UPS Financial News

VC Funding Winter: After years of record-breaking growth, global venture funding crashed in 2023, hitting a six-year low of $248.4 billion. This represented a staggering 38 per cent decline year-over-year and the lowest level since 2017. Venture capital (VC) funding investment in Indian startups decreased by almost one-third in comparison to the funding received in CY22, which amounted to USD 20.6 billion and constituted 4.8 per cent of the global total, according to CB Insights' global data.

Arun Sundaresan, Head-ETF, Nippon Life India Asset Management, says “generally, most of these ETFs anyway tend to be low on expense and they may be comparable but the moot point here is that you should not be guided only by the expense ratio. If the liquidity is poor and if the impact cost is very high, that may defeat the entire purpose of low-cost investing through ETFs.” ETFs are seeing substantial numbers as far as the performance across the board are concerned, especially the volumes. I really want to understand the trigger behind these significant volume numbers. Arun Sundaresan: Obviously ETFs and index funds, passive funds as they are called, have been picking up significant traction over a period of time in the mutual fund industry. Already the total assets under management in these types of funds is around Rs 8 lakh crore. Particularly talking about ETFs, the exchange traded funds they have been around for quite some time now. The topic for today's discussion, what we wanted to talk to you about is the liquidity in an ETF, how critical that is when it comes to your investment.

Santosh Rao, Partner, Head of Research, Manhattan Venture Partners, says “the world has realised that being China-centric is not really good. It is not a good practice, not a good strategy. So they are diversifying out of China. Even if China was not slowing down, just for geopolitical tensions and all that, people have realised that China is not the place to rely on in the long run. India is going to be the biggest beneficiary of that coming out. Investments are going to flow out of China. And that is a huge thing that is playing out in the markets.” Are you surprised the way the entire global narrative has changed? We are talking about rate cuts this year? Santosh Rao: Yes. I think a lot depends on two or three things that are going to determine the US market. Of course, the disparity between what the market is expecting and what the Fed will do. Originally five or six cuts were priced into the market, and that was the enthusiasm coming into the year. But I think now after all the Fed governors have come out and said it clearly, and also seeing the CPI data, the last CPI data that came out the Fed is not going to do five or six cuts. It is probably going to do two, at best three if inflation comes down fast.

Union budget consists of more than a dozen documents. The budget is structured in a way which helps the finance minister present it with clarity and in a detailed manner while also following what the law lays down. Certain documents which are part of the budget are mandatory under the law, such as the Annual Financial Statement, Finance Bill and Fiscal Policy Statements. Many other documents are necessitated for quick and easy understanding of the budget. Read our full Budget 2024 coverage here The budget begins with the finance minister's speech which summarises the state of the economy, the projections for the next year, the government's policy focus, and allocations for different departments and ministries. Below are details about other parts of the budget. Annual Financial Statement The Annual Financial Statement is mandated by Article 112 of the Constitution of India. It shows the estimated receipts and expenditure of the government for the next financial year along with actual numbers for the current financial year.

Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted on January 16 that the ministry has sought incidence reporting thrice daily for all the 6 metro airports. It may be mentioned here that the SOPs were issued on January 15, following major fog-induced flight schedule disruptions — particularly at the Delhi airport. The implementation of the directives by aviation regulator DGCA and the abovementioned SOPs will be monitored and reported regularly, the minister tweeted. Under the new directives, airports and aviation players will set up «war rooms» at the 6 Metro Airports. These facilities will immediately address any issues related to passenger inconvenience caused by flight disruptions. Besides, sufficient CISF manpower availability will be ensured round-the-clock, the minister added.

Canada’s housing market is nearing a “tipping point” and its recovery will start sooner than many expect, says a new report by one of Canada’s leading real estate companies.

De Beers made one of the steepest cuts to its diamond prices in years, as the world’s top producer tries to revive gem sales after the market ground to a halt.

By Anne Kauranen and Balazs Koranyi

Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said compliance with the advisory on deepfakes has been «mixed» from platforms, and added that tighter IT rules are likely to be notified in next 7 days to tackle the issue. The government, he said, had earlier made it clear to social media and online platforms that if its advisory on deepfake is not fully adhered to, new IT rules would follow. «There has been a mixed performance of compliance and I had said at the time of the advisory, that if we find that the advisory is not being followed through completely, we will follow it up with a very clear amended IT rules that will be notified,» Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for IT and Electronics, said on sidelines of an event.

global CEOs, marking a notable jump from its previous ranking of ninth place in 2023, according to PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey, which polled 4,702 CEOs in 105 countries and territories, including 79 from India. As per the study, 70% of CEOs in India express high confidence in their company's potential for revenue growth in the coming three years. Furthermore, an overwhelming 86% of these CEOs believe that the Indian economy will witness improvement in the next 12 months.

