Business News at 05:30 pm on 26th July, 2024

Let’s begin – Indian benchmark indices snapped five-day losing streak and ended higher on July 26 with Nifty touched fresh life-time high of 24,861.15. At close, the Sensex was up 1,292.92 points or 1.62 percent at 81,332.72, and the Nifty was up 428.70 points or 1.76 percent at 24,834.80. About 2329 shares advanced, 1108 shares declined, and 75 shares unchanged. Biggest Nifty gainers included Shriram Finance, Divis Labs, Apollo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel and Cipla, while losers were ONGC, Tata Consumer Products, and Nestle India. All the sectoral indices ended in the green with IT, metal, pharma, realty, auto, FMCG, capital goods, telecom, media up 1-3 percent. BSE Midcap index rises 2 percent and Smallcap index up 1 percent.

Up next – Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra on Friday said the rationalisation of the capital gains taxes on various asset classes in the FY25 Budget is a tax simplification measure as sought by the industry and not to augment revenue. Addressing members of the industry chambers CII and Assocham, he wanted to know if the industry was in favour of having different tax rates for different asset classes. The FY25 Budget has rationalised the holding period for various asset classes for short- and long-term capital gains tax. The holding period for all listed assets has now been made one year for long-term capital gains tax. For unlisted shares, debentures and real estate, the holding period for LTCG is two years.

In another development – The stock of Tech Mahindra fell as much as 5.6% to an intra-day low of Rs 1,444.25 before recovering inline with the buoyant sentiment across the IT Index. The company’s Q1 net profit jumped 23% YoY to Rs 851.5 crore. According to the brokerage house JM Financial Services, the tech giant’s turnaround efforts, which it set in the previous quarter, are off to a good start. The company’s management is not taking its eyes off the growth/investment agenda either. Front-end investments – multi-tower solutions team, client and delivery partners for top accounts– are put in place. All of the positives are despite no material improvement in underlying demand.

Moving on – Euro zone government bond yields rose on Friday after falling during the week as investors awaited key U.S. economic data later in the session.
Short-dated German borrowing costs were on track for their biggest weekly fall since mid-June as weak economic data from both sides of the Atlantic led investors to price in a quicker easing cycle from the European Central Bank. Money markets are currently fully pricing two 25 bps ECB rate cuts and a 10% chance of a third easing move in 2024 from less than a 70% chance of two rate cuts early this week. Surveys earlier this week showed that German business morale unexpectedly fell in July, and growth in euro zone business activity stalled.

In other news – Several parts of India are currently witnessing a surge in the cases of dengue. In the Southern part of India, there has been an exponential rise in dengue cases. According to experts, the states witnessing highest cases are Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal. Data from the National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control, India has recorded 19447 cases of dengue and 16 deaths till 30th April 2024. This year, women and children are experiencing higher rates of dengue compared to previous years, Dr. Akanksha Saxena, General Physician, Consults on Practo told FE. She also said that patients are presenting with a variety of symptoms that closely resemble malaria, typhoid, and chikungunya fever.

Meanwhile – Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama on Friday formally announced their support for Kamala Harris for the upcoming US Presidential Elections later this year. In a post on X, Obama said that he was sure that Harris will make a “fantastic President of the United States.” While the backing is on expected lines, the support of Obamas will be very crucial for Harris in the race for democratic nomination for the Presidential Polls. After Obama’s post, Harris took to X to post an emotional reply with the same video clip posted by the former President. “It means so much,” Harris wrote as she expressed her gratitude for the endorsements by Obamas. She signed off the post with “let’s get to work.”

Lastly – The Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu informed the Lok Sabha that the new integrated terminal building at Vijayawada Airport in Andhra Pradesh is expected to be completed by June next year. The Union government approved the project, which includes the terminal building and related works, in June 2020 at an estimated cost of Rs 611.80 crore. In his written response, the Civil Aviation Minister stated that there has been no cost overrun to date. However, the project has experienced delays due to late environmental clearances and unforeseen challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple cyclones, and unusually heavy rainfall.