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Tag: world

  • Sebi penalises NSE, BSE for laxity in Karvy Stock Broking case

    India’s markets regulator on Tuesday fined BSE Rs 3 crore and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Rs 2 crore for “laxity” in detecting misconduct by Karvy Stock Broking (KSBL).

    The Hyderabad-based brokerage misused securities worth Rs 2,300 crore belonging to more than 95,000 clients by pledging them without authorisation, said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The firm and its group entities used funds the to raise Rs 851 crore from eight banks.

    “Without doubt, it was KSBL which misused clients (sic) securities by unauthorisedly pledging them and was thus responsible for loss caused by pledging securities which it did not own, including loss to investors as well as loss to banks and NBFCs who loaned funds to KSBL against securities which did not belong to KSBL,” said Sebi.

    Noticee (BSE & NSE), which resulted in delayed detection of the misconduct by KSBL and the Noticee needs to be held accountable for the same,” Sebi said in two separate orders against the country’s leading stock exchanges.”

    Sebi had examined details of inspection and action taken by NSE and BSE against KSBL conducted between 2016 and 2019. It further asked the exchanges to furnish the procedure they followed to ensure reconcillation of clients’ securities.

    Sebi’s investigation found lapses on the part of both exchanges.

    In 2019, Sebi had passed an ex-parte ad-interim order against KSBL when the unauthorisedly pledging issue came to light. Efforts taken by Sebi, depositories and exchanges helped KSBL’s clients recover their dues.

    In December 2019, depository firm NSDL had said securities were returned to 82,559 clients from the KSBL Demat account. In November 2020, NSE had said funds and securities worth Rs 2,300 crore belonging to about 235,000 investors of KSBL were settled.

    After the KSBL investigation, Sebi changed norms around pledging of shares to prevent misuse by brokerage. The regulator did away with the concept of power of attorney which earlier allowed brokerages gain access to client securities.

  • Veranda lists 15% higher over issue price on BSE; down 5% on NSE

    Shares of Veranda Learning Solutions opened 15 per cent higher at Rs 157 against its issue price of Rs 137 per share on the BSE on Monday. At 10:22 am; the stock locked in upper circuit of Rs 164.85, after hitting a low of Rs 149.15 in intra-day trade so far. According to the exchange data, around 775,000 equity shares changed hands with pending buy orders of 5,151 shares on the BSE.

    However, the stock locked in lower circuit of Rs 131.25 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). It opened 9 per cent lower at Rs 125 against its issue price of Rs 137 per share. Around 3.03 million shares changed hands with pending sell orders 2.8 million shares so far.

    The company has raised Rs 200 crore through initial public offering (IPO). It has proposed to utilize the net proceeds of the fresh issue towards repayment of its borrowings amounting to Rs 60 crore, payment of acquisition consideration of Edureka or repayment of bridge loan availed to discharge acquisition at Rs 25.19 crore, growth initiatives towards Rs 50 crore and the balance for general corporate purposes.

    Veranda Learning Solutions offers diversified and integrated learning solutions in online, offline hybrid and offline blended formats to students, aspirants, graduates, professionals and corporate employees through multitude of career-defining competitive exams, professional courses, exam-oriented courses, short term upskilling and reskilling courses.

    The company provides comprehensive long-term and short-term preparatory courses in simple and lucid manner for students preparing for Union Public Service Commission, State Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission, Banking, Insurance, Railways and Chartered Accountancy. The company also provides customised short term skilling courses, long term courses and other corporate courses to its learners.

  • Rupee advances 23 paise to 75.67 against the US dollar in early trade

    The rupee advanced 23 paise to 75.67 against the US dollar in the opening trade on Thursday, supported by positive domestic equities and a fall in crude oil prices.

    At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.67 against the US dollar, registering a rise of 23 paise from the previous close.

    On Wednesday, the rupee dropped by 17 paise to close at 75.90 against the US dollar.

    The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.14 per cent to 97.92.

    Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 4.54 per cent to USD 108.30 per barrel after reports surfaced that US President Joe Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve to control energy prices.

    Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said that India has received a record number of foreign direct investments during the last few years despite the COVID-19 crisis, and has quite a few safeguards in place to mitigate the risks from capital flows.

    On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 152.24 points or 0.26 per cent higher at 58,836.23, while the broader NSE Nifty surged 44.40 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 17,542.65.

    Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital market on Wednesday as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,357.47 crore, according to stock exchange data.

