Finally, there is cheer from the IMD on the monsoons front. IMD has projected the monsoon to bring cheer to Central India and North India in the next 2-3 days. In fact, June could see the normal monsoon onset on June 29th itself. As of the third week of June, less than 25% of the regions had received normal to excess rainfall. However, this situation normally changes drastically from July onwards. The Kharif sowing in the central and northern parts of India has been 9.7% lower due to weak June rains and that is likely to be a key data point for the RBI and the Finance Ministry as it pertains to inflation.
Both the NSE and the BSE have decided to impose an additional charge on brokers where the Order to Trade Ration (OTR) is above threshold level. Normally, it is this OTR that has been abused by traders and brokers as you are able to use algos to throw and cancel orders at will. This creates unnecessary volatility in the stock markets. This additional charge based on high OTR will be levied at the time of settlement of trades effective June 29th onwards. While the OTR charges will be computed at a member level on a daily basis, the charge will be levied on brokers on a monthly basis.
In the aftermath of the OPEC meet at Vienna, Saudi Arabia has pledged to raise output to help cool prices of crude oil. Apart from pressure from importing countries, Saudi Arabia has also faced pressure from the US. In fact, the US had even threatened to flood the world markets with US oil if OPEC and Russia did not take steps to increase supply. This debate pertains to the 1.8 million bpd of oil cuts that OPEC and Russia had announced effective from Jan 2017 and has continued till date. OPEC is most likely to ensure that nearly 1 million bpd of oil cuts is reversed immediately.
According to a recent report prepared by Admitad, India’s commerce revenues are likely to touch $52 billion by year 2022. That is more than double the 2017 revenues of $25 billion that India had reported. With the spread of internet 4G connectivity, mobile connectivity and cheaper smart phones, the actual growth in ecommerce could be much bigger over the next five years. Interestingly, 70% of ecommerce revenues by 2020 will be driven by mobile transactions. However, the online platform still sees more than 50% of online buyers’ still preferring cash-on-delivery (COD) over digital payments.
The Telecom Department may have just bowled a googly by imposing an Rs.4,700 crore demand ahead of approving the Idea-Vodafone merger. The demand will be raised on Vodafone ahead of the merger with Idea. The dues pertain to one-time spectrum charges on the company. The merger of Vodafone and Idea was undertaken to stave off the competition by Reliance Jio and a renewed Bharti Airtel. This outstanding pertains to the 2015 merger of the regional companies of Vodafone which had resulted in a demand of Rs.6700 crore towards one-time spectrum fee. However, at that point of time Vodafone had only paid Rs.2200 crore to get the deal through. Since the Supreme Court had already ruled in favour of the Telecom Department, it looks like Vodafone will have to shell out the balance.
A report brought out by Macquarie has clearly indicated that the ICICI Bank institutional investors wanted a change of the management to be reassured of better corporate governance practices. Apparently, investors globally had been extremely disappointed with the way the “Conflict of Interest” issue had been handled by the board of the bank. While Chanda Kochhar has already gone on leave, the new appointee, Sandeep Bakshi, will continue to technical report to the CEO. Investors have been asking for a change in the DNA of the bank and are unhappy with any internal transfers.
