The market cap of 6 of the 10 most valuable companies in India fell by Rs1,73,098 crore in the week to May 10, 2024. The major losers were HDFC Bank losing Rs60,678 crore and LIC losing 43,168 crore during the week. Other losers were Reliance at Rs36,095 crore, ICICI Bank at Rs17,568 crore and SBI at Rs11,781 crore. There were also some standout gainers in the week with Hindustan Unilever seeing market value growth of Rs33,270 crore, TCS Rs20,422 crore, Bharti Airtel Rs14,543 crore and Infosys Ltd Rs3,611 crore.
Tata Power, as part of the IPO plans of its green energy unit, is in talks with the Tata group companies to sell its green power internally too. This will help to reduce the fossil footprint of the group in a big way. It also plans to offer customized green energy solutions to various commercial and industrial clients. Many of the clients of Tata Power are looking at comprehensive green energy solutions. Apart from the supply of green energy, Tata Power will also offer energy planning and load management solutions to the clients.
Amidst the rising political uncertainty, the FPIs have sold equities worth Rs17,000 crore in May 2024, with net FPI selling at nearly Rs15,000 crore in the last 3 days of the week. The sharp rise in bond yields and the relative valuations of Indian markets has led to flows gravitating towards other emerging markets. FPIs were net buyers in Indian equities in March, but have been net sellers in April and in the first 10 days of May 2024. Most analysts expect these concerns to subside post the election outcome on June 04, 2024.
It was an interesting month of equity fund flows. The mutual fund AUM touched record levels of Rs57.26 trillion while the debt funds saw record inflows of Rs1.90 trillion. Equity fund inflows were lower by 16% at Rs18,917 crore, for the second month in a row. The big news for the month of April was that the SIP flows finally crossed the 20K mark to touch Rs20,371 crore in the month of April 2024. The SIP AUM was at Rs11.26 trillion with nearly 63.7 lakh new SIP accounts being opened, showing very strong retail spread.
Eicher Motors reported 18.2% increase in net profits for Q4FY24 at Rs1,070 crore, helped by tepid input costs, surge in sales volumes and better price realizations in the quarter. Even revenues were up by 11.9% at Rs4,256 crore in the quarter. The numbers were broadly in line with expectations. For the full fiscal year FY24, the company reported 25.7% rise in the EBITDA to Rs4,327 crore, while full year PAT was up by 37.3% at Rs4,001 crore. Eicher reported a strong performance across Royal Enfield and the CV vertical.
The one sector that FPIs found attractive in recent months was telecom sector. Apart from the Vodafone FPO, which saw record FPI interest, other stocks that have seen a lot of interest in the secondary markets are Bharti Airtel and Indus Towers. Bharti Airtel with its above average ARPU levels has been on the radar of FPIs for quite some time. Also, tariff hikes are expected again after the elections are over in June. Indus Towers will benefit from the 4G and 5G rollouts, as also the growing financial stability of Vodafone Idea.
According to government indications, the RBI distribution to the government for FY25 could be at par with FY24 or slightly higher. However, the dividends from PSU banks and from other PSEs is likely to be much higher in FY25 as compared to FY24. The met profits of PSBs is set to cross Rs1.30 trillion in fiscal FY24, and that is likely to be a big boost for dividends to the government. In FY24, the RBI had paid Rs87,416 crore as dividends to the government. In addition, the PSBs had paid nearly Rs15,000 crore as dividends.
Rashmi Saluja, CEO of Religare, either wants the Burmans to execute the open offer or exit the company. In September 2023, the Burmans had made an open offer to buy 26% stake in Religare Enterprises Ltd. The Burmans had recently hinted at exiting Religare, should they get a good price. Religare and Burmans have been in a bitter battle for control of Religare. The former Ranbaxy group financial services company has a history of hits and misses and fell from being a major player to a side player in the financial services.