For the week ended on 07ths January, 8 out of the top 10 most valuable Indian companies on the Nifty by market capitalization, added Rs.250,006 crore in value. The two heavyweights; Reliance Industries and TCS led the show. For the week, RIL market cap grew by Rs.46,380 crore, TCS by Rs.43,649 crore, Bajaj Finance Rs.41,274 crore, HDFC Bank, Rs.39,129 crore, ICICI Bank Rs.36,887 crore, SBI Rs.27,532 crore and HUL Rs.13,334 crore. Among losers, Infosys fell by Rs.32,173 crore and Wipro Rs.2,193 crore in the week.
A day after it paid $200 million for Dunzo, Reliance has paid a hefty $98 million for a controlling stake in the Mandarin Oriental, New York. The stake was bought in Columbus Centre Corp, Cayman Islands, which owns 73.37% in Mandarin Oriental New York. This adds to the consumer and hospitality offerings of the Reliance group. It will also acquire the balance 26.63% subject to the consent of the other owners. Mandarin Oriental, New York is winner of several awards and it will enhance RIL’s hospitality footprint.
The 9th tranche of the Sovereign gold bonds will open on 10-January and will close on 14-January. A total of 12 SGB issues are slated for FY22. The issue price for this tranche has been fixed at Rs.4,786 per gram and it needs no reiteration that investors who invest through the digital route will get an additional discount of Rs.50 per gram, so the cost to them would work out to Rs.4,736 per gram. SGBs have been a fairly attractive proposition due to the 2.5% annual interest, gold price participation and tax-free status.
D-Mart, the household retail products brand of Avenue Supermarts reported 23.6% increase in net profits for the Dec-21 quarter at Rs.553 crore. Among the top-100 companies by market capitalization, Avenue Supermarts is the first company to announce Q3 results. Overall revenues from operations were up 22.2% at Rs.9,218 crore as sales bounced back from the COVID-related restrictions. The company also added a total of 17 stores during the Dec-21 quarter. D-Mart has been largely modelled on Wal-Mart of the US.
Amazon has dragged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to the NCLAT against the suspension of the 2019 deal between Amazon and Future Coupons. Amazon and Future group have been engaged in a pitched battle as Amazon has been trying to block the sale of Futures group businesses to Reliance Retail. In the latest 2-judge bench order, it upheld the decision of the CCI to suspend the 2019 agreement. The battle is far from over as Amazon is keen to implement the spirt of the ROFR which prevented the sale.
The Adani group has set up a new subsidiary, Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL), to undertake green hydrogen projects. Additionally, ANIL will also work on other renewable energy projects like low carbon power, making wind turbines, solar modules and batteries. Adani had already announced an aggressive plan to invest up to $70 billion into new energy. Incidentally, Adani Group is already the world’s largest solar power developer. PM Modi plans to hike the share of renewable energy to 50% in India by 2030.
Satya Nadella of Microsoft has joined as an investor and advisor to Groww, one of India’s new age online investment platforms. Groww, the fintech unicorn, has been trying to reach financial services to a larger audience. In its last round of funding in Oct-21, Groww was valued at $3 billion. That round saw Lone Pine Capital and Steadfast; apart from Sequoia, Ribbit Capital and Tiger Global participate. Groww facilitates investing in direct mutual funds, ETFs, stocks and IPOs and currently has 20 million users on its platform.
In the new year, a number of consumer durable products like refrigerators and air conditioners are likely to see a spike in prices in the range of 5-10% due to higher input costs. Panasonic, LG and Haier have already revised prices upwards, while Sony, Hitachi and Godrej may follow suit. These appliances have been hit by higher input costs and freight costs. The recent anti-dumping duties on aluminium and refrigerants will also add to costs. However, a lot will depend on whether consumer demand stays robust.