India’s GDP grew at a better than expected 7.6% in the second quarter of the current financial year 2023-24, as against 6.2% in the same quarter last fiscal. This is a slight moderation compared to the 7.8% GDP growth number of the Indian economy in Q1 FY24. So what drove the estimates beating GDP numbers and what’s the road ahead for the Indian economy?
India has retained its tag of being the fastest growing major global economy.Incidentally, S&P Global recently revised upwards its GDP growth forecasts for this fiscal from 6% to 6.4%. The Indian economy is on a strong footing led by domestic consumption, feel economists.
India GDP Q2 data explained
Ranen Banerjee, Partner, Government Sector Leader at PwC India states that the Q2 GDP data has definitely surprised on the positive side. “This better-than-expected GDP growth has come largely on the back of manufacturing and mining which had contracted in the same quarter last fiscal. Construction too has shown a decent growth of over 13%, led largely by front loading of expenditure by the government on major projects,” Banerjee tells TOI.
According to DK Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor, EY India, on a quarterly basis, the growth is driven by government final consumption expenditure (GFCE) and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) on the demand side. These segments posted a quarterly growth of 12.4% and 11% respectively.
On the output side, manufacturing has recovered to show a growth of 13.9% in 2QFY24, a nine-quarter high. This is also corroborated by a robust performance of IIP and PMI manufacturing. Other high performing sectors include construction and public administration, defence et al. with growth rates of 13.3% and 7.6% respectively in 2QFY24.
Importantly, the large contact and employment intensive service sector namely, trade, transport, hotels et al. has shown a recovery with a growth of 11.3% in Q2 over the corresponding pre-Covid quarter of FY20. With this, the magnitude of this sector in the first half was higher by 4.5% when compared to the corresponding magnitude in H1 of FY20.
The GDP growth confirms that the Indian economy is well on course to meet, if not exceed, the annual growth target for FY24 at 6.5% as projected by the RBI earlier in October 2023, says Srivastava.
Indian economy to continue outperforming?
Srivastava of EY believes that driven largely by domestic demand, India would easily confirm its position as a global growth leader, with its growth outpacing that of other large economies as these continue to combat inflation through higher interest rates.
PwC’s Ranen Banerjee sounds a note of caution saying that going ahead, one will need to watch out for the agriculture sector, since the 1.2% growth number is on the lower side. If this does not pick up in Q3, it may have a negative impact on rural demand, he says.
“Also, while the manufacturing sector has shown good growth, the private final consumption expenditure has only grown 3.1% YoY. Companies may have stepped up manufacturing in Q2 in anticipation of festive season demand, so it’s important to see whether any possible inventory pile up at the distributor end will impact manufacturing growth in the coming quarters,” Banerjee adds.
CRISIL’s Joshi expects the GDP growth to slow down in the second half due to deepening global slowdown; the lagged impact of domestic rate hikes manifesting fully through the second half of this fiscal; and erratic weather and an El Niño event creating some downside to agricultural growth prospects. However, he believes that despite moderation in the second half, India is expected to outperform other large economies this fiscal year.
Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla is set to take over the cement business of Kesoram Industries, a prized asset in the business empire of his grandfather, late B K Birla.
In separate announcements, Kesoram and UltraTech Cement disclosed an all-stock deal that would entail the B K Birla company demerging its cement business into India’s largest cement producer.
UltraTech said Kesoram had decided to demerge its cement business and approached UltraTech Cement in relation to it.
“The board of directors of UltraTech, at its meeting held today (Thursday), considered Kesoram’s proposal and approved a scheme of arrangement amongst Kesoram, the company and their respective shareholders and creditors,” it said.
Kesoram is led by B K Birla’s daughter, Manjushree Khaitan.
In 2018, UltraTech had acquired B K Birla firm Century Textiles’ cement business in a similar share-swap deal.
The deal is being executed at an enterprise value of Rs 7,600 crore.
UltraTech will issue one equity share of the face value of Rs 10 every 52 equity shares of Kesoram, also of face value Rs 10. The deal values Kesoram at Rs 173 per share, a 24 per cent premium to the closing on the BSE on Thursday.
Kesoram has two integrated cement units -- at Sedam (Karnataka) and Basantnagar (Telangana) -- with a capacity of 10.75 million tonnes a year.
“It will help enhance UltraTech’s geographic reach in southern markets such as Telangana where it does not have any plant. We believe UltraTech will be able to raise Kesoram’s operations to UltraTech’s standards in six to nine months, given its past record,” said Mangesh Bhadang, analyst, Centrum Broking.
The transaction, UltraTech said, would provide it an opportunity to extend its footprint in the highly fragmented, competitive, and fast-growing western and southern markets in the country.
The transaction requires the approval of shareholders and creditors, and regulatory authorities including the National Company Law Tribunal and Competition Commission of India. It is expected to be completed in nine-twelve months.
The cement business of Kesoram as on March 31, 2023, was Rs 3,517.45 crore, accounting for 99.54 per cent of its turnover.
