The week in charts: Rupee, Q1 earnings, Mpox scare

livemint.com:

Mint in the week gone by. The Indian rupee is showing signs of weakness mainly due to demand for the dollar by importers, while India Inc’s profits grew at the slowest pace in five quarters. The Indian rupee has been on a downward trend, sparking concerns as it slipped to ₹83.9550 against the US dollar by 2 pm on Thursday, down from ₹83.7794 the previous day, according to Yahoo Finance.

The decline was primarily the result of high demand for dollars among importers along with outflow of foreign portfolio investments in equities. In August so far, the rupee has averaged 83.89 against the dollar, down from 83.59 the previous month. As the first quarter earnings season wrapped up earlier this week, it turned out to be a lacklustre quarter for corporate India.

Profits grew 7.3% year-on-year, recording the slowest pace in five quarters, a Mint analysis of standalone data for 3,224 BSE-listed companies showed. Revenue growth also slowed down to 9.4% in April-June from 10.6% from the previous quarter. While a high base dragged profit down, higher costs and softening demand also contributed.

32: That is the number of laboratories in India equipped to test for the viral disease Mpox. India has stepped up surveillance of the virus since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the recent Mpox outbreak a ‘global public health emergency’ due to a new variant. Although no recent cases have been reported in India, the first case surfaced in July 2022.