UPS Financial News

Mint Quick Edit | Google's search monopoly ruling: Error 404? By locking more users into its ecosystem of services such as Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, the company gains access to more user data, which in turn lets it develop newer services and better artificial intelligence technology. The court noted that Google accounts for 90% of global web searches, which denies other companies the opportunity to grow and compete with it. Google has inflated ad prices above free-market levels, it said, giving it the power to pay billions for default status and maintain its monopoly.

union budget has widened the gap between PMS and MF in income tax terms, many suspect that HNI investors may be encouraged to tilt more towards mutual funds due to their tax-friendly nature. In the union budget announcement, there was an increase in capital gain tax. The short-term gains on specified financial assets was changed to 20% instead of the previous 15%. The long-term gains on all financial and non-financial assets was changed to 12.5% from 10% earlier. The difference in tax rate which earlier was 5% has been widened to 7.5% post budget announcement. “On taxes, PMS does poorly compared to MFs, which is a significant drawback. Unlike PMS, where taxes are applied even if investors do not liquidate but fund managers make changes to the portfolio, mutual funds only impose short-term or long-term capital gains on investors when they sell their units. With an average turnover ratio of 50% in PMS, there is an extra 1-2% tax obligation on total assets,” said Amar Ranu, Head-Investment Products & Insights, Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers.

Passenger vehicle sales in July stood at 3,41,510 units, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Wednesday. Three-wheeler sales in the same month were 59,073 units, while two-wheeler sales totalled 14,41,694 units, the data showed. In June, total passenger vehicle sales were recorded at 3,37,757 units, compared to 3,27,788 units in June 2023.

Siemens Ltd. rose 0.76 per cent to Rs 7021.0 in Wednesday's trade as of 01:04PM (IST) even as the benchmark Nifty ruled at 24176.85, up 37.85 points. The scrip had closed at Rs 6967.45 in the previous session. The stock quoted a 52-week low of Rs 3248.0 and a high of Rs 7974.25. The company quoted a market-cap of Rs 249996.42 crore on the BSE.

Congress on Wednesday reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee into the Adani issue and alleged that the Gujarat government was helping Adani Ports to «secure a monopoly» on the state's port sector. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Gujarat government grants private ports a 30-year concession period on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis, after which ownership gets transferred to the government of Gujarat. On the basis of this model, Adani Ports currently has control over Mundra, Hazira, and Dahej ports, he said. Before the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Adani Ports requested the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) to extend this concession period by another 45 years to 75 years in total, Ramesh claimed.

Independence Day celebrations, security has been beefed up across the country. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hoist the Tricolour at the Red Fort and address the nation on Thursday, Delhi police have deployed personnel around the Red Fort, and bomb disposal staff have been carrying out checking of the nearby vicinity of Red Fort with dogs. The Delhi Police have been taking advantage of artificial intelligence. Many CCTV cameras have also been installed. Special cameras were installed on the Door Frame Metal Detector (DFMD), which will be connected to the facial recognition system to keep a check on invitees coming to Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day.

MUMBAI : Retail and high net-worth individual (HNIs) investors have become a key bulwark for the Indian stock market in recent years. Latest data underscores their growing significance as a counterbalance to selling pressure from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and “other" investor categories. This domestic buying spree has helped the Nifty outperform its Asian peers, such as Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi and Singapore's Straits Times Index, amid global market jitters.

OnePlus Nord 4 is priced at ₹29,999 for the 8GB RAM/128GB storage variant, ₹32,999 for the 8GB RAM/256GB storage model and ₹35,999 for the top end 12GB RAM/256GB storage variant. However, during the recent Independence Day offers, prospective buyers can get a ₹2,000 discount on the 8GB RAM variants and ₹3,000 discount on top end model by making the payment using ICICI and OneCard banks.

Oyo has reported its first-ever profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 229 crore for financial year 2024, according to the company's annual report.

Satish Pai, MD, Hindalco, says this quarter the sales were much higher than expected. The demand was very strong, and operational efficiencies were good. The company got a higher number, but there was also some amount of hedge accounting noise that came in, which can always go either way. So, on a consistent onward-going basis, Hindalco will stick with the Rs 600 crore guidance. Further, in India, Hindalco is net debt negative. The gross debt in India is around Rs 8,000 crore. The company does not have any plans to reduce that anymore. In Novelis, once the Bay Minette project is over, they will be back to normal two-and-a-half type of net debt to EBITDA rates. While Q1 revenue growth was largely in line with the guidance that you had earlier stated, given the recent fall in metal prices that we have seen recently, are you confident of achieving, let us say, 6% to 8% top-line growth guidance that you had given at the start of the year? Satish Pai: So, I think that honestly in our commodity type of business, we are more interested in growing the EBITDA than the top line. So, if you look at it, this quarter our consolidated EBITDA of Rs 7,992 crore was up 31% year-on-year. Our focus is on profitability and margins more than just trying to grow the top line because the top line in a commodity business is very much driven by the price of aluminium and copper, which is not really in our control. So, what we try to focus on is the profitability.

