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Benchmark stock indices fell steeply during the week due to concerns over hawkish monetary policy stance, persistent high inflation and unabated selling by foreign institutional investors. The indices closed negatively on all five days of the week.
For the week, the Sensex crashed 2.52% 59,463.93. The Nifty 50 index tanked 2.67% to 17,465.80. In broader markets, the BSE Midcap index slumped 2.05% to 24,178.73. The BSE Smallcap index fell 1.65% to 27,584.59.
Top losers were Metal [-6.27%], Realty [-5.75%], Media [-5.4%], PSU Bank [-5.07%], Financial Services [-3.09%]. All nifty sectoral indices closed in the red during the week.
During the week, FIIs were net sellers for Rs 3100.5 crore and DIIs were net buyers for Rs 3209.7 crore in the cash segment. The FIIs have sold for Rs 45,973.6 crore in the calendar year 2023 and the DIIs have bought for Rs 45,809.6 crore in CY2023.
Indian rupee stood at 82.75 against the US dollar as on February 24, 2023.
Company News
Tata Motors: The Indian carmaker has begun talks with sovereign wealth funds and private equity investors to raise up to $1 billion via a stake sale in its electric vehicle (EV) business, Economic Times reported citing sources. The company plans to sell a significant minority stake, eyeing a valuation of about $10.5 billion, according to the news report. The funds and investors include the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Mubadala Investment Company, the Saudi Arabia-headquartered Public Investment Fund, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, and KKR and General Atlantic.
Separately, Tata Motors said it would supply 25,000 XPREST electric vehicle (EV) units to Uber in one of the largest deals in the green mobility space till date, according to various media reports. Under the agreement, Uber will utilise the electric sedans in its premium category service. Tata Motors will begin the deliveries of the cars to Uber fleet partners in a phased manner, starting this month, the reports added.
Vedanta: A joint venture between Vedanta and electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn has finalised the Dholera Special Investment Region near Ahmedabad city of Gujarat for setting up their semiconductor and display manufacturing facility, PTI reported citing a senior state government official.
Both the companies would invest Rs 1,54,000 crore to set up the facility in Gujarat, which would create one lakh job opportunities. This project is likely to get huge subsidies and incentives, like zero stamp duty on land purchase and subsidised water and electricity, under the ‘Gujarat Semiconductor Policy 2022-27’ announced by the state government in July last year.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL): The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has stayed the tribunal’s order admitting Zee Entertainment into insolvency. NCLAT has granted IndusInd Bank two weeks to file a reply. The matter will be heard next on Mar 29. Earlier, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowed the initiation of insolvency proceedings against the media company. “We respect the decision taken by the Hon’ble National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and remain committed towards protecting the interests of all stakeholders. Our focus continues to be on the timely completion of the proposed merger,” said Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
Olectra Greentech: Shares of the company jumped 20% after the company announced that it has developed a Hydrogen bus with its technology partner, Reliance Industries. The development of a fully carbon-free alternative to traditional public transport is a significant step towards achieving India’s carbon-free hydrogen ambitions, and it could have a positive impact on the environment by reducing air pollution and emissions, the company said.
Bharat Dynamics: The defence equipment manufacturer has inked an export order worth $255 million (Rs 2,108.12). The agreements were signed with top companies such as Thales, Al Tariq, and Bultexpro, as well as domestic players like the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. Separately, the company’s stock is also trading ex-dividend today and its board has approved an interim dividend payout of Rs 8.15 for the current financial year.
ONGC: The oil and gas producer will invest over $2 billion in drilling a record 103 wells on its main gas-bearing asset in the Arabia Sea as it pivots a turnaround plan that will add 100 million tonnes to production. “We have released a record 103 locations for drilling of wells on the Bassein and Satellite (B&S) assets over the next 2-3 years,” ONGC Director (Offshore) Pankaj Kumar said. The wells will tap smaller and hereto untapped reservoirs and help raise output.
State Bank of India (SBI): The lender has successfully raised Rs 4,544 crore non-convertible, taxable, perpetual, subordinated, unsecured, fully paid up Basel III compliant AT-1 bonds at a coupon of 8.20% per annum.
DLF: The realty major announced that the company has exercised the option to prepay the non-convertible debentures (NCDs) one year ahead of the schedule on annual interest reset date of 25 March 2023. The company had allotted of 5,000 rupee denominated NCDs of face value Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 500 crore on 25 March 2021 with a coupon rate of 8.25% for a period of three years. DLF said that it will redeem the outstanding principal amount along with the accrued annual interest on 24 March 2023.
KFin Technologies: The company will invest in Fintech Products and Solutions India (FPSIPL), a Technology Service Provider (TSP) having a wholly-owned subsidiary, FinSec AA Solutions Private , India’s first Account Aggregator (AA), licensed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The partnership will help the company to venture into TSP and AA business as it looks to diversify beyond its current offerings across asset classes in the financial services ecosystem.
SpiceJet: The carrier said its revenue from operations jumped 2.4% to Rs 2,316.8 crore as against Rs 2,262.6 crore in the year-ago period. Its net profit rose 160% to Rs 110.5 crore in the reported quarter as against Rs 42.5 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Its EBITDAR stood at Rs 89.83 crore in the reported quarter compared with Rs 250 crore in the year-ago period.
Infosys: The IT behemoth announced that it will expand its collaboration with Microsoft, to help accelerate enterprise cloud transformation journeys worldwide. According to the Infosys Cloud Radar, enterprises can add up to $414 billion in net new profits, annually, through effective cloud adoption. The extended collaboration between Infosys and Microsoft will benefit enterprises by bringing them the best of Infosys Cobalt cloud offerings and Microsoft’s cloud computing technologies, led by Azure, across the business value-chain.
