Electronic Financial News

NEW DELHI : Retailers across the board may suffer after the Reserve Bank of India barred the largest consumer goods financier Bajaj Finance from disbursing loans under two products. On Wednesday, RBI barred Bajaj Finance from lending under its two products—eCom and Insta EMI Card—citing non-compliance with digital lending guidelines. Several retailers that Mint spoke with said this move will significantly impact retailers—both online and offline.

NEW DELHI : Refurbished smartphones and no-interest financing schemes spread over two years became the clear demand drivers for retailers in last week’s Diwali sale, which were better than industry expectations, insiders said. The two factors combined to offer a silver lining for India’s smartphone sellers, even as organic demand for smartphones continued to remain tepid at best in the second-largest smartphone market in the world.

ABB India Ltd’s September quarter earnings were better than expected on several counts. Thanks to a more favourable mix of products and revenues, improved utilization levels and price realization, and better priced older orders, operating margin expanded 580 basis points (bps) year-on-year (y-o-y) to a multi-quarter high of 15.8%, while gross margin was up 190 bps at 36.7%. The company follows a January to December financial year.

UCO Bank on Thursday said it has recovered ₹649 crore or 79% of the ₹820 crore erroneously credited to some account holders of the bank via Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). In a regulatory filing, the bank said that by taking various proactive steps, it blocked the recipients' accounts and has been able to recover ₹649 crore out of ₹820 crore. The bank has initiated requisite actions to recover the balance amount of ₹171 crore, it added.

Q: At Adobe's Best of Summit event the concept that experience-led growth is foundational to the success of every business was explored. How does digital transformation fit into your company's growth agenda? Arnab Ganguly: Being a Super App company, digital is the first word that comes to my mind. Digital transformation can significantly improve a business's efficiency by automating processes, minimising errors, and improving organisational productivity.

The festive season in India is much more than just a time for celebration. It's a time when families come together, homes are adorned with lights and decorations, and everyone eagerly anticipates the joyous times ahead. But in recent years, the festive season has taken on another dimension—it has become the ideal time for many to start their journey into the world of credit. Millennials and Gen Z are more excited about the new things they can do with credit rather than just the idea of credit itself.

Amnish Aggarwal, Head-Research, Prabhudas Lilladher, says “companies which were having a good amount of cash with them, their treasury incomes have gone up because of the higher interest rates. So, whatever has been the aggregate beat, these are one of the two major reasons why this has not been a disappointing quarter as far as the numbers are concerned.” The narrative approaching the results was that people became watchful that this result season we would start seeing some early kind of cracks in some of the numbers either flat to weakish. But by the time we are winding up our Q2 earnings season, the narrative seemed to have changed. It turned out pretty okay. What were some of the hits and misses in your view? If you look at the aggregate numbers which we have studied so far, there are two big factors why you can say first of all as far as your aggregate volumes are concerned and when I am saying this we are referring to the volume growth in any sector or the segment. So, there has not been any big surprise element on that part. The demand conditions have not predominantly changed than what we were talking say a month or two back. But what has been surprising is that the benefit of benign raw material prices has been better than what it was anticipated say a couple of months back.

By Joseph White

Alex Mill chairman Millard Drexler has the latest on the retail market on 'The Claman Countdown.'

Vedanta group on Wednesday said in Saudi Arabia it has set up a new copper unit through subsidiary Malco Energy Limited for SAR (saudi riyal) 1,00,000. The new unit has been named as Vedanta Copper International VCI Company Limited, the company said in an exchange filing. In September, Vedanta’s board had approved a plan to split the business into six separate listed entities.

Target's stock has lost a quarter of its value in a turbulent year marked by elevated inflation. Shoppers have squarely focused on food and essentials, while showing reluctance to spend on home goods, electronics, toys and apparel that are deemed less essential. With nearly half of Target's sales coming from these less essential categories, its sales have fallen in the past two quarters, but the retailer has been about to eke out a higher profit on tighter inventory management and cost controls in other parts of its business, such as logistics. On Wednesday, the company forecast adjusted earnings to land between $1.90 and $2.60 per share.

By Siddharth Cavale and Ananya Mariam Rajesh

Taiwan will take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco this week, a rare opportunity for the self-governing island democracy of 23 million people and its high-tech economy to break the diplomatic embargo on it imposed by ...

Americans cut back on retail spending in October, ending six straight months of gains, though the decline was partly driven by falling prices for both gasoline and cars

The Department of Energy is making a push to strengthen the U.S. battery supply chain — the minerals and parts that go into batteries

BSE Sensex ended higher by 742.06 points or 1.14 per cent at 65,675.93 level while the Nifty 50 closed at 19,675.45 level, up 231.90 points or 1.19 per cent. Nifty 50 index opened higher and hit intraday high of 19,653 levels, logging 210 points gain during Wednesday session against its Monday close of 19,443 mark.

₹450 crore ($57 million) with estimates indicating a staggering ₹5000 crore diverted by the entity in ‘hawala transactions’. The app, now blocked by the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity), was allegedly overseen by individuals based in Dubai -- Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal. Mint delves into the events leading to the scam.

Investing.com — Target (NYSE:TGT) has posted higher-than-anticipated income in the third quarter and delivered a forecast for its current three-month period that was largely above Wall Street expectations, as the big-box retailer moved to clear out inventories and corral costs.

Federal accident investigators want automakers to install systems on all new vehicles that warn drivers when they go over the speed limit

New York City officials say retailers and food delivery companies must do more to halt the proliferation of unsafe e-bike and e-scooter batteries, after a fire blamed on an electric scooter’s lithium ion battery killed three people

Global shares are mostly higher, cheered by a rally on Wall Street that was one of the best days of the year following a surprisingly encouraging report on inflation