Passenger vehicles sales were up by nearly 14% for the month of November 2017. This could also be attributed to the fact that the previous November was a weak month on the back of the demonetization that was undertaken last year. While car sales were up by just 4.5%, the real spurt to growth came from the utility vehicles segment which was up by nearly 44% on a YOY basis. The good thing is that the auto sales during this year have picked up smartly despite the pressure of GST and the shift to BS-IV norms in April this year. Auto stocks have also been among the major outperformers.
A few days ahead of the Gujarat polls, the Congress party announced the official election of Rahul Gandhi as the president of the Congress party. Rahul Gandhi was currently the vice president of the party. Since his nomination was unopposed, there was really no election for the post. The new role will be an acid test for Rahul Gandhi as he takes on the BJP in some of the key state elections followed by the all-important general elections in 2019. The task of reviving the century old party falls on the shouldersof Rahul Gandhi after the party put up a disastrous performance in 2014 winning just 43 seats.
The Supreme Court will hear Unitech’s plea tomorrow protesting against the government decision to take over the management of the company to protect the interests of the shareholders and other stakeholders. The NCLT had recently passed an order permitting the government to take over the management of Unitech. The NCLT had suspended all the 8 directors of Unitech on charges of siphoning of funds and mismanagement of the company. The idea was to protect the interests of small shareholders and over 20,000 home owners who had purchased flats through Unitech.
Bankers are now preparing to send nearly Rs.180,000 crore worth of loans to the NCLT for resolution. Thisrepresents the exposure of bank to a total of 29 corporate accounts, most of which are on the verge of being bad and the only option appears to be dissolution. This is in addition to the 12 major accounts that have already been referred to the NCLT for dissolution and due process. Large companies like IVRCL, Videocon and Jaypee group are expected to be part of the second list of NCLT accounts. The government is also wary about promoters buying back their stake at a discount through the back door.
The government of India has approached the Supreme Court against the order of the Delhi High Court that allowed the parties to the Vodafone deal to appoint an arbitrator to resolve the issue. The government has already served a notice to Vodafone to pay Rs.11,000 crore as capital gain in the deal that was signed between Vodafone and Hutch in 2007. However, Vodafone has disputed this demand on the grounds that the Vodafone deal was as per the laws of the land prevailing at that time. The government of India is using the form versus substance argument to push Vodafone to pay the pending tax. The Supreme Court had already held in 2012 that Vodafone was not liable to pay the tax under the extant losses. However, the Damocles sword of retrospective tax still hangs over Vodafone.
Bitcoin futures which started trading on December 11th was up by 26% in a single day triggering trade stoppage on the CBOE. The launch of Bitcoin futures on a regulated exchange is a major prop for the crypto currency as it nearly gives legitimacy to the product. Globally, central banks have been sceptical of these crypto currency products due to their uncertain nature. The listing on CBOE will be followed by listing on the CME and the NASDAQ. Ironically, the previous big bubble called the Tulip Mania actually crumbled on the futures on tulips was actually introduced. That is not a good portent for Bitcoin.
