Business News at 10:00 am on 4th January, 2024

Let’s begin – Benchmark equity indices ended Wednesday’s trading session in the negative territory. NSE Nifty 50 dipped 148.45 points or 0.69% to settle at 21,517.35, while BSE Sensex dropped 535.88 points or 0.75% to 71,356.60. The broader indices ended in red, with fall led by Midcap and Smallcap stocks. Bank Nifty index ended lower, down by 56.70 points or 0.12% to settle at 47,704.95.25. PSU banks and Realty stocks outperformed where IT & Metal stocks shed. Bajaj Auto, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and SEZ, Cipla and ITC were the top gainers on the NSE Nifty 50, while the laggards includes Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, LTI Mindtree, and Tech Mahindra. The Indian Volatility Index closed down by 3.30%.

Up next – Jefferies has identified Coal India, Hindalco, Tata Steels, and JSW Steel as its top picks in the metal sector. After navigating a challenging fiscal year 2023, Jefferies adopts a cautiously optimistic stance for 2024, anticipating a positive shift in the macroeconomic backdrop. The report says a positive outlook for the metals sector, foreseeing a growth trajectory with a projected 6-15% Compound Annual Growth Rate in volumes over the fiscal years 2024-2026 for key players including Coal India, Tata Steel, and JSW Steel. Jefferies’ bullish stance on Coal India, projecting earnings per share estimates for fiscal years 2025-26 to be 19-21% above the street estimates.

Moving on – The probability of a cut in prices of petrol and diesel ahead of elections has been ruled out by the government. Speaking at a press conference in Delhi, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas said that, India was amongst the fastest growing nations globally and the energy needs too have grown substantially along with this. Despite the global turmoil in terms of fuel price hikes seen by developed and even neighbouring countries, India has been able to stabilise fuel prices. He said that at present India is the world’s third-largest consumer of energy, oil and LPG. The country was the fourth largest LNG importer, refiner and automobile market, which means India’s energy needs is immense.

In another development – Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has launched a biosimilar of the popular anti‐diabetic drug, Liraglutide, for the first time in India. According to the company’s press statement, the drug is being marketed under the brand name Lirafit following approval from the Drug Controller General of India. Priced at around Rs100 for a standard dose of 1.2 mg (per day), this will lower the cost of therapy by approximately 70%, and will be available only under prescription. Liraglutide belongs to the class of glucagon‐like peptide receptor agonist drugs, which increase glucose‐dependent insulin secretion and decrease inappropriate glucagon secretion. It has been approved globally for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adult patients in the United States and EU.

Meanwhile – Exciting news awaits road travelers as the construction of the six-lane Delhi-Dehradun Greenfield Access Controlled Expressway is in full throttle. This expressway, spanning 212 kilometers, commences from the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway near Akshardham in Delhi. The expressway will become operational sometime in March this year. The mega project is divided into four sections and will traverse through Shastri Park, Khajuri Khas, the EPE interchange at Khekra in Mandola, Baghpat, Shamli, Saharanpur in UP, finally connecting Dehradun. The initiative aims to significantly reduce travel time. Once completed, the travel duration for Delhi to Haridwar or Dehradun in Uttarakhand will be cut to about 2 hours 30 minutes respectively, a considerable reduction from the current six to five hours journey.

In other news – India’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by S&P Global, was recorded at an 18-month low of 54.9 in December as against 56.0 in November. Despite the fall, the HSBC India Manufacturing PMI was indicative of a marked improvement in the health of the sector. S&P Global said that the HSBC India Manufacturing PMI survey showed the sector still expanding strongly in December despite a loss of growth momentum. There were softer, albeit sharp, increases in factory orders and output, while business confidence towards the year-ahead outlook strengthened. The input costs rose at the second-slowest rate in nearly three-and-a-half years and charge inflation softened to a nine-month low, it added.

Lastly – Holding that the power to transfer investigation must be exercised in exceptional circumstances and not in the absence of cogent justifications, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that it found no ground to transfer the investigation from SEBI to an SIT in the Adani-Hindenburg case. The court said that it is limited in its powers to enter the regulatory framework of SEBI. It also said that there were no valid grounds raised to direct SEBI to revoke its amendments on FPI and LODR regulations. The regulations do not suffer from any infirmities, the court ruled. The verdict was delivered by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.