Business News at 10:00 am on 10th May, 2024

Let’s begin…Net inflows into equity mutual funds fell 16.4% sequentially in April to Rs 18,917.1 crore, as inflows into large and mid-cap funds fell sharply. However, after the blip in March, small-cap funds continued to see strong inflows. Inflows through systematic investment plans (SIPs) surpassed Rs 20,000 crore for the first time ever in April, according to the data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). The small-cap funds, which had seen rare net outflows in March, saw Rs 2,208.7 crores of net inflows in April. The March outflows were attributed to year-end profit taking due to tax purposes by the industry experts. On the other hand, net inflows into large-cap funds fell significantly to Rs 357.6 crore in April from Rs 2,127.8 crores in March.
Next up, The Reserve Bank’s (RBI) proposed norms for under construction projects could delay sanctioning of loans to property developers and lead to increase in borrowing rates for them, top property developers and consultants said. RBI, last week, proposed that banks should provision up to 5% of the loan amount during under construction phase with adjustments as the project progresses. There could be increase of 100 to 150 basis points in the borrowing rates of property developers, said Vishal Srivastava, executive director at Anarock Capital which helps developers raise debt. He added, quote, Earlier, the standard asset provisioning was 0.4%. If it is taken to 5%, banks have to earn that much more from the customers. They have to increase the rates, end quote.
Moving on, State Bank of India (SBI) will hire over 10,000 engineers, which would be around 85% of the new recruits in FY25, said chairman Dinesh Khara on Thursday. He said, quote, Around 11,000 to 12,000 employees are in the hiring process. These are general employees, but we actually are having a system where at our associate level and officers’ level around 85% are engineers. We give them some exposure to understand banking and thereafter we start channelising them into various associate roles and some of them will be channelised in IT, end quote. Khara also added that the bank is also specifically looking at hiring new employees for technology skills.
In another development, despite the admission season kicking in, financially troubled edtech firm, Byju’s appears to be grappling with sales challenges. According to company sources, bulk of the sales staff, who were put on a revenue-linked payout model since last week, have not been able to sell even a single course or subscription. This is despite Byju’s lowering the pricing for its various educational offerings by up to 30%, according to sources. The yearly subscription cost for the company’s flagship Byju’s Learning App has now been set at Rs 12,000, inclusive of applicable taxes. Meanwhile, the full-year fees for Byju’s Classes stand at Rs 24,000, and enrolling in BTC will cost students Rs 36,000 annually, as per the information provided by the sources.
Moving on, In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Tata Consultancy Services is making significant strides in the field of Artificial Intelligence, particularly in generative AI, as outlined by CEO and managing director K Krithivasan and chairman N Chandrasekaran in their recent communications to shareholders. Further, the company sees a relatively better economic outlook for the financial year 2025. K Krithivasan, in his letter to shareholders, detailed how TCS is pioneering in the use of generative AI to enhance productivity and create unprecedented impacts across different sectors. The company has notably consolidated its AI and cloud teams into the AI.Cloud unit in FY24.
In another development, State-owned Bharat Petroleum on Thursday reported a 30.3% decline in its consolidated net profit for the last quarter of FY24, dropping to Rs 4,789.57 crore from Rs 6,870.47 crore in the same period the previous fiscal due to high crude oil prices impacting refining margins of the company. The net profit, however, rose 50% from Rs 3,181.42 crore in the third quarter of FY24. The company’s revenue from operations during the quarter under review declined marginally by 1% to Rs 1.32 trillion. Total income stood at Rs 1.33 trillion as compared to Rs 1.34 trillion in Q4FY23. The average Gross Refining Margin for FY24 was $14.14 per barrel, down from $20.24 per barrel in FY23.
“Lastly, GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a positive opening on Friday after falling for four consecutive trading sessions. Here is all you need to know before the market opens. GIFT Nifty was 78.50 points or 0.36% lower at 22,167.50 indicating a positive start for the domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Friday. Previously, on Thursday, the NSE Nifty 50 fell 345 points or 1.55% to finish at 21,957.50, while the BSE Sensex crashed down 1,062 points or 1.45% to finish at 72,404.17. Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index, which measures the dollar’s value against a basket of six foreign currencies, traded higher, 0.02% at 105.24.
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