Weekly Capsule (Nov 25 – Nov 29) and Impact Analysis

News Announcement Impact Analysis
Second quarter GDP growth came in at 4.5% and GVA growth at 4.3%
  • The GDP growth was impacted by mere 2% growth in agriculture and a negative -1.1% growth in manufacturing
  • This is the lowest GDP growth in the last 24 quarters and is likely to pull down the full year GDP to around 5%
September quarter sees pressure on consumption and capital formation
  • The Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) fell sharply in September quarter on the back of weak demand
  • The Gross Capital Formation (GCF) for the quarter came deep in the negative territory hinting at business pressure
Core Sector growth came in for October at a negative level of (-5.8%)
  • There was pressure across the 8 key sectors with oil refining and drilling taking the deepest hits in the quarter
  • With negative IIP and core sector growth for 2 quarters in succession, it does not bode well for Q3 GDP growth
Uddhav Thackeray wins the trust vote on the floor of the assembly
  • With the BJP staging a walk-out from the assembly the outcome was almost a foregone conclusion
  • The combination of NCP / Shiv Sena and Congress had a total tally of 169 seats with the help of smaller parties too
Finance Minister hints at more interventions after GDP numbers
  • GDP numbers at 4.5% pushed Nirmala Sitharaman to hint at more fiscal push for tax cuts and public spending
  • The sharp fall in the GDP almost makes the RBI rate cut in December a foregone conclusion
US law on Hong Kong could be the thorn in the trade deal
  • The US House went ahead and passed a resolution supporting the freedom movement in Hong Kong
  • This has irked China as the US has also called on China to exercise restraint. This could delay the trade deal further
RBI refers Dewan Housing to NCLT for debt resolution plan
  • This will be the first case of an NBFC being referred to the NCLT for debt resolution under the November 15th rule
  • Dewan Housing owes close to Rs.92,000 crore to banks and financers and may entail a 50% haircut to lenders
Chanda Kochhar drags ICICI Bank to Bombay High Court over termination
  • The contention is that ICICI Bank could not terminate her services after her resignation had already been accepted
  • ICICI Bank had terminated Kochhar and also cancelled all benefits given to her since the year 2008
Government may look to expand its disinvestment list of PSUs
  • According to CLSA, the government could look to divest BHEL, GAIL, Hindustan Zinc and NALCO; apart from BPCL and SCI
  • The government is likely to fall well short of its revenue targets with direct taxes and GST collections weak
SEBI gives go ahead for Debt ETFs but with caveats included
  • SEBI has stipulated that the Debt Fund ETF must have minimum 8 issuers with maximum 15% exposure for one
  • Debt ETFs are expected to be a solid tool for investors to invest in quality debt paper via the passive route
Yes Bank board approves raising of capital of up to $2 billion
  • Yes Bank has seen its core capital ratio falling to 8.7%, just above the statutory limit of 8%; calling for more equity
  • The capital base of Yes Bank has been eroded due to huge divergence in NPA reporting by the bank
October non-food credit growth slows to just about 8.3%
  • This is a sharp fall in the non-food credit growth compared to the 13.4% credit growth witnessed in last October
  • However, the non-food credit growth is expected to pick up in the third quarter with the onset of the busy season
SEBI refuses to review the POA trading ban on Karvy Stock Broking
  • Karvy had approached SAT against the SEBI decision to ban Karvy from opening fresh accounts and operating its POA
  • In turn, the SAT had asked SEBI if the ban could be lifted till the final order. The SAT order is expected on 02nd December
Fiscal deficit for the current year touches 102% of budget target
  • In the first seven months, the fiscal deficit had managed to cross the full year fiscal target of Rs.7.20 trillion
  • This would clearly mean that the actual fiscal deficit could overshoot the 3.3% budget target by a margin
C Rangarajan bats for cash based capitalization of PSU banks
  • According to the former RBI governor, cash capitalization of PSU banks would be more value accretive than bonds
  • Currently, the government recapitalizes banks through the issue of recap bonds; which has its own limitations
Gold sees worst month in November after the year 2016
  • Global gold prices fell sharply during November as the world appeared to be moving towards a US / China trade deal
  • In the last 6 months, gold had seen a rally to cross the $1500/oz mark on the back of rising global uncertainty
Reliance looks to sell its news based media assets soon
  • Times Group is already conducting the due diligence of the News 18 books to arrive at a valuation
  • The idea of integrating media content was to gel with the ecosystem of Reliance Jio, which has been done now
US oil industry may be facing funding problems for the first time
  • Low rates, which drove the shale oil rally, has now come under question with rates and risk higher now
  • Markets fear that if the US is unable to continue pumping oil then the global oil market may be undersupplied
Total revenues of telecom sector contract by Rs.44,000 crore in 2 years
  • This has been largely driven by falling ARPUs in the back of tough price competition from Reliance Jio
  • The recent AGR penalty to the tune of $13 billion is only going to compound the problem further from here on
RBI deputy governor raises some serious concerns over Mudra loans
  • While the NPA percentage is just above 2.5%, RBI is worried about the number of borrowers in default status
  • One of the concerns has been that Mudra loans are given without proper due diligence due to limited information
Pre poll estimates peg Boris Johnson comfortably ahead in UK elections
  • The Conservatives lead has narrowed but should still romp home in the December 12 elections in UK
  • This would mean that the BREXIT would get pushed through as a top priority under the new government