victorybull

Author: victorybull

  • Indian stock markets can fall another 10%

    Budget euphoria is slowly fading away on Dalal Street as global headwinds stare in the eye. Geopolitical tensions involving Ukraine and Russia, coupled with fear of easy money drying up amid soaring inflation, are giving a rude reality check to stock market investors. Yesterday, the BSE Sensex plunged over 1,300 points in intra-day trade while the Nifty50 slipped below the 17,150 level. The Nifty 50 and BSE-Sensex tumbled for a third straight day and moved below the highs made on Budget-day.

    The indices ended nearly 2% lower at 17,214 and 57,621, respectively. With this, the markets have turned negative for the year, and are down 1 percent YTD.U R Bhat, who is co-founder & director at Alphaniti Fintech, believes markets can fall another 3-5% from here on as an actual clash on the Russian border is not priced in at all. Brent crude prices are already up 16% in a month amid simmering tensions between Russia and NATO over Ukraine. Brent is above $93 per barrel mark but a full-scale war can take it past the $100 per barrel mark, analysts worry. Most analysts, including those at Rabobank International and BofA Securities, see Brent hitting the $125 mark by June 2022. On their part, the benchmark indices – the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 – have slipped around 3% each in the past month. On the contrary, the Nifty Energy index that comprises upstream players like Reliance Industries and ONGC has outperformed with a rise of nearly 6% as oil prices rose during this period. Going forward, market mavens suggest investors stay stock-specific and tread cautiously in the markets. These global factors will continue to dictate market trends on Tuesday as well. Domestically, investors will track the three-day RBI policy meeting, which will begin later today. That apart, the December quarter result of prominent companies, including Bharti Airtel, Escorts, Indraprastha Gas, IRCTC, and Godrej Consumer products will be on investor radar. Moreover, shares of Adani Wilmar will also debut on the bourses today.

  • Delhi logs 1,151 new COVID-19 cases, 15 more deaths; positivity rate 2.62%

    Delhi reported 1,151 new COVID-19 cases and 15 more fatalities on Monday, while the positivity rate rose slightly to 2.62 percent, according to data shared by the health department. With this, the national capital’s case count increased to 18,45,084 and the death toll climbed to 25,998, it said.

    Delhi on Sunday reported 1,410 fresh COVID-19 cases and 14 more deaths, while the positivity rate was at 2.45 percent. The number of COVID-19 tests conducted a day ago stood at 43,991, it said.Delhi had on Saturday reported 1,604 cases with a positivity rate of 2.87 per cent, and 17 more deaths. The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13.

    The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 percent on January 14, the highest during the ongoing wave of the pandemic. It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark. The national capital had on January 23 reported 9,197 new Covid cases with a positivity rate of 13.32 per cent and 34 deaths.

    The surge in Covid cases in Delhi during the third wave of the pandemic was due to the Omicron variant of the virus which is highly transmissible. Several families in a large number of neighbourhoods had tested positive, but medical experts said since the infection had happened at the same time, the recovery too was quicker for the community a

    Also, there has been less chance of more spread of the infection as people have been largely home isolated with a very little number of patients needing hospitalisation this time, they said. The DDMA had on Friday held a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation and decided to reopen higher education institutions and coaching centres along with schools for classes 9-12 from February 7 amid dipping Covid cases in the city.

    The DDMA, however, decided that night curfew will continue in Delhi. Gyms have also been allowed to reopen with certain restrictions. There are 15,416 beds for Covid patients in Delhi hospitals and 936 (6.07 per cent) of them were occupied, the bulletin said.

    A total of 936 Covid patients were in hospitals, the Monday health department bulletin stated. Out of them, 328 were on oxygen support, including 84 on ventilator support. The number of active cases stands at 7,885, it said.

    The number of people under home isolation stood at 5,715 on Monday, while it was 6,401 a day before. The number of containment zones in the city stood at 28,980, a fall from 30,546 the previous day.

  • Tube Investment Consolidated December 2021 Net Sales at Rs 3,410.10 crore, up 100.6% Y-o-Y

    Net Sales at Rs 3,410.10 crore in December 2021 up 100.6% from Rs. 1,699.99 crore in December 2020.

    Quarterly Net Profit at Rs. 278.88 crore in December 2021 up 159.79% from Rs. 107.35 crore in December 2020.