  • Hacker steals $625 mn in crypto from Blockchain platform Ronin

    In one of the largest decentralized finance (Defi) breaches yet, a hacker has stolen cryptocurrencies worth $625 million from Ronin, a Blockchain platform behind the popular non-fungible token (NFT) game Axie Infinity.

    The Blockchain platform and Axie Infinity operator Sky Mavis admitted the security breach, saying that 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC (a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar) were drained from the Ronin bridge in two transactions.

    “The attacker used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals. We discovered the attack after a report from a user being unable to withdraw 5k ETH from the bridge,” Ronin Network said in a statement late on Tuesday.

    The company has temporarily paused the Ronin Bridge to ensure no further attack vectors remain open.

    The company was working with law enforcement officials, forensic cryptographers, and investors to make sure all funds are recovered or reimbursed.

    “As we’ve witnessed, Ronin is not immune to exploitation and this attack has reinforced the importance of prioritising security, remaining vigilant, and mitigating all threats,” said the Blockchain platform.

    “As of now, users are unable to withdraw or deposit funds to Ronin Network,” it added.

    In January this year, hackers stole crypto tokens worth $120 million from the Blockchain-based decentralized finance (Defi) platform BadgerDAO. Several crypto wallets were drained before the platform could stop the cyber attack.

    In December last year, cyber criminals stole cryptocurrency worth $80 million from Qubit Finance, a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform.

  • Policybazaar falls 8%, hits new low; stock tanks 52% in three months

    Shares of PB Fintech, which operates online insurance broker Policybazaar and loan marketplace Paisabazaar, hit a new low at Rs 620.90, falling 8 per cent on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day.

    In the past two weeks, the stock has slipped 28 per cent after Yashish Dahiya, executive director and CEO, and Alok Bansal, whole time director and CFO, of PB Fintech sold 6.09 million shares of the company via secondary market sale.

    On February 11, 2022, co-founder Alok Bansal divested 2.85 million shares of the company for Rs 236 crore through an open market transaction. According to the NSE bulk deal data, Bansal sold shares at an average price of Rs 825 apiece. However, buyer(s) of the shares could not be ascertained immediately.

    PB Fintech came out with its Rs 5,710-crore initial public offering (IPO) in November 2021. The company’s co-founders and other shareholders had reduced their stake in the public issue.

    In the past three months, the stock has underperformed the market by falling 52 per cent as compared to 5 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. It has corrected 58 per cent from its all-time high of Rs 1,470 hit on November 17, 2021. PB Fintech had made its stock market debut on November 15, 2021. The company issued shares at Rs 980 per share.

  • Rupee rises by 22 paise to 74.44 against US dollar in early trade

    The rupee spurted by 22 paise to 74.44 in early trade on Monday on softer crude oil prices and revived hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

    The rupee gained further ground to trade at 74.44 at 1030 hours, supported by benign crude oil prices.

    Reports suggested that the US and Russia have agreed to hold a summit on the Ukraine standoff, calming jittery investors. The reports also suggested that one of the preconditions for the summit is that Russia would not invade Ukraine, raising hopes of a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

    Of late, crude oil prices have spurted on fears of supply disruption due to a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

    The Brent Crude on Monday dropped by 0.34 per cent to USD 93.22 per barrel. The US dollar index also edged lower by 0.21 per cent to 95.84.

    Meanwhile, on the domestic equity front, the BSE Sensex was trading lower by 398.17 points at 57,434.80 and the NSE Nifty dropped 93.20 points to 17,183.10 in late morning deals.

  • Market Highlights: Sensex rises 460 points, Nifty end above 17,600-mark after RBI keeps rates unchanged

    The benchmark equity indices on the BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE) extended their gains for the third successive day, ending around 0.8 per cent higher on Thursday following the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy meeting where the central bank kept its key lending rates unchanged for the tenth consecutive time while maintaining an ‘accommodative stance’.

    The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 460.06 points (0.79 per cent) to settle at 58,926.03 while the Nifty 50 rose 142.05 points (0.81 per cent) to end at 17,605.85. Both the indices had opened with marginal gains earlier in the day.

    On the Sensex pack, Tata Steel was the top gainer of the day rising over 2 per cent, followed by Infosys, HDFC Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Kotak Mahindra Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M). On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki India, Nestle India, Ultratech Cement and Reliance Industries (RIL) were the laggards.

  • US has not verified claim of Russia troop withdrawal: Joe Biden

    President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the US has not yet verified” Russia’s claim that some of its forces have withdrawn from the Ukraine border and said an invasion of Ukraine remains a distinct possibility.