Kesoram said the transfer of the business would unlock value for shareholders and assist in deleveraging of its balance sheet, including reduction in the debt and outflow of interest.
In a bid to deleverage the stressed balance sheet, pursuant to the scheme, the non-convertible debentures of Kesoram, listed on the BSE, would be transferred to UltraTech.
Kesoram, which has high-cost borrowing, had been trying to bring it down for some time. The company’s debt is around Rs 1,700 crore.
It had demerged the tyre business some years back. It was acquired by Himadri Speciality Chemical and Dalmia Bharat Refractories under the corporate insolvency resolution process.
Once the scheme is in place, Kesoram will focus on the rayon, transparent paper, and chemicals businesses.
India’s cement demand is expected to grow 8 per cent in FY24.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, says the advertisers that have stopped spending on the platform due to his endorsement of an antisemitic post can “f——” themselves.
“What it’s going to do is it’s going to kill the company, and the whole world will know the advertisers killed the company,” Musk said at the New York Times DealBook conference on Wednesday.“Go f—- yourself.”
The post was the “worst and dumbest I’ve ever done,” said Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc.
Still, if advertisers leave the company, its failure will be their fault, not his — saying they were trying to “blackmail me with money,” he said. “I won’t tap dance” to prove trustworthy, he said.
Musk took the stage at the DealBook conference following a tumultuous few weeks for the world’s richest person, with a net worth of around $226 billion.
Earlier this month, Musk agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people. That message has since drawn criticism from the White House as well as several Tesla investors. Major corporate spenders, including Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc., distanced themselves from the platform formerly known as Twitter.
From the DealBook stage, Musk called out to “Bob” specifically, referring to Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney. Iger spoke at the event earlier in the day.
For the first time since the post spurred a global backlash, Musk apologized for his choice of words. Musk, who flew to Israel to tour areas that were impacted by the October 7 Hamas attack alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the trip was planned before the advertiser backlash. It wasn’t an “apology tour,” he said. Following his visit, he appeared on stage wearing a dog tag, which has become symbolic of a call for the return of hostages captured by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and EU.
Musk urged people to judge him by his actions rather than his words and brought up two companies he runs as justification. Tesla, he said, made more electric cars than competitors. SpaceX, formally named Space Exploration Technologies Corp., sends more satellites into space than any other company or country.
“Hate me, like me or indifferent. Do you want the best car, or do you not want the best car?” he said. He said he’s done “more for the environment than any human.” Political clout
Musk also addressed the inordinate amount of power that he wields given his market power in key industries such as cars, space, satellites and social media. The billionaire holds the keys to technological tools that provide him with political clout that world leaders have come to rely on.
“The reason I have these powers isn’t because of anticompetitive actions but because we’ve executed well,” he said.
Musk, who had been close to President Barack Obama, has had a contentious relationship with the Biden administration and said on Wednesday that he couldn’t see himself voting for President Joe Biden in the 2024 US presidential election.
He cited the president’s snub of Tesla, a reference to a 2021 electric vehicle summit where Biden invited legacy Detroit automakers to the White House lawn but left out Musk and Tesla. The brush off of the Musk-led automaker, which has 140,000 employees globally and is the world’s leading EV manufacturer, has remained a sore point for the billionaire.
Since then, Musk has appeared to be leaning closer to the Republican party. In October, he appeared at a fundraiser for Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and in May Musk hosted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on X as he announced his 2024 presidential campaign.
Musk also bristled at the upswell of union activity at carmakers, which inked a record contract with the United Auto Workers union earlier this year after Biden showed up on the picket line to support unionized employees. Now, the UAW is going after
“I disagree with the idea of unions,” Musk said, noting that if the UAW’s unionization drive proves successful it’s because Tesla failed to provide a good enough working environment. If the EV maker’s plants are unionized, it’s because “we deserve it,” he said.
The billionaire also addressed the debacle at Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT that Musk cofounded but later stepped down from. “I have mixed feelings about Sam,” Musk said about CEO Sam Altman, who was recently ousted and reinstated. “The ring of power can corrupt.”
He said the public should know the reason Altman was fired, in case it has to do with some dangers of AI. “I don’t think it was trivial.”
Musk is building a rival, called xAI, using the data from X, the social network.
Raymond Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Gautam Singhania's separation from his estranged wife, Nawaz Modi, has taken a contentious turn, raising concerns among the company's shareholders.
However, Modi claimed that Gautam Singhania declined her offer, saying “do what you want”. These developments suggest that the Gautam Singhania-Nawaz Modi separation proceedings might be prolonged, causing unease among shareholders.
Over the past five trading sessions, the shares have fallen nearly 10.5 per cent and 12 per cent in a month, indicating that the allegations and settlement demands have negatively impacted the share price, causing distress for shareholders.
IiAS urged the independent directors to undertake an independent investigation into the allegations, addressing concerns and outlining a course of action. "In the interest of the company and safeguard the interests of a larger set of stakeholders, we urge you to undertake an independent investigation into the allegations of both, assault and CEO excesses," IIAS said.
Will messy divorce mess up Raymond's valuation?
