The 5-day crash in markets has wiped out nearly Rs.19.50 trillion of investor wealth or about $260 billion. The Sensex has now lost close to 4,000 points in the last 5 days of trading. The fall on Monday was the steepest single-day fall in the last 2 months. From Rs.280 trillion, the BSE market cap has now fallen to Rs.260 trillion. Big losers on Monday included Bajaj Finance, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Reliance and HCL Tech. The fall was broad-based as BSE Mid-cap index fell by 3.82% and BSE small cap index by 4.43%.
Vedant Fashions, which owns Manyavar ethnic brand, will open its IPO on 04th February and close on 08th February. The exchange listing is expected on 16-Feb. The entire issue is an offer for sale and early investors and promoters will offer 363.60 lakhs shares in the OFS. Among the early investors participating in the OFS include Rhine Holdings and Kedaara Capital. Vedant is in the men’s Indian wedding and celebration wear market. Manyavar is a category leader in men’s wedding wear with pan-India presence.
FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa) hit a new low of Rs.1,776 as the stock has lost over 31% from its recent peak of Rs.2,574. Nykaa had a robust listing but has joined the free fall. The stock has now dropped below its listing price. The stock is still above its IPO issue price of Rs.1,125. Nykaa is a technology platform, delivering a content-led, lifestyle retail experience to consumers. It broadly vends beauty, personal care and fashion products and also markets under its proprietary Nykaa brand. Profits continue to be elusive.
Even as the market cap of Zomato has dipped well below the Rs.1 trillion mark, its closest competitor (Swiggy) has stolen a march over Zomato. In Swiggy’s latest round of $700 million funding, it has been valued at $10.7 billion. The valuation of Swiggy has nearly doubled in the last 1 year since its last round of funding and its valuations have grown 100-fold over the last 7 years. In valuation terms, Swiggy has got the better of OYO after the valuations took a hit due to pandemic impacting hotel occupancy in a big way.
Axis Bank Dec-21 quarter numbers saw trebling of net profits to Rs.3,614 crore on a standalone basis. The growth was led by higher income across verticals, higher non-interest income and lower provisioning. For example, provisions and contingencies in Dec-21 quarter was down 64% yoy at Rs.1,335 crore. Revenues were up by 155 yoy at Rs.21,101 crore. NII was up 17% but NIMs were almost flat yoy at 3.53%. Gross NPAs remain under control at 3.17%. Gross slippages for Q3 stood at Rs.4,147 crore. Advances grew 17%.
Reliance Industries expects its energy exploration business to reap rich dividends of a global fuel shortage that has already pushed gas prices to record highs. RIL plans to raise the price cap for its offshore gas sales by 60% to $10 per MMBTU. Its production in the KG Basin is up 36-fold and this business is likely to benefit the company in a big way. For Q3, RIL reported a big surge in revenues from upstream oil and gas production at Rs.2,560 crore. That is huge turnaround from operating losses as recently as Sep-20 quarter.
Financial creditors of Essel group are likely to ask Subhash Chandra to settle their dues with the Rs.1,100 crore non-compete fee that he would receive from Sony Group as part of the merger deal. Creditors are likely to oppose the merger deal if Chandra does not agree to pay up. IndusInd Bank, Axis Finance and Yes Bank are among the top lenders, with many of these loans having Chandra’s personal guarantees. Lenders can move a petition in NCLT to this effect. Subhash Chandra has claimed that 91% of all dues are repaid.
The S&P BSE IPO index plunged 8% on 24-Jan as most of the recent IPOs ranging from Nykaa to Zomato to Policybazaar and Paytm got hammered. Even other IPOs like Latent View, Go Fashions, Chemplast, CMS Info Systems and Devyani International slipped sharply on Monday. Zomato, Nykaa, Policybazaar, CarTrade and Paytm scaled new lows. Year 2021 was the year of IPOs and 2022 appears to be a rude return to reality. It remains to be seen how the response to big ticket IPOs pans out in calendar year 2022.