Business News at 05:30 pm on 29th January, 2024

Let’s begin – Jefferies, a leading foreign brokerage, anticipates a prolonged upswing in corporate spending and the housing cycle, projecting a five-plus year growth trajectory. These sectors, constituting 75% of the total capital expenditure, emerge as major drivers. Jefferies suggests that any potential dip in capex plays, influenced by waning confidence in government-led initiatives, could present a strategic buying opportunity. The brokerage identifies Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Lodha, Godrej Properties, Ultratech Cement, Thermax, Polycab, KEI, Kajaria, JSW Energy, and Coal as its preferred capex cycle plays, signaling positive prospects for investors in India’s evolving capex landscape. The report also anticipates a modest 7-8% growth in the government capex budget for the fiscal year 2025 in the upcoming interim Budget.

Up next – Adani Green’s consolidated net profit more than doubled to Rs256 crore for the quarter ending December 2023. The consolidated net profit last year in the same quarter was at Rs103 crore. The Q3 results also showed that revenue from operations in the third quarter increased 17% to Rs2,311 crore. Last year in the corresponding quarter, the revenue from operations was at Rs 1,971 crore. The renewable energy company posted an EBITDA of Rs 1,667 crore which marks an increase of 95% over the previous year period. EBITDA margins for the quarter stood at 72% as per the quarter results. This comes as Adani Green Energy said that it has completed the funding for redemption of its USD 750 million bonds.

In another development – The all-India thermal plant load factor is expected to continue to improve to 69% in FY2025 from about 68% projected for FY2024, said a report by ICRA. It added that it will be led by the growth in electricity demand and limited thermal capacity addition. ICRA’s outlook for the thermal power segment is stable, supported by the healthy improvement in the thermal PLF, coupled with the reduction in dues from state distribution utilities following the implementation of the Late Payment Surcharge scheme in August 2022. It projects the demand growth to moderate to 5.5- 6% in FY2025 from the 7 to 7.5% projected for FY2024 and slightly trails its expectation for the GDP growth for that fiscal.

Moving on – The IMD has predicted a wet spell over the western Himalayan region till February 3 with the possibility of isolated heavy falls on January 30 and 31. The two western disturbances in succession are likely to affect northwest India from January 30 and another from February 3. Under the influence of these systems, light to moderate rainfall/snowfall is very likely over Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal during the next 6 days till February 3. Isolated heavy rainfall/snowfall is also likely over Kashmir on January 30 and 31 and over Himachal on January 31. Higher reaches of Himachal are likely to witness heavy snowfall and rainfall from January 30 till February 3.

Moreover – Northern states of the country have been experiencing thick fog conditions for a few days. On Monday morning, fog engulfed the national capital disrupting flight operations at Delhi International Airport. Several domestic and international flights have been delayed owing to the foggy conditions in several parts of the country, the Flight Information Display Board at IGI Airport mentioned. The delays have been reported from international flights from Riyadh, Bangkok, Frankfurt, and Copenhagen Kashtrup among others. Domestic operations too got hit due to dense fog and adverse weather conditions, Delhi Airport FIDB showed. Dense to very dense fog and cold day to severe cold day conditions are very likely to continue in isolated pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and UP.

Meanwhile – Oil prices jumped 1% on Monday on fuel supply concerns after a missile struck a Trafigura-operated fuel tanker in the Red Sea and as Russian refined products exports are set to fall as several refineries are under repair after drone attacks. Brent crude futures climbed 83 cents to $84.38 a barrel by 2341 GMT after hitting a session-high of $84.80. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 78 cents to $78.79 a barrel. Commodities trader Trafigura said on Saturday it was assessing the security risks of further Red Sea voyages after firefighters put out a blaze on a tanker attacked by Yemen’s Houthi group a day earlier.

Lastly – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd on Monday posted a jump of 82.1 per cent in profit for the third quarter of FY24 at Rs 3,181.42 crore as against Rs 1,747.01 crore during the same period last year, missing estimates. It reported revenue from operations at Rs 1,29,984.84 crore, down 2.5 per cent on-year in comparison to Rs 1,33,347.51 crore during the corresponding quarter of previous year. According to a CNBC TV18 poll, BPCL was expected to record Q3FY24 profit at Rs 3,677 crore and the revenue was estimated at Rs 1.05 lakh crore.