The week started on the auspicious day of Diwali and the beginning of Samvat 2079. The markets were closed on Monday, except for the one-hour-long Muhurat trading session.
The markets traded with great positivity and the headline gauges were in the green. The BSE Sensex was at 59830 levels, up 524 points, while the NSE Nifty 50 gained 150 points and was at 17,738.
By Friday, Indian benchmarks gained for the second week in a row amid a slew of earnings. Gains in PSU banks, auto, energy and realty stocks pushed benchmark indices higher.
The BSE Sensex ended marginally higher at 59560 points, up 0.34 per cent or 203 points. Similarly, the NSE Nifty 50 settled at 17787 points, up 0.28 per cent or 50 points.
Market Movers
Some of the top gainers this week were Tata Motors Limited (DVR) (Up 22.96 per cent), Infibeam Avenues Ltd. (Up 20.56 per cent), Dhani Services Ltd. (Up 19.83 per cent), Bank of India (Up 18.11 per cent), and Finolex Cables Ltd. (Up 15.98 per cent)
On the other hand, some of the top losers were Delhivery Ltd. (Up -24.56 per cent), Sharda Cropchem Ltd. (Up -17.40 per cent), Laurus Labs Ltd. (Up -15.50 per cent), FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd. (Up -15.48 per cent), and Gland Pharma Ltd. (Up -14.93 per cent).
The Recap
In this week’s recap, we shall take a look at Reliance’s demerger, an update on the Zee-Sony merger, Akshata Murty’s dividend income and more.
New Reliance company to list on exchanges soon after a demerger
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced that it is set to demerge its financial services arm. This demerger will be done through a share-swap agreement. One equity share of the newly listed Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) will be allotted for every share of Reliance Industries Ltd held by the investors.
Jio Financial Services aims to become a major financial technology company. Further, it plans to launch Consumer and merchant lending products and also enter into insurance, stock broking, and asset management in the next three years.
Zee-Sony merger: Groups agree to sell 3 Hindi channels to address anti-competition concerns
Merger-bound media groups, Sony and Zee have voluntarily agreed to sell three Hindi channels — Big Magic, Zee Action and Zee Classic — to address possible anti-competition concerns. More than three weeks after giving its nod for the transaction, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) opined that the deal was likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition.
One major condition placed by the CCI is that the purchaser should not be “Star India Private Limited or Viacom18 Media Private Limited.
Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata earned ₹ 126.6 cr dividend income from Infosys in 2022!
Akshata Murty, Britain’s incoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife, earned ₹ 126.61 crores (USD 15.3 million) in dividend income in 2022, from her shareholding in India’s second-largest IT firm Infosys.
She is Infosys’ co-founder Narayana Murthy’s daughter and holds 3.89 crore shares or a 0.93 per cent stake in the IT major. Infosys announced a final dividend of ₹ 16.00 for the 2021-22 fiscal on May 31 and an interim dividend of ₹ 16.50, totalling to ₹ 32.5 per share or 126.61 crores for Akshata.
Parag Agrawal’s 11-month tenure as Twitter CEO ends as Elon Musk takes control
Parag Agrawal, an IIT graduate was appointed CEO of Twitter in November 2021, but his brief tenure as CEO was challenging and chaotic. Less than a year into his job as CEO, Agrawal was fired from the company by its new owner billionaire Elon Musk who on Thursday closed the 44 billion dollar deal to acquire the social media
behemoth. According to a May 2022 article in The New York Times, if Musk removed him as chief executive, Agrawal could make USD 60 million, as per securities filings.
RBI to hold special MPC meet on Nov 3 on preparing inflation report
The Reserve Bank of India has called a special meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee on November 3 to prepare a report on its failure to keep retail inflation below 6 per cent for three consecutive quarters.
The inflation has remained above the upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent for nine straight months or three quarters. This will be the first time that the RBI will have to explain its actions to the government since the monetary policy framework came into effect in 2016.
Quarterly Results
Best Agrolife Ltd
Agrochemicals firm Best Agrolife’s consolidated net profit increased by more than five-fold at ₹ 129.81 crores for the September quarter (Q2FY23), as compared to ₹ 25.18 crores in the year-ago period. Its total income more than doubled to ₹ 701.17 crores in the September 2022 quarter, as against ₹ 324.71 crores in the September 2021 quarter.
“Our plants have achieved higher capacity utilisation and we have many revolutionary products in the pipeline,” said Vimal Alawadhi, Managing Director, of Best Agrolife.
Dabur India Ltd
FMCG major Dabur India on Wednesday reported a 2.85 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to ₹ 490.86 crore, for the September quarter due to high inflation impacting consumption. It had reported a profit of ₹ 505.31 crores in the year-ago period.
Its revenue from operations climbed 6 per cent to ₹ 2,986.49 crores during the quarter under review against ₹ 2,817.58 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
The company “continued to demonstrate agility and resilience to deliver steady organic growth in an environment that remains challenging, marked by unprecedented inflation and consequential impact on consumption,” it said in its earnings statement.
SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd
The company on Thursday reported a 52 per cent jump in its net profit to ₹ 526 crores for the quarter that ended September 2022 on higher income. It reported a net profit of ₹ 345 crores in the same quarter a year earlier.
Its total income rose 28 per cent to ₹ 3,453 crores from ₹ 2,695 crores a year ago. Further, its net interest income grew 27 per cent to ₹ 1,484 crores, while income from other sources jumped 29 per cent to ₹ 1,813 crores.
Written by Simran Bafna
