| News Announcement |
Impact Analysis |
| Minutes of the MPC clearly hinted at caution in raising rates |
- MPC expressed uncertainty over rate hikes post Fed action considering that IIP was just showing green shoots
- The vote was 5-1 in favour of status quo with only Michael Patra voting in favour of a 25 basis points rate hike
|
| The rupee falls to a 3-month low of 65.10/$ on outflow concerns |
- Apart from FPIs pulling out money, the importers also rushed for cover once the dollar started strengthening
- The recent bank scams has raised some serious concerns over the quality of vigilance in Indian banks
|
| Vikram Kothari and his son arrested in Rotomac Rs.3700 crore scam |
- The Rotomac promoters have defaulted on loans worth Rs.3700 crores due to a slump in the pens business
- The company had diversified into exports in a big way and this loss has also raised questions over round tripping
|
| According to Bloomberg, contingent liabilities of banks could be huge |
- Conservative estimates put the total contingent liabilities figure at above the asset base of banks
- While the contingent liabilities of PNB is still under 50%, many smaller sized banks are in a tighter situation
|
| MSCI has warned India of a possible weight downgrade |
- This was triggered by the exchange move to stop supplying live data feeds to global exchanges
- India has an 8.4% weight in the MSCI-EM index and a downgrade will mean outflows from ETFs
|
| Tata Steel emerges as the biggest bidder for Bhushan Steel |
- The price bid by Tata Steel for the Bhushan group at Rs.70,000 crore was considered extremely aggressive by markets
- For Tata Steel, this is the best chance to emerge as the biggest steel player in India with over 21 MT of steel capacity
|
| US oil inventories fell by 1.62 million barrels for the week |
- US oil inventories is normally a major trigger for the oil prices to fall when inventories are building up
- This weakness in inventories led to Brent Crude bouncing back to the $66/bbl mark in global markets
|
| Former RBI deputy governor underlines the need for operational audit by RBI |
- This suggestion from Mr. H R Khan came after the Nirav Modi case where SWIFT lapses led to the Rs.11,600 crore PNB scam
- PNB, in the meanwhile, is counting on the Bhushan settlement to write back its Rs.4900 crore provision to bail itself out
|
| Aggressive selling in bond markets was seen in state-run banks |
- Most banks have been worried by the 125 bps rise in bond yields which is resulting in losses on their bond portfolios
- The sharp rise in bond yields is a global phenomenon and has been aggravated by sharply higher inflation
|
| NSE Nifty sees further addition in the weightage of the Nifty index |
- After Bajaj Finance came into the Nifty in Sept 2017, it is now the turn of Bajaj Finserv to enter the Nifty index
- Another outperformer in these tough times, Titan Industries, is also going to be inducted into Nifty from April 02nd
|
| NASSCOM paints an extremely bullish scenario for IT industry this year |
- NASSCOM chairman, Chandrasekharan, has projected 7-9% growth for the IT industry during the next fiscal year
- The revival in IT growth is likely to come from better digital preparedness and a robust domestic IT market
|
| NSE and BSE have been permitted to offer cross currency derivatives |
- This includes non-rupee contracts which are a better option to hedge risk in more complex market conditions
- Like the ban on data feeds, this looks like another desperate measure to stem the off-shoring of currency volumes
|
| Government to open up the coal sector to private competition |
- Coal is the most important input for power generation since India relies on thermal power for 70% of its capacity
- This will pave the way for global giants like Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP and Glencore to partake in coal mining
|
| SGX lays out elaborate plans to list the SGX Nifty at GIFT city in Gujarat |
- This comes in the aftermath of the exchange decision to stop the supply of live data feeds to global exchanges
- SGX Nifty was extremely liquid and SGX will now have to replicate the same advantages via GIFT city
|
| Government lays out plans for 8 PSUs to tap the capital markets this year |
- Some of the marquee names in the list are Bharat Dynamics, IREDA and Hindustan Aeronautics
- The government has set an aggressive divestment target of Rs.80,000 crore and that includes the Air India sale
|
| Indian digital spending could cross $100 billion by the year 2020 |
- Interestingly, this spurt in digital spending is likely to be largely driven by rural and semi urban demand on mobiles
- This could have big implications for established Indian ecommerce names like Flipkart, Paytm, and Amazon India
|
| Friday could be a big day for Halol plant and for the future of Sun Pharma |
- The Halol inspection by the US FDA will be completed and the decision of the US FDA will be out on Friday itself
- Halol contributes to a chunk of Sun Pharma’s revenues and profits and will determine the future trajectory of Sun
|
| NSE sets the contours for MSCI to use NSE live feeds data |
- According to Limaye, MSCI will still get data to feed ETF investments into Indian exchanges
- However, MSCI will not be permitted to use the same data for facilitating off-shore trading of derivatives on the Nifty
|
| PNB has asked NIrav Modi to present a concrete plan for repayment of dues |
- Earlier, Modi has written to PNB saying that they had virtually shut Modi’s business by making the fraud public
- Modi is guilty of perpetrating a fraud of Rs.11,400 on PNB by encouraging the use of fake LOUs to raise global funds
|
| Reliance Jio has emerged as the 3rd largest telecom company in 18 months |
- Jio has overtaken Idea in terms of market share and is just marginally below Vodafone in terms of share
- On a Q-O-Q basis, Reliance Jio managed to increase its market share from 13.9% to 19.74%
|
| Uday Kotak raises questions over the need for so many PSU banks |
- Kotak believes that one way to address the $200 billion stressed assets is to reduce the number of PSU banks
- Kotak also focused on the need for greater institutionalization of processes to avoid such incidents in future
|
