Business News at 10:00 am on 19th April, 2024

Let’s begin. The Narendra Modi government, if voted back to power, will implement the long-delayed Direct Taxes Code (DTC) on a priority basis, official sources said, adding that discussions were already underway in the finance ministry in this regard. Initiation of the law-making process has been included as part of the agenda for the Modi 3.0 government after directions from the prime minister, the sources said, requesting anonymity. The move is aimed at further simplifying the laws governing direct taxes and aligning these more with the global norms, the sources said. The draft prepared by a task force in 2019 would form the basis for the revamp. A recast of the capital gains tax regime is among the key proposals being discussed.

Meanwhile, India’s large retail jewellery chains are expanding at a breakneck speed, with estimates suggesting 500 stores coming up from the top five chains in just two to three years. The mid-size and smaller chains are also joining the race. Chirag Sheth, principal consultant at Metal Focus, a London-based bullion research fund, said that their survey revealed that the top five retailers are looking to add 400-500 stores over the next 2-3 years. The market share of the large chains in gold jewellery is expected to grow to 45% compared with a 37% market share in gold jewellery. While brands under the Tata group such as Tanishq are continuing to grow their shopping mall footprint, Reliance Jewels, Kalyan Jewellers are also opening new stores.

On to aviation. Budget airline Air India Express on Thursday launched a discount offer of 19% across its network for first-time voters aged 18 to 22, who plan to travel back home to cast their votes in the upcoming 18th Lok Sabha elections. The airline said bookings can be made on its mobile app and website for travel to the airport nearest to the respective constituency of the voter between April 18 and June 1. Notably, passengers who avail this offer have to show their voter ID card to the ground staff while collecting the boarding cards at the airport. At present, the airline flies to 31 destinations across India.

Moving on. The government under its flagship Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has been able to extend the benefits of clean cooking fuel to 103.3 million households between the start of the scheme and the end of 2023-24, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Additionally, sales of domestic liquified petroleum gas by the state-owned oil marketing companies stood at 26.21 million tonnes in 2023-24 up from 25.38 million tonnes in 2022-23. The government now expects to extend the benefit to 103.5 million households under the scheme by 2025-26. The government had launched the scheme back in 2016.

Over to market. As competition among the quick commerce players intensifies, Y-combinator-backed Zepto saw its market share rise 28% as of January this year from 24% last year. This was mainly because of market share gains from rival Swiggy’s Instamart and also from the growth of the category as a whole, HSBC analysts said in a report. Instamart’s market share has slipped to 32% as of January this year, from 36% last year and 52% in 2022. To be sure, both Instamart and current market-leader Blinkit operate in 25-30 cities across India, while Zepto is only present in 10 metro cities. If only metros are considered, Zepto has the second-highest market share of 32%, after Blinkit at 37%.

The National Stock Exchange of India on Thursday announced the launch of futures and options contracts on Nifty Next 50 index. The move is likely part of a series of steps being taken by the India’s largest stock exchange to regain some of the market share it lost to rival BSE over the last year. NSE will launch monthly F&O contracts on the junior Nifty 50 index from April 24, and these contracts will expire on the last Friday of every month, the exchange said in a circular. With the launch of derivative contracts on the Nifty Next 50 index, NSE now has major contracts expiring on all trading days of a week.

Lastly, let’s see which stocks you need to focus on today. These stocks include Nestle, Gokaldas Exports, Infosys, Wipro, RVNL, BSE, ITC, CONCOR, Jio Finance, and Bajaj Auto. Infosys, one of India’s leading IT services companies, announced a remarkable 30% year-on-year growth in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ending March 2024. The net profit stood at Rs 7,969 crore compared to Rs 6,128 crore in the same quarter last year, with revenue from operations reaching Rs 37,923 crore, up 1% from the previous year. On the other hand, Bengaluru-based apparel manufacturer Gokaldas Exports initiated a Qualified Institutional Placement aiming to raise Rs 600 crore.