Author: Finance Khabar

New Delhi: Pandemic Covid-19 induced economic turbulence along with measures to curb its outbreak, heavily dented India’s economy and plunged the country’s GDP to (-) 23.9 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) ended June 2020-21. Though not comparable, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had grown by 5.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter of FY2019-20. In the quarter just preceding Q1FY21, the economic growth was at 3.1 per cent. The country had observed mobility restrictions as mandated under the lockdown measures for the better part of the first quarter of FY21. It was only on June 1 that partial…

China’s five largest banks reported their biggest profit declines in at least a decade as they brace for further increases in bad loans in an economy weakened by the coronavirus pandemic. The five lenders — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and Bank of Communications — released their latest financial report cards last week. All five posted at least 10% year-on-year declines in profit for the first half of 2020 as they set aside more funds for potential loan losses in the coming months — much like many banks around…

The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway announced today, on his 90th birthday, that his company has acquired a slightly more than 5% stake in each of the five leading Japanese trading companies. The companies are Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo Corp. Berkshire said it acquired the holdings over a roughly 12-month period through regular purchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Based on Friday’s closing prices for the trading houses, a 5% stake in each would be valued at roughly $6.25 billion. The Japanese trading companies — known as “sogo shosha” — are conglomerates…

Mumbai: A stampede has been seen in the market due to India-China tension. The market has closed more than 1300 points above the upper levels amid heavy selling in the market. At the same time, the Nifty has also come down to 11350. In the morning trade, the Sensex was up by 500 points, while the Nifty had reached 11700 level. In fact, after the border dispute and continuous talks about it, Chinese soldiers have again tried to infiltrate the Indian border. Due to which there was a clash again in East Ladakh between India and China on the night…

New Delhi: State-run GAIL (India) Ltd will look for growth in areas including petrochemicals, renewables among others, said the company’s CMD Manoj Jain. The CMD’s message to the shareholders in the company’s annual report said that gas will continue to be its core focus. “While gas will remain our core segment, we will look for growth in other areas such as petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, renewables, water etc. With our newly embraced mission and vision as guiding principles and strategic initiatives as the chosen path, I am confident that GAIL will reach new heights in coming years,” he said. Jain added…

New Delhi: The government has directed banks to refund charges, including merchant discount rate (MDR), if any, collected on UPI transactions on or after January 1, 2020. With an aim to promote digital transactions, the Centre in December last year announced that no charges would be applicable on both RuPay and BHIM-UPI transactions. In a circular on Sunday, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which comes under the Department of Revenue in the Finance Ministry, said that it has received representations, saying that some banks are imposing and collecting charges on transactions carried out through UPI. A certain number of…

Mumbai: GMR Infrastructure will seek its shareholders’ approval to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore through securities, in its annual general meeting on September 21. In a regulatory filing on Sunday, the company said that it plans to raise the funds in one or more tranches. “Pursuant to the Regulation 29(1)(d) of SEBI LODR, the approval of the shareholders is being sought for raising of funds up to Rs 5,000 crore in one or more tranche(s), through issue of securities as per the requirements of applicable laws, as an enabling resolution,” it said. The company had on Thursday announced a…

Riyadh: The two fields, Hadat Al-Hajrah gas field in the Al-Jawf region and Abraq Al-Talul oil field in the northern border region, were discovered by the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), Xinhua news agency reported. Saudi Aramco will work on assessing the quantities of oil, gas and condensate in the two fields, as well as digging more wells to determine their area and size, the minister said. Saudi Aramco is the world’s most valuable company and pumps more oil on a daily basis than any other producer.

New Delhi: The market capitalization (M cap) of six of the 10 top valued companies in the country increased by Rs 1,06,523.84 crore last week. ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest gainers. Reliance Industries Ltd., out of the ten valuable companies in terms of market capitalization. (RIL), HDFC Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank were in profit. On the other hand four companies Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL), Infosys and ITC were at a loss. ICICI Bank was the biggest gainer in terms of MCAP and its market cap jumped…

New Delhi: As the pandemic has led to severe economic stress across sectors, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier this month announced to provide a resolution framework to enable the lenders to implement a resolution plan, in respect of eligible corporate borrowers without change in ownership while continuing the account status as standard, subject to specified conditions. “The review will focus on enabling businesses and households to avail of the revival framework on the basis of viability, necessary steps like finalising bank policies and identifying borrowers, and discussing issues that require addressing for smooth and speedy implementation,” a Finance…