JN Gupta, a former Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) executive director who runs proxy advisory firm Stakehoder Empowerment Services, told Business Today that there will be an impact on the business, if there is no amicable settlement in sight and the battle goes to the court.
“If there is no amicable settlement in sight, and the battle heads to the courts, there will be an impact on the business,” Gupta said.
Meanwhile, InGovern Research Services’ Shriram Subramanian told Business Today that these developments are likely to impact minority shareholders. “I don’t see them having to rush to buy the stock at this point,” he added.
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Some market analysts believe that the ongoing proceedings could negatively impact shareholder confidence, and that the matter is being keenly watched.
Shriram Subramanian explained that market watchers will keep a track on how the wealth of the promoter family is divided as part of the settlement proceedings. “If she demands 75 per cent, that’s a big number. There will be implications on the company,” he told the business daily.
He, however, added that at this point InGovern would not be issuing any advisory since there is no corporate event which has taken place.
"Raymond has a very large number of mature, logical shareholders. They can think for themselves. If they see something bad, they react quickly,” Vijaypat Singhania said.
"Raymond's name will ultimately depend on how a larger number of shareholders, bankers, buyers, sellers look at it. There are two things in it. One is how they see the issue itself and how it will affect them and they will also look at Raymond's performance and they are not necessarily the same. So, I think it's a very difficult question to answer whether it will affect the Raymond name,” he added.
The market valuation of BSE-listed companies crossed a record $4 trillion for the first time on November 29, on the back of positive market sentiment in Indian equities.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies reached ₹333 lakh crore, or $4 trillion at the exchange rate of 83.31. It has climbed over $600 billion since the beginning of the year.
BSE-listed firms hit the $1-trillion market cap milestone in May 2007 and it took over 10 years to double. The market cap surpassed $2 trillion in July 2017. Meanwhile, BSE m-cap had hit the $3 trillion mark in May 2021.
In intra-day deals today, the BSE Sensex climbed 305.44 points to 66,479.64. The Sensex had hit a record 67,927.23 on 15 September this year. The benchmark is still 2 percent away from its peak.
Meanwhile, Nifty rose over 141 points to cross the 20,000 mark. Its intra-day high stood at 20,031.25. It also hit its record high of 20,222.45 in September 2023.
“The Nifty's recent crossing of the psychological level of 20,000 and the BSE market cap's ascent to the $4 trillion mark signal the start of a fresh momentum. Domestic liquidity has provided support, but the lack of foreign inflows due to high US bond yields has been a hindrance. Fortunately, interest rates in the US have peaked, and the dollar index is declining, which is expected to attract foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows into the Indian equity market. Despite strong fundamentals, volatility is expected leading up to the state election results. However, any weakness caused by this could present a compelling buying opportunity. The market appears primed for a pre-election rally, and we can anticipate the Nifty soon surpassing 21,000. 19,500 will now serve as a support level," said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd.
This surge comes after Fed Governor Christopher Waller flagged a possible rate cut in the months ahead.
Also, foreign institutional investors, who were on a selling spree in the last two months of September and October, have also begun buying Indian equities this month. In November month so far, net FII buying stands at ₹2,901 crore. This has also added to the positive market sentiment.
Overall in 2023, FIIs have bought Indian stocks worth around ₹1 lakh crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have outpaced dollar money by investing ₹177.5 lakh crore.
Furthermore, recent upgrades by multiple global brokerages, decent earnings for the second quarter, and a fall in crude oil also aided the gain. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, CLSA, and Nomura recently upgraded India to an 'overweight' rating.
Investors now await India's GDP data for Q2 due later this week as well as the election results from the five states, the voting of which was completed on November 30. The final election results will be declared on December 3.
CLSA, in a recent note, said that it expects India's searing GDP growth to propel it to the top three of the globe’s largest economies, from just $3.4 trillion today to larger than Japan’s by 2027, hitting $29 trillion by 2047 and $45 trillion by 2052.
"China and the US will be the only economies that will be bigger than India by then. Looking beyond, we see the economy expanding from US$3.4tn today to US$29tn in 2047 and $45tn in 2052. If big bang reforms unleash efficiencies, India could overtake the US economy in size by 2052," CLSA said.
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Charles Munger was vice chairman of Berkshire and one of its biggest shareholders, with stock valued at about $2.2 billion.
Charles Munger, the alter ego, sidekick and foil to Warren Buffett for almost 60 years as they transformed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from a failing textile maker into an empire, has died. He was 99.
Warren Buffett (L), CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and vice chairman Charlie Munger attend the 2019 annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 3, 2019.(AFP)
He died on Tuesday at a California hospital, the company said in a statement. He was a longtime resident of Los Angeles. “Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said in the statement.
A lawyer by training, Munger (rhymes with “hunger”) helped Buffett, who was seven years his junior, craft a philosophy of investing in companies for the long term. Under their management, Berkshire averaged an annual gain of 20% from 1965 through 2022 — roughly twice the pace of the S&P 500 Index. Decades of compounded returns made the pair billionaires and folk heroes to adoring investors.
