The government plans to shortly invite bids for the strategic sale of BEML Ltd. The non-core business of BEML already got listed on the stock exchanges in April 2023. Now, BEML Land Assets is a listed company effective April 19th 2023. In the past, the attempts to sell a strategic stake in BEML had mee with a lot of resistance from the unions. BEML supports the defence, aerospace, construction, and railway segments. The government holds 54.03% in BEML and plans to sell 26% of its stake, which is valued at Rs1,500 crore.
Coal India Ltd reported 17.7% lower net profits at Rs5,528 crore for the March 2023 quarter due to higher provision for wage revision of employees. The coal dispatches and output were about 8% higher on a yoy basis. An additional wage provision of Rs5,870 crore has been made in the quarter to account for arrears of wages since July 2021, when the revision was due. Coal production for Q4FY23 stood at 224.16 million tonnes. The final dividend of Rs4 per share takes the total dividend for the fiscal FY23 to Rs24.25 per share.
The OPEC share in India’s oil import basket to an all-time low of 46% in April 2023 as cheaper Russian oil filled the gap. In April 2022, OPEC had a market share of 72% in the Indian crude oil basket. India imports nearly 85% of its daily crude requirements due to limited production locally. In April, the imports of crude from Russia were more than imports from Iraq and Saudi Arabia combined. This month, Russia accounted for 36% of the overall Indian oil basket. OPEC is not part of the OPEC but it is part of the informal OPEC+.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have purchased Indian equities worth Rs10,850 crore in the first 4 trading sessions of May 2023. FPIs have been impressed by data points like stable macroeconomic environment, robust GST collection and better-than-expected corporate earnings in Q4FY23. This comes in the backdrop of $1.42 billion infused into Indian equities in April 2023. Apart from the macros, the attractive valuations of Indian stocks and the strength of the Indian rupee have also been positive triggers for foreign flows.
On Friday, HDFC Bank and HDFC Ltd fell by over 6% each. This was after reports hinted that the MSCI may assign an adjustment factor of 0.5% to the merger deal rather than the adjustment factor of 1. The adjustment factor of 1 would have resulted in inflows of $3 billion into HDFC group while the factor of 0.5 would lead to outflows of $200 million from the stock. That is what spooked the markets. The adjustment factor is weightage of the stock assigned in the MSCI index, which is a benchmark for global passive flows.
The stock of Manappuram Finance fell by over 21% to a low of Rs102 in the last 3 trading sessions after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze Rs143 crore of assets belonging to the MD & CEO, VP Nandakumar in an ongoing money laundering investigation. The ED has also been searching the company premises in this connection. Manappuram had allegedly indulged in money laundering through illegal collection of deposits from the public. Apparently, the proceeds of the laundering had been invested in properties.
India’s gold imports dipped by 24.15% in Fy23 as compared to FUY22 amidst macroeconomic uncertainty and rising price of gold. In the global spot market, the price of gold had scaled $2,000/oz while in the domestic market gold has been at an all-time high for quite some time. In FY22, the gold imports stood at $46.20 billion. Gold being an unproductive asset, a fall in imports is essential for controlling the trade deficit and also the current account deficit. Normally, the RBI frowns upon a sharp spike in gold imports.
For the week ended 05th May 2023, 4 out of the top 10 most valuable companies lost Rs56,006 crore with the biggest hit seen on the HDFC twins on Friday. During the week, HDFC Bank lost Rs34,548 crore, HDFC Ltd lost Rs13,585 crore, Bharti Airtel lost Rs6,357 crore and SBI Rs1,517 crore. There were several gainers too during the week. Hindustan Unilever gained Rs10,949 crore, ICICI Bank Rs6,583 crore, TCS Rs5,434 crore and ITC gained Rs4,598 crore. Infosys and Reliance Industries were the other gainers for the week.