Author: Finance Khabar
Mumbai: Citigroup Inc has sharply revised its forecast for the Indian economy lower as the country’s reported COVID-19 infection cases near 7-lakh-mark. On Monday, India surpassed Russia to become the third-worst affected country in the world, after recording another new high in the number of daily reported cases. The country’s GDP (Gross domestic product) is expected to contract by 6 percent in the financial year 2020-21 as per Citi’s new estimates, much steeper than its previous estimate for a 3.5 percent decline, a Bloomberg report said. The revision is largely due to a cut to April-June period forecast where the…
Mumbai: Benchmark indices saw a solid rally in trade today, with the Nifty and the Sensex ending the day sharply higher, thanks to robust global cues. In the process they also hit 4-months high A sudden bull sentiments drove markets across the globe, with the Shanghai Composite ending the day with almost six per cent gains. All of the major Asian markets ended the day higher, while most of Europe was trading higher by at least 1.5 per cent. The Nifty ended the day higher by 156 points at 10,763 points. Metal and auto stocks clearly led the rally, with…
The conglomerate is spending $4 billion to buy the natural gas transmission and storage assets of Dominion Energy. Including the assumption of debt, the deal totals almost $10 billion. It’s the first major purchase from Berkshire since the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent market collapse in March. At his annual shareholder meeting in May, Buffett revealed that Berkshire had built up a record $137 billion cash hoard as the financial market tanked, and that he hadn’t seen many favorable deals, despite the stock market’s deep swoon. “We have not done anything because we don’t see anything that attractive to do,” Buffett…
New Delhi: EY (Ernst & Young) report says that telephone bills and internet charges are going to be expensive in the coming 12-18 months. According to the EY, the rates of all services, including phone calls and the Internet, can be increased twice due to the current structure of the telecom sector not being profitable. EY has predicted this. EY leader Prashant Singhal said that the immediate increase in rates does not seem appropriate as of now. This can be done in two rounds in the next 12 to 18 months and the first increase can be done in the…
Kolkata: Production suffered an average loss of 56 per cent per day due to a three-day strike by public sector company Coal India in protest against the government opening up the coal sector to private companies. An official gave this information. Labor leaders of Coal India had earlier claimed that there was a significant reduction in coal production during the strike. The trade unions were on strike from Thursday to Saturday to protest the government’s move to open up the coal sector for commercial mining. The average production by Coal India in these three days was 5,73,000 tonnes per day,…
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) plans to increase its aviation fuel depot by 50 percent. The bulk of this business is currently held by public sector companies and RIL wants to get more market share in it. RIL, which operates the world’s largest refinery at one location (Jamnagar-Gujarat), plans to increase its presence in the aircraft refueling business at airports. The report said that air traffic in India also increased by nine percent in February. India was the largest unaffected market in March even after the Covid-19 epidemic. However, the Indian aviation sector was also affected by…
New Delhi: More than 14 lakh e-way bills were withdrawn daily in June. E-way bill is necessary for transporting goods above Rs 50,000. The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) on Sunday said that 14.26 lakh e-way bills were withdrawn daily in June, which is about 77 percent of the level before the lockdown implemented due to Covid-19. GSTN said in a statement that companies and transporters took out 4.27 crore e-way bills in June for goods worth Rs 12.40 lakh crore. This is more than four crore bills drawn in March valued at Rs 11.43 lakh crore. The statement…
New Delhi: Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have withdrawn Rs 3,741 crore from the Indian market in just three trading sessions in July. Analysts believe this is due to profit recovery and rupee appreciation in the last few days. According to depository data, FPIs made a net withdrawal of Rs 3,959 crore from the shares during July 1 to 3, while they made a net investment of Rs 218 crore in bonds during this period. Thus a total net withdrawal of Rs 3,741 crore was made during the period under review. Earlier, FPI had invested Rs 24,053 crore in the domestic…
New Delhi: The market cap of Sensex top-10 companies increased by Rs 1,37,508.61 crore last week. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Reliance Industries were the biggest beneficiaries. Last week, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 850.15 points or 2.41 percent. TCS’s market capitalization rose by Rs 31,294.89 crore to Rs 8,25,149.40 crore in the week under review. Similarly, the market valuation of Reliance Industries increased by Rs 28,464.11 crore to Rs 11,33,168.55 crore. HDFC’s market capitalization rose by Rs 20,519.86 crore to Rs 3,27,120.52 crore and ITC by Rs 15,057.98 crore to Rs 2,54,879.41 crore. The market valuation of Bharti Airtel…
New Delhi: The government on Saturday launched a program to encourage entrepreneurs to develop a variety of world-class apps in the country. This will encourage a strong ecological system and encourage entrepreneurs and startups in the Indian technology sector to develop and promote apps. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEIT) has announced that it will run the program in two phases in partnership with NITI Aayog. The ministry said in a statement, “To support the Indian app and to create a robust ecosystem for it, MEIT has launched the Digital India Aatmnirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge for Indian…
