Nine of the ten most valuable companies on the Nifty lost nearly Rs.3.09 trillion in the previous week, despite just 4 days of trading. Sensex lost 3.11% during the week. Among the big losers, Reliance lost value to the tune of Rs.96,512 crore, TCS lost Rs.53,488 crore, Infosys Rs.42,393 crore, HDFC Bank Rs.31,815 crore, Bajaj Finance Rs.30,334 crore, ICICI Bank Rs.16,292 crore, Bharti Airtel Rs.15,815 crore, HDFC Rs.13,320 crore and HUL Rs.9,210 crore. SBI was the lone gainer in the Nifty Top-10 adding Rs.18,340 crore in value.
India consolidated its position as the second largest steel producer in the world with an 18% yoy growth in crude steel production at 118 MT for 2021. China is still the world leader producing 1,033 MT for the year, although output was lower yoy. China accounted for 53% of global steel output of 1,951 MT. Among the other major steel manufacturers, Japan produced 96.3 MT, the US produced 86 MT, Russia produced 72.7 MT and South Korea produced 70.6 MT. Steel production was up across the board yoy, except China.
With just one trading day to go for the month of Jan-22, FPIs have already pulled out Rs.28,243 crore from Indian equities amidst the overhang of Fed hawkishness, input inflation and valuation concerns. They did pump in Rs.2,210 crore into debt and Rs.1,696 crore into hybrids, but these were too small in comparison. This will be the fourth consecutive month that FPIs will be net sellers in equities and unlike in the last few months, there were hardly any IPO flows in Jan-22. FPIs fear the end of the ultra-loose monetary policies.
AMFI has asked mutual fund AMCs to stop inflows into schemes with international mandates. Fund have also been asked not to enhance international exposure after 01-Feb 2022. Motilal was the first to stop accepting fresh flows into international schemes. The reason is the overseas limit already being exceeded by the Indian mutual funds. The current overall limit for the mutual fund industry is set at $7 billion for overseas investments. However, the MF industry has exceeded the $7 billion limits forcing this regulation.
Indian government has put a lot of thrust on exports of value added marine products and the results are showing. Marine product exports surged 35% to $6.1 billion in the Apr-Dec 2021 period. This data was put out by the Commerce Ministry. The top destinations for Indian marine products are the US, China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand; with frozen shrimps accounting for 74% of exports in value terms. The exports of frozen fish and frozen squid has also picked up. PMMSY has set target of Rs.1 trillion in fisheries exports.
Mukesh Ambani has launched an ambitious plan to transform Reliance and India into a dominant force in clean hydrogen. The long term investment outlay is $75 billion, where the focus will predominantly be on hydrogen in particular and in green energy in general. The hydrogen decision will allow Reliance to bypass India’s wholesale electricity market, which is heavily stressed. Reliance plans to produce green hydrogen at $1 per KG, 60% lower than today’s costs. The Adani group has also laid out aggressive green plans.
NTPC reported 19.3% increase in net profits at Rs.4,626 crore. Total sales revenues were also 19% higher yoy at Rs.28,387 crore. The board of NTPC approved 40% dividend. For the third quarter, NTPC reported gross generation of 87.92 billion units against 76.53 billion units in Dec-20 quarter. NTPC will also, as part of its asset monetization program, hive-off its renewable energy assets including NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd. This will be transferred into a 100% subsidiary of NTPC so that they can monetize its latent value fully.
Marico net profit grew 1.6% to Rs.317 crore in Dec-21 quarter. Total sales revenues were up 13.4% for Q3 at Rs.2,407 crore. Like most of the FMCG players, Marico also felt the pressure of weak rural demand and high input costs. While Marico did manage to pass on some of the costs, it was tough to pass on all the input cost hikes in a competitive market. As counter strategy; Marico has expanded distribution, cut costs and invested in market development and brand building. Marico did see penetration gains in the quarter.