With the proliferation of demat accounts and trading accounts in India, the big beneficiary of this trend has been the Indian stockbroking industry. For FY22, the broking industry is expected to report 30% growth in revenues at Rs.28,000 crore. Demat accounts jumped from 5.51 crore in Mar-21 to 8.06 crore in Dec-21. For retail brokers, the average revenue per client was up by 25%. However, according to ICRA, revenue growth could fall to 5% in FY23. Trading volumes were up 179% in the first nine months of FY22.
HDFC Ltd reported that it had approved retail home loans worth over Rs.200,000 crore in FY22. This is record home loan approvals in any year in the history of HDFC. One of the key drivers of the home surge was historically low interest rates. Demand is coming from first time home owners as well as those who seek to graduate up the property ladder. The housing sweet spot is still in the price range of Rs.50 lakh to Rs.1 crore segment. In FY21, 30% of home loans approved were in the lower income and EWS groups.
It looks like anchor investors lapped up Ruchi Soya ahead of its FPO, which opens on Thursday. The anchor book demand was much more than the quota of Rs.1,290 crore. Key anchor investors included Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Oman Pension Fund and Yas Takaful among FPIs. Among domestic funds, key anchor investors were SBI MF, Kotak MF, Birla MF and HDFC Life Insurance. The upper band of the FPO price is nearly 32% below the current price. Anchor placement was done at the upper price band of Rs.650.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has decided to extend the Jet Airways revival plan deadline to 29th March 2022. This is based on submissions made by the various lenders to Jet Airways and the Kalrock Jalan consortium, which has taken over Jet Airways. The deadline was to originally expire on 22nd March, but has not been extended by a week. The NCLT had cleared the revival plan for Jet Airways in Jun-21 and the 270 day period for implementation is coming to an end. It is not clear when Jet will start operations.
ArcelorMittal, promoted by Indian NRI L N Mittal, entered into a strategic partnership with Greenko Group, a leading player in the Indian alternate energy market. The project is expect to power the greening journey of ArcelorMittal. ArcelorMittal and Greenko will jointly build 975 MW nominal solar and wind capacity project. The $600 million project will be supported by Greenko but funded by ArcelorMittal. Greenko will design, construct and operate the renewable energy facilities in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
India has decided to freeze plans to permit local companies to list overseas. The focus will be to bolster the domestic capital markets. This marks a sudden shift in stand compared to a previous proposal to ease overseas listing of Indian companies, including via SPACS. The finance ministry feels there is enough depth in Indian capital markets to raise funds and get good valuations. After the Paytm listing fiasco, many of the FPIs had lobbied with the PMO to allow global listings, including via SPACs. Market reaction is awaited.
According to data put out by the Commerce Ministry, India’s crude oil imports in Feb-22 dropped to the lowest level since Oct-21. Clearly, soaring global prices had taken a toll on demand. Feb-21 crude imports fell 8.6% in volume terms sequentially and was 5.7% lower than the pre-pandemic period. This fall in crude imports came amidst a surge in oil prices due to the worsening geopolitical situation in Ukraine. Going ahead, fuel demand is likely to be price inelastic. India is the world’s third-biggest oil importer and user.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed that India had achieved $400 billion merchandise exports in FY22 for the first time ever. That translates into an average export run rate of $46 million per hour. Exports for FY22, till date, has already crossed $400 billion, representing a growth of 37% over FY21. India has been posting more than $30 billion of exports for the last 10 months in a row. For FY22, the total trade (the aggregate of exports and imports) is also expected to cross $1 trillion for the first time in Indian history.
