Among the most valuable companies on the Nifty, 8 out of 10 top listers added market cap to the tune of Rs.234,162 crore last week. Most of the heavyweights were smart contributors. Among the big gainers, Reliance added Rs.69,504 crore, Infosys Rs.48,386 crore, TCS Rs.42,317 crore, HDFC Rs.21,126 crore, ICICI Bank Rs.18,651 crore, SBI Rs.15,127 crore, Bajaj Finance Rs.10,291 crore and Bharti Airtel Rs.8,761 crore. The 2 stocks to lose market cap in the week were HUL at Rs.12,218 crore and HDFC Bank at Rs.2,854 crore.
IOCL plans to invest over Rs.7,000 crore setting up city gas distribution (CGD) networks in cities where it has got licences in the latest round of bidding. IOCL got 33% of the total demand potential that was put up for bidding in the 11th round of CGD bidding. IOCL has got 9 licenses to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households. IOCL licenses were still less than Megha Engineering, which got 15 licences and 14 licenses of Adani Total Gas. IOCL will service 28% of CGD potential of 3 rounds of bidding.
It is expected that this budget could look at making crypto transactions more accountable, taxable and also liable to specific audit trail reporting. There are expectations that the Budget 2022 could levy TDS or TCS on sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies above a threshold. They are likely to be subjected to higher rates of tax at around 30%. India already has the highest number of crypto owners at over 10 crore and for that the reporting and transparency is too low. Crypto Bill may happen in Budget Session in Feb-22.
HDFC Bank reported 18% jump in standalone net profit at Rs.10,342 crore for Dec-21 quarter. Aggregate of NII and other income was up 12% at Rs.26,627 crore. The all-important net interest income or NII grew by 135 at Rs.18,444 crore while the net interest margins or NIMs were stable at 4.1%. The higher profits were also helped by the 12% lower provisions in the quarter at Rs.2,994 crore. Gross NPAs of the bank have gone up sharply from 0.81% to 1.26% on yoy basis. Net NPAs also spiked from 0.09% to 0.37% yoy.
Oil India Ltd has opted to exit its US shale oil venture. It has sold its 20% stake to its venture partner for $25 million. Oil India becomes the second Indian hydrocarbon company after RIL to fully exit the US shale business. Oil India and IOCL had jointly bought 30% stake in Carrizo’s Niobrara shale assets in Colorado in 2012. At present, GAIL continues to hold 20% stake in Carrizo’s Eagle Ford shale venture. With the world moving away from fossil fuels, most companies are cutting down their shale franchises across the world.
Foreign portfolio investors net purchased Rs.3,117 crore in the first 2 weeks of January. While the FPIs had infused Rs.1,857 crore and Rs.1,743 crore into equities and hybrid instruments respectively, they had sold debt to the tune of Rs.482 crore. FPIs have currently adopted a slightly cautious stance towards Indian equities in the light of the hawkishness shown by the Fed. FPIs also need more clarity from the upcoming Union Budget on 01-Feb. However, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia saw robust FPI inflows.
After the state of Telangana laid out the red carpet for Elon Musk of Tesla, the Maharashtra state government is hot on his heels. They have invited Musk to visit Maharashtra to explore the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility in the state. KT Rama Rao of Telangana has already invited Musk to set up their plant in Telangana. However, the only update from Musk was that he was still engaging with the Indian government on addressing certain bureaucratic and tax challenges for his proposed India foray.
Maruti Suzuki has increased prices of its models by up to 4.3% with immediate effect to partially offset the impact of rising input costs. The price enhancements across its models range from a low of 0.1% to a peak level of 4.3%. The overall weighted average price hike works out to 1.7%. Maruti Suzuki has already hiked prices of its cars thrice last year adding up to a weighted average hike of 4.9%. Most key auto inputs like steel, aluminium and plastics have rallied sharply even as the microchips shortage continues to mount.