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Dalal Street closed for the week with minor losses as investors were worried over the pace of economic growth after India posted a lower-than-expected GDP number for the first quarter of FY23. For the week, the Sensex fell 0.05% and the Nifty 50 index dropped 0.11%.
Broader markets outperformed the headline indices. The BSE Smallcap rose 1.35% and the Nifty Midcap 100 gained 0.93% during the week.
Top losers among Nifty sectoral indices were IT [-3.3%], Energy [-1.32%], Pharma [-0.59%] and Metal [-0.25%]. Top gainers were Realty [3%], Auto [2.25%], FMCG [2.1%] and Bank [1.11%]
During the week, FIIs were net buyers for Rs 1305.6 crore and DIIs were net sellers for Rs 230.2 crore.
The WTI Crude stood at $86.87 per barrel and the Brent Crude was trading at $93.02 a barrel.
The Indian rupee closed at 79.80 against the US dollar on Friday.
Company News
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL): The company’s chairman Mukesh Ambani made a slew of announcements in the 45th AGM. Ambani said that the company would launch Jio 5G services in India in the next two months. The company has set aside Rs 2 trillion for making it possible. “Within the next two months, by Diwali 2022, we will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities including metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata,” he said.
RIL will invest Rs 75,000 crore in the next five years to expand petrochemical capacity, its chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Monday. Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting, he said the investments will be in setting up a PTA plant, expanding polyester capacity, tripling capacity of vinyl chain and a chemical unit in UAE.
Reliance Retail will launch its FMCG business this year, Reliance Retail Ventures Director Isha Ambani said on Monday. The objective of this business will be to develop and deliver products and solve every Indian’s daily needs, with high quality products at affordable pricing, she said while addressing Reliance Industries’ annual general meeting.
The company’s subsidiary, Reliance Retail, has submitted a non-binding bid of about Rs 5,600 crore to acquire Metro Cash and Carry’s operations in India, reported The Economic Times citing industry executives aware of the development.
Grasim Industries: The company would invest Rs 3,117 crore in its existing businesses excluding the paints and B2B e-commerce business in FY23, its Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Monday. This investment would be towards capacity creation and modernisation of plants. He said that the company has already approved a total capex of Rs 10,000 crore for the paints business, out of which Rs 605 crore has been spent till FY22.
Airtel: The telcom company announced several new cloud offerings under Edge Cloud Portfolio ahead of the 5G service launch. The new cloud offerings will include Edge content delivery network (CDN). Airtel Cloud’s Edge CDN will accelerates web and video content delivery, the company said in a statement.
Adani Enterprises: Shares of the company rose to a record high of Rs 3,290 after they gained 2% on the NSE in Friday’s intraday trade. The rise comes after the NSE announced the company’s inclusion in the benchmark Nifty 50 index. Adani Enterprises will join the benchmark index from September 30 and will replace Shree Cement.
Meanwhile, the company rejected RRPR Holding’s contention that it would need the Income Tax department’s nod to convert warrants into equity shares to Vishvapradhan Commercial (VCPL), its indirect subsidiary. RRPR is a promoter group entity of New Delhi Television (NDTV), which is at the centre of an acquisition by the Adani group. Adani Enterprises said that the RRPR disclosure lacked bonafides and had no merit or basis either in law or in fact and was misconceived.
Tata Steel: The company said that it will invest more than 65 million euros for hydrogen-based steel manufacturing in the Netherlands. Hydrogen has the potential to decarbonise steel manufacturing. Tata Steel has inked pacts with three firms — McDermott, Danieli and Hatch — for the further technical preparations for hydrogen-based steel manufacturing in the Dutch city of Ijmuiden.
In other news, Tata Steel on Tuesday said it has invested around Rs 54 crore in its wholly-owned arm TSML through acquisition of additional shares on preferential basis. The funds will be used by TSML to meet capital expenditure requirements, a regulatory filing said.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI): The automaker posted a 26.37% increase in total sales at 1,65,173 units in August 2022. The company had sold a total of 1,30,699 units in the same month last year. Total domestic passenger vehicle sales were at 1,34,166 units, a growth of 30% YoY, it added.
L&T Technology Services (LTTS): The company has won a five-year, multi-million dollar deal from BMW Group. The deal pertains to providing high end engineering services for the company’s suite of infotainment consoles for BMW’s hybrid vehicles. LTTS will provide services in areas of software build, integration, infotainment validation and defect management.
Aurobindo Pharma: The company’s wholly-owned arm, CuraTeQ Biologics, plans to invest around Rs 300 crore on capacity expansion of biologics manufacturing facilities. The board of directors of CuraTeQ Biologics approved the expansion of its operations by establishing another mammalian cell culture manufacturing facility of higher capacity to cater to the future requirements, Aurobindo Pharma said in a regulatory filing.
Hero MotoCorp: The two-wheeler maker reported a 1.92% increase in total sales at 4,62,608 units in August 2022. The company had sold 4,53,879 units in the year-ago period. Domestic sales were at 4,50,740 units as compared to 4,31,137 units in August 2021, a growth of 4.55%. Exports declined to 11,868 units from 22,742 units in the corresponding period of last year.
