UPS Financial News

By Wayne Cole

Investing.com-- Japan avoided a recession in the fourth quarter, a revised gross domestic product reading showed on Monday, aided chiefly by increased company spending on new facilities and equipment.

By Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao

Reddit is aiming to raise up to $748 million as it finalizes plans for a public debut, according to Bloomberg News. The company plans to offer 22 million shares priced between $31 and $34 each.

Trinamool Congress announced candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal striking a fine balance by fielding 12 women, 10 SCs, 3 STs, 2 OBCs while 16 candidates, including MPs and MLAs, have been repeated. Around 11 new faces have been brought in. Sons of the soil, adivasis, gorkhas, Rajbonshi, Matuas, minority community and women have been given representation. The biggest surprise was Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan. Party chief Mamata Banerjee walked up the platform with all the 42 Lok Sabha candidates at the Brigade Ground rally on Sunday. Abhishek Banerjee, who will be contesting from the Diamond Harbour constituency, announced the name of former cricketer and IPL player Yusuf Pathan who will be contesting from Baharampur. Trinamool Congress has made it tough for Congress state president Adhir Ranjan by fielding the former cricketer against Adhir Ranjan in Baharampur. Trinamool usually puts up strong candidates in Malda and Murshidabad, both Congress strongholds. Former IPS officer from West Bengal cadre, Prasun Banerjee whose last posting was as DIG Raiganj Range (as IGP), will contest from Malda North.

German Formula 1 racetrack designer Tilke, real estate consultancy company CBRE and architecture firm Arcop ranked the highest on a list of six international consultants that are competing for designing a racetrack in Gujarat's GIFT City that could position the financial centre also as an international sporting destination, according to people in the know. The Tilke-led consortium scored 98% marks in an evaluation conducted by Sports Authority of Gujarat during March 7-8 and is likely to be granted the work order to develop a design for the F1 track, the people said. The project could cost up to ₹10,000 crore.

car industry has for the second time revised upwards its growth projections for this fiscal to more than 8%, nearly twice the rate projected at the start of the year. Passenger vehicle sales in the local market are expected to grow by 8.1-8.2% to 4.23 million units in FY24, buoyed by better-than-expected economic growth especially in the last two quarters, favourable monsoons despite the El Nino conditions, and effective monetary policies that helped rein in high inflation without affecting domestic consumption buoyed demand, industry insiders said. Earlier in the year, the industry had estimated sales of 4 million units and 4.13 million units.

buyout funds KKR, Carlyle, EQT, Hillhouse and TA Associates are competing against each other to buy out Healthium Medtech, the largest homegrown surgical sutures manufacturer, also the largest manufacturer of surgical needles globally by volume, in what is turning out to be the fiercest bidding process of the year. Healthium (formerly Sutures India), 99.8% owned by Apax Partners is the fourth largest surgical suture manufacturer in the world with a market share of about 18% in India. These funds were shortlisted this weekend after the first round of screening based on non-binding bids submitted last week which largely value the company between Rs 6300 crore to Rs 6500 crore. A formal sale process was launched earlier this year with Jefferies mandated to sell the company with close to two dozen funds including Blackstone, Partners Group, Canadian pension funds, picking up the information memorandum and signing non-disclosure agreements.

For those wondering why private sector capex is not visible, here's an answer — it has reached a critical stage from where it is beginning to flow — said, CEO at Crisil, the biggest rating company that has the pulse of the Indian corporate world. Recent regulatory actions may slow the growth rate, but there is no trouble in sight, Mehta told Bhaskar Dutta and MC Govardhana Rangan in an interview. Edited excerpts: The latest GDP growth numbers surprised everyone. There are divergent views on it and we aren't seeing private capex yet. What are the corporates telling you? There are a few parts to this. One is the PLI (production-linked incentive scheme). It's very targeted — 15 sectors — and it's going to happen. Then there is conventional capex, the point that you are talking about. We are looking at capacity utilisation across multiple segments right now. What we are seeing is that in the top eight key segments, the capacity today is higher than the decadal average capacity utilisation that we have seen across those segments whether you take cement, steel, oil and gas, etc. Cement and steel plants are already expanding, refining is talking about green capex investment. Capex investment in these companies is at 13-14% versus 7-8% earlier. We are talking 13-14% growth in fixed assets. They have now started investing at a higher pace than earlier. The next question is about the sustainability of this growth. Can this be repeated?

fitness as Delhi Capitals found her short of crease to win a cliffhanger against Royal Challengers by a solitary run in the Women's Premier League on Sunday. Needing 17 off last over to reach a target of 182, Richa, who blasted 51 off 29 balls, smote left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen for a 78 metre straight six and another maximum off the penultimate delivery to bring the equation down to two runs off the final delivery. However Richa, not exactly known for being the fittest among Indian cricketers despite brute power in her strokes, wasn't fast enough to beat Jonassen, who whipped the bails off in a flash to restrict RCB to 180 for 7. DC, with their fifth win, are now on 10 points and lead the table due to superior net run-rate (+0.918) compared to Mumbai Indians (+.343).

By Yousef Saba and Maha El Dahan

An Economist article on 7 February 2024 by Elizabeth Lees presented a pictorial representation of the world’s heat map over the past 60 years as compared to pre-Industrial Age temperatures. The latter half of 2023 showed a 2° Celsius heating above the pre-industrial level, and while it was an El Niño year of additional warming, this illustrates the climate-change disaster that we are facing today. The only way the earth will survive is if we stop using fossil fuels as a source of energy at the earliest.

In August 2022, a college professor in Maharashtra posted on a Whatsapp group his good wishes to Pakistan on its independence day. He also protested India’s revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The police filed charges against him for “promoting enmity" between communities.

Passengers had to be evacuated from a United Airlines plane after it rolled off a runway in Houston and ended up stuck in a grassy area

As WWE gears up for its biggest annual premium live event next month, the company continues to harness the power of its social media presence to reach its fans

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes on Friday: DocuSign, Gap rise; Costco, Marvell fall

Tax season is underway in the U.S. Filing taxes can be a daunting task that’s often left until the last minute

The Senate has approved a $460 billion package of spending bills in time to meet a midnight deadline for avoiding a shutdown of many key federal agencies

President Joe Biden has signed into law a package of spending bills passed by the Senate in time to avoid a shutdown of many key federal agencies

Doctors around the country say insurers are making it harder to get coverage for home ventilators that patients with serious illnesses need as their lungs fail

Apple has reversed course under regulatory pressure and cleared the way for a nettlesome adversary, video game maker Epic Games, to set up an alternative store for iPhone apps in Europe