Munger was vice chairman of Berkshire and one of its biggest shareholders, with stock valued at about $2.2 billion. His overall net worth was about $2.6 billion, according to Forbes.
At the company’s annual meetings in Omaha, Nebraska, where he and Buffett had both grown up, Munger was known for his roles as straight man and scold of corporate excesses. As Buffett’s fame and wealth grew — depending on Berkshire’s share price, he was on occasion the world’s richest man — Munger’s value as a reality check increased as well.
“It’s terrific to have a partner who will say, ‘You’re not thinking straight,’” Buffett said of Munger, seated next to him, at Berkshire’s 2002 meeting. (“It doesn’t happen very often,” Munger interjected.) Too many CEOs surround themselves with “a bunch of sycophants” disinclined to challenge their conclusions and biases, Buffett added.
For his part, Munger said Buffett benefited from having “a talking foil who knew something. And I think I’ve been very useful in that regard.”
Buffett credited Munger with broadening his approach to investing beyond mentor Benjamin Graham’s insistence on buying stocks at a fraction of the value of their underlying assets. With Munger’s help, he began assembling the insurance, railroad, manufacturing and consumer goods conglomerate that posted nearly $29 billion of operating profit in the first nine months of this year.
“Charlie has always emphasized, ‘Let’s buy truly wonderful businesses,’” Buffett told the Omaha World-Herald in 1999.
That meant businesses with strong brands and pricing power. Munger nudged Buffett into acquiring California confectioner See’s Candies Inc. in 1972. The success of that deal — Buffett came to view See’s as “the prototype of a dream business” — inspired Berkshire’s $1 billion investment in Coca-Cola Co. stock 15 years later.
The acerbic Munger so often curbed Buffett’s enthusiasm that Buffett jokingly referred to him as “the abominable no-man.”
At Berkshire’s 2002 meeting, Buffett offered a three-minute answer to the question of whether the company might buy a cable company. Munger said he doubted one would be available for an acceptable price.
“At what price would you be comfortable?” Buffett asked.
“Probably at a lower price than you,” Munger parried.
Cardboard Cutout
From Los Angeles, Munger spoke frequently by phone with Buffett in Omaha. Even when they couldn’t connect, Buffett claimed he knew what Munger would think. When Munger missed a special meeting of Berkshire shareholders in 2010, Buffett brought a cardboard cutout of his partner on stage and mimicked Munger saying, “I couldn’t agree more.”
Munger was an outspoken critic of corporate misbehavior, faulting as “demented” and “immoral” the compensation packages given to some chief executives. He called Bitcoin “noxious poison,” defined cryptocurrency generally as “partly fraud and partly delusion” and warned that much of banking had become “gambling in drag.”
“I love his ability to just cut to the heart of things and not care how he says it,” said Cole Smead, CEO of Smead Capital Management, a longtime Berkshire investor. “In today’s society, that’s a really unique thing.”
Though Munger aligned with the US Republican Party, and Buffett sided with Democrats, the two often found common ground on issues like the desirability of universal health care and the need for government oversight of the financial system.
But while Buffett would tour the world urging billionaires to embrace charity, Munger said a private company like Costco Wholesale Corp. — he served on its board for more than two decades — did more good for society than big-name philanthropic foundations.
With his own donations, Munger promoted abortion rights and education. He served as chairman of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. Multimillion-dollar bequests to the University of Michigan and the University of California at Santa Barbara for new housing facilities gave him an opportunity to indulge a passion for architecture — though his vision for a 4,500-person dormitory on the Santa Barbara campus drew howls of protest in 2021 because the vast majority of bedrooms were to have no windows.
Wesco ‘Groupies’
Though he never rivaled Buffett in terms of worldwide celebrity, Munger’s blunt manner of speaking earned him a following in his own right.
He used the term “groupies” to refer to his fans, often numbering in the hundreds, who gathered to see him without Buffett. Hosting the annual meetings of Wesco Financial Corp., a Berkshire unit, in Pasadena, California, Munger expounded on his philosophy of life and investing.
At the 2011 meeting, the last before Berkshire took complete control of Wesco, Munger told his audience, “You all need a new cult hero.”
Charles Thomas Munger was born on Jan. 1, 1924, in Omaha, the first of three children of Alfred Munger and the former Florence Russell, who was known as Toody. His father, the son of a federal judge, had earned a law degree at Harvard University before returning to Omaha, where his clients included the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.
Munger’s initial brush with the Buffett family came through his work on Saturdays at Buffett & Son, the Omaha grocery store run by Ernest Buffett, Warren’s grandfather. But the two future partners wouldn’t meet until years later.
Munger entered the University of Michigan at age 17 with plans to study math, mostly because it came so easily. “When I was young I could get an A in any mathematics course without doing any work at all,” he said in a 2017 conversation at Michigan’s Ross Business School.
Nome to Harvard
In 1942, during his sophomore year, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, soon to become the Air Force. He was sent to the California Institute of Technology to learn meteorology before being posted to Nome, Alaska. It was during this period, in 1945, that he married his first wife, Nancy Huggins.
