Electric vehicle (EV) sales in India for the year 2023 surged by 49.25% yoy to 15,29,947 units. This was as per the data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA). Unlike the wholesale data that is put out by SIAM each month, these are actual vehicle registrations with the RTO and not just the despatch of vehicles to the wholesaler. Hence, FADA data is reflective of actual sales. The sales of green two-wheelers grew 36.09% to 8,59,376 units for 2023. E-Commercial Vehicles grew 114.16% yoy.
After a long time, the rupee strengthened and breached the 83/$ mark before settling at 83.04/$ at close. The favourable breach came on the back of robust foreign inflows. The rupee appreciated to 82.97/$ during the day. The marginal weakening of the rupee towards the end was due to banks buying dollars at the behest of the RBI. The rupee had breached 83/$ after the RBI had stopped buying dollars and allowed the rupee to strengthen amidst strong foreign flows. Debt index inclusion is likely to bring in $40 billion.
GQG Investments must be laughing all the way to the bank as its bet on Adani group stocks at the peak of the Hindenburg crisis has already netted them gains of $2.4 billion. After the crash of 2022, the pries of Adani group stocks have sharply recovered more than 75% of the losses. The $1.3 billion investment in early March 2022 is today worth $4.3 billion in just 10 months. Most of the stocks bought by GQG have more than doubled over the buying price. GQG has since added more quantities of Adani group stocks.
In 2023, primary market investments were about a quarter of FPI flows. During the year, the FPIs infused Rs1.70 trillion into domestic stocks, of which nearly 25%, or Rs 44,950 crore, went into IPO issuances. In the secondary markets, a big chunk of deals was executed through block deals; with sell-downs at a gross level via block deals itself worth Rs2 trillion. Primary issues include IPOs, rights issues and QIP placements. It is the first time in last 3 years that secondary market purchases by FPIs have reached such high levels.
JSW group, part of Sajjan Jindal empire, commenced discussions with investment banks for a possible IPO of JSW Cement. The group recently completed the mega IPO of JSW Infrastructure and has been happy with the response. It now wants to do an encore with its cement business. The Jindal group is talking to JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Capital, SBI Capital, DAM Capital, Axis Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs, and Jefferies. The total size of the IPO is estimated to be in the vicinity of Rs6,000 crore.
Airtel Business, the enterprise arm of Bharti Airtel, will provide real-time connectivity and smart IOT solutions for the 20 million smart meters of Adani Energy Solutions. AES has an existing order book of smart meters from the power utilities of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand. Airtel’s solution will be powered by narrowband IOT, 4G and 2G; and will help Adani Energy ensure real-time connectivity and seamless transfer of critical data between smart meters and head-end applications.
ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, the JV between the two steel giants in the world, is building the world’s largest single location integrated steel plant at Gujarat’s Hazira. The plant will have a capacity of producing 24 million tonne per annum (TPA) of crude steel by 2029. LN Mittal confirmed that the work on the first phase of the project, which started in 2021, is going on schedule and will be inaugurated in 2026. LN Mittal is also investing in futuristic projects like renewable energy and green hydrogen in India, apart from steel.
The World Bank retained India’s economic growth forecast at 6.3% for FY24 and at 6.4% for FY25. It has cited slow post-pandemic recovery of the Indian economy. However, India continues to remain the fastest growing large economy in the world. Despite RBI pegging FY24 growth at 7.0% and MOSPI at 7.3%, World Bank has stuck to its original projection for India GDP growth. Others like CRISIL expect the UK FTA to drive some of the growth gains in the coming years. World Bank expects global growth to slow in the year 2024.