Business News at 05:30 pm on 4th April, 2024

Let’s begin. After a great year, which saw the Nifty giving decadal-high returns, market experts say that things are likely to slow down in FY25. What would impact the market sentiments are events such as elections in India, the US and other countries, interest rate action and continued geopolitical tensions. But most experts believe that the returns from Indian markets could be around a stable 10-15% – implying another year when real returns could be in the positive. In FY24, the Sensex and Nifty returned 25% and 29%, respectively. The broader mid-cap and small-cap indices outperformed the benchmarks significantly by returning over 60% each. Between FY20 and FY24, the Nifty and Sensex have given thumping 160% and 150% returns, respectively.
On to IPOs. State-run Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd’s plan to sell a 15% stake in Bharti Hexacom through the latter’s initial public offer will yield around Rs 4,200 crore to the Centre, boosting its dividend receipts from central public sector enterprises. TCIL will transfer the amount from disinvestment in Bharti Hexacom to the government as a special dividend, sources said. Bharti Hexacom is a subsidiary of the country’s second-biggest telecom operator Bharti Airtel. The Bharti Hexacom IPO, which only has an offer for sale from TCIL and no fresh equity issue from the company, opened on Wednesday and would close on Friday. The price band has been kept at Rs 542-570 per equity share of face value of Rs 5 each.
Moving on. A little more than a year after the Bar Council of India decided to allow entry of foreign law firms into the country, the scorecard is stuck at just one. Link Legal announced a combination with one of the world’s largest global law firms – Dentons – in May last year. But the collaboration is a mere “hand-shake” or at most a co-branding exercise and does not herald an actual “entry” in the real sense of the term, legal experts say. Bharat Anand, senior partner at Khaitan & Co., said the lack of interest in foreign legal entities shows that “the old playbook of one step forward and two steps back” by the BCI would not work anymore.
Over to industry. Weighed down by rising cocoa prices, chocolate majors are planning to raise prices – by 15% in some cases – over the next two to three month. Some like The Whole Truth, a Mumbai-based clean label D2C food brand, has paused the production of its milk chocolates and has steeply hiked the prices of its dark chocolates from Rs 200-299 to Rs 299-375. In the last six months, the rates for cocoa liquor have gone up from Rs 500 per kg to Rs 1200 per kg and cocoa butter has tripled to Rs 1600 per kg. While Nestle India said it is closely monitoring the situation, Parle Products hinted that it may initially hike prices by 10-15% over the next two months.
Meanwhile, India is aiming to reach Rs 1 trillion in marine product exports in the next two years by increasing its processing capacity and a shift to higher value-added products, a senior official said Wednesday. India’s exports of marine products were $8.09 billion in 2022-23 and in the April-February exports from the sector were down 7.5% on year to $ 6.8 billion. Among marine products, shrimp exports have 67% share. The US is the single biggest market taking in $2.4 billion out of $ 5.6 billion worth of shrimp that left Indian shores. A big chunk of Indian shrimp that makes its way to the US gets processed in Ecuador. India wants to do that processing locally to capture the higher value of exports.
In other news, Sony Pictures Networks India is looking to drive organic growth as well as increase its market presence through strategic partnerships in FY25, MD & CEO NP Singh said in an internal newsletter addressed to employees. A copy of the newsletter has been reviewed by FE. Outlining his business strategy for the future, Singh, a media veteran who has been with Sony for a decade now, said that FY25 is likely to be a challenging year for the company after it failed to merge with Zee earlier. The market is also consolidating, with rivals Disney and Reliance-backed Viacom18 now coming together in a joint venture valued at $8.5 billion.
Lastly, let’s see which are the stocks in focus. These include KEC International, Aster DM Healthcare, Jindal Stainless, Axis Bank, and Vodafone Id among others. Vodafone Idea on Wednesday said to consider raising funds via preferential issue in its board meeting to be held on April 6. On the other hand, Axis Bank said that all the required regulatory approvals for the proposed subscription of shares in Max Life Insurance have been received. Earlier, the bank proposed infusing Rs 1,612 crore in Max Life Insurance Company.