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Thinner trading volumes heading into the Christmas holidays could exacerbate market swings, leaving strategists reluctant to read much into day-to-day gyrations during the period. Markets continue to be shadowed by escalating mobility curbs to fight omicron and a diminishing stimulus tailwind.
Indian equities closed higher for the second straight day on Wednesday, led by gains in banks, auto, metal and realty stocks.
The Sensex rose 611.55 points to close the day at 56,930.56, while the Nifty was up 184.70 points or 1.10% at 16,955.50.
On the Nifty, Hindalco Industries, Tata Motors, Divis Laboratories, Bajaj Finance and Eicher Motors were among the top gainers, while Power Grid Corporation, SBI Life Insurance, Wipro, Adani Ports and IOC fell the most.
All sectoral indices ended in the green with auto, bank, realty, capital goods, pharma, oil &gas, power, and metal indices up 1-3%. BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added over 1% each.
E-commerce major Amazon on Wednesday said it will acquire Prione Business Services, its joint venture firm with Catamaran, subject to requisite regulatory approvals.
In August, Amazon and NR Narayana Murthy's Catamaran had announced that they will not continue their joint venture, Prione Business Services, beyond May 2022.
"Prione Business Services Pvt Ltd - the joint venture between Catamaran and Amazon - will be acquired by Amazon subject to requisite regulatory approvals...Amazon will acquire Catamaran's shareholding in Prione in compliance with applicable laws including all assets and liabilities," Amazon said in a statement on Wednesday.
The businesses of the JV will continue under the leadership of the current management and on receipt of regulatory approvals, the board of Prione and Cloudtail will take steps to complete the transaction in compliance with applicable laws, it added.
European shares edged higher on Wednesday led by gains in food delivery stocks even as worries persisted about the outlook for global recovery amid an increase in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.
The British capital's benchmark FTSE 100 index of major blue-chip companies dipped 0.1% to 7,287.19 points, compared with Tuesday's close.
In the eurozone, the Paris CAC 40 index increased 0.3% to 6,983.27 points and Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.2% to 15,481.33.
Just Eat Takeaway.com rose 5.1% after the food delivery firm announced a deal with One Stop, a British convenience store chain owned by Tesco, to handle orders and deliveries on its platform.
India's year-long suspension of futures trading in key farm commodities is crimping the use of risk management tools such as hedging across its food supply chain, spurring inventory cuts as forward purchases get scaled back.
Monday's halt, targeting items such as soybeans, edible oils, wheat, rice, and chickpeas as authorities move to cool rising inflation, was one of India's most dramatic steps since it launched commodity futures in 2003.
But the ban on access to futures contracts may fuel volatility in domestic markets by denying traders the tools crucial to planning decisions, forcing them to cut stocks, delay long-term purchases and sales, and even limit imports.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed registered investment advisers (RIAs) to customise fees for accredited investors. To provide a relaxed regulatory framework for sophisticated investors and introduce products designed to meet investor-specific risk profile, Sebi has introduced the concept of “accredited investors" in the Indian securities market.
The concept of a class of investors who have an understanding of various financial products and the risks and returns associated with them, and therefore, can make informed decisions regarding their investments, is recognized by many securities and financial market regulators around the globe. These investors are typically termed accredited investors, qualified investors or professional investors.
The new flexible regulatory framework is expected to result in customised investment products, reduced compliance, better risk labeling (product classification) and increased transparency.
Zydus Cadila has received tentative approval from the US FDA to market Pimavanserin Tablets, 10 mg.
Pimavanserin is used to treat symptoms of a certain mental/mood disorder (psychosis) that might occur with Parkinson's disease. It helps lessen symptoms such as seeing or hearing things that are not there (hallucinations) and false beliefs (delusions).
The drug will be manufactured at the group’s formulation manufacturing facility at the SEZ, Ahmedabad. The group now has 325 approvals and has so far filed over 400 ANDAs since the commencement of the filing process in FY04.
Pandemic-hit railway services has taken a big toll on its income with the national transporter registering a 70% fall in passenger revenue during FY21.
During the last financial year, railways services were hit due to a national lockdown followed by regional curbs on mobility. Indian Railways also suspended regular train services during the lockdown.