Parakramsinh Jadeja, CMD, Jyoti CNC Automation, says “out of the IPO proceeds, we are going to pay close to Rs 475 crore on debt and after that will have less than 0.25% debt to equity ratio and in the next two to three years, we are looking to be a debt-free company. In terms of new capex, our plant has been put up over there. We do not need to invest much over here and then that kind of a total four phase we do, we do not need extra space to be there.” Your company is the third largest CNC manufacturer and it has seen its fair shares of ups and downs as well. After suffering a setback in FY21-22, you have turned the corner in FY23 now and turned profitable as well. What led to this turnaround and what is the outlook now going forward? Is the profitability you think sustainable going forward? Parakramsinh Jadeja: we have a robust order book and in terms of a percentage also if you look at the past, first half numbers are grooming up there.

DLF Ltd. dropped 2.6 per cent to Rs 785.5 at 02:12PM (IST) in Tuesday's trade. The scrip hit a high of Rs 805.9 and low of Rs 777.65 so far during the session.

petro cryptocurrency that President Nicolas Maduro launched six years ago to sidestep US sanctions, but which never took off and became embroiled in a graft scandal. All crypto wallets held on the Patria Platform — the only website where the petro was tradeable — will be shut down on Monday, January 15, according to a message displayed on the platform's site. Any remaining petros are being converted to bolivars, the ailing local currency. The cryptocurrency was launched with great pomp and ceremony in February 2018, backed by Venezuela's vast petrol reserves, and priced at US $60 per unit.

Info Edge (India) Ltd. traded at Rs 5206.15 on BSE at 02:06PM (IST) on Tuesday, down 2.52 per cent. The stock quoted a 52-week low price of Rs 3310.0 and a high of Rs 5332.8.

Formal job creation under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation fell 7.5% month-on-month with 1.59 million new employees added to it in November as against 1.72 million added in October. This is the lowest new subscriber addition under ESIC in the current fiscal so far. ESIC added 1.78 million subscribers in April, 2.02 million subscribers each in May and June, 1.98 million in July, 1.94 million in August and 1.88 million in September.

Capital Small Finance Bank, Krystal Integrated Services and Vibhor Steel Tubes — have received Sebi's go-ahead to raise funds through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). All three firms, which filed their preliminary IPO papers with the capital markets regulator in October 2023, obtained their observation letters during January 8-12, an update with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed on Tuesday. In Sebi's parlance, obtaining its observation letter means its approval to float the public issue.

One of the world’s most valuable battery startups is raising $3.4 billion in debt from the European Union and a group of banks including JPMorgan Chase, accelerating a race to build more batteries outside China and take advantage of a tidal wave of clean-energy subsidies. Europe’s Northvolt plans to use the funding to grow battery production at a factory in northern Sweden for customers such as Volkswagen and BMW. It also plans to expand a recycling facility next door that will convert scrap metal and old batteries into reusable battery materials.

NALCO, a PSU firm engaged in alumina and aluminum manufacturing and sales, saw its shares surge sharply in today's intraday session, hitting a new lifetime high of ₹144 apiece by gaining 6.70%. This achievement is particularly noteworthy as the stock has set a new record after a gap of 16 years, surpassing its previous all-time high of ₹141.60 apiece, which was set in January 2008.

Federal Bank on Tuesday reported its highest-ever standalone net profit at Rs 1,007 crore for the quarter ended December, up 25% from Rs 804 crore reported by the private lender in the year-ago period. Sequentially it was up 5.5% versus Rs 954 crore reported in Q2FY24. The private lender also reported its highest-ever net interest income (NII) at Rs 2,123 crore.

Investing.com — European stock markets fell Tuesday on concerns that interest rates will remain high for longer than expected, while the annual World Economic Forum in Davos continued. 

ICICI Securities calculations suggest that India’s first US Dollar 1 trillion market cap (m-cap) stock could emerge by 2032. Reliance Industries , HDFC Bank , Bajaj Finance are amongst the top contenders that could reach $1 trillion market value by 2032 as per ICICI Securities. The macro framework for any company reaching the $1 trillion market value is based on the assumption of reaching peak corporate profitability (7% ‘net profit to GDP" ratio) in the listed space driven by gradual advancement towards peak GDP growth of 9%.