Biocon: The biopharmaceutical company has announced that the company has issued and allotted non-convertible debentures (NCDs) aggregating to Rs 1,070 crore on private placement basis in three series. These NCDs will have a face value of Rs 1 lakh each and it will be get matured on 21 February 2028.
Tata Steel: The company’s board has approved the issue of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) aggregating to Rs 2,150 crore on private placement basis. The NCDs will have a face value of Rs 1 lakh each aggregating to Rs 2,150 crore, will be allotted on 27 February 2023 and will mature on 25 February 2028. The NCDs are proposed to be listed on Wholesale Debt Market Segment of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The NCDs received credit rating of ‘AA+’ by India Ratings and Research (India Ratings) and ‘AA+’ by CARE Ratings.
Cyient: The company announced a partnership with Thingtrax to enable manufacturers to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The partnership will enable global manufacturers to drive higher performance across their entire manufacturing operation through AI-powered data. Cyient’s end-to-end manufacturing services suite and the Thingtrax solution allow manufacturing leaders to improve operational performance by engaging people at every level to embrace a high-performance culture.
Indian Energy Exchange (IEX): Shares of the company jumped 4.2% after the Power Ministry invoked section 11 of the Electricity Act, an Emergency law to push power plants to operate at full capacity, Economic Times reported. The power ministry asked imported coal-based power plants to run at full capacity for three months starting March 16. Power demand is expected to peak around 229 GW in April, the ministry said in a notification.
Adani Green Energy: Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment approved two wind power plants by Adani Green Energy Ltd with a total investment of $442 million, according to a statement issued by the board, Reuters reported. “The two wind power plants of 350 MW are scheduled to be commissioned in two years and accordingly, they will be added to the national grid by 2025,” the statement added.
Orient Cement: Orient Cement has terminated its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Adani Power on Wednesday to set up a cement grinding unit in Maharashtra. Adani Power Maharashtra (APML) has requested the company not to pursue the venture further, for setting up a cement grinding unit, as they are unable to obtain the required MIDC clearances for sub-leasing the parcel of land required for the cement grinding unit, due to legal issues.
Also, the timelines as agreed upon as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have crossed. The company has accepted the position of APML and accordingly, the said non-binding MoU stands terminated. In September 2021, the CK Birla Group company has entered into a non-binding MoU with APML for exploring the possibility of establishing a cement grinding unit at Tiroda in Maharashtra.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M): The company has entered into an asset transfer agreement for certain identified assets related to four-wheeler passenger electric vehicles with Mahindra Electric Automobile (MEAL), which would be incorporated as a subsidiary. M&M and British International Investment Plc have agreed to invest up to Rs 1,925 crore each in MEAL in two tranches.
NHPC: The state-owned hydro power giant raised Rs 996 crore through the issuance of non-convertible bonds on private placement basis. NHPC raised Rs 996 crore through unsecured, redeemable, non-convertible, non-cumulative and taxable 7.59% AD series bonds on private placement basis, according to its exchange filing. The bonds are proposed for listing at Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment of BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL): The Indian government has opposed Vedanta Ltd’s proposal to sell its international zinc business to Hindustan Zinc Ltd for $2.98 billion over concerns of valuation. The government has threatened to take legal action to stop the sale of the Africa-based assets to HZL, in which it holds a 29.54% stake. In a letter to HZL, posted by the company to stock exchanges, the Ministry of Mines said the deal is a “related party transaction” and the government would “like to reiterate” its dissent.
Economy News
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held on February 6-8, 2023.
Governor Shaktikanta Das said that monetary policy is expected to remain in a tightening mode, but there is uncertainty about its trajectory. This is leading to bouts of volatility in global financial markets whose spillovers are posing challenges to emerging market economies.
According to the minutes, the RBI governor said, “Overall, there is considerable uncertainty at this stage on the evolving inflation trajectory due to ongoing geopolitical tensions, global financial market volatility, rising non-oil commodity prices, volatile crude oil prices and also weather-related events.”
“We must, therefore, remain unwavering in our commitment to bring down inflation to ensure a decisive and durable moderation in inflation towards the target of 4% over the medium term, while being mindful of growth,” the RBI governor said.
The MPC had raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5% from 6.25%. Ashima Goyal and Jayanth R. Varma voted ‘No’ on the resolution to increase the policy repo rate to 6.5%, while other four members of the MPC voted ‘Yes’.
Global Markets
The US markets ended lower as investors expected more aggressive interest rate hikes in the coming months from the US central bank as the US economic data indicated robust consumer spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked 3%, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.7% and the Nasdaq slumped 3.3%.
The country’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, increased 0.6% in January 2023 after gaining just 0.2% in December 2022. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the US economic activity, rose by 1.8% last month, exceeding expectations. The rise in consumer spending was the highest since March 2021, though incomes rose by a smaller-than-expected 0.6%. Meanwhile, the US GDP growth during October-December 2022 period stood at 2.7%, annualized, lower than the 2.9% increase originally reported. The US GDP growth for 2022 remains unchanged at 2.1 percent.
Japanese equity markets declined during the week, with the Nikkei index falling 0.22% and the broader Topix losing 0.18%. Surging consumer prices and worries over further interest rate hikes by the US Fed weighed on the markets.
Japan’s core consumer price index rose 4.2% year-on-year in January, its biggest gain in over 41 years. Kazuo Ueda, who is set to become BoJ Governor in April, said that consumer prices rose due to rising import prices.
Chinese stocks gained during the week after three weeks of losing streak as risk appetite improved on hopes of economic recovery. The Shanghai Stock Exchange index gained 1.34%, the CSI 300 added 0.66% and the benchmark Hang Seng index fell 3.43%.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept its benchmark one-year and five-year loan prime rates unchanged as signs of economic growth discouraged the need to loosen monetary policy.