    EBITDA stands at Rs. 466.45 crore in December 2021 up 92.06% from Rs. 242.87 crore in December 2020.

    Tube Investment EPS has increased to Rs. 14.46 in December 2021 from Rs. 5.71 in December 2020.

    Tube Investment shares closed at 1,796.50 on February 04, 2022 (NSE)

  • Markets drop for a second day on global cues; eke out 2.5% weekly gain

    Benchmark indices fell for a second day on Friday but ended the week with a 2.5 per cent gain. Global investor sentiment was hit by hawkish comments by the European Central Bank (ECB), disappointing earnings from US technology giants and a simmering crisis at Ukraine’s border.

    The Sensex fell 143 points, or 0.24 per cent, to end at 58,645. The index gained 1,444 points, or 2.5 per cent, during the week after the capex push announced in the Union Budget drove optimism of revival in economic growth and corporate earnings. The Nifty 50 index fell 44 points, or 0.25 per cent, to finish at 17,516.3.

    In the preceding two weeks, domestic markets had crashed 7 per cent spooked by the US Federal Reserve’s decision to start raising interest rates to cool down inflation. On Thursday, the ECB joined the Fed in taking a hawkish turn as its President Christine Lagarde no longer ruled out an interest-rate hike this year. Meanwhile, the Bank of England Thursday raised interest rates back-to-back for the first time since 2004 as it began the process of quantitative tightening.

    Domestic markets started this week on a strong note but gave up some gains amid these headwinds.

    Earlier this week, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to increase capital spending by 35 per cent to Rs 7.5 trillion in the next financial year, seeking to bolster the economy’s recovery after disruptions from the pandemic.

    “Domestic indices had a bull run during the first half of the week as the Budget was in line with market expectation. As global cues turned in favour of bears, the domestic market turned volatile towards the end of the week. US markets were under pressure following weak earnings numbers reported by Meta. The European market also lacked strength as the Bank of England imposed a back to back rate hike while the most dovish European Central Bank acknowledged the risk of rising inflation signaling a rate hike in near future,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

    Overseas investors sold shares worth Rs 2,268 crore, while domestic institutions were net-buyers to the tune of Rs 622 crore.

    “Market is witnessing higher volatility but the sentiment has improved post the Budget. Now the focus would shift to the rising interest rate regime globally and consequent higher bond yields. Surge in oil price to seven-year high of $92 per barrel would present further challenge for inflation. The December quarter earnings has been good so far as companies largely delivered on the earnings front, despite the unprecedented inflationary pressures from rising commodity and energy prices. The corporate earnings delivery is highly crucial, in a rising rate regime which is getting well reflected in the market with poor performers getting battered severely,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

    As per Bloomberg data, out of the 33 Nifty 50 companies that have announced results so far, 18 either met or exceeded analyst estimates, 13 missed and two can’t be compared.

  • Markets drop for a second day on global cues; eke out 2.5% weekly gain

    Benchmark indices fell for a second day on Friday but ended the week with a 2.5 per cent gain. Global investor sentiment was hit by hawkish comments by the European Central Bank (ECB), disappointing earnings from US technology giants and a simmering crisis at Ukraine’s border.

    The Sensex fell 143 points, or 0.24 per cent, to end at 58,645. The index gained 1,444 points, or 2.5 per cent, during the week after the capex push announced in the Union Budget drove optimism of revival in economic growth and corporate earnings. The Nifty 50 index fell 44 points, or 0.25 per cent, to finish at 17,516.3.

    In the preceding two weeks, domestic markets had crashed 7 per cent spooked by the US Federal Reserve’s decision to start raising interest rates to cool down inflation. On Thursday, the ECB joined the Fed in taking a hawkish turn as its President Christine Lagarde no longer ruled out an interest-rate hike this year. Meanwhile, the Bank of England Thursday raised interest rates back-to-back for the first time since 2004 as it began the process of quantitative tightening.

    Domestic markets started this week on a strong note but gave up some gains amid these headwinds.

    Overseas investors sold shares worth Rs 2,268 crore, while domestic institutions were net-buyers to the tune of Rs 622 crore.

