The week started off as the Indian equity benchmarks slid. The Nifty 50 hit a fresh two-month closing low on Monday, extending losses to a second straight session. Global markets were weaker amid concerns related to rising interest rates and a tightening lockdown in Shanghai that added to the worries about global economic growth. Most sectors were in the red barring IT.
On Friday’s closing bell, we saw that the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty 50 started strong amid a rebound in Asian equities after a sell-off that lasted for days. Oil & gas, financial, auto and IT shares were the biggest movers.
There was a sharp reversal in the last hour of trade. The Sensex dropped 992 points and settled at 52793.6 points after reaching a high of 53785.7. The Nifty 50 ended at 15782.2 points, down 25.9 points or 0.2% from its previous close. The market breadth favoured the bulls with an advance-decline ratio of 2:1.
Market Movers
The top gainers as the week came to an end were Tata Motors, Indraprastha Gas, Bandhan Bank, United Spirits and Sun Pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, the top losers were Adani Green Energy, Hindalco, Indus Towers, JSW Steel, and SBI.
Currencies
| Price | Change | %Change | |
| Dollar-Rupee | 77.4500 | +0.04 | +0.05% |
| Euro-Rupee | 80.4230 | +0.04 | +0.05% |
| Pound-Rupee | 94.3880 | -0.06 | -0.06% |
Commodities
| Price | Change | %Change | |
| GOLD | 50020.00 | -154.00 | -0.31 |
| SILVER | 58891.00 | +140.00 | +0.24 |
| CRUDEOIL | 8349.00 | +175.00 | +2.14 |
The Recap
The Holcim Race Gets a New Participant: JSW Cement
The Adani Group was gearing up towards acquiring assets of Holcim AG’s local cement businesses, ACC and Ambuja. The JSW Group intends to make a $7 billion bid.
The deal value could go much higher, even double, as both the groups chase ready-made assets that will immediately give the winner a big presence in the market, as per a Reuters report.
JSW considers ACC and Ambuja as a “crown jewel” and the company was “very aggressive and will fight (Adani) tooth and nail”, as per the report.
Insolvency Proceedings Against Birla Tyres
The National Company Law Tribunal has ordered the initiation of insolvency proceedings against Birla Tyres in a case filed by its operational creditor SRF Ltd.
SRF Limited has filed an application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code for outstanding dues of over Rs 15 crore from Birla Tyres as the company supplied nylon tyre cords.
Birla Tyres has a plan to demerge its passenger car radial business into a separate company, Birla Tyre Radials. The company itself was demerged from group flagship Kesoram Industries in 2018 as part of debt restructuring.
Byju’s acquired Singapore education firm Northwest
Byju’s agreed to buy Singapore-based online higher education platform Northwest Education Pte in a cash-and-stock deal.
It will pay less than $100 million(about ₹750 crores) for the purchase. A mix of internal cash reserves and Byju’s stock will be used to finance the transaction. The deal includes a milestone-based earn-out component for the founders of Northwest.
Byju’s is India’s largest online tutoring firm. This deal will bolster Byju’s professional upskilling vertical, anchored around its Great Learning platform.
Indigo in Trouble: DGCA deputes a three-member team to probe operations
Air-carrier IndiGo denied boarding to a specially-abled child. This led to an uproar after which, the Director-General of Civil Aviation deputed a three-member team to probe the incident at the Ranchi airport.
The DGCA was not satisfied with IndiGo’s report on the incident. There will be checks to know if Indigo’s staff complied with regulations.
If any shortcomings are found during the search on the part of the airline staff involved in the incident, IndiGo will be penalised, as per an official.
Tata Sons picked a new CEO to rudder Air India after İlker Ayci’s setback
Tata Sons named Campbell Wilson as chief executive officer and managing director of Air India on 12th May 2022.
Wilson brings along valuable experience to confront a host of challenges. He worked with the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group since 1996 and has exposure to markets in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan.
He was the founder-CEO of Scoot – the low-cost arm of the SIA Group and has experience in sales, marketing, revenue and network planning.
Twitter deal on hold: Is Elon Musk Serious?
The Tesla Chief Executive Officer on Friday said his deal with microblogging platform Twitter worth $44 billion was temporarily on hold.
This was due to pending details supporting the calculation that spam and fake accounts indeed represented less than 5% of users.
An hour later Elon Musk tagged the post and commented “Still Committed To Acquisition”.
Noteworthy Results
Bank of Baroda
- Bank of Baroda on Friday reported a net profit of Rs 1,779 crore in the quarter ended March 2022.
- This compares with a loss of ₹ 1,046 crores during the same period a year ago.
- Its net interest income grew 21% to ₹ 8,612 crores in the quarter.
- The board has recommended a dividend of ₹1.20 per equity share (60%) for the year ended 31 March.
- The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the Bank reduced to ₹54,059 crores in the January-March period from ₹66,671 crores a year ago.
Bandhan Bank
- Bandhan Bank’s net profit jumped 1747% to ₹ 1,902.3 crores from ₹ 103 crores in Q4 FY21.
- Its net interest income for the current year grew 15.2% to ₹ 8,714 crores as opposed to ₹ 7,563.4 crores a year ago.
- The bank’s loan portfolio grew 14.1% year-on-year, while deposits grew 23.5%.
- Its net NPA was at 1.66 % on March 31, 2022, against 3.01% as of December 31, 2021.