    Biden made the remarks at the White House hours after Russia announced that some units participating in military exercises near Ukraine’s borders would begin returning to their bases.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Tuesday said Russia was ready for talks with the United States and NATO on military transparency, missile deployment limits and other security issues. But Biden continued to express skepticism about Russia’s intentions. Biden warned again that if Russia invades Ukraine the US will rally the world to oppose its aggression.”

    Putin had said Tuesday he welcomed a security dialogue with the West as his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine signals that may indicate the Kremlin has opted for a diplomatic path for now despite Western fears of an imminent Russian invasion of its neighbor.

    Putin said he doesn’t want war and would rely on negotiations as he presses his demand for the West to halt Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. At the same time, he didn’t commit to a full pullback of troops, saying Russia’s next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.

    While the overtures soothed global markets that have been on edge amid the worst East-West tensions in decades, Washington and its European allies remained cautious, saying they want to see evidence of a Russian pullback. The US and NATO have warned that over 130,000 Russian forces massed near Ukraine could invade at any time, and they sent troops and military supplies to shore up NATO members in Eastern Europe.

    Russia has denied having such plans, demanding that the West keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of the alliance, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders, and roll back forces from Eastern Europe. The US and its allies have roundly rejected the demands, but offered Russia to engage in talks on ways to bolster security in Europe.

    Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures issues that Moscow had put on the table years ago. He said Russia is open to discuss some of those elements,” but added that it would only do that “in complex with the main issues that are of primary importance for us.

    Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesn’t want it but said Ukraine’s bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country. While Scholz reiterated that NATO’s eastward expansion is not on the agenda — everyone knows that very well, Putin retorted that Moscow will not be assuaged by such assurances.

    They are telling us it won’t happen tomorrow, Putin said. Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing. He went on to argue NATO expansion violates the principle of the indivisibility of security enshrined in international documents.We want to solve this issue now as part of negotiation process through peaceful means, Putin said. We very much hope that our partners hear our concerns and take them seriously.

  • Over 6.2 crore ITRs, 21 lakh audit reports filed on new e-filing portal

    Over 6.2 crore income tax returns and about 21 lakh tax audit reports have been filed on the new e-filing portal since June last year. The new income tax portal was launched on June 7, 2021.

    “More than 6.2 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and about 21 lakh major Tax Audit Reports (TARs) have been filed on the new e-Filing portal of the Income Tax Department as on 10th February 2022,” the tax department said in a statement.

    Out of the 6.2 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 48 per cent are ITR-1 (2.97 crore), 9 per cent ITR-2 (56 lakh), 13 per cent ITR-3 (83 lakh), and 27 per cent ITR-4 (1.66 crore), ITR-5 (11.3 lakh), ITR-6 (5.2 lakh) and ITR-7 (1.41 lakh).

    The government had in January extended till March 15 the deadline for corporates to file income tax returns for the fiscal ended March 2021, while the same for filing tax audit report and transfer pricing audit report for 2020-21 fiscal is February 15.

    ITR Form 1 (Sahaj) and ITR Form 4 (Sugam) are simpler forms that cater to a large number of small and medium taxpayers.

    Sahaj can be filed by an individual having income of up to Rs 50 lakh and who receives income from salary, one house property/other sources (interest etc). ITR-4 can be filed by individuals, HUFs and firms with total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and having income from business and profession. ITR-3 is filed by people having income as profits from business and trusts, respectively.

  • COVID disrupts health services in over 90% of countries: WHO

    Disruptions in basic health services such as vaccination programmes and treatment of diseases like AIDS were reported in 92% of 129 countries, a World Health Organization survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic showed on Monday.

    The survey, conducted in November-December 2021, showed services were “severely impacted” with “little or no improvement” from the previous survey in early 2021, the WHO said in a statement sent to journalists.

    “The results of this survey highlight the importance of urgent action to address major health system challenges, recover services and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the WHO said.

    Emergency care, which includes ambulance and ER services, actually worsened with 36% of countries reporting disruptions versus 29% in early 2021 and 21% in the first survey in 2020.

    Elective operations such as hip and knee replacements were disrupted in 59% of the countries and gaps to rehabilitative and palliative care were reported in about half of them.

    The survey’s timing coincided with surging COVID-19 cases in many countries in late 2021 due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant, piling additional strain on hospitals.The WHO statement attributed the scale of disruptions to ”pre-existing health systems issues” as well as decreased demand for care, without elaborating.