    “Market is witnessing higher volatility but the sentiment has improved post the Budget. Now the focus would shift to the rising interest rate regime globally and consequent higher bond yields. Surge in oil price to seven-year high of $92 per barrel would present further challenge for inflation. The December quarter earnings has been good so far as companies largely delivered on the earnings front, despite the unprecedented inflationary pressures from rising commodity and energy prices. The corporate earnings delivery is highly crucial, in a rising rate regime which is getting well reflected in the market with poor performers getting battered severely,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

    As per Bloomberg data, out of the 33 Nifty 50 companies that have announced results so far, 18 either met or exceeded analyst estimates, 13 missed and two can’t be compared.

  • California gas utility fined $10 million for ratepayer money misuse

    A major California gas utility must pay the state nearly USD 10 million and reimburse customers money it improperly spent on work related to the development of energy-efficient building codes.

    The penalties that Southern California Gas Co. faces were handed down Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission.

    The commission, which regulates California’s major utilities, in 2018 prohibited the utility from spending any ratepayer money on advocacy work related to building codes after its internal watchdog found the utility fought standards designed to make homes and businesses more energy-efficient.

    Between June 2018 and January 2021, SoCalGas continued to send employees and consultants to participate in workshops, conference calls, and meetings about the development of new state and federal building standards and also withheld key information from the commission, the ruling said.

    The utility showed profound, brazen disrespect for the commission’s authority,” the commission wrote in its ruling.

    Christine Detz, a spokeswoman for the utility, said in a statement that the utility was reviewing the decision and looked forward to further engagement on this issue.” She declined to comment further on Friday.

    The USD 9.8 million fine falls far short of the USD 124 million penalty that was sought by the commission’s watchdog group and by Earthjustice, an environmental legal group that was involved in the proceedings.

    But the fine sent a strong message, said Sara Gersen, a senior attorney for Earthjustice.

    SoCalGas has gone rogue for too long, trying to undermine California’s climate goals and keep Californians reliant on polluting gas appliances. It’s good to finally see some measure of accountability, she said in a statement.

    SoCalGas distributes natural gas to nearly 22 million consumers in central and Southern California, according to its website.

    It’s not the first time the utility has been mired in controversy. A 2015 blowout at the utility’s Aliso Canyon storage facility took almost four months to control and became the largest known natural gas leak in the nation’s history. The utility and its parent company, Sempra Energy, settled with 35,000 plaintiffs for USD 1.8 billion last year.

    This week, the utility settled another lawsuit related to the leak that alleged it violated a California law requiring businesses to warn people about possible exposure to toxic chemicals, the Los Angeles Times reported. The agreement requires the utility to pay USD 1.55 million to the Center for Environmental Health, which filed the lawsuit, the state, and counsel, Detz told the Times.

    The California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office, the ratepayer watchdog group, has also alleged the company has improperly used ratepayer money on activities to promote the continued use of natural gas in buses and convincing cities not to encourage electric appliances in new construction. Detz, the utility spokeswoman, did not immediately comment on those claims.

    California has set some of the nation’s most ambitious clean energy goals, and reaching them will require phasing out the use of natural gas.

    That’s already underway in some cities, which have banned gas appliances in new construction.

    The California Energy Commission stopped short of requiring new construction to be all-electric in its most recent update to state building codes. But the use of electric heat pumps is encouraged and new buildings must be electric ready” even if they use natural gas.

    Meanwhile, a recent study by California researchers found that gas-powered stoves are emitting more methane than previously thought, even when turned off. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

    California utilities are allowed to spend ratepayer money to participate in state and federal efforts to update building standards, but only if they’re promoting stricter standards, not weaker ones.

    In 2017, the Public Advocates Office found SoCalGas had been using ratepayer money to fight against the adoption of stricter building codes that would diminish the need for natural gas.

    That prompted the public utility commission in 2018 to prohibit SoCalGas from using ratepayer funds on any activities related to new building standards, regardless of the utility’s position. It did allow them to transfer ratepayer money to other utilities working on such issues.

    The USD 9.8 million fine is a result of the utility continuing to engage in that work by sending employees and consultants to participate in workshops, conference calls, and meetings around the development of new state and federal building standards, the commission wrote in its Thursday decision.

    The bulk of the fine is a USD 10,000 per day charge over 960 days, from June 1, 2018, to Jan. 15, 2021. The ruling also limits incentive payments to shareholders related to energy efficiency programs.