Chennai: The newly appointed Director General of Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) S P Kochhar told PTI that any duopoly situation in the current three-player private telcos market can “never be a good thing” and asserted that sufficient competition among the operators is required for ensuring that subscribers get good services at better prices. The COAI will continue to be a neutral body that believes in consensus building and unanimity of views, Kochhar said when asked about past differences amongst the telecom companies, who are members of the association, on various issues. “COAI tries to get the point of…

New Delhi: Compliance of the regulations for display of maximum retail price (MRP) of products by e-commerce platforms has improved, according to a LocalCircles survey. Around 65 per cent of the respondents, who shopped online in the last three months said that e-commerce platforms are now displaying MRP, while the rest 35 per cent said that they could not find the MRP details. “The comparison shows that the MRP display compliance has increased on e-commerce platforms in the last few months. In the survey conducted last year, 44 per cent consumers had said that ecommerce sites were not complying with…

Riding on a strong 5G push, the global smartphone market will return to a full recovery by 2022 and 5G smartphones are expected to capture 50 per cent of the global market by 2023, according to a new IDC report. 5G remains a priority for all smartphone OEMs despite the challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic and lack of consumer demand. “While many of the top vendors have reduced their 2020 production plans to align with the market decline, we’ve seen most of the cuts focused on their 4G portfolios,” said Ryan Reith, programme vice president with IDC’s ‘Worldwide Mobile Device…

The president of the United Arab Emirates has issued a decree canceling a law on boycotting Israel and allowing trade and financial agreements between the two countries, the UAE official news agency WAM reported on Saturday. The decree from UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan aims at “supporting bilateral cooperation in order to arrive at (the establishment) of bilateral relations,” the agency said. The announcement comes as El Al Airlines plans to operate Israel’s first direct flight between Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi, carrying an Israeli delegation and top aides to U.S. President…

Dubai: Under the initiative, launched earlier this week by the Dubai’s free-zone Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and the government of Dubai’s authority on commodities trade and enterprise, millions of Indian farmers will get an opportunity to connect directly with the entire food industry in the UAE, including food processing companies, traders and wholesalers through the Agriota-E Marketplace platform. The marketplace allows the farmers to bypass intermediaries, optimising the supply chain and ensuring traceability to create value for all stakeholders, officials said. The online marketplace also provides end-to-end traceability and transparency through last-mile verification and extension infrastructure in a blockchain…

New Delhi: GSTN said that GSTR-2B is going to be an auto-drafted ITC statement which will be generated for every registered person on the basis of the information furnished by his suppliers in their respective GSTR-1, GSTR-5 (non-resident taxable person) and GSTR-6 (input service distributor). It is a static statement and will be made available for each month, on the 12th day of the succeeding month. It is expected that GSTR-2B will help in reduction in time taken for preparing return, minimising errors, assist reconciliation & simplify compliance relating to filing of returns. It may be noted that the GST…

Central public sector enterprises, which have a combined net worth of close to Rs 12 lakh crore, can boost India’s GDP by 2-3 per cent by leveraging funds and stepping up capital expenditure, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) chairman Rajiv Kumar has said. He also exhorted public sector firms to “rise to the occasion” and play their part in building an ‘Aatamanirbhar Bharat’. Besides, with an aim to address the talent shortage and promote transparency in board-level appointments of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), the PESB chairman has suggested numerous measures including creating wider talent pool, allowing lateral entry for…

Reliance Retail Venture Limited (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), on Saturday announced the acquisition of Future Group (Future Group) retail and wholesale business and logistics and warehousing business. In a statement issued by Reliance Retail, it was said that this deal will be in one time for Rs 24,713 crore. As part of this acquisition plan, Future Group is merging some of its companies with Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL). The company said that under this scheme the retail and wholesale business of Future Group will be transferred to Reliance Retail and Fashion Lifestyle Limited (RRFLL), a subsidiary…

The Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to extend the moratorium on loan repayments after it ends on August 31, a PTI report said on Saturday, which cited sources familiar with the matter. In March, the central bank had introduced a three-month moratorium on bank loans to ease burned on the borrowers during the COVID-19 lockdown. Later, the bank extended the moratorium period by another three months till August 31. The report cited its source as saying that it was only a temporary reprieve to borrowers affected by the pandemic. The source further said that a longer moratorium period exceeding…

New Delhi: Nand Ghar on Saturday rolled out its 1500th centre at Surahi village in Kashi Vidyapeeth block of Varanasi, marking an important milestone for the Vedanta Group’s flagship corporate social responsibility project. Union Minister for Women & Child Development and Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani virtually inaugurated the new centre at Varanasi and also interacted with Anganwadi workers and Nand Ghar beneficiaries from Barmer district of Rajasthan and Lanjigarh district of Odisha. Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Irani complimented Vedanta for making a difference to the lives of women and children at the grassroot level. “It gives me immense…