A global rebound in stocks moderated in Asia on Wednesday amid uncertainty over the omicron virus strain’s economic impact and a foggy outlook for U.S. fiscal stimulus.
Equities in Japan and China were steady, while Hong Kong pared gains as a rally in technology shares fizzled. U.S. futures turned lower and European contracts made modest gains. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 jumped on Tuesday as risk appetite revived somewhat.
Thinner trading volumes heading into the Christmas holidays could exacerbate market swings, leaving strategists reluctant to read much into day-to-day gyrations during the period. Markets continue to be shadowed by escalating mobility curbs to fight omicron and a diminishing stimulus tailwind.
S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1%, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%.
Japan’s Topix index rose 0.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.1%, South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.3%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index was steady.
Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.4%
The construction arm of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has secured a significant order for its Buildings & Factories business from a reputed developer.
The residential business of Buildings and Factories has secured the order to construct one of the largest residential townships in Bengaluru. The total built up area will be 13.43 million sq.ft. The project is scheduled to be completed in 42 months.
Global customer relationships management (CRM) solutions provider Salesforce has launched its maiden startup program in India. The programme, already present in its global markets, will offer startups the California-based company’s AppExchange partner programme, which is its online marketplace for cloud solutions. It will also offer support from the company's Trailblazer Community, a startups ecosystem under Salesforce.
The company also said select startups will get an opportunity for investments through its venture capital arm Salesforce ventures. “We have been working with startups in various ways. What we're trying to do here is to provide a unified approach for Salesforce to connect to startups and vice-versa," said Sanket Atal, senior vice president and managing director for Sites at Salesforce.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has disposed of a case of alleged insider trading against Dish TV India's corporate promoter Direct Media Distribution Ventures. It was alleged that it had violated provisions of prohibition of insider trading norms. The order follows an investigation conducted by the regulator in Dish TV's scrip during January-February 2019.
Motilal Oswal Real Estate (MORE), the real estate private equity arm of Motilal Oswal Group, on Wednesday said it has committed ₹1,200 crore in the last 18 months, across residential and commercial projects in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
In addition to the amount already committed, it plans to commit ₹1,000 crore more during the current financial year.
These investments have been made in projects of Casagrand Group and Radiance Realty in Chennai, Ashwin Sheth Group and Marathon Group in Mumbai, Puravankara Group, Shriram Properties, Pacifica Group and Casagrand in Bengaluru and Phoenix Group in Hyderabad.
We have seen a healthy correction in the real-estate sector in the last month, S&P BSE Realty down by 16% from its recent highs in November 2021. S&P BSE Realty was consolidating for more than 10 years and in June 2021 it has broken its consolidation and had a good up move. We expect the real-estate sector to do well for the long term, as we believe listed players keep increasing their market share in new launches and the South India market continues to do well on the back of strong new hiring from the IT sector.
We continue our buy call on Sobha Limited with a target price of ₹950.
Rajya Sabha also adjourned sine die.
ITC Master Chef Frozen Snacks—a brand of frozen foods—has partnered with Havmor ice-cream brand to 100 Havmor Ice cream carts to sell its range of frozen snacks in what the company said is part of ITC’s new route-to-market distribution strategy.
These mobile carts will sell ITC’s burger patties, fries, pizza pockets, kebabs, vegetable patty among other snacks. These carts will be located at 100 differetent locations across Delhi-NCR; the carts can be located via Google MyMap.
Havmor is an ice-cream brand owned by South Korean company Lotte.
ITC will use the carts largely between November to March—a lean period for sales of ice-creams.
India has recorded 213 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus across 15 states and UTs so far out of which 90 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
Delhi has recorded the maximum 57 cases of Omicron variant followed by Maharashtra at 54, Telangana 24, Karnataka 19, Rajasthan 18, Kerala 15 and Gujarat 14 cases.
As per the data, India logged 6,317 new coronavirus infections taking the total to 3,47,58,481, while active cases declined to 78,190 - the lowest in 575 days.
The death toll climbed to 4,78,325 with 318 fresh fatalities, the data stated.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 55 days now.
