Business News at 10:00 am on 24th June, 2024

Let’s begin with the major update, Hinduja Group, which plans raise about Rs 7,300 crore through two-rupee bond offerings to partially fund its acquisition of Reliance Capital, has mandated 360 One to arrange Rs 5,000 crore through non-convertible debentures (NCDs). The remaining Rs 2,300 crore would be secured by Barclays. The Hindujas have proposed zero coupon, interest cumulative debentures with a maturity period of four years. The interest rate will be 16% per annum. The group is also in discussions with Crisil, Icra and CARE for rating these NCDs, sources close to the development said. The arrangers also want the bonds to be listed and get a minimum of two investment grade ratings as per the global best practices, they added. Moving on, With the stock market rallying to record highs, promoters have been encouraged to pare stakes in their companies. So far in 2024, promoters have sold shares worth Rs 27,000 crore, 19% higher than the sale made in the first half of 2023, disclosures made to the exchanges show. If two more deals – Vodafone Group’s Rs 15,300-crore stake sale in Indus Towers and Fosun Pharma’s Rs 1,754-crore stake sale in Gland Pharma – are added, the stake sale by promoters would be Rs 44,000 crore – a whopping 94% jump. The data relating to these two deals that took place on June 19 is yet to be put up on the exchanges. In other news, Despite the pressure to slow the pace of budgetary capex on the infrastructure sector, the allocation to the railways sector in the upcoming budget is likely to stay elevated. “At the very least, the gross budgetary support (GBS) will remain at the same level as announced in the Interim Budge. It may even be higher at Rs 2.6 trillion,” a senior official in the ministry of railways told FE. In the interim budget 2024-25, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had provided GBS of Rs 2,52,200 crore to the railways. Experts said that since the spending on roads and highways construction is close to “the fag end of the cycle,” the railways is going to be the next big investment area. Meanwhile, Industry body CII has demanded that the government provide 6-8% fiscal support for select electronic components and sub-assemblies for a period of eight years to help strengthen the domestic manufacturing sector and curb imports. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in a report, stated that the demand for electronic components and sub-assemblies would grow to $240 billion to support $500 billion of production by 2030 from $45.5 billion to support $102 billion production in 2023. Priority components and sub-assemblies, includingPCBAs (printed circuit board assembly), are projected to grow at a robust CAGR of 30%, reaching $139 billion by 2030, according to the report on “developing India as the manufacturing hub for electronics components and sub-assemblies”. Up next, To curb the surge in import of edible oils, which has adversely impacted domestic oilseed prices, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in the agriculture ministry has recommended a “dynamic import duty structure” for these farm goods. The proposed tariff system will be based on minimum support price (MSP) for oilseeds as well as domestic and global prices. Currently, crude palm, soybean and sunflower oil imports attract only a 5% agri infra cess and a 10% education cess, resulting in a total tax incidence of 5.5%. To bring down prices last year, the government had reduced the import duty on refined soybean and sunflower oils to 13.75% from 17.5%. Moving ahead, The government is considering a proposal to set up a separate bank for direct lending to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to deepen credit flows to the under-penetrated sector and thereby boost economic activity and job creation. Currently, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) provides largely refinance to banks that lend to MSMEs, letting the cost of finance to these units reduce. State financial corporations and state industrial development corporations among others lend directly to units in the MSME sector. According to an EY report, MSME credit penetration is still 14% in India compared with 50% in the US and 37% in China. There is a credit gap of Rs 25 trillion for the Indian MSME sector. Lately, let’s take a look at the key stocks for today. GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a negative opening on Monday. GIFT Nifty traded down by 79.50 points or 0.34% at 23,387 indicating a negative opening for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Monday. Previously, on Friday, the NSE Nifty 50 ended down by 65.90 points or 0.28% to settle at 23,501.10 while the BSE Sensex plunged 269.03 points or 0.35% to 77,209.90. Here’s a look at the key stocks to watch in trade – CarTrade Tech, Fertilizer Stocks, TVS Motors, Cipla, Sun Pharma, IREDA, MCX.