Lacking an undergraduate degree, Munger applied to Harvard Law School before his Army discharge in 1946. He was admitted only after a family friend and former dean of the school intervened, according to Janet Lowe’s 2000 book, Damn Right! Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger. Munger worked on the Harvard Law Review and in 1948 was one of 12 in the class of 335 to graduate magna cum laude.
With his wife and their son, Teddy, Munger moved to California to join a Los Angeles law firm. They added two daughters to their family before divorcing in 1953. In 1956, Munger married Nancy Barry Borthwick, a mother of two, and over time they expanded their blended family by having four more children. (Teddy, Munger’s first-born, had died of leukemia in 1955.)
Not satisfied with the income potential of his legal career, Munger began working on construction projects and real estate deals. He founded a new law office, Munger, Tolles & Hills, and, in 1962, started an investment partnership, Wheeler, Munger & Co., modeled on the ones Buffett had set up with his earliest investors in Omaha.
“Like Warren, I had a considerable passion to get rich,” Munger told Roger Lowenstein for Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, published in 1995. “Not because I wanted Ferraris — I wanted independence. I desperately wanted it. I thought it was undignified to have to send invoices to other people.”
1959 Introduction
His fateful introduction to Buffett had come during a 1959 visit home to Omaha. Though the precise venue of their first meeting was the subject of lore, it was clear they hit it off right away. In short order they were talking on the telephone almost daily and investing in the same companies and securities.
Their investments in Berkshire Hathaway began in 1962, when the company made men’s suit linings at textile mills in Massachusetts. Buffett took a controlling stake in 1965. Though the mills closed, Berkshire stuck around as the corporate vehicle for Buffett’s growing conglomerate of companies.
A crucial joint discovery was a company called Blue Chip Stamps, which ran popular redemption games offered by grocers and other retailers. Because stores paid for the stamps up front, and prizes were redeemed much later, Blue Chip at any given time was sitting on a stack of money, much like a bank does.
Using that pool of capital, Buffett and Munger bought controlling shares in See’s Candies, the Buffalo Evening News and Wesco Financial, the company Munger would lead.
In 1975, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Blue Chip Stamps had manipulated the price of Wesco because Buffett and Munger had persuaded its management to drop a merger plan. Blue Chip resolved the dispute by agreeing to pay former investors in Wesco a total of about $115,000, with no admission of guilt.
The ordeal underscored the risks in Buffett and Munger having such complicated and overlapping financial interests. A years-long effort to simplify matters culminated in 1983 with Blue Chip Stamps merging into Berkshire. Munger, whose Berkshire stake rose to 2%, became Buffett’s vice chairman.
China Bull
In recent years, Munger’s fans continued to travel to Los Angeles to ask him questions at annual meetings of Daily Journal Corp., a publishing company he led as chairman. He displayed his knack for investing by plowing the company’s money into temporarily beaten-down stocks like Wells Fargo & Co. during the depths of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Munger was for many years more bullish than Buffett when it came to investing in China. Berkshire became the biggest shareholder of Chinese automaker BYD Co., for instance, years after Munger began buying its stock, though Berkshire began trimming that stake in 2022.
Munger started sharing his vice chairman title at Berkshire in 2018 with two next-generation senior executives, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, who were named to the board in a long-awaited sign of Buffett’s succession plans. Buffett subsequently identified Abel as his likely successor.
It was Munger who, three years earlier, had signaled the likely promotion of Abel and Jain with praise delivered in his signature fashion: with a backhanded swipe at the boss.
“In some important ways,” he wrote of the pair in 2015, “each is a better business executive than Buffett.”
Shares of Adani Group companies rallied 5-20 per cent on Tuesday, the first trading day after the Supreme Court reserved its orders in the matter pertaining to allegations made by US-based Hindenburg Research and their investigation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The 11 listed group companies added over Rs 1 trillion in market capitalisation (mcap), surpassing the Rs 11 trillion mark once again. This was the biggest single-day jump in the group’s market cap since April 11. Experts said the gains were owing to improvement in investor sentiment following last week’s proceedings in the Supreme Court and hopes that the port-to-power conglomerate will now have a clear pathway to growth.
Some said investors were lapping up beaten-down group shares in anticipation that Sebi had not been able to establish any major wrongdoing by the group. The apex court concluded on Friday the hearing on the wide-ranging allegations. Sebi told the court it would not seek any extension to complete its investigation.
Of the 24 matters investigated by Sebi, it had concluded investigation in 22 and submitted the reports while two required information from overseas regulators, it said.
The court on Friday said the reports and findings by newspapers and portals did not discredit Sebi and its investigation because those could not be treated as “evidence”.
In its interim report submitted in May, the Supreme Court-constituted expert committee had said there had been no regulatory failure and there was “no evident pattern of manipulation” in the Adani firms.
