| News Announcement |
Impact Analysis |
| India’s Q2 GDP disappoints at 7.1%, sharply lower than Q1 |
- The lower GDP was largely driven by a fall in core sector growth and weak consumption demand
- Lower GDP growth also is indicative of an industrial slowdown in the quarter due to fears of a global trade war
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| Core sector growth recovers to a 3-month high of 4.8% in October |
- Five out of the eight sectors showed expansion with cement and electricity being the big gainers
- Oil-related sectors continued to disappoint as did steel. The core sector accounts for over 41% of the IIP basket
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| INR closed the week at a 4-month high level of 69.58 on Friday |
- This is a sharp recovery after the rupee had touched a low of Rs.75/$ at the height of the liquidity crisis in October
- A dovish note from the Fed chief, Jerome Powell, also reduced the probability of steady Fed rate hikes in the future
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| Global fund managers reduced equity exposure by 2% to 47.7% |
- The global funds have seen their cash levels rise to a 20 month high on the back of global uncertainty over oil and trade wars
- In addition, global fund managers are also worried about the likely fallout of the BREXIT deal not going through
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| A day after Yes Bank downgrade, CRISIL downgrades NCDs of Vodafone Idea |
- The downgrade pertains to the company’s outstanding NCDs to the tune of Rs.6000 crore.
- The downgrade reflects the pricing pressure, huge debt burden and the gestation for the merger to deliver value
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| SEBI likely to reopen insider trading case against Sun Pharma |
- Some of these charges pertain to an FCCB issue and some to insider trading charges around the Ranbaxy acquisition
- Apart from Dilip Shanghavi, the names of his brother-in-law, Sudhir Valia of Fortune Financials has also cropped up
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| Arun Jaitley admits to invoking Section 7 of the RBI Act |
- Section 7 pertains to the government directing the RBI on matters of public interest, which has been fairly debatable
- Urjit Patel has hinted at resigning from his post if Section 7 was invoked. The last word may not have been said yet.
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| Marriott admits to major data hacking lapses in its Starwood unit |
- Marriott admitted that sustained hacking of its Starwood data may have compromised details of nearly 500 million guests
- It is the second big data compromise after Yahoo and raises serious issues of cybersecurity and corporate governance
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| Fiscal deficit has crossed 104% of the full year target in October itself |
- This compares unfavorably with the 96% mark last year and was largely driven by increased government spending
- There is likely to be a huge gap between divestment and GST revenues and that is likely to put further pressure
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| India’s forex reserves fell further to $392 billion on November 23rd |
- Indian forex reserves have fallen from a high of $428 billion as the RBI had to consistently intervene to defend the rupee
- The RBI had been selling spot dollars at levels of 70, 72 and 74 to stem the fall in the rupee
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| Nifty and Sensex gain sharply on dovish comments from Jerome Powell |
- In a virtual U-turn from the previous month, Powell hinted that the US may just be below its peak rate target
- This led the dollar to weaken but took US equity markets and the Asian equity markets sharply higher
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| Private airlines may require a capital infusion of Rs.35,000 crore |
- This is the total supported estimated by ICRA for Indigo Airlines, Jet Airways, and Spice Jet
- These airlines are losing nearly Rs.20 crore per day and they would require serious capital infusion to stay afloat
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| JLR to shut down UK engine plant for 2 weeks during Christmas |
- This move was necessitated by weak diesel sentiments, tepid demand in China and a general slowdown in offtake
- The impact was felt in Tata Motors which cracked further lower as JLR accounts for over 90% of its profits
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| Brent Crude dipped below the $60/bbl mark as US stockpiles put pressure |
- There is a lot at stake in the Trump-Xi meeting at G-20 as a trade war could slow down demand for fuel
- There is also an all-important OPEC meeting coming up on December 06th when another supply cut is expected
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| Etihad may get a controlling stake in Jet Airways at the max level of 49% |
- The infusion by Etihad will mean that Naresh Goyal will have to give in and settle for a much lower stake
- Apparently, Goyal had preferred Etihad to increase its stake over selling out to the Tata Group
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| Unilever edges out Nestle in the race for Glaxo Consumer unit in India |
- The GSK consumer unit is known for its famed brands like Horlicks and gives Unilever a big foothold in nutrition
- Players like Horlicks and Complan have been struggling against newer products like Pediasure, manufactured by Abbott
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| Yes Bank cracks further on Moody’s downgrade to non-investment grade |
- This downgrade followed serious flaws pointed out by RBI and likely exposure to NBFCs in India
- RBI has also asked Rana Kapoor to demit office by end of January post which a new CEO is likely to be appointed
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| RBI reduces hedging requirements for ECBs to 70% |
- This reduction from 100% hedging to 70% hedging is intended to ease the pressure on dollar demand in India
- However, this will only be allowed for ECBs with maturities between 3 and 5 years and not beyond that.
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| RCOM hints at asset sale to Jio being hit by government demand |
- The government had demanded Rs.2900 crore of spectrum charges before approving the asset sale
- The government has insisted that the spectrum charges will have to be paid in cash or furnished as a bank guarantee
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| Standard Chartered Bank approaches NCLT to scrap the Arcelor bid for Essar |
- The deal was apparently made by a small syndicate of lenders without taking other lenders into confidence
- Earlier, GAIL had also filed a complaint that operational creditors had been ignored in the process
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| SEBI urges mutual funds to seek more information before investing in CPs |
- This came in the light of mutual funds having to take a huge write off on their exposures to IL&FS
- Mast of these CPs were issued by NBFCs with serious maturity mismatches in their balance sheets
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