Business News at 09:30 am on 10th October 2023

Let’s begin. Rates on commercial papers with short-term maturity have risen sharply in the past two months as the Reserve Bank of India has tightened the leash on liquidity. CP rates with maturity of two-three months have surged nearly 40 basis points since August, hitting non-banking financial companies the most. High CP rates are not good news for companies as it raises the cost of short-term funds for them. CP is a debt instrument issued by companies to meet their short-term financing requirements from the money market. As per the National Securities Depository Limited data, companies raised Rs 91,764 crore through 381 CP issuances in July while in September, they raised Rs 1.21 trillion in September, indicating a high supply of these papers.
Over to industry. Chennai-based SaaS unicorn, Zoho, reported a year-on-year growth of 37% in the calendar year 2022, Sridhar Vembu, the founder and CEO of the company said on Monday. Zoho is betting big on its communication and collaboration platform Zoho Cliq. On Monday, the company launched Cliq Rooms, a smart conference rooms solution, and announced new updates to Zoho Cliq to add to its growing capabilities. Vembu said that while the global economy, is heading for a slowdown, India provides confidence as a growing market. Currently, India ranks as the third-largest market for Zoho, after the US and EU.
In some more industry news, Delivery executives associated with Swiggy have called for a city-wide indefinite strike in Mumbai, citing reduced payouts, diminished incentives, and an expansion of the delivery radius introduced by the platform in recent days, as the primary reasons for their protest. According to the Rashtriya Karmchari Sena, which launched the strike on October 8, Swiggy has recently increased the delivery radius for delivery workers from 4 km to 6 km. They argue that this change significantly increases their workload and travel distances, with only Rs 20 being remitted for deliveries within the extended 6-km radius. Swiggy, in response, cited “operational limitations” as the reason, following numerous complaints from users in the city about delivery delays.
Meanwhile, State Bank of India is working out a risk matrix, wherein some special credits will be given to borrowers who embark on green initiatives, chairman Dinesh Khara said on Monday. SBI has been measuring the carbon footprint of its portfolio at the account level to mitigate climate risks and provide sustainable financing. Khara at an event organised by Ficci said, qoute, “At the bank level, we have started working out the risk matrix of our borrowers wherein we give some special credits to those embarking on green initiatives,” unquote. The chairman mentioned that there must be a system wherein initiatives to promote green finance can be collated at an organisational level.
In some legal matters, The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear curative petitions filed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel citing arithmetical errors in calculation of adjusted gross revenue dues by the department of telecommunications, in an open court. Normally, the court hears review and curative petitions in the chambers of the judges concerned. The apex court, has, however, not listed any specific date to hear the case. A curative petition can be filed before the Supreme Court after a review petition following a final order is dismissed. Later on the prayer of the telcos, the apex court, allowed them to pay the amount in equal installments spread over a 10-year period.
On to banking. The market share of banks in the microfinance segment declined further to nearly 32% in April-June, from 38.4% a year ago, as non-bank lenders witnessed a sharp rise in disbursements, a report from Sa-Dhan said on Monday. The market share of banks in this segment stood at 34.1% in the March quarter. This data come at a time when various banks have been looking to enter the microfinance segment in a bid to increase margins. At the same time, the market share of microfinance-focused non-banking financial companies rose to 41.3% in the June quarter, from 34.9% a year ago. The market share of non-profit institutions fell to 0.3% in the June quarter, from 0.9% a year ago.
Lastly, let’s see which are the stocks you need to watch out today. These include Maruti Suzuki India, Adani Enterprises, Hero MotoCorp, and Tata Steel. Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest carmaker has announced an ambitious CAPEX of around Rs 1.25 lakh crore till FY2031, in addition to the regular CAPEX it incurs for its existing plants at Gurgaon, Manesar and Gujarat. ON the other hand, According to reports, Pawan Munjal, Chairman, Hero MotoCorp along with four other people had been accused of availing tax credits on fake bills generated by his company. hero MotoCorp has issued a clarification on the FIR filed by the Delhi police for allegedly falsifying accounts and availing tax credits on fake bills.