Infosys: The IT services company has completed the acquisition of Europe-based life sciences consulting and technology firm BASE life science. With this acquisition, Infosys will expand its footprint in the Nordics region and will bring domain experts with commercial, medical, digital marketing, clinical, regulatory, and quality knowhow.
The Indian IT company has divested its entire holding in the US-based Trifacta for $12 million. The transaction was completed on August 29. Infosys had made a minority investment of $10 million during 2016-2019 in Trifacta, a data engineering software company headquartered in San Francisco.
InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo): IndiGo and British carrier Virgin Atlantic have announced a codeshare agreement. The agreement will allow Virgin Atlantic to sell seats to passengers connecting onto IndiGo flights. The initial codeshare destinations in India include Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, Delhi and Mumbai.
The company’s CEO Ronojoy Dutta, who will be stepping down next month ahead of his tenure, has agreed to an enhanced two-year non-compete period. Dutta is to step down as the Whole Time Director and CEO of InterGlobe Aviation, the parent IndiGo, on September 30 whereas his current tenure is till January 23, 2024.
Vodafone Idea: Shareholders of the telecom company have approved elevation of company’s chief financial officer Akshaya Moondra as new chief executive officer, according to voting result of the annual general meeting. The company held its 27th AGM (annual general meeting) on Monday in which 99.75 per cent shareholders voted in favour of the special resolution to appoint “Akshaya Moondra as chief executive officer of the company”.
Ashok Leyland: The company said that it has bagged orders from major fleets for 1,400 school buses in the UAE, the company’s largest ever supply of school buses in this country. The total fleet deal for the GCC-made buses has been bagged by Ashok Leyland’s UAE distribution partners, Swaidan Trading – Al Naboodah Group.
In other news, the commercial vehicle maker’s total vehicle sales, including exports, grew 51% on an annual basis to 14,121 units in August. The company had sold a total of 9,360 vehicles in August 2021.The domestic vehicle sales increased 58% to 13,301 units in the month under review, from 8,400 units in the year-ago period, the company said.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL): The oil refiner plans to scale up its renewable energy portfolio to 10 GW by 2040, which is also the year the company aims to become net-zero carbon emitter, chairman Arun Kumar Singh said. Addressing the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Singh said BPCL is diversifying and expanding into adjacent and alternate businesses, which will not only provide additional revenue streams but also offer a hedge against any decline in the oil and gas business.
Economy News
India’s GDP growth rose to 13.5% in April-June 2022, due to low base effect, compared to 4.1% in the previous quarter, according to data released by the country’s statistics agency.
India’s eight core sectors grew 4.5% in July, slowing down from an upwardly revised 13.2% in June, the commerce ministry said. The Output of six of the eight core sectors grew in July. These sectors include coal, refinery products, electricity, fertilisers, cement, and steel, said the ministry.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was nearly flat at 56.2 in August 2022 compared with July’s reading of 56.4. The numbers indicted that the manufacturing sector have been expanding steadily.
The gross GST revenue collected in the month of August 2022 is Rs 1,43,612 crore, a rise of 28% from the year-ago period. Out of the total GST collected, CGST came in at Rs 24,710 crore, SGST was Rs 30,951 crore, IGST stood at Rs 77,782 crore and cess was Rs 10,168 crore, according to government data.
Global Markets
The US markets ended lower as investors were concerned over the Fed Chair’s hawkish comments regarding interest rate hikes to tame inflation and European gas crisis. For the week, Dow slumped 2.99%, S&P 500 fell 3.28%, and Nasdaq tanked 4.21%.
The US labour market was upbeat with Job openings increasing 199,000 to 11.239 million in July 2022. Data for June was revised higher to show 11.040 million job openings instead of the previously reported 10.698 million. Meanwhile, Private employment rose by 132,000 jobs in August after increasing 268,000 in July, the ADP report showed.
Further, the US labour department showed non-farm payrolls increased by 315,000 jobs last month, after surging 526,000 in July and Unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in August from 3.5% in July.
Japan’s stock markets fell over the week as investors’ sentiments were dampened by the hawkish outlook taken by the US central bank. The Nikkei 225 index was down 3.46%, while the broader Topix index declined 2.50%. The Japanese yen depreciated and breached 140 against the US dollar as Bank of Japan (BoJ) decided to maintain ultra-low interest rates to support the country’s economy.
China’s stock markets closed in the red as fresh coronavirus outbreaks in major cities triggered renewed lockdown and market participants weighed on the country’s economic outlook. The Shanghai Composite index fell 1.54%, the CSI 300 index, which tracks the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, dropped 2.01% and Hang Seng slumped 3.56%.
The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) increased slightly to 49.4 in August from July’s 49, indicating the sector was in contraction phase. Meanwhile, the Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 49.5 for August, compared to 50.4 in July that reflected the negative impact of lockdown in major cities.