Sensex closed 67 pts lower, while Nifty was at 15,721.50; IT gains; banks drag

Benchmark Indian equity indices closed over 0.13% lower on Wednesday. The Sensex closed at 52,482.71, down 66.95 points, or 0.13%, while the Nifty was at 15,721.50, down 26.95 points, or 0.17%. Media, banks, financial, realt and FMCG stocks were top drags. On the 30-share Sensex, Infosys, RIL, Nestlé India, and 9 other stocks closed in green, while PowerGrid, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, and 15 other stocks closed in red.

- ₹3,03,000 cr scheme

-gross budget support ₹97,000 cr

-conditional

-lossmaking discoms not eligible without presenting a state-approved improvement plan

-AT&C loss to be 12-15% by 2025

-Avg revenue loss to be brought down to zero

-SCADA system to be introduced

-100 cities to get higher distrbn management system

-focus areas-agri- solarisation of agri feeders

- 30% financing by the govt

- state govt's outgo will be zero in 4.5-4 years

-Free electricity to farmers under this scheme

Funding worth ₹29,432 cr required for BharatNet. Of this, ₹19,041 cr viability gap funding by the Centre. 3,61,000 villages will be covered via PPE model in 16 states with a 30-year agreement. There will be global level bidding, says IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

-No monopoly

-nine packages

-no player gets more than 4 packages

Bank of America Securities has started coverage of gold loan financiers Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance. It has a target of ₹225 per share for Manappuram Finance and ₹1,890 for Muthoot Finance. Current valuation grossly undervalues Manappuram's franchise. There is a scope of re-rating, BofA Securities said. It brokerage estimates 20% EPS CAGR and 24% RoE through FY24e for Manappuram Finance.

Shree Renuka Sugar Ltd on Wednesday beat EID Parry and Balrampur Chini to become most valued sugar firm in India after its shares surged nearly 300% in last two months. Currently Shree Renuka Sugar market value stood at ₹8,375.61 crore while EID Parry India Ltd and Balrampur Chini mcap stood at ₹7,627 crore and ₹7,444 crore respectively. The stock gained over 295% since 27 April from ₹9.95 a share. On Wednesday it hit a 52-week high of ₹39.35 a share. The scrip hit an upper circuit for 18 out of 20 sessions.

he commerce ministry has recommended imposition of countervailing duty on certain types of aluminium wires from Malaysia for five years, a move aimed at guarding domestic players from imports that are subsidised by that country.

The ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) in its findings after a probe stated that imposition of definitive countervailing duty is required to offset subsidisation. "The authority recommends imposition of definitive countervailing duty...for a period of five years," DGTR said in a notification.

"Most Asia-Pacific sovereign credit ratings should remain unchanged in the next one to two years despite the continued pressures posed by covid-19. S&P Global Ratings has stable outlooks on more than two-thirds of the 21 long-term sovereign ratings in the region currently. The average Asia-Pacific sovereign rating continues to lie between 'BBB' and 'BBB+'. slow vaccine rollouts may drag on the recoveries of some parts of the region in the next year or so. Most Asia-Pacific countries are likely to receive enough vaccines for high inoculation rates only well into 2022, at the earliest."

HDFC Bank ‘s group head for Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking & IT, Parag Rao, says the lender has very aggressive plan to get back into credit card market when RBI ban is lifted, Reuters reported.

General Motors (GM) says offer will lapse today, CNBC TV18 reported. Union to continue standoff with only 10 of 1,200 employees accepting the VSS offer. GM had laid off employees at the Talegaon plant in light of covid.

After impact on sales due to lockdown in May delaying the recovery, investors are hoping for recovery in June. Analysts feel that the June sales volumes will see significant recovery increasing hopes for normalization. However complete recovery will be seen in the second half only. June 2021 volumes are likely to be higher than May 2021, but they are unlikely to reach normal levels due to staggered unlocking across states during the month said analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services in their report. However, they expect volumes to recover from Q2FY22 due to the easing of lockdowns, pent-up demand and improving macros. (Read here)

Norway’s state-owned Norfund and TPG Capital’s RISE Fund have invested $100 million and $25 million respectively in Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy (4PEL). Fourth Partner Energy focuses on commercial and industrial (C&I) segment and has an operational portfolio of 550 megawatt (MW).

Mint had reported in September last year about the company appointing Investec to raise about $150 million through a stake sale. Fourth Partner Energy is building solar parks in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The new funds will be raised for business expansion in domestic and international market. (Read here)

Apollo Tyres Ltd, the country’s largest tyre manufacturer, plans to double its revenue to $5 billion in the next five years by 2026 and improve operating profit margin to more than 15% on the back of growth in revenues and cost cutting strategies adopted by the company. (Read here)

The company's board has approved raising of funds by way of issuance of NCDs of face value of ₹10,00,000 each. The target fundraise amount is ₹250 crore, the company said. The tenor of isuance will be three years, with a call option available to Indian Hotels Company Ltd to purchase the NCDs from holders every six months.

-Financial support to discoms for infra, upgrades, capacity building, reports CNBCTV18

-Scheme participation may be subject to certain conditions

-Centre's share of total scheme amoutn may be ₹97,631 cr