BPCL reported a 160% growth in net profits for Q4FY23 at Rs6,478 crore. Even on a sequential basis, the net profits were up 130%. Gross revenues were up 8.1%in the quarter due to the gross refining margins more than doubling in FY23 from $9.66/bbl to $20.24/bbl. The situation has recovered from the last few quarters, when the company was reporting losses due to non-recovery of marketing costs resulting in negative marketing margins. Board recommended dividend of Rs4 per equity share on face value of Rs10.
In a morale booster to the Go First Airline, the NCLAT upheld the NCLT order that aircraft lessors cannot repossess the aircraft, but will have to approach the adjudicating court. NCLT had noted that allowing the lessors to repossess the aircraft would push the airline towards bankruptcy and nix any chance of revival. The moratorium is already in place for any sale or repossession. However, aircraft lessors have been quite unhappy with this decision and plan to approach courts in various legal jurisdictions applicable to the deal.
Adani Group stocks rallied between 5% and 20% on Monday after the Supreme Court panel had ruled last week that there was no regulatory failure on price manipulation allegation. Rally was across Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas and NDTV. The flagship Adani Enterprises was locked in 20% circuit. The investigation into possible regulatory lapses pertain to the sharp fall in the price of Adani group shares in January and February 2023, in the aftermath of the Hindenburg Research report.
The stock of Siemens India fell 10% to Rs3,338 on Monday with heavy volumes. This fall came after the board approved the sale of low voltage motors and geared motors businesses to Siemens Large Drives India for Rs2,200 crore. The latter is a direct subsidiary of Siemens AG. In the current year itself, the stock of Siemens India has rallied 43%, so it is still an outperformer in the market. In FY22, this low voltage motors business had accounted for 7% of the total sales of Siemens India and 9% of the operating profits.
The 6-member panel appointed by the Supreme Court observed that speculative trading volumes on the stock exchanges had gone up sharply after introduction of weekly options settlement. Weekly options are offered by the NSE and BSE on select indices, which has actually resulted in sharper price discovery. Indian F&O markets have always seen strong trading in options with algo traders making the most of the short expiry cycles of selection option contracts. Nifty and Bank Nifty are most liquid weekly option contracts.
For those who questioned the wisdom of GQG Partners sinking Rs15,000 crore into Adani group shares in early March 2023, the fund is laughing all the way to the bank. The value of the GQG investment is up 49% in the last 75 days since the deal was closed. GQG Partners manages $92 billion in assets in the emerging market funds and had picked up stakes in 4 major Adani stocks in March. That had led to bottoming out of the Adani group stocks and the latest Supreme Court order should also come as a boost to the group.
For the month of March 2023, Reliance Jio added 30.5 lakh mobile subscribers while Vodafone Idea lost 12.12 lakh mobile subscribers in March, as per TRAI. Bharti Airtel had a positive month, adding 10.37 lakh mobile subscribers. Currently, the subscriber base of Reliance Jio stands at over 43 crore while Airtel has a base of 37.09 crore connections. Customer base of Vodafone Idea dwindled to 23.67 crore. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have been aggressive about their 5G plans amidst growth in rural and urban tele density.
According to a recent report by Knight Frank; Shanghai, Tokyo and Mumbai emerged as top data centre markets in the APAC region. Data centre capacity is measured in MW of power used. By that benchmark, Shanghai (2,692 MW), Tokyo (2,575 MW) and Mumbai (2,337 MW) emerged as data centre leaders in the Asia Pacific region. Compared to Mumbai, other Asian hubs have higher share of capacity in live segment, indicating a higher level of commissioning and demand. Mumbai is the only Indian data centre in the list.
