Author: Finance Khabar

New Delhi: On 6 and 7 August, over 100 small and medium businesses and start-ups on Amazon.in will be launching more than 1000 new products across 17 categories on the occasion of Prime Day this year. Thousands of local shops on Amazon sellers will be also making their Prime Day debut in India, it said in a statement. Start-ups and small businesses from Amazon’s Launchpad programme will be launching unique and differentiated products across categories like health & personal care, beauty & grooming, grocery and home products, it said. Prime Day in India will also see artisans and women entrepreneurs…

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reported a 30.97 percent year-on-year increase in net profit at Rs 13,233 crore largely on account of a significant increase of 54 percent growth in other income at Rs 4,388 crore. The conglomerate made a one-time gain of Rs 4,966 crore on investment by British oil major BP in its fuel marketing business, that is, Reliance BP Mobility Services. “The severe demand destruction due to global lockdowns impacted our hydrocarbons business but the flexibility in our operations enabled us to operate at near normal levels and deliver industry leading results,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing…

Official data released for the April-June quarter showed that the German economy shrank by a record 10.1 percent due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Federal statistics agency Destatis called the quarter-on-quarter decline in the gross domestic product (GDP) “historic” and far bigger than any slump seen during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Peter Altmaier, the country’s minister for Economic Affairs, had earlier warned that the pandemic would push Europe’s top economy into its “worst recession” in its postwar history, ending a decade of growth. Destatis said the GDP, index adjusted for inflation, seasonally and calendar effects plummeted to 94.26 in the…

New Delhi: Market researcher Nielsen has lowered its growth forecast for the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector in India as it said that COVID-19 induced lockdown in the April-June period battered demand and severely hit trade channels. Its recent forecast suggests that the sector will grow at 1 percent to -1 percent for the full year 2020 when compared to the earlier expectation of a 5-6 percent growth. In the April-June period (Q2), the FMCG sector’s value growth declined by about 17 percent, due to the strict lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 adversely impacted supply chain…

New York: We knew the United States economy fell off a cliff in the second quarter. On Thursday, we learned just how steep that dive was. The US economy plunged a staggering 32.9 percent from April through June on an annualised basis, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported – by far the worst contraction on record. In the first quarter of this year, when the US officially entered recession in February, the economy shrank 5 percent from the same period a year ago. Before coronavirus lockdowns swept the nation in March, the worst reading on US gross domestic product (GDP)…

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) said that its net profit has fallen 4.7 percent to Rs 3,052 crore for the June ended quarter when compared to Rs 3,203 crore in the same period a year ago. Its net interest income (NII) rose by 10 percent to Rs 3,392 crore against Rs 3,079 crore in the same quarter last year. However, the finance company said that the NII figures (that is the difference between interest earned and distributed) cannot be compared due to higher liquidity levels and equity investments made in the recent period. Adjusted NII, it said, comes in at…

China’s Huawei Technologies snatched the title of biggest smartphone seller from Samsung Electronics in the second quarter, underscoring the resilience of the China market even as global demand for phones plunged amid the pandemic. Huawei shipped 55.8 million devices in the April-June period, trumping Samsung’s 53.7 million, according to data from research firm Canalys. The Chinese company has felt the heat of U.S. sanctions that have disrupted its business overseas, but the latest numbers show its rising dominance in its home market. Huawei now sells nearly two-thirds of its handsets in China, which took an early hit from the coronavirus…

Gold demand in India has come down drastically. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), gold demand in the country fell by 70 per cent to 63.7 tonnes in the April – June quarter. The key reason for this is the lockdown implemented due to Corona. During the same period of 2019, gold demand in the country was 213.2 tonnes. According to the ‘Q2 Gold Demand Trends’ report released by WGC, gold demand in value terms stood at Rs 26,600 crore in the second quarter this year. Which is 57 percent less than the Rs 62,420 crore in the second…

New Delhi: Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal cabinet has decided to reduce VAT on diesel from 30 percent to 16.75 percent. This will reduce the price of diesel by Rs 8.36 per liter in Delhi, and diesel for Rs 82 per liter will be available for Rs 73.64. This information was given by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “I will meet the traders in the coming days through video conferencing and will try to fix it if they have any other problems.” Oil companies raise prices uniformly across the country, but retail prices vary due to the…

MUMBAI: The BSE Sensex plunged 335 points on Thursday on selling of shares of financial companies amid weak trend globally. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 37,736.07 points, down 335.06 points or 0.88 percent. At the same time, the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty closed at 11,102.15 points, down by 100.70 points, or 0.90 percent. IndusInd Bank was the biggest loser among the Sensex stocks. It declined by more than 5 percent. Apart from this, HDFC, Axis Bank, Powergrid, SBI, Bajaj Finserv and Bharti Airtel also declined. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Maruti, Infosys and Reliance Industries gained momentum. Narendra…