India's palm oil imports rose more than 37% in July from the previous month to about 1.1 million metric tons, a trade body said on Wednesday. Imports of soyoil gained 42% to 391,791 tons and sunflower oil imports fell 21.3% to 366,541 tons, with total vegetable oil imports up 22.2% to 1.9 million tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.

United Spirits Ltd. dropped 0.8 per cent to Rs 1391.0 at 11:52AM (IST) in Wednesday's trade. The scrip hit a high of Rs 1407.1 and low of Rs 1391.0 so far during the session. The stock had closed at Rs 1402.35 in the previous session. The counter had a total traded volume of 11:52AM shares so far with a turnover of Rs 0.25 crore on BSE. The stock traded at a price-to-earnings multiple of 71.79 and a price-to-book ratio of 11.55.

Ashok Leyland Ltd. traded 1.62 per cent down at Rs 247.65 on Wednesday at around 11:57AM (IST), while the benchmark BSE Sensex advanced 148.69 points to 79104.72. As many as 331,895 shares changed hands on the counter with a total value of Rs 8.29 crore.

Shalini is a crypto reporter who provides in-depth reports on daily developments and regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency sector.

HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd. gained 0.8 per cent to Rs 4178.15 at 10:10AM (IST) in Wednesday's trade. The stock hit a high of Rs 4198.0 and low of Rs 4117.95 so far during the session. The stock had closed at Rs 4144.7 in the previous session. The counter had a total traded volume of 10:10AM shares so far with a turnover of Rs 0.75 crore on BSE. The stock traded at a price-to-earnings multiple of 43.16 and a price-to-book ratio of 11.32.

MIB) to hold an open and transparent consultation process before it comes out with a fresh draft of the Broadcast Services Regulation Bill. The MIB has faced criticism for the opaque manner in which it circulated the second draft of the Broadcast Bill with certain stakeholders at the end July. The first draft of the bill, which was released in November 2023, was put up for public consultation; however, the comments were not made public. «We expect the MIB to hold a transparent consultation process and take the views of all the stakeholders, including bodies like the Editors Guild of India, before coming out with the fresh draft,» said Anant Nath, the president of the non-profit organisation of journalists.

Dipan Mehta, Director, Elixir Equities, says gradually, a lot of the factors have improved for pharma companies and I am very positive on the pharma sector. That will be the target sector in the event of a correction and we like to be overweight pharma. Structurally, some things have changed in the US generic market and they are now able to get at least a fair price for whatever they are selling over there. What has been your key takeaway from Hero MotoCorp's quarterly performance? Dipan Mehta: The performance appears good, but the problem is the sustainability of the numbers going forward. While they have been able to increase their market share, the new products that they have launched are highly successful and that is helping them gain the market share. The raw material costs have been pretty. On the lower side, they have been stable and therefore, operating profit margins have gone up and operating leverage has come into play.

State Bank of India(up 0.99 per cent), Federal Bank Ltd.(up 0.3 per cent), HDFC Bank Ltd.(up 0.18 per cent), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.(up 0.07 per cent) and Bank of Baroda(up 0.07 per cent) were among the top gainers.

The NSE Nifty index was trading 1.5 points down at 24137.5, while BSE Sensex was up 32.23 points at 78988.26 at the time of writing this report.

Shares of state-owned hydropower company SJVN surged by up to 9% to a day's high of Rs 148.85 on the BSE on Wednesday. This rise followed the company reporting a 31% year-on-year increase in its consolidated net profit, reaching Rs 357.09 crore for the June quarter, due to higher income. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 271.75 crore during the April-June period of the preceding financial year, the company said in an exchange filing.

Roznov pod Radhostem was best known for its rum-drizzled sweet pies and an open-air museum showing off historical wooden houses. Then came an announcement that stirred the sleepy backwater. US chipmaker ON Semiconductor Corp. picked Roznov for a new $2 billion manufacturing hub in June. The past few weeks have seen a flurry of visits by property developers, the head of a local university and government officials followed around by television crews. The interest isn’t surprising given the investment will be the biggest by a foreign company in the Czech Republic for three decades. But it also reflects how there’s more riding on the plan to make a new generation of microchips than the prospects of a corner of central Europe.