The latest RBI Bulletin may have downsized GDP growth for FY25 by 50 bps to 6.0%, but it also cut inflation estimates to 4.6% in the first three quarters of FY25. This is on the back of softening of global commodity prices. This is despite the fact that November inflation came in higher at 5.55%. The RBI Bulletin has hinted that the inflation in recent months was largely led by a spike in food prices, and that should ease once the Rabi output also hits the market. The total debt went up in the latest year to a level of Rs 2,05,000 crore.
BPCL will invest a sum of Rs 5,500 crore in a polypropylene (PP) plant at its Kochi refinery. The 400,000 metric tons per year (TPA) PP plant will be completed in a period of 46 months. The project is expected to be funded with 65% debt and 35% equity. This will be a big boost to cater to the petchem demand in India and is also likely to help BPCL hedge its bets as vehicular demand for fossil fuels is likely to reduce. PP has wide applications in downstream segments like packaging films, sheets, boxes, containers, bags and more.
The Telecom Bill 2023, which was tabled in parliament, has been welcomed by businesses across the country. Some of the provisions in the Telecom Bill pertaining to predictability and availability of spectrum are likely to help create a robust digital infrastructure in India. The reforms proposed in the Telecom Bill 2023 include the simplification of licensing regime, clarity on spectrum assignment, and stringent user verification. The bill recognizes telecom as critical infrastructure and has prescribed punitive damages for property saboteurs.
SAT, in its recent order, asked NSDL, NSE and SEBI to return shares worth Rs 1,400 crore pledged to the banks and financiers by Karvy. Otherwise, the three institutions will have to pay compensation in addition to interest for the period. Karvy had fraudulently pledged the client’s shares with the banks and taken loans against them. When the fraud was detected, SEBI ordered NSDL to cancel the pledge and return all shares to shareholders. It is hard to imagine why SEBI and NSDL must pay damages for doing the correct thing.
The discussions between Zee and Sony have begun on extending the merger deadline beyond the current deadline of December 21, 2023, which is looking increasingly impractical. The merger process could not be completed as Sony and Zee could not agree upon who would head the combined entity. The original plan was to have Punit Goenka head the combined entity, but with the SEBI order against Punit Goenka about holding a KMP, SONY has been having second thoughts and now wants its own person to head it.
In one of the biggest block deals in the REITs space, Blackstone has entirely exited Embassy REITS by selling its 23.5% stake in the venture for Rs 7,100 crore. A slew of big institutional investors, like Capital Group, ICICI Prudential MF, and SBI Mutual Fund, absorbed these shares. The entire sale was effected at an average price of Rs 316 per unit, which is a discount to the market price of Rs 332 per unit. Embassy REITs were listed on the stock exchanges in 2019. The Embassy Group of Bengaluru has an 8% stake in this REIT.
For the first time in the last 17 months, Vodafone Idea actually added active users during the month of September 2023. In September, Vodafone Idea added 0.4 million subscribers, taking its subscriber base to 226.10 million. Nearly 126.5 million users out of these are 4G users. However, its market share fell by 10 bps to 19.78%. BSNL lost 2.33 million subscribers in September due to absence of 4G services. Among the Big-2; Reliance Jio added 3.5 million subscribers and Bharti Airtel added 1.3 million subscribers in September 2023.
The Nifty fell by 322 points and the Sensex fell by 931 points on Wednesday as profit-booking pressure built up in the markets on the back of the latest virus scare. After Singapore issued a travel advisory to people after the spike in cases of the JN.1 virus, India has already recorded 21 cases of the sub-variant. The situation was, perhaps, worsened by the fact that the markets have been in the midst of a relentless rally in the last few weeks, and some correction at higher levels was due. The rally has been over 10%.
