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

Let’s begin with the market. Shares of Punjab National Bank gained more than 7% in morning trades on Monday, July 29, following the release of the bank’s Q1 results over the weekend. The stock opened at Rs 124.86, nearly 4% higher than the previous close of Rs 119.95 on the NSE, and surged to intraday highs of Rs 128.80, marking gains of over 7%. PNB reported its highest-ever quarterly standalone profit of Rs 3,252 crore, driven by increased interest revenue and a reduction in bad loans. The net profit for the quarter rose 159% year-on-year. Net Interest Income also saw a significant increase of 10.2%, reaching Rs 10,476.2 crore compared to Rs 9,504.3 crore in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, FMCG major Adani Wilmar on Monday reported its fiscal first quarter earnings with profit at Rs 313.20 crore. This is in comparison to a loss of Rs 78.92 crore recorded during the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal year. It posted revenue from operations at Rs 14,168.58 crore, up 9.6% as against Rs 12,928.08 crore during the same period last year. The company posted its highest-ever EBITDA of Rs 619 crore, up 375 per cent YoY, in Q1FY25 on the back of stability in edible oil prices. Adani Wilmar said that the company achieved a revenue growth driven by 12% YoY volume growth. Both Edible oils and Food & FMCG segments delivered strong double-digit volume growth, of 12% YoY and 42 percent YoY respectively.

Over to IPOs. Bhavish Aggarwal’s OLA Electric filed papers with the markets watchdog said that the company will open its issue to investors on August 02. The company will collect a whopping Rs 6,145.56 crore through offering fresh shares as well as an offer for sale. The issue will close on August 06. The company wants to raise a sum of Rs 6,145.56. Out of this, OLA Electric will raise Rs 5,500 crore by selling 72.37 crore fresh shares, while Rs 645.56 crore will be pocketed in by promoters and other selling shareholders through an offer for sale of 8.49 crore shares. OLA Electric has kept the issue price band for bidding in a range of Rs 72 to Rs 76 per equity share.

Moving on. Bharti Airtel has announced a significant development in its 5G network expansion, positioning itself to rival Jio in the race to deliver advanced 5G services across India. The company has begun re-farming its existing mid-band spectrum, specifically the 1800, 2100, and 2300 MHz bands, to accommodate the surging traffic demand as more customers transition to its 5G network. This strategic move aims to enhance browsing speeds and indoor coverage, ensuring a superior 5G experience for its users. Airtel has conducted successful pilots of this stand-alone and non-standalone switch in Rewari, Chennai, and Bhubaneswar.

Over to some more technology news. Messaging giant WhatsApp is set to introduce a new feature that will streamline user interactions. The platform is currently testing a double-tap message reaction feature for its Android beta version. According to WaBetaInfo, WhatsApp is testing Instagram and Facebook Messenger like update that will allow users to quickly react to messages with a default heart emoji by simply double-tapping on them. This will eliminate the need to go to reaction tray for reacting to a message. The feature aims to expedite the reaction process, making conversations more dynamic on chat app.

Next up some updates from the crypto world. WazirX is rolling out a fund recovery plan based on a user poll the platform will conduct by August 3. Reportedly early this month the crypto exchange lost about $230 million to a cyberattack. In order to recover from the loss that it made, the crypto exchange will take this initiative as a recovery plan from the mishap that took place earlier. According to sources, about 10 days ago the Indian crypto exchange WazirX, faced a massive security breach that led to user fund loss and $230 million in withdrawals. In an official blog, WazirX explained that they are implementing a transparent socialised loss strategy to distribute the impact across all users equitably.

Lastly, let’s see how the market performed today. Markets continued the previous session’s record run on July 29 with benchmarks hitting fresh all-time high led by banking stocks post robust earnings reported over the weekend. At close, the Sensex was up 23.12 points or 0.03 per cent at 81,355.84, and the Nifty was up 0.01 points or 1.25 percent at 24,836.10, On July 29, the Nifty50 and BSE Sensex touched fresh record high of 24,999.75 and 81,908.43, respectively. On the back of strong global cues, the Indian indices opened at fresh record high and extended the gains in the first half. However, they erased all gains in the second half to end with little change from the previous close.