  • Gold investment platform Jar raises $32 million led by Tiger Global

    Savings and investment management platform Jar has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global, the company has said .The round also saw participation from Rocketship.vc, Third

    Prime, Stonks, Force Ventures and existing investors including Arkam Ventures and WEH Ventures, the company said on February 3.

    Angel investors, including Klarna founder Victor Jacobsson, Suleman Ali of Ali Capital, Shamir Karkal, founder of Sila Money, Byron Ling of Cannan Partners, Joel John of Ledger Prime and Italic founder Jeremy Cai also participated in the round.

    “We are helping people get comfortable with the idea of investing,” founder Nishchay AG said in a statement. “What we have found is that once people build familiarity with investments, they build a habit to invest more. A habit and discipline is clearly being formed and we see a jump of 20 percent in investments month over month by users.”

    The funds will be used to expand the user base and eventually add offerings like savings and other financial services, including lending and insurance.

    The round comes after the company raised $4.5 million in seed funding in August 2021, with the backing of Arkam Ventures, Tribe Capital and WEH Ventures.Founded in June 2021 by Nishchay and Misbah Ashraf, the platform aims to encourage Indians to invest small amounts in gold and help them build their savings.

    The Jar app saves a small amount each time a user makes a transaction. The app, which can be allowed to look at the transaction history, rounds up an individual’s daily spendings and puts some money aside as investment.

    Users’ investments in digital gold is backed by physical gold of the same amount and they can choose to withdraw that much gold or liquidate their investments at any time. The company partners with Paytm and Safegold for helping users invest.

    “Hundreds of millions of Indians today don’t have any savings. This, unfortunately, continues to trap many of them in the world of bad debts that some take decades to get out of. We want to help Indians build a habit of saving so they have a financial cushion to fall back on in the time of dire need,” Ashraf said.

    The platform has four million users and the app sees over 100 transactions a minute.”Jar is bringing new users into the online investing space, starting with digital gold as the first product. We are bought into Jar’s mission of helping users build a daily savings habit, and we’re excited to partner with the team as they scale to millions of customers,” Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global, said.

  • Gold investment platform Jar raises $32 million led by Tiger Global

    Savings and investment management platform Jar has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global, the company has said .The round also saw participation from Rocketship.vc, Third

    Prime, Stonks, Force Ventures and existing investors including Arkam Ventures and WEH Ventures, the company said on February 3.

    Angel investors, including Klarna founder Victor Jacobsson, Suleman Ali of Ali Capital, Shamir Karkal, founder of Sila Money, Byron Ling of Cannan Partners, Joel John of Ledger Prime and Italic founder Jeremy Cai also participated in the round.

    “We are helping people get comfortable with the idea of investing,” founder Nishchay AG said in a statement. “What we have found is that once people build familiarity with investments, they build a habit to invest more. A habit and discipline is clearly being formed and we see a jump of 20 percent in investments month over month by users.”

    The funds will be used to expand the user base and eventually add offerings like savings and other financial services, including lending and insurance.

    The round comes after the company raised $4.5 million in seed funding in August 2021, with the backing of Arkam Ventures, Tribe Capital and WEH Ventures.Founded in June 2021 by Nishchay and Misbah Ashraf, the platform aims to encourage Indians to invest small amounts in gold and help them build their savings.

    The Jar app saves a small amount each time a user makes a transaction. The app, which can be allowed to look at the transaction history, rounds up an individual’s daily spendings and puts some money aside as investment.

    Users’ investments in digital gold is backed by physical gold of the same amount and they can choose to withdraw that much gold or liquidate their investments at any time. The company partners with Paytm and Safegold for helping users invest.

    “Hundreds of millions of Indians today don’t have any savings. This, unfortunately, continues to trap many of them in the world of bad debts that some take decades to get out of. We want to help Indians build a habit of saving so they have a financial cushion to fall back on in the time of dire need,” Ashraf said.

    The platform has four million users and the app sees over 100 transactions a minute.”Jar is bringing new users into the online investing space, starting with digital gold as the first product. We are bought into Jar’s mission of helping users build a daily savings habit, and we’re excited to partner with the team as they scale to millions of customers,” Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global, said.