However, it did point out the Sebi investigation was a “journey without destination” with challenges in seeking information and issues with the previous amendments that led to “opaque structures” in foreign portfolio investors. After the Adani-Hindenburg matter, Sebi amended regulations on foreign portfolio investors, mandating granular disclosure on economic interests in them with holdings above specified thresholds. Over the past 10 months, Adani Group’s market cap has gained back Rs 4.49 trillion. However, it is still close to Rs 7.9 trillion below the value the Gautam Adani-led group had on January 24, just ahead of the release of the report by Hindenburg.
Flagship Adani Enterprises made the biggest contribution to the group’s market cap. It surged 8.9 per cent, followed by Adani Ports & SEZ, which rose 5.6 per cent. Both Adani Total Gas and Adani Energy hit their 20 per cent upper limit. Barring Adani Ports and Adani Power, all other group stocks are down between 14 per cent and 80 per cent from their January 24 close.
IndiGo GPT-4 6Eskai: IndiGo has launched 6Eskai, an AI ChatBot with GPT-4 technology to ease the ticket booking process for its passengers.
IndiGo GPT-4 6Eskai: Airline company IndiGo has launched 6Eskai, an AI ChatBot with GPT-4 technology to provide high-tech convenience to its passengers and ease the ticket booking process. This chatbot will answer passengers’ questions in 10 different languages. This is the first platform of its kind for ticket booking of any airline in India. Developed completely in-house by IndiGo’s digital team in close collaboration with Microsoft, the AI chatbot is an important milestone for the airline, the airline said.
With this success, IndiGo becomes one of the first few airlines in the region to use cutting-edge AI technology to enhance the passenger experience.
There will be 75 percent reduction in working load.
“Early results from the soft launch indicate a significant 75 percent reduction in customer service agent workload, demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of the bot,” the spokesperson said.
Will answer passengers’ questions easily
“The AI bot boasts an impressive 1.7 trillion parameters, which allows it to easily answer a variety of commonly asked questions,” the spokesperson said. IndiGo’s team of data scientists developed the Generative Pretrained Transformer ( GPT) and programmed the bot using extensive prompt engineering. It mimics human behavior, reacts to emotions and even incorporates humor into conversations to make it more engaging and entertaining for its passengers. The experience ensures.”
Will complete these tasks in a jiffy
The spokesperson further said that 6eSky is capable of performing a variety of functions, including booking tickets, applying promotional discounts, booking addons, web check-in, helping in seat selection, trip planning, FAQs, etc. Involves answering questions and connecting customers with an agent. Furthermore, the bot is capable of understanding not only written or typed language, but also verbal instructions using the speech-to-text model.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to improving the customer experience, we are thrilled to introduce 6iSky, our AI-powered chat assistant,” said Summi Sharma, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience, ifly department, IndiGo.
Sharma said, “This innovative tool will provide seamless support to our passengers, providing prompt and personalized assistance to their travel needs, reflecting IndiGo’s dedication towards technological advancements and customer-centric services.”
Maruti Suzuki India on Monday said it will increase vehicle prices in January 2024. (File)
New Delhi:
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Monday said it will increase vehicle prices in January 2024, citing cost pressure driven by the overall inflationary environment and increased commodity rates.
The company -- which sells a range of vehicles from entry-level small car Alto to multi-utility vehicle Invicto, priced between Rs 3.54 lakh and Rs 28.42 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) -- however, did not specify the quantum of the proposed price hike.
In an interaction with PTI, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Senior Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Shashank Srivastava said the price hike would vary from model to model and in some, it will be "substantial".
"There is an inflationary pressure all around, including volatility in commodities, so that is the reason we have decided to increase the prices in January," he noted.
MSI had last hiked prices by 0.8 per cent in April this year. It had hiked a total increase of 2.4 per cent in the last fiscal.
"There is no choice left for us now but to enhance the prices...we are yet to figure out the exact quantum of the increase," Srivastava said.
Earlier in a regulatory filing, MSI stated that the company has planned to increase the prices of its cars in January 2024 on account of increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and increased commodity prices.
It further said, "While the company makes maximum efforts to reduce cost and offset the increase, it may have to pass on some increase to the market. This price increase shall vary across models".
German luxury carmaker Audi said it will hike prices of its vehicles in India by up to 2 per cent from January next year, citing rising input and operational costs.
The price hike will be effective from January 1, 2024, and will be across the model range, Audi India said in a statement.
When contacted, Mercedes-Benz India noted that it is also mulling to hike prices from January.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Stock Market Holiday: The Indian stock market will remain closed today, November 27, on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti. Trading will be halted in the equity segment, equity derivatives segment, and SLB segment today.
Additionally, the currency derivatives market will also be closed for trading. Both the currency derivatives segment and interest rate derivatives segment will experience a suspension of trading throughout the day.
Guru Nanak Jayanti, also known as Gurpurab, is the most important festival for the followers of the religion of Sikhism. It is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev.
Trading on both exchange houses, National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange will resume tomorrow, Tuesday, November 28. The market remained closed for 13 days in November, excluding November 27, due to various festivals and designated holidays in 2023 thus far.
