The interest in Indian Fintech plays continues with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority picking up a minority stake in MobiKwik for $20 million or nearly Rs.150 crore. This assigns a valuation of $700 million to the company. MobiKwik had been recently in the news after nearly data of 10 million customers had been compromised in a massive data theft. MobiKwik currently serves over 107 million users through its network. It competes with Google Pay, Phone Pe and Paytm for the Indian digital payment market.
India has registered 46.9% yoy growth in crude steel output at 9.2 million tonnes for the month of May-21. This was revealed by Worldsteel Data. The 64 countries tracked by Worldsteel produced 174.4 MT of steel in May-21, a spike of 16.5% yoy. China continued to dominate a lion’s share of this output churning out nearly 99.5 MT or 57% of the global steel output in the world. India ranks in the second place in steel production globally followed by Japan, United States, Russia, South Korea and Germany in that order.
The beleaguered IL&FS received Rs.1,925 crore from HSVP towards the Gurgaon Rapid Metro system that is now run by the DMRC. Under Supreme Court directive, HSVP had to deposit 80% of the total debt of Rs.2,407 crore in an escrow account of the 2 IL&FS subsidiaries. This is part of the Rs.61,000 crore total recovery estimated by the government-appointed IL&FS board. IL&FS went bust with total debt of Rs.99,000 crore. Andhra Bank is the lead bank along with PNB, IOB, Indian Bank, Dena Bank, PSB and BOI.
FPIs turned net buyers in Jun-21, pumping in a net amount of Rs.12,714 crore into Indian markets. In the first 25 days, FPIs had infused Rs.15,282 crore into equities and had withdrawn Rs.2,568 crore from debt. This would still come as a relief after investors had pulled out Rs.2,666 crore and Rs.9,435 crore in May-21 and Apr-21 respectively. While India saw net inflows of $1.9 billion, Indonesia saw inflows of $363 million but Taiwan and South Korea saw outflows of $2.43 billion and $1.22 billion respectively in Jun-21.
Gold imports during the April to May period spurted to $6.91 billion, approximately equal to Rs.51,439 crore. That is more of revenge buying after imports of gold had plunged to a low of $79.14 million in April / May of 2020. Interestingly, silver imports dipped by 94% to $27.56 million. As a result of this surge in gold imports, the trade deficit for April-May period has more than doubled to $21.38 billion in the current year. India is the world’s largest importer of gold, mainly for jewellery, with annual run of 800-900 tonnes.
Skanray Technologies Ltd, a manufacturer of medical devices like X-ray devices and ICU ventilators, has filed its draft prospectus with SEBI for its proposed Rs.400 crore IPO. It will entirely be an offer for sale in which private equity investor, Ascent Capital, will look for a partial exit route. Skanray operates two US FDA-approved manufacturing facilities in Mysuru, in Karnataka and one in Bologna in Italy. The IPO could happen in the next couple of months with Motilal, ICICI Securities and Nomura advising them on the IPO.
On the Nifty, 6 out of the 10 most valuable companies by market capitalization added Rs.111,221 crore during the week. It was once again the technology giants like TCS and Infosys that led the rally. In terms of market cap gains, TCS gained Rs.30,961 crore while Infosys added Rs.29,808 crore. Among others, HDFC Bank added Rs.19,839 crore, SBI Rs.14,235 crore and ICICI Bank Rs.12,776 crore. Reliance lost a whopping Rs.76,549 crore despite a promising AGM. HUL, Kotak Bank and Bajaj Finance also lost value in the week.
The shareholders of Interglobe Aviation have approved the proposal to raise Rs.3,000 crore via placement to QIBs. For the latest quarter, Interglobe reported net loss of Rs.1,147 crore as the negative gap between the RASK and CASK widened in the quarter. With its top line slumping by 26%, the airline badly needs to have access to adequate funds, especially considering its daily cash burn of Rs.19 crore. Indigo has a domestic market share of over 55% and the airline actually expanded its market share in the pandemic.