Business News at 05:30 pm on 16th April, 2024

“Let’s begin – The stock Jio Financial Services advanced 5% to an intra-day high of Rs 371.95 after it entered into a joint venture with US-based BlackRock. On Monday, in an exchange filing Jio Financial said that it signed an agreement with BlackRock to undertake the wealth business including incorporation of a wealth management company and subsequent incorporation of a brokerage company in India. Earlier in 2023, BlackRock and Jio Financial Services announced an agreement to form a 50:50 joint venture to deliver tech-enabled access to affordable, innovative investment solutions for millions of investors in India. Jio Financial Services has fallen over 1% in the past five days but has risen more than 62% in the last six months.” “In other news – The broking firm CLSA has given a “Sell” rating on Wipro a target price of Rs 445 after its CEO Thierry Delaporte tendered his resignation on April 06. Wipro announced Srini Pallai as the new CEO. CLSA said that Wipro has “consistently underperformed its peers” after Azim Premji left the CEO’s post. It believes that the new CEO has a tough task ahead with Wipro. Later during the week, Wipro will be reporting its Q4 results. CLSA in its research report said that the company was consistently performing poorly under Delaporte. Also, the IT- major was unable to retain senior talent, which includes CFO, COO, and various other business heads.” “Moving on – Dynacons Systems & Solutions Limited, a technology solutions provider today announced that it has secured a significant contract worth Rs 233 crore from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. The contract, it added, encompasses the upgradation and migration of Core Banking Solution (CBS) from Finacle 7.0 to Finacle 10.2.25, operating on the Application Service Provider model. The scope of the contract includes serving 1391 branches of 38 State Coop Banks across 8 states. The project scope includes core banking solution upgrade, migration, and maintenance, alongside infrastructure and network enhancements from technology vendors such as HPE, Oracle, Fortinet, Array, and Versa Furthermore, this contract is structured on an Operating Expense basis, ensuring recurring revenue streams throughout the agreement.” “Up next – A few days after cricketer MS Dhoni was seen riding the EMotorad Doodle V3 e-bike, the company has now announced that the former Indian cricket captain has invested in the company, which entails equity ownership while also taking up his new role as the company’s brand endorser. In November 2023, EMotorad secured Rs 164 crore in a Series B funding round led by Panthera Growth Partners. This capital was used to strengthen the company’s manufacturing capabilities, expand its global outreach, and enhance its R&D facility. The Doodle V3 is a funky e-bike that can be folded in half while offering a range of around 60km with a top speed of 25kmph.” Meanwhile – The second round of stress test and liquidity analysis for small and midcap funds appeared slightly better compared to the previous month’s results. Asset management companies were asked by capital market regulator Sebi to start conducting a regular stress test on their small and midcap funds to see how prepared the fund houses are to meet any sudden surge in redemption requests by their subscribers. Take a look at the performance of India’s top five fund houses in the stress test results for March 2024. In the stress test results for March published on AMFI website, India’s largest Fund House SBI Mutual Fund showed that its smallcap fund would now take 58 days to liquidate 50% of its portfolio against 60 days earlier. “India’s first under-river Kolkata metro’s Howrah Maidan-Esplanade corridor recorded 12.14 lakh passengers traveling along the stretch in 30 days, some of which run below the Hooghly river. Since the launch of the metro rail service from March 15 to April 14, it earned Rs 1.75 crore on the Green Line, as per the statement by Metro Railway Kolkata. In March 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the metro train service between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade in Kolkata, marking the opening of India’s first under-river tunnel. Notably, the 4.8-km tunnel between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade includes a 1.2 km section, which is 30 meters below the Hooghly River, establishing it as the country’s first transportation tunnel beneath a significant river.” Lastly, let’s see how the share market performed today. The benchmark equity indices closed in negative territory on April 16. The NSE Nifty 50 lost 95.75 points or 0.43% to close at 22,176.75, while the BSE Sensex pulled back 386 points or 0.53% to finish at 73,014.04. Nifty Bank dropped 178.40 points or 0.37% to close at 47,594.85. Eicher Motors, Divi’s Laboratories, Titan, ONGC, and Hindustan Unilever were the top gainers in the Nifty 50. While Infosys, LTIMindtree, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and Wipro were the major laggards in the Nifty 50 on April 16 during later hours.