    Users’ investments in digital gold is backed by physical gold of the same amount and they can choose to withdraw that much gold or liquidate their investments at any time. The company partners with Paytm and Safegold for helping users invest.

    “Hundreds of millions of Indians today don’t have any savings. This, unfortunately, continues to trap many of them in the world of bad debts that some take decades to get out of. We want to help Indians build a habit of saving so they have a financial cushion to fall back on in the time of dire need,” Ashraf said.

    The platform has four million users and the app sees over 100 transactions a minute.”Jar is bringing new users into the online investing space, starting with digital gold as the first product. We are bought into Jar’s mission of helping users build a daily savings habit, and we’re excited to partner with the team as they scale to millions of customers,” Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global, said.

  • The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) may go for a hike of up to 0.25 per cent in the reverse repo rate at which the RBI absorbs excess liquidity and leave the repo rate at which it lends, to narrow the policy rate corridor, a British brokerage said on Thursday.

    “Growth concerns amid spread of the Omicron variant and relatively benign inflation out-turns provide the RBI with enough room to maintain its growth-supportive monetary policies,” analysts at Barclays said, ahead of the resolution announcement next week.The RBI will hike the reverse repo rate by 0.20-0.25 per cent, given its liquidity management actions, it said.

    The brokerage joins a growing list of watchers expecting a reverse repo hike.

    Other analysts also blame the surprising hike in the government borrowing announced in the budget for the RBI’s likely call for policy normalisation.

    Barclays said the budget’s focus on capital expenditure is expected to provide a back-loaded fiscal impulse to the economy and does not change the macro backdrop, which includes concerns on inflation.

    On the surging global oil prices, which generally play into domestic inflation through corresponding price hikes of fuels locally, the brokerage said the inflationary pressures are unlikely to rise before the state elections finish by March, hinting of no pass-through.

    Even though the inflation is benign lately, the RBI needs to be vigilant, it said, pointing to its own forecasts suggesting the headline number staying in the upper end of the 2-6 per cent band and also the crude prices moving higher.

    It said till now, the liquidity signals from the RBI have been mixed, which have included shelving of the bond purchasing programme GSAP, an increase in both the quantum and cut-offs for voluntary reverse repo rate auctions and some bond sales in the secondary market last month.

    The policy guidance will be dovish when compared to RBI’s global peers who have been guiding or announcing rates hikes as inflations become into a concern, it said, adding that inflation in India should trend lower through 2022.

  • Akhilesh Yadav in Noida today years after avoiding it due to ‘jinx’

    Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to address a press conference in Noida on February 3 as part of his poll campaign in Western Uttar Pradesh.

    The seven-phase Uttar Pradesh election beginning February 10 is considered to be a fight between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. Three seats of Gautam Buddh Nagar district – Noida, Jewar, and Dadri –  will go to the polls in the first phase on February 10.This will be Yadav’s first visit to the Noida Gautam Buddha Nagar district which he avoided as chief minister purportedly because of the ‘jinx’ associated with the town neighboring Delhi.

    The political superstition that has stuck to Noida, another name for Gautam Buddh Nagar, for long popular as ‘Noida jinx’ is that visiting the town brings bad luck to chief ministers and hence are not re-elected.

    Yadav’s visit comes after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s remark that he feared visiting the town because of the superstition. Adityanath has been trashing the jinx by his regular visits to the NCR town, even ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls. During one his of visits earlier this month, Adityanath said that he would beat the “Noida jinx” and come back to power, unlike his predecessors.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi also criticised leaaders believing in the jinx at his virtual rally addressing voters of western Uttar Pradesh earlier this week.

    Yadav stayed away from Noida as chief minister between 2012 and 2017. He even skipped the Asian Development Bank Summit held in Noida in May 2013. Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the chief guest at the event. Yadav would often inaugurate projects in the town virtually. In April 2013, he launched the Rs 3,300-crore development projects, including access to the six-lane Yamuna Expressway, through a video link from Lucknow.

    Yadav even met family members of Dadri lynching victim Mohammad Akhlaq in Lucknow, instead of visiting the family in Dadri. Before him, other Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers, including, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh, ND Tiwari, and Rajnath Singh avoided going to Noida as well.

    After his defeat in 2017 assembly polls, Yadav, while on his way to Delhi, briefly stopped  in Noida for five minutes to greet party workers.