Today’s Latest Business News Transcript at 5:30 PM on 7 May 2024
Let’s begin. India VIX or the Volatility Index that gauges investor sentiment and fear in the market shot above the psychologically important point of 17 on Tuesday, May 07. In fact, India VIX has surged over 70% from its low of 10, which it touched on April 23. What’s driving this uplove? This time, the volatility gauge is spiking ahead of the general elections and investor concerns about the final result. “While a lot can be explained in terms of historical trends, the approach of record peaks, upcoming election results, and even the liquidity impact on lot size reduction in Nifty, the recent swings are difficult to fully attribute, said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Next up, Indegene IPO was subscribed a total of 1.70 times as of May 6. The retail portion was subscribed 1.56 times more than the offered bid. The non-institutional segment of the IPO was subscribed a total of 4.2 times. Indegene opened its IPO to retail investors on May 06 to collect a total of Rs 1,841.76 crore through offering fresh issue as well as an offer for sale. The bidding will close on May 08. It kept the price band in a range of Rs 430 to Rs 452 per equity share. A retail investor needs to apply for a minimum of 33 shares aggregating to Rs 14,916.
Moving on, Lupin, a leading pharmaceutical company, witnessed a sharp decline in its share price, dropping more than 6% during morning trades on Tuesday, subsequent to the release of its Q4 earnings performance reported on Monday post-market hours. The shares of Lupin dipped by 6.11%, reaching an intra-day low of Rs 1,581.10 per share on the NSE. Lupin Ltd reported a net profit of Rs 359.4 Crore for the quarter ending March, marking a sequential decline of 41.4% from ₹613 crore in the December 2023 quarter. However, on a year-on-year basis, the net profit surged by 52.3% compared to Rs 236 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Despite the decline in quarterly profits, Lupin’s domestic sales for Q4 stood at Rs 1,601.5 crore, representing a 7.2% decrease.
Meanwhile, India’s sugar production reached approximately 314 lakh tonnes as of the end of April 2024, said the Indian Sugar and Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association. It further added that with additional output of 5-6 lakh tonnes expected from mills in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the final net sugar production is estimated to be close to 320 lakh tonnes. Overall, 516 factories have concluded their crushing operations nationwide against 460 closed last year, as of April end. This means the number of operating factories was 16, which is 57 lesser than last year. ISMA has urged the Government to consider permitting the export of 20 lakh tonnes of sugar in the current season.
In other news, MSME lender Lendingkart has raised $10 million via external commercial borrowing from a fund managed by impact investment manager BlueOrchard, the company announced on Tuesday. The funding will be deployed for onward lending activities to MSMEs. BlueOrchard connects entrepreneurs in emerging and frontier markets with investors for impact investment. The company has so far invested over $11 billion across more than 100 countries. Till December 2023, BlueOrchard had backed over 300 million people in emerging and frontier markets with investments. “As an MSME finance specialist, Lendingkart will continue to support small and micro businesses to flourish, create jobs, drive economic development, and foster entrepreneurship, thereby contributing to overall socio-economic progress,” said Harshvardhan Lunia, Founder and CEO, Lendingkart Group on the new fundraise.
Moving forward, India’s households’ net financial savings plunged to a five-year low of Rs 14.2 trillion in FY23, sharply down from Rs 17.1 trillion in FY22, primarily owing to a sharp rise in short-term credit, data released by the statistics ministry showed on Monday. The fall could be attributed to “a lot more leveraged consumption and spending” due to greater and faster access to credit, economists said. As a percentage of GDP, however, the households’ net financial savings in FY23 was at 5.3%, the lowest in around five decades. Between FY12- FY22 (excluding Covid-19 year FY21), the net financial savings hovered between 7-8%. The gross financial savings of households stood at Rs 29.7 trillion in FY23, while the financial liabilities stood at Rs 15.6 trillion.
Lastly, The benchmark equity indices nosedived on May 07. The NSE Nifty 50 lost 140.20 points or 0.62% to finish the day’s trading at 22,302.50, while the BSE Sensex closed 384 points or 0.52% lower at 73,511.85. Nifty Midcap 100 saw deep cuts and closed in red down 987.75 points or 1.95% to settle at 49,674.45. Hindustan Unilever, Tech Mahindra, Britannia, Nestle India, and TCS were the top gainers in the Nifty 50. While Bajaj Auto, Power Grid, ONGC, IndusInd Bank, and Hindalco were the major losers in the Nifty 50 on May 07.