Next month, stock markets will be shut on December 25 on account of Christmas. Check the full list here. The previous stock market holiday this month was on November 14 on account of Diwali Balipratipada.
Nifty 50, Sensex on November 24
Domestic benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty 50 ended flat on Friday weighed down by a slide in information technology (IT) and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) stocks in the midst of mixed global cues. On the other side, metal and pharma stocks rose.
The 30-share BSE Sensex ended lower by 47.77 points or 0.07 per cent at 65,970.04 level while the Nifty 50 closed at 19,794.70 level, down 7.30 points or 0.04 per cent.
On the broader market front, the Nifty Midcap 100 closed flat, similar to the previous session, while the Nifty SmallCap 100 closed 0.30 per cent higher than the benchmark indices. The fear gauge index, the India VIX closed 0.13 higher on Friday.
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On Monday morning, both gold and silver are selling at their respective prices from the previous day.
On Monday, the daily price of gold is ₹5710 per gram for 22 carat (K), and ₹6229 per gram for 24K, as per the Goodreturns website. The yellow metal, therefore, has the same rates as on the previous day,
Representational Image
For higher quantities of gold, meanwhile, the prices are ₹45,680 (eight grams), ₹57,100 (10 grams) and ₹5,71,000 (100 grams) for 22K, while for 24K, the corresponding rates are ₹49,832, ₹62,290 and ₹6,22,900, respectively.
The daily gold prices mentioned above, it must be noted, are without GST, TCS, and other levies, which means that these are only indicative. For the exact daily rate, buyers must contact their local jewellers.
Today's silver prices in India
City
Silver price (per 10 gram)
Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai
₹772
Bengaluru
₹762.50
Chennai, Hyderabad
₹802
The daily price of silver, too, is unchanged, Goodreturns data shows. The metal, therefore, is rated at ₹77.20 (one gram), ₹617.60 (eight grams), ₹772 (10 grams), ₹7720 (100 grams) and ₹77,200 (1 kilogram).
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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is working on a roadmap for the same-day settlement of trades by March 2024, followed by an optional parallel system for instantaneous settlement, SEBI chief Madhabi Puri said.
Speaking at a press conference in Mumbai following the SEBI Board meeting, Buch emphasized that both market infrastructure and brokers have underscored the necessity for a technological pathway that enables immediate settlement. She stressed the importance of avoiding a one-hour delay as an interim step and advocated for a direct transition from T+0 to instantaneous settlement.
"The progress is very good, a lot of discussion has happened. A roadmap is pretty much ready. It is a parallel system that is completely optional," Buch explained.
Further stressing on the timeline, she said, “What market participants have told us is that we will need to start at T+0 and then move to instantaneous. For T+0, it will be by the end of March, then instantaneous will be another year later."
In January of this year, India adopted a T+1 settlement system, ensuring that trades are resolved on the subsequent business day.
Previously, there were indications that the market regulator's proposal to enable same-day settlement of equity market trades was encountering resistance from offshore investors. These investors expressed concerns about the potential fragmentation of the system and the associated increase in trading costs.
For a foreign investor to execute and settle a trade within the same day, the conversion of funds into Indian rupees must occur one day prior to the trade. In the T+1 and T+2 settlement systems, rupees can be acquired on the day of settlement.
SEBI, on Saturday, also refused to approve the new delisting regulations due to the non-availability of sufficient data.
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LIC exploring possibility of setting up fintech arm: Chairman
As part of its digital transformation exercise, insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is exploring the possibility of setting up a fintech unit.
Siddhartha Mohanty is chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).(REUTERS)
LIC has initiated a total digital transformation project DIVE (Digital Innovation and Value Enhancement) and appointed a consultant to steer the project, LIC Chairman Siddhartha Mohanty told PTI in an interview.
"Our objective is to get best in class digital initiatives for all our stakeholders, customers, intermediaries, marketing people and everybody through the project DIVE," he said.
In the first phase, the customer acquisition part is going to be transformed, he said. Customer acquisition is done through three modes--agent, bancassurance and direct sale.
LIC gets most of its new customers through its agents. Subsequently, other areas would see transformation, he said, adding, services like claims settlement, loan and other services will be made available at the click of a button.
"Customers need not come to the office. Sitting at home through his mobile he can access our required services...we are focussing on fintech as well and will harness its potential in expanding business," he said.
LIC is also exploring options of having its own fintech arm that can be developed as a business model, he said. Asked to share further details on fintech, he said, it is premature to talk about it.
It is to be noted that LIC has added three fintech companies as corporate agents so far in the current year for product distribution. The insurer has lined up 3-4 new product launches during the current financial year to accelerate new business premium growth in the double digit.
LIC is going to launch one product in the first week of December, he said, hoping that it will attract a lot of traction in the market. Sharing some features of the new product, Mohanty said it will provide assured returns and after maturity, the policyholder will get 10 per cent of the sum assured life long.
He exuded confidence that the new product will create disruption in the market as everybody wants to know how much he or she is paying and the returns one would get after 20-25 years.