New Delhi: Nestle India shares edged higher by 0.5 per cent at opening bell after the Maggi, dairy products and coffee maker, post market hours on Tuesday, reported that its net profit in quarter ended June 30, 2020 rose 11.14 per cent to Rs 486.6 crore from Rs 437.79 crore during the same quarter last year. At 9:25am, the stock was trading at Rs 17,156, higher by 42 points or 0.2 per cent, on the BSE. The company’s revenues from sale of products advanced 2 per cent annually to Rs 3,041.45 crore. “Sales were adversely impacted due to the COVID-19…

New Delhi: Pharmaceuticals major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories on Wednesday reported a 12.60 per cent annual decline in its net profit to Rs 579.3 crore in the quarter ended June 30. The drug maker had reported a net profit of Rs 662.8 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. In a regulatory filing, Dr Reddy’s Labs said its revenue from operations came in at Rs 4,417.5 crore in the April-June period, marking a rise of 15 per cent compared to the year-ago period. The Hyderabad-based company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) – or operating profit – rose…

New Delhi: Global giants such as Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil and India’s Reliance Industries are in the race to pick up the Centre’s 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL as the shares of the PSU jumped 12.65 per cent, or Rs 49.85, to Rs 443.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange in expectation of a mega deal. According to official sources, Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc), Rosneft of Russia, Exxon Mobil and RIL are likely to vie for the BPCL stake. The deadline for submitting EoIs (expression of interest) is July 31 after the government twice postponed the…

MUMBAI: Telecom industry has lost 82 lakh subscribers during the complete lockdown in April, and COVID-19 pandemic will continue to keep customer additions under pressure, according to a report. The decline in subscriber base during April was preceded by a loss of 28 lakh connections in March, which saw the lockdown being imposed towards the end, India Ratings and Research said in note. The biggest losers were Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, it said, adding sector leader Reliance Jio witnessed a growth in its base.“The industry-wide subscriber base declined month-on-month by 2.8 million and 8.2 million in March and April…

MUMBAI: Country’s largest power generation company, NTPC Ltd. has achieved highest daily gross generation of 977.07 Million Unit (MU) on 28th July, 2020. NTPC total generation includes power generated from its Subsidiary and JV companies. Five of its power stations Korba, Sipat & Lara in Chhattisgarh, Talcher Kaniha in Odisha and Koldam hydro in Himachal Pradesh exhibited exceptional performance & achieved 100% Plant Load Factor (PLF) on the day. NTPC’s previous best daily generation was 935.46 MU achieved on 12th March, 2019 With a total installed capacity of 62910 MW, NTPC Group has 70 Power stations comprising of 24 Coal,…

Mumbai: Markets in a highly volatile trade today ended sharply in the red on mixed cues. Investors sold into the recent rally in the IT stocks as well as outperformance in the RIL stock. Nifty ended lower by 97 points holding on to levels of 11200 points, while Sensex was down 421 points at 38071. Maruti Suzuki posted first quarterly loss in 15 years on low sales amid lockdown. The stock dived as much as 2.5% to end at Rs. 6172. MCX stock even amid the negative sentiment on an overall basis stood apart because of relentless rally in gold…

Mumbai: Maruti Suzuki in its June quarter results for FY21 posted a net loss of Rs. 249.4 crore due to revenue and operating loss on the back of sharp decline in sales volume. But the results however came in better than analyst estimates on account of lower operating expenses and tax-write back. In the March ended quarter of 2020, profit came in at Rs. 1291.7 crore. Revenue from operations declined sharply by 79.2 percent to Rs 4,106.5 crore compared to year-ago period. “Operations and financial results for the quarter ended June 2020 have been adversely impacted by the outbreak of…

In a stock exchange filing, Sun Pharma said that a subsidiary of its American arm Taro Pharmaceutical will acquire Canada’s Aquinox Pharmaceutical for $8.2 million (approx Rs 61.35 crore) in cash. Aquinox Pharmaceuticals is a corporation organised and existing under the laws of the Province of British Columbia that carries on the business of research and development of pharmaceutical products for purposes of their commercialisation. “One of the wholly-owned subsidiaries of our subsidiary company, Taro Pharmaceutical Industries, has agreed to acquire by way of purchase of all outstanding shares of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals (Canada),” Sun Pharma said in a regulatory filing.…

New Delhi: InterGlobe Aviation reported a net loss of Rs 2,844.3 crore for the June ended quarter when compared to a net profit of Rs 1,203.1 crore for the same period last year. The parent of IndiGo Airlines saw its revenue plunge by 91.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 766.7 crore from a year ago. The quarter is especially critical as airlines were not allowed to operate flights commercially for most of the April-June period due to COVID-19 outbreak and asked to refund passengers for their cancelled ticket. The low-cost carrier said it had a total cash balance at the end…

Barclays posted a net income of £695 million ($765.64 million) for the first half of 2020, while increasing its coronavirus-related provisions. “While the remainder of 2020 will be challenging, our diversified model means we can remain financially resilient and continue to support our customers and clients,” Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays, said in a statement. In the first three months of 2020, the British lender reported net profit of £605 million. At the time, the bank said it was taking a £2.1 billion credit impairment charge to prepare for any shocks from the current crisis. The stock is down about…