Business News at 10:00 am on 9th April, 2024

Let’s begin with the major update, headline profit growth is expected to be muted in the March quarter earnings season as good performances from automobile manufacturers, banks, and pharmaceuticals will be offset by modest numbers from the metals & mining pack. A weak discretionary spends environment, together with the spillover of furloughs from the December quarter, will mean unexciting revenues from IT majors. Again, consumer demand remains by and large subdued except for premium products. Auto makers have reported robust growth in volumes and have also managed to earn better prices. Banks will have gained from lower provisioning as asset quality remains good. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will kick off the results season on April 12.

Moving on, state-run NTPC Ltd, the country’s largest integrated power utility, aims to add 5 gigawatt (GW) of installed capacity in the financial year 2024-25, the company said on Monday. Of this, the company plans to install 3 GW of renewable energy capacity and remaining 2 GW of thermal power capacity. By 2032, the company plans to have a cumulative installed capacity of 130 GW. The company’s annual target for FY25 comes amid its commitment to add 60 GW of RE capacity by 2032 and government’s goal of adding 80 GW of new thermal capacity by 2030. During the financial year 2023-24, NTPC added 3.9 GW of new installed capacity to its portfolio, taking the cumulative capacity to nearly 76 GW.

In other news, the Centre’s transfer of assorted subsidies and sops to the beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) saw a 21% decline on year to Rs 5.66 trillion in FY24 due to lower outgo on fertiliser and food on falling commodity prices and discontinuation of extra free grains scheme. On major subsidies through DBT—cash and in-kind – fertiliser continued to top the chart with Rs 1.78 trillion, down 25% on the year as input costs and global prices of fertiliser moderated after rising to record levels in FY23. Fertiliser DBT had reached a record Rs 2.37 trillion in FY23 as the government chose to bear the rise in cost to insulate farmers.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has given its approval for the Rs 5,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) of Aadhar Housing Finance. The proposed IPO will combine a fresh issue of shares of up to Rs 1,000 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 4,000 crore. The retail-focused housing finance company focusses on the low-income housing segment with a loan ticket size of less than Rs 15 lakh. The average ticket size as on September 30, 2023, was Rs 9 lakh with an average loan-to-value of 58.1%. ICICI Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India), and SBI Capital Markets are the bookrunning lead managers for the IPO.

Up next, JSW One Platforms, the e-commerce venture of the JSW Group, is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 18 to 24 months. The firm, a part of the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group, has appointed Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) founder and chairman Ranjan Pai as an independent director. This follows the IPO of JSW Infrastructure in September last year, when the group’s ports business raised Rs 2,800 crore through a public offering. Earlier this year, the JSW Group initiated the process for the IPO of JSW Cement, with plans to raise about Rs 6,000-crore.

Moving ahead, even though Indian tech startups have laid off over 2,000 employees in the first quarter of the current calendar year, according to data from layoffs.fyi, it’s more than 60% lower than the layoffs announced during the same period last year, when venture capital was starting to dry up in a “funding winter”. In the first quarter of 2023, 43 companies had laid off more than 5,358 employees, the data showed, not including some companies where the number of employees impacted by the layoffs were not specified. Troubled edtech firm Byju’s was responsible for the largest chunk of layoffs last year during Q1, when it had fired 1,500 employees across design, engineering and production teams.

Lastly, let’s take a look at stocks to watch today. GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a positive opening on Tuesday. GIFT Nifty traded up by 61.50 points or 0.27% at 22,838 indicating a positive opening for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Tuesday. Previously, on Monday, the NSE Nifty 50 ended up by 152.60 points or 0.68% to settle at 22,666.30, while the BSE gained 494.28 points or 0.67% to 74,742.50. Here’s a look at the key stocks to watch in trade – Tata Motors, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Gland Pharma, NCL Industries, IRB Infrastructure, H.G. Infra Engineering, Sula Vineyards.