For the week ended February 02, 2024, the aggregate market cap of the ten most valuable companies on the NSE gained Rs290,268 crore. Reliance alone accounted for nearly half of this accretion at Rs138,291 crore. Among other gainers, TCS gained Rs57,868 crore, SBI Rs33,467 crore, LIC Rs26,1547 crore, ICICI Bank Rs10,523 crore, Infosys Rs9,567 crore, HDFC Bank Rs8,771 crore, and Hindustan Unilever Rs5,628 crore. Among losers, market cap of ITC Ltd fell by Rs18,932 crore while Bharti Airtel fell by Rs5,231 crore.
PSU oil sector investments are picking steam. ONGC, IOC and other oil PSUs will invest Rs1.20 trillion in FY25 into oil and gas exploration, refineries, petrochemicals, and pipelines as India transitions in terms of energy demand growth and the focus on green energy. The outlays are 5% higher yoy. ONGC and IOCL will invest nearly 65% of the total investing outlay for the year. In addition, GAIL also plans to invest a sum of Rs8,000 crore in pipeline grid expansion projects. Oil support to OMCs was removed from the budget.
State Bank of India (SBI) reported a 35% fall in its net profits for Q3FY24 at Rs9,163 crore. In the similar year-ago period, the net profit had stood at Rs14,205 crore. The Q3 number is sharply lower than analyst estimates of Rs13,525 crore. This was largely on account of a one-time exceptional write-off of Rs7,100 crore in Q3FY24. Net interest income (NII) stood at Rs39,815 crore while NIMs were at 3.22%. However, the gross NPAs fell from 3.14% to 2.42% yoy while the net NPAs also tapered from 0.77% to 0.64% yoy.
Adani group is on target to complete the world’s largest single-location copper plant at Mundra, Gujarat. This will help India cut dependence on imports and aid energy transition. The facility is being built at an outlay of $1.2 billion and will commence operations by March 2024. It will scale to full capacity of 1 MTPA only by March 2029. India needs to secure copper supply security for its massive foray into EVs, charging infrastructure, solar photovoltaics (PV), and batteries. Phase 1 financial closure was achieved in June 2022.
FMCG companies reported single-digit volume growth, but better margins in the December 2023 quarter. While rural demand struggled, margins were helped by moderating commodity inflation. FMCG majors like HUL, ITC, Marico, Dabur, and GCPL saw urban demand growing at a moderate pace but rural demand was subdued. Like in recent quarters, the modern trade channels did well and outpaced general trade. Also, volume growth of premium products was significantly ahead of mass products in the FMCG space.
Northern Arc Capital Ltd filed DRHP with SEBI for its proposed IPO. The IPO will be a combination of fresh issue of shares worth Rs500 crore and an Offer For Sale (OFS) of 2.10 crore equity shares. The OFS sale will be made by Leapfrog Financial Inclusion India, Accion Africa-Asia, Augusta Investments, Eight Roads Mauritius, Dvara Trust, and IIFL Special Opportunities Fund. Northern Arc is also exploring a pre-IPO round of Rs100 crore, which will reduce IPO size. Northern Arc in an NBFC operating in financial inclusion space.
Foreign Portfolio Investors infused Rs19,800 crore into Indian debt in January 2024, largely offsetting the equity market outflows. This is the highest monthly inflow into debt in the last 6 years. This is largely on the back of the expected inclusion of Indian government bonds in JP Morgan Index. However, FPIs sold equities worth Rs25,743 crore in January amidst rising US bond yields and lower than expected top line growth numbers in Q3FY24. The interim budget decision to reduce the fiscal deficit to 5.1% is a positive.
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) rejected the emergency arbitration petition filed by Sony against Zee Entertainment over their failed merger. The SIAC has cited lack of jurisdiction. Two weeks back, Sony had terminated its $10 billion merger deal with Zee Entertainment. The deal would have given the combined entity 25% of the Indian entertainment market. The dispute is over $90 million sought by Sony from Zee as termination fees. Zee has initiated litigation in NCLT to force Sony to honour the deal.