In addition, he said, loan facility and premature withdrawal would also be a feature of the new product. Guaranteed return products are in the interest of policyholders and shareholders, he said.
IREDA IPO allotment date: The initial public offering (IPO) of state-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) concluded on November 23 and the share allotment has been finalised today (Saturday, November 25). The investors who applied for the issue can check the IREDA IPO allotment status in the registrar's portal, which is Link Intime India Private Limited.
Investors can find out if and how many shares they have been given through the basis of allotment. The initiation of the refund process will start on Thursday, November 30, for individuals not given shares. Those allotted will receive their shares in their demat accounts on Friday, December 1.
IREDA IPO listing date has been fixed for Monday, December 4 on stock exchanges BSE, NSE. If you applied for the shares, here's how you can check allotment status of IREDA IPO:
How to check allotment status of IREDA IPO on Link Intime India Pvt Ltd:
1] Login at direct Link Intime web link — linkintime.co.in/MIPO/Ipoallotment.html
2] Select IREDA IPO;
3] Enter your PAN details; and
4] Click at 'Search' option.
Your IREDA IPO allotment status will soon become available on the computer monitor or on the Smartphone screen.
How to check allotment status of IREDA IPO on BSE?
1] Login at direct BSE link — bseindia.com/investors/appli_check.aspx;
2] Select IREDA IPO;
3] Enter IREDA IPO application number;
4] Enter your PAN details;
5] Click at 'I'm not a robot'; and
6] Click at 'Submit' button.
Your IREDA IPO allotment status will become available on the computer monitor or on the Smartphone screen.
IREDA IPO GMP Today
Market observers said that IREDA IPO has received strong response from investors and this could be the possible reason for rise in grey market sentiments in regard to the book build issue.
IREDA IPO GMP or grey market premium is ₹10 per share. This indicates IREDA IPO share price were trading at a premium of ₹10 on Saturday, according to investorgain.com. 'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price.
Considering the upper end of the IPO price band and the current premium in the grey market, the estimated listing price of IREDA IPO is ₹42 apiece, which is 31.25 per cent higher than the IPO price of ₹32.
After three days of bidding from November 21 to November 23, 2023, IREDA IPO subscription status suggests that the public issue got subscribed 38.80 times whereas its retail portion got subscribed 7.73 times. Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) led from the front as the QIB portion got subscribed 104.57 times, and non-institutional investors or NII portion was subscribed 24.16 times. The portion reserved for employees portion was subscribed 9.80 times.
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Vijaypat Singhania, the founder of Raymond Group, recently opened up about the family feud involving his son Gautam Singhania's divorce settlement.
As the separation of Raymond Group MD Gautam Singhania and his wife Nawaz Modi Singhania continues to make headlines, the billionaire's father Vijaypat Singhania opened up about the family feud, lamenting giving "everything" to his son.
Vijaypat Singhania. father of billionaire businessman Gautam Singhania.(HT)
Vijaypat Singhania, who founded the Raymond Group, talked about how he regrets the "stupid" mistake of giving his son "everything". He also talked about how Gautam Singhania backed out of giving some parts of the company to him.
In an exclusive interview with Business Today, the former textile magnate said, "I have no business. He (Gautam) had agreed to give me some parts of the company, but of course, he backed out. So, I have nothing. I gave him everything. By mistake, I was left with some money on which I am surviving today. Otherwise, I would have been on the road."
Who is Vijaypat Singhania, founder of Raymond Group?
Vijaypat Singhania is an 85-year-old businessman and former textile magnate who founded the Raymond Group in 1944, along with his father L K Singhania. The company started out as just a small clothing mill, and is now the world's largest suit garment manufacturer.
Singhania has received several honors throughout his career, and is also the recipient of Padma Bhushan, which is the third highest civilian honour in the country. In 2016, Singhania decided to hand over the company shares to his son Gautam.
Earlier, Singhania was torn between splitting the company between his two sons, Madhupati Singhania and Gautam Singhania. However, Madhupati relinquished his assets and his shares in Raymond due to infighting in the family, and severed all ties with the Singhanias.
Eventually, Vijaypat transferred 37 percent of Raymond Group to his son Gautam. His grandchildren tried to fight this transfers in court but lost the case.
Now, another family feud has erupted in the family as Gautam Singhania and estranged wife Nawaz Modi are in the middle of a messy divorce settlement. The latter demanded the billionaire to give her and her daughters 75 percent of his net worth.
Tata Motors on Saturday said its arm Tata Technologies has finalised the offer price, including the anchor investor offer price, at Rs 500 per equity share for its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
The Rs 3,042.5 crore IPO of Tata Technologies, which provides engineering and product development digital services, was subscribed 69.43 times on the final day of subscription on Friday, driven by remarkable participation from institutional buyers.
"...Tata Technologies Ltd in consultation with book running lead managers to the IPO, has finalised the offer price, including the anchor investor offer price, at Rs 500 per equity share of face value of Rs 2 each," Tata Motors said in a regulatory filing.
The public issue had a price band of