It was a sort of Black Thursday for the stock markets as the Sensex fell by 879 points and the NSE cracked by 245 points in a single day. The sharp fall was largely a reaction to the Fed statement that interest rates would go “higher for longer”. It was the heavyweights like HDFC Bank and Infosys that dented the market sentiments. FPI selling at Rs711 crore was not intimidating but clearly there was a lot of closure of trading positions, especially after the Bank of England hiked rates by another 50 bps to highest level since 2008.
The current account deficit number for the September quarter will be announced by the RBI on the last trading day of December. However, a recent poll by Reuters suggests that the current account deficit may have risen to its highest in nearly 10 years during the second quarter due to a widening trade gap. Median forecast for CAD is $35.5 billion, or 4.3% of GDP. The last time it was so high was during the currency crisis in the year 2013. India faces pressure from weak exports amid tepid demand and spike in non-oil imports.
IDBI Bank moved National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against Zee Entertainment seeking insolvency proceeding against the group to recover dues to the tune of Rs150 crore. This amount has been disputed by Zee group. This has forced IDBI Bank to file an application under Section 7 of the IBC, 2016 as a financial creditor. This pertains to the financial facility availed by its group company, Siti Networks Ltd. Apart from IDBI Bank, HDFC Ltd had also moved the NCLT against SITI Networks Ltd for alleged default of Rs296 crore.
For the month of November 2022, total merchandise exports were flat at $31.99 billion. However, the trade deficit for the month fell to $23.89 billion compared to $26.91 billion in October 2022. Imports were higher on yoy basis at $55.88 billion in November 2022, but lower on a sequential basis. Indian exports of textiles and leather have been bearing the brunt of this global slowdown and that trend was visible in the current year also. For first 8 months, exports stood at $295.26 billion while imports were $493.61 billion.
On day-1 of the OFS of IRCTC, meant for non-retail shareholders, response was pretty strong. However, the stock fell by 6% for the day. Government has launched a share sale to divest another 5% in the railway ticketing company. The fall in price could be due to concerns of a supply overhang, since the government has already divested 25% in the last 3 years. Post divestment, the centre’s stake in IRCTC falls to 62.4%. Floor price was 7% lower than CMP at Rs680 and got bids for 55 million shares, against 40 million on offer.
Deepak Fertilisers announced the demerger of its mining chemicals and fertiliser businesses. This move will facilitate focused leadership to the business and help to simplify the structure. Overall, it is expected that the move would be growth accretive. The company making a strategic shift from commodity to specialty driven company. The strategy is focussed on production, cost optimization, capacity utilisation and efficiency improvement. This was deemed essential to significantly improve the customer experience.
Indegene Ltd, backed by Infosys co-founder NS Raghavan and PE firm Carlyle, filed DRHP with SEBI for its proposed Rs3,200 crore issue. The IPO will be a combination of a Rs950 crore fresh issue and an offer for sale (OFS) worth Rs2,250 crore. This will be the second biggest technology IPO in India after the Rs4,713 crore TCS IPO in 2004. The company is a HealthTech model focused on global life sciences. Carlyle holds 20.8% stake. Raghavan family office will also tender shares in the OFS. IPO funds will be used to pare debt.
Indian telecom industry is likely to grow by $12.5 billion every 3 years, according to a Deloitte-CII study. It expects the market for AR/VR technologies to touch $1.6 billion by 2025. The study believes that with the advent of 5G, 9 out of 10 consumers will look for a digitally enhanced shopping journey. 5G empowers organizations to act on rich datasets real-time. The report expects 5G to drive efficiency in key sectors like energy, healthcare and agriculture. Deloitte also expects a spurt in private network requirements in India.
