Business News at 5:30 pm on 28th December 2023

Let’s begin – GIFT Nifty traded up by 122 points or 0.56% at 21,792, indicating a positive opening for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Thursday. Previously, on Wednesday, the NSE Nifty 50 gained 213.40 points or 1% to settle at 21,654.75, while the BSE Sensex ended higher by 701.63 points or 0.98% to 72,038.43. The stocks to keep an eye on today are Zomato, HUDCO, Exide Industries, Lupin, Paytm, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Azad Engineering. Next up – With rising attrition at top level and business environment getting tough, two of the top domestic IT firms have accused rival Cognizant of unethical poaching tactics. Following Wipro moving court against its former CFO, Jatin Dalal, joining Cognizant and thus violating the non-compete clause, Infosys has also written to the same firm warning against such unethical moves. While Wipro’s court filing was reviewed by FE, Infosys and Cognizant did not respond to queries till the time of going to the press. After assuming office in January, Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar, a former Infosys veteran, has hired over twenty executive vice presidents and four senior vice presidents, many of whom are from Wipro and Infosys. Apart from legally proceeding against Dalal, Wipro has also filed a suit in the US against Mohd Haque, who also joined Cognizant recently. Moving on – Adani Energy Solutions, the power transmission and distribution company of Adani group, has won the bid for Halvad Transmission line project from PFC Consulting. Halvad Transmission line project, a special purpose vehicle, was set up by PFCCL for evacuating 7 gigawatt of renewable energy from the Khavda Renewable Park in Gujarat being developed by Adani group. AESL acquired it through a tariff-based competitive bidding process. The company did not divulge the bid amount. AESL will commission the project in 24 months and invest around Rs 3,000 crore to build, own, operate and maintain the over 301-kilometre transmission project for a period of 35 years. In another development – Indian banks reported a total of 12,069 card and internet-related digital frauds during H1FY24 amounting to Rupees 630 crore, up seven-fold from Rupees 87 crore of frauds in the corresponding period previous fiscal, the Reserve Bank of India’s trends and progress in banking 2023 report said. Overall, lenders reported a total of 14,483 frauds amounting to Rupees 2,642 crore, the lowest in six years. The number of fraud cases reported by private banks accounted for 66.2% of the total cases whereas, in terms of the amount involved, public sector banks had a higher share. The majority of the frauds in public sector banks were related to advances, while private lenders accounted for a majority of card, internet and cash-related cases. Meanwhile – The Food Corporation of India has sold 5.51 million tonne of wheat under the open market sale scheme so far in the fiscal, and officials say the sales in the current fiscal year would reach all-time high of 10 MT. This year, the FCI started offloading wheat from its stocks in June, much earlier than the usual practice of commencing open market sales by January. The corporation sold 0.35 MT of grain on Wednesday to bulk buyers, the highest since the weekly e-auction was launched in June. The bulk buyers purchased wheat at Rs 2,181/quintal against a reserve price set of Rs 2,129/quintal. The corporation received bids with a high of Rs 2,310 for the week ended October 26. In other news – Indian banks’ asset quality continued improving in FY24, with gross non-performing asset ratio moderating to 3.2% as of September end, from a decadal low of 3.9% in March, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s trends and progress in banking latest report said on Wednesday. A mix of write-offs, upgradations and recoveries contributed to a reduction in NPAs, it said. In absolute terms, public sector banks’ GNPAs reduced to Rs 4.28 trillion as of March end from Rs 5.42 trillion the previous fiscal, while private banks’ GNPAs moderated to Rs 1.25 trillion as of March 31 from Rs 1.80 trillion in FY22. Lastly – In good news for depositors before the new year, State Bank of India and Axis Bank have raised interest rates on fixed deposits by up to 50 basis points across various tenors. SBI has increased rates across various tenures, excluding FDs maturing within one year to less than 2 years, 2 years to less than 3 years, and 5 years to 10 years. With two major lenders raising rates, other banks are also expected to hike deposit rates on fixed deposits. After the latest revision in rates, the country’s largest lender is giving an interest rate ranging from 3.5% to 7% on deposits maturing in seven days to ten years to general customers. Banks’ overall write-offs stood at Rupees 2.17 trillion during FY23, while upgrades stood at Rupees 70,049 crore.