Business News at 09:30 am on 9th November 2023

Let’s begin, As Indian markets scaled new highs this financial year, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of 11 companies crossed the Rs 1 trillion-mark over the past seven months, joining the club with 46 others. This is a rise of 19% over FY23. These 11 firms include Adani Power, DLF, Hindustan Aeronautics, Jio Financial Services, Varun Beverages, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco Industries, Zomato, Godrej Consumer Products, Bharat Electronics and Cipla. Out of these, five companies – Adani Power, DLF, Hindalco Industries, Zomato and Godrej Consumer Products – have rejoined the group. During the same period, the Sensex and Nifty 50 returned 10% and 12%, respectively in FY24 while the BSE MidCap and BSE SmallCap returned 35% and 42%, respectively.

Next up, When the world’s most valuable brand – Apple – decided to open its first retail store in India, it chose Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) as its go-to destination. The store has been beating expectations in terms of revenue and footfalls, CEO Tim Cook said in a recent earnings call, putting the spotlight on the area which the world’s best brand calls home in the financial capital of the country. Some of the world’s most premium and luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Gucci, Cartier, Dior, Versace, Tiffany, Burberry, Balenciaga, Diesel, Coach and Emporio Armani have a presence in BKC, thanks to two high-end malls – Jio World Drive and Jio World Plaza.

Meanwhile, Adani Group is to make an initial investment of $750 million to set up a 500 MW wind farm in Sri Lanka and export power to India, apart from supplying it in the island nation. The farm would be set up by Adani Green Energy (AGEL), while another group company Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) is looking to build strategic port infrastructure in nearby countries. This would be similar to an agreement AGEL has with Bangladesh, wherein it supplies power from India, while in this case the power generated would be exported to India. However, the group is yet to finalise the total power it would generate on completion of the project. The total investment required is also undecided.

Now let’s talk economy, India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) – based inflation likely fell to a five-month low of 4.8% in October from 5.02% in September, primarily due to the statistical effect of a high base and decline in prices of key vegetables, according to an FE poll of 15 economists. Core inflation is likely to remain flat during the month aided by favourable base effect. However, the overall index will rise 0.6% sequentially in October this year– the first increase in three months. In October 2022, the retail inflation was 6.77%. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) expects food inflation, which forms about 39% of the CPI, to have eased to a four-month low of 6.05% in October from 6.56% in September.

On to some exciting news. Under the revamped Rs 1.4 trillion BharatNet project, the government is expected to use high-speed satellite connectivity technology as well as fixed wireless access (FWA) to connect rural areas, along with fiber connectivity. The current plan is to connect 10% of the gram panchayats in remote and mountainous regions where optical fiber cable deployment is going to be difficult, officials aware of the matter said. The same, once approved, will pave the way for companies like Jio, Starlink, and OneWeb to collaborate with the government. The target is to upgrade existing 164,000 gram panchayats connected under BharatNet phase I and phase II projects.

On the other hand. Amid an increase in cyber frauds, users in India receive about 12 fake messages or scams every day via email, text or social media, according to a scam message study by McAfee. The trend suggests that the common forms of scam that the people fall for are fake job notifications or offers and bank alert messages. While 64% of the surveyed people in India fall for job scams, 52% become victims of bank alert scams. Reasons suggested by people on falling for these scams is the difficulty in identifying scam messages. Around 60% of Indian respondents think it has become harder to identify scam messages, attributing this trend to hackers using AI to make their scams more believable, the study said.

Lastly, let’s know about the stocks you need to focus on today. These include Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports, Reliance Capital, Tata Power. Adani Group is to make an initial investment of $750 million to set up a 500 MW wind farm in Sri Lanka and export power to India, apart from supplying it in the island nation. Oil India on Wednesday reported an over 80% drop in second-quarter profit as it set aside Rs 2363 crore for an ongoing litigation. Reliance Capital reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 239 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2023-24. Tata Power made a profit of Rs 1,017.41 crore for the second quarter of FY24, up 8.8% in comparison to Rs 935.18 crore during the same period last year.