits you could expect from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Details here The target will be between 5.2% to 5.4% of gross domestic product for the year starting April 1, according to officials with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named as the deliberations are private. A final decision will be taken closer to the budget presentation, due Feb.

LiveMint, Patel said that gold has a very low correlation with other asset classes hence it is advisable to allocate some of it to your portfolio. The current market environment is quite challenging as investors look to hedge or diversify their portfolios with safer assets. Investors may opt for an asset class that can protect their portfolio from market uncertainty.

If the most important development of 2024 will be the wave of elections sweeping the democratic world, the second-most important story to watch is China’s economy. It boils down to two questions: What is it that has steeled Xi Jinping’s nerve to drive China into this—possibly necessary—economic turmoil, and can he keep his resolve over the next 12 months? The deterioration of the Chinese economy is, perhaps surprisingly for anything involving China, reasonably well understood. The country has never recovered from the twin shocks of a Beijing-induced property-market slowdown and the draconian (and failed) zero-Covid policy of the pandemic era.

By Kantaro Komiya

Germany increased in 2023, official data showed Thursday, but an end to government subsidy programmes saw electric vehicles lose ground on fossil-fuel models. A total of 2.8 million new cars hit the road in Europe's largest economy last year, an increase of 7.3 percent on 2022, according to the KBA federal transport authority. Among the different engine types, sales of petrol vehicles increased most, up 13.3 percent on 2022 to 979,000.

Investing.com-- Most Asian currencies moved in a flat-to-low range on Friday, while the dollar hovered near three-week highs as markets awaited key U.S. labor data for more cues on the Federal Reserve’s plans for interest rate cuts. 

Also Read: Markets Moving in Lockstep Threaten to Make for a Trying 2024 Earlier, Morgan Stanley forecasted that the Dollar Spot Index would strengthen about 8% from current levels in the second quarter. However, analysts turned bearish on the greenback in December after Fed’s dovish pivot with the Chair Jerome Powell signaling a shift to cutting rates this year.

Also Read: Mint Primer: Will office real estate bounce back this year? In today's trading session, the Nifty Realty index soared an additional 21.7 points, reaching a 52-week high of 863 points. Six out of 10 stocks are currently trading in the green, with Phoenix Mills leading the way with a notable gain of 5.2% at ₹2,487 apiece. Other top performers include Swan Energy (up 1.8%), Brigade Enterprises (up 1.7%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.6%) and Oberoi Realty (up 0.2%) Macrotech Developers witnessed its shares reach a new record high of ₹1,198.9 apiece in today's trade.

In today’s dynamic financial markets, it’s crucial to have a robust and diversified investment approach. Diversification, the practice of spreading investments across various asset classes, is widely recognized as an essential risk management tool. In the face of global geopolitical changes and market unpredictability, investors are turning to multi-asset funds to navigate complexities and protect their portfolios.

Residential real estate sales in India were at their highest since the peak seen in 2013, witnessing a 33 percent YoY growth, with a total of 4.10 lakh units sold during calendar year 2023, according to the latest report by PropTiger.com.

Q3 result preview: IT firms expected to post muted revenue, subdued profit amid weak demand "We think the industry is close to the trough of this cycle. Signs of improvement in the global economy and strong deal wins in recent quarters give us confidence about the revenue growth acceleration that we forecast for FY25," said BNP Paribas. The financial firm prefers large-cap firms with strong client relationships, scale to invest in GenAI (Generative AI) and reasonable valuations.

Some investors hold that as goes January, so goes the year. The performance so far—with the S&P 500 down 1.7% by Thursday’s close—doesn’t hold out great hope. But the first three trading days of the year offered a useful run-through of three of the ways that inflation and the economy affect your portfolio.

Varun Saboo, Head-Equities, Anand Rathi Shares, says “rural economy has been doing fine. We have been of the view that the rural economy has continued doing well. It is just that the pricing growth was very strong. Prices of most products have literally doubled in the last three years. All these consumer companies – be it FMCG, be it discretionary names, be it auto companies – have seen a huge inflation. We have seen products going up around 70-80% to about 100%.” What are the return expectations considering this is going to be an eventful year, first half India elections and then second half US? Varun Saboo: If we speak about elections it is better to speak about the India side, at least the results which we saw of the state elections which went by it is kind of getting into a consensus where there is a belief that there will be a strong majority again by the current government coming in. There is a lot of euphoria around it. And that is reflected in our markets.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) — Oil prices edged higher on Friday after minutes from a Federal Reserve meeting suggested inflation was under control and as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit the Middle East to prevent escalation in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks moved little on Friday as they steadied after a weak start to the new year, although anticipation of key U.S. payrolls data and persistent concerns over China kept investors on edge.

“We expect Nifty50 to give a further return of 5,000 points and Nifty50 is expected to reach 26,000 in the year 2024,” says Shailesh Saraf, smallcase Manager & MD — Dynamic Equities Pvt Ltd. In an interview with ETMarkets, Saraf who has over 3 decades of experience in capital markets said: “We believe that 2024 will continue to see a great number of IPOs—possibly even better than 2023—given the expectation of GDP growth and the India manufacturing story where capital spending by the Government is significant ($120bn),” Edited excerpts: We were cruising nicely but suddenly COVID, freight concerns, and potential geopolitical tension strike D-St. What is your take – is it profit booking or will any of the above factors have a material impact? Shailesh Saraf: The Indian market has crossed 4 trillion USD in terms of market capitalization. With 25% gains this year India has outperformed the major global markets like the US, China, Japan, and Europe.