New Delhi. Good news has come for the taxpayers. The Income Tax (IT) department has extended the last date for filing Income Tax Return (ITR) for the financial year 2019-20 (assessment year 2020-21) till 30 November 2020. This decision has been taken in view of the challenges faced by taxpayers due to the current coronavirus epidemic. According to IT, ITR can now be filed by November 30, 2020 for the financial year 2019-20. Providing further relief to taxpayers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had last week extended the filing deadline for ITR for the financial year 2018-19 by…
New Delhi: Given the pandemic crisis in the country, the finance ministry’s department of economic affairs (DEA) has yet again extended relief for small savings schemes investors by relaxing some of the regulatory provisions until July 31, 2020. So here is the relief provided to small savings scheme investors: For PPF and SCSS investors, those willing to extend the scheme and for whom the deadline for submitting the prescribed form for extension falls due during the lockdown with a 1 year grace period after the scheme’s maturity, they can still submit the form via registered mail by July 31, 2020.…
New Delhi: As per sources privy to the development, Mumbai-based specialty chemicals manufacturing company Rossari Biotech is gearing up to list on Indian bourses after a hiatus of almost over 3 month in the IPO market, thanks to the Covid 19 led lockdown and consequent disruption. Notably, SBI Cards and Payment Services with an IPO issue size of Rs. 10000 crore was the last to hit the bourses on March 16, 2020. And thereafter in order to prevent the surge of Covid 19 infection, nationwide lockdown was enforced from March 25. Though the capital markets continued to function as usual…
New Delhi: The market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has provided for amendments to the regulatory framework for RIAs or registered investment advisors. And upon updation in the official gazette, the changes will come into effect. As per the new norms, there will be a mandatory and clear segregation of advisory and distributorship role, for avoiding conflict of interest. In case of advisors that work at a corporate or organisation level, the client level segregation norm needs to be complied with at the group level. Such entities can offer advisory services through a distinctly linked department. Also…
New Delhi: For the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2020-21-Series IV that will open for subscription beginning July 6, the issue price has been fixed at Rs. 4852 per gm, said RBI in a release on Friday. Earlier in April, the RBI said the centre will come up with SGBs 2020-21 Series in six tranches from April to September. Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2020-21-Series IV To Open On July 6; Issue Price Fixed At Rs. 4852 Per Gm”The nominal value of the bond based on the simple average closing price (published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association) for gold of…
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, India’s accumulation of foreign exchange reserves provides some consolation in a dull economy. The Reserve Bank of India’s data shows that the country’s forex reserves have surpassed the $500 billion mark for the first time ever. It’s also the fifth-largest in the world after China, Japan, Switzerland and Russia. According to a Bloomberg report citing Anubhuti Sahay, chief India economist at Standard Chartered Plc, the recent surge in reserves was due to a rare current-account surplus situation in the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 wherein capital flowed into the domestic markets including large foreign…
New Delhi: Services sector activity, which contributes to over half of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), contracted for the fourth straight month in June but the pace of contraction softened. Service sector activity measured by Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) data released by IHS Markit, stood at 33.7 in June, up from 12.6 in May. A reading above 50 indicates growth, while below 50 signals contraction. While the data shows that weakening of deterioration as output levels stabilised, negative sentiments remained as businesses struggled with staff availability while others had to lay-off personnel due to lower requirement. “Although the downturn lost…
New Delhi: According to government data, India’s trade deficit with China has fallen to $48.66 billion in the financial year 2019-20 on account of a decline in imports from the neighbouring country. During the year, exports to China stood at $16.6 billion, while imports aggregated at $65.26 billion. The trade deficit between the countries was at $53.56 billion in 2018-19 and $63 billion in 2017-18. The main imports from China include clocks and watches, musical instruments, toys, sports goods, furniture, mattresses, plastics, electrical machinery, electronic equipment, chemicals, iron and steel items, fertilisers, mineral fuel and metals. The government is taking…
New Delhi: L&T Finance Holdings plans to raise up to Rs 2,000 crore by issuing preference shares. The company said in its 2019-20 annual report that these shares would be allocated through public offerings or private placement. The company will seek permission from shareholders at its virtual annual general meeting on July 28 on this plan. According to the company’s report, it will use this amount for business expansion. Under this, 20 crore cumulative compulsorily redeemable non-convertible preference shares will be allocated. Their face value will be Rs 100 per share. Preferential shares will be issued to various investors in…
New Delhi: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in a stock exchange filing said that Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp will invest Rs 1,894.50 crore in Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore. Intel Capital’s investment will translate into a 0.39 percent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. According to RIL’s statement, the total investment of the list of marquee firms who have invested in Jio Platforms since April now stands at Rs 117,588.45 crore. This deal is the 12th such investment…