The co-living sector in the country is expected to see a recovery in 2022, driven by re-opening of offices and colleges in a phased manner along with vaccination, according to property advisory Colliers.
Though the pandemic marred the growth of the shared-living sector in 2020, it has witnessed recovery this year. The co-living segment is expected to have 4,50,000 beds mainly driven by organised operators by 2024 compared to 2,10,000 beds by 2021-end, Colliers said in a note titled ‘Future of Co-living in India’.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Metro Brands made a weak debut on the stock exchanges on Wednesday.
Shares of footwear retail chain opened at ₹436 apiece on the BSE, a discount of 12.8% to its issue price of ₹500. On the NSE, Metro Brands shares opened at ₹437 apiece.
The index has opened in the green but we are still not out of the bearish quarters. Until we do not get past 17150-17200 on a closing basis, the market trend is negative. If the markets break 16600-16650, the Nifty will retest 16400.
Oil prices rose again on Wednesday as the dollar slipped, with risk appetite returning as some governments resist imposing lockdowns to curb the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant and as China said it would be able to sustain economic growth.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 50 cents, or 0.7%, to $71.62 a barrel, after jumping 3.7% on Tuesday.
Brent crude futures rose 44 cents, or 0.6%, to $74.42 a barrel after gaining 3.4% on Tuesday.
Oil prices typically move inversely to the U.S. dollar, with a weaker greenback making commodities cheaper for those holding other currencies.
Media and entertainment conglomerates Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) and Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd (SPNI) on Wednesday announced signing definitive agreements to merge ZEEL with and into SPNI and combine their linear networks, digital assets, production operations and programme libraries.
The agreements follow the conclusion of a negotiation period during which ZEEL and SPNI conducted mutual due diligence, the two companies said in a statement to the stock exchanges.
After closing, the new combined company will be publicly listed in India. The closing of the transaction is subject to certain customary closing conditions, including regulatory, shareholder, and third-party approvals.
If market has to confirm its near term bottom, Nifty needs to surpass 17000 – 17200 with some authority. Till then we are not completely out of the woods. For the coming session, 16840 – 16966 remains a strong resistance zone, while 16680 followed by 16500 are to be seen as intraday supports.
We advise traders not to be in a hurry to make any kind of bottom fishing, rather keep focusing on stock specific moves on both sides. But for investors with a slightly longer horizon, one can now start accumulating quality propositions in a staggered manner.
Media and entertainment conglomerates Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) and Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd (SPNI) on Wednesday announced signing definitive agreement to merge ZEEL with and into SPNI and combine their linear networks, digital assets, production operations and programme libraries.
The agreement follow the conclusion of a negotiation period during which ZEEL and SPNI conducted mutual due diligence, the two companies said in a statement to the stock exchanges. After closing, the new combined company will be publicly listed in India.
The closing of the transaction is subject to certain customary closing conditions, including regulatory, shareholder, and third-party approvals. (Read here)
Shares of Reliance Industries, ZEE, Yes Bank, Dish TV, ITC, among others, will be in focus today.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed footwear retailer Metro Brands will make its stock exchange debut today. The IPO of the company saw tepid demand and was subscribed 3.64 times during 10-14 December at a price band of ₹485-500 apiece. (Read here)
Asian equities were higher on Wednesday as the risk appetite of global investors rose heading into year-end, despite the surging number of Omicron variant cases around the world.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.6%, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with gains.
Australian shares were down 0.1%, which analysts said was the result of a higher US dollar overnight which weakened appetite for commodities and the sector's related stocks.
Japan's Nikkei stock index was 0.1% higher.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1.2% and China's blue-chip CSI 300 Index was 0.23% up in eary trade. Tech stocks were the major driver of the Hong Kong strong open after trading in negative territory for most of the week.
A better night on Wall Street provided the positive lead for Asian markets with a sharp rebound in sentiment for U.S stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 560.54 points, or 1.6%, to 35,492.7, the S&P 500 gained 81.21 points, or 1.78%, to 4,649.23 and the Nasdaq Composite added 360.14 points, or 2.4%, to 15,341.09.
The jump came despite growing concerns as the spread of the Omicron variant in the lead-up to traditional holiday periods around the world.
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