Over the weekend, major question marks were raised over the health of RBL Bank after the CEO was asked to proceed on leave and RBI nominated Yogesh Dayal to the board of RBL Bank. Sceptics have raised red flags about a Yes Bank like situation. It was also reported that Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and RK Damani had approached RBI to buy 10% in RBL Bank. Vishwavir Ahuja was temporarily replaced by Rajeev Ahuja. Its net NPAs stand at 2.14% but there have long been murmurs about the dubious asset quality of RBL Bank.
For the week ended 24-December, 5 out of the 10 most valuable companies on the Nifty added Rs.101,145 crore to their market cap. It was TCS and RIL that led the way. Among winners, TCS added Rs.30,721 crore, Reliance Industries Rs.21,036 crore, Infosys Rs.17,657 crore, Hindustan Unilever Rs.16,001 crore and Wipro Rs.15,731 crore. Among major losers, HDFC Bank lost Rs.18,620 crore HDFC Rs.15,084 crore and SBI Rs.9,728 crore. The Sensex was up during the week after the 3-day rally from Tuesday to Thursday.
The Aluminium Association of India has asked for a hike in basic customs duty for aluminium and articles from 10% to 15%. This will correct the inverted duty structure. AAI has also demanded lower duties on critical raw materials like petcoke, caustic soda, aluminium fluoride and alumina in Budget-2023. In addition, the AAI has also demanded in the Budget, a hike in customs duty of primary aluminium from 7.5% to 10%, aluminium scrap from 2.5% to 10% and downstream aluminium products from 7.5% to 10%.
Karkinos Healthcare, the oncology-based managed healthcare platform, has received investment from Reliance Digital Health, a unit of Reliance Industries. Karkinos is backed by Ratan Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and others. The Karkinos platform helps in the early detection and diagnosis of common cancers. Distributed cancer care has a huge potential in a country like India. Karkinos, meaning elimination of cancer, was floated by former Tata executives including Mr. Ravi Kant.
India imposed ant-dumping duties on 5 Chinese products, including aluminium goods and chemicals, for a period of 5 years to protect local manufacturers from cheap imports. According to CBIC, duties have been levied on flat rolled products of aluminium, sodium hydrosulphite, silicone sealant, HFC component R-32 etc. These were based on recommendations made by the Directorate General of Trade Remedies or DGTR. According to DGTR, these products were being dumped on India by China below the normal price.
In a landmark of sorts, global GDP is expected to cross $100 trillion in 2022. However, the report also forecast that China would now take 2 more years to overtake the US as the largest economy. According to the report, the biggest challenge for the global economies in 2022 will be tackling multi-year high levels of inflation. According to the report, Germany will overtake Japan in terms of GDP by 2033 while both Russia and Indonesia would figure among the top-10 companies by GDP by 2035. India will be at 6th place.
Protean eGov Technologies, formerly NSDL E-Governance, filed DRHP with SEBI for its proposed Rs.1,300 crore IPO. The IPO will be an offer for sale. Major sellers in the OFS of Protean include IIFL Special Opportunities Funds, NSE, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Deutsche Bank, PNB and Union Bank. The issue will be lead managed by I-Sec, Equirus, IIFL Securities and Nomura Financial Advisory. Protean is involved in creating digital public infrastructure and developing innovative citizen-centric e-governance solutions.
Even as Zee and Sony sign on the dotted line to merger their operations, there is an expensive exit clause. If either Zee or Sony decide to end the merger, the termination feel payable will be a whopping $100 million. Any break-up will be too expensive. This is subject to the shareholders and regulators giving the requisite approvals for the merger. Dissenting shareholder, Invesco, has not clarified whether it will vote for or against the merger. Improving corporate governance and operational performance will be the key.