Century Textiles of the Birla Group is planning to shift its focus from paper & pulp to real estate. It has already lined up Rs.1,000 crore for capital expenditure in the current financial year for ongoing and new projects. This includes the super-premium Worli project. Birla Estates was launched as the realty vertical of Century Textiles in 2016. Century Textiles wants to push Birla Estates to rank among the top-5 realty players in India with annual revenues of Rs.10,000 crore; which is larger than the real estate leader today.
In a bullish week, 9 out of the 10 most valuable companies on the Nifty added Rs.2,41,177 crore in value in the week ended 21 May. Hindustan Unilever was the sold heavyweight to witness a drop in market cap this week. Among big gainers, HDFC Bank added Rs.60,584 crore, Reliance Rs.40,604, SBI Rs.36,234 crore, ICICI Bank Rs.31,320 crore, Bajaj Finance Rs.18,280 crore, HDFC Rs.16,984 crore and Infosys Rs.16,148 crore. The boost to markets came from dovish Fed minutes and a sharp tapering of COVID cases in India.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is working on new treatment options for COVID-19 patients to be launched over next few months. However, Reddy Labs has assured that it would not in any way hinder supplies of existing range of products for COVID. Reddy Labs has ramped up supply of medicines, including Remdesevir, to meet the surge in demand. Reddy Labs has the rights to the first 250 million doses of Sputnik-V for India. It has tied up with 6 manufacturing partners to produce Sputnik-V in India as well as for other countries.
Finance Ministry has reiterated that its stand on the Cairn retrospective taxation was totally justified and the $1.2 billion international arbitration award in favour of Cairn Energy Plc was flawed. Finance Ministry also affirmed that Cairn was guilty of tax avoidance and hence the Indo-UK award would not apply in this case, which was the basis of the arbitral award. However, India remained open to an amicable settlement with Cairn. Government refuted reports that it had instructed withdrawal of dollar funds from PSU banks.
In its upcoming meeting on 28 May, the GST Council is expected to take a call on levy of 12% tax on import of oxygen concentrators for personal use. Delhi High Court has already ruled that such an imposition of 12% on oxygen concentrators was unconstitutional. On 01 May, the Finance Ministry had imposed this 12% IGST on oxygen concentrators imported for personal use or received as gift. Tax experts are of the view that the GST Council may exempt IGST on such imports as revenue implications were only minimal.
On Sunday, the price of Diesel in Delhi crossed Rs.84/litre while petrol rate in Mumbai inched close to Rs.100/litre after fuel prices were hiked once again. The Sunday hike of 17 paisa on petrol and 29 paisa on diesel is the twelfth hike in the month of May. This is an all-time record for petrol and diesel prices. The rates of petrol have already cross the Rs.100/litre mark in parts of Rajasthan, MP and Maharashtra. Since the start of May 2021, price of petrol is up by Rs.2.81 per litre while diesel is up by Rs.3.34 per litre.
Sundaram Home Finance, a unit of Sundaram Finance, plans to raise Rs.2,500 crore to fund its growth in the future. In the Mar-21 quarter, Sundaram Home Finance saw net profits falling by 55% at Rs.36.60 crore. This was largely due to a one-time exceptional write-off to the tune of Rs.60 crore on account of deferred tax liability. Disbursements were higher on a yoy basis, which is positive in a tight home finance market. The sum of Rs.2,500 crore will be raised through a mix of debt instruments and bank funding.
Foreign portfolio investors or FPIs took out Rs.4,444 crore from Indian markets till 21-May. This included an equity outflow of Rs.6,370 crore by FPIs and debt inflow of Rs.1,926 crore. FPIs have been on the sell side since last 2 months due to COVID 2.0 and its possible impact on the India GDP growth story. However, it is hoped that sentiments should change with COVID numbers stabilizing. This comes after FPIs pulled out Rs.9,435 crore in April. South Korea and Taiwan also saw FPI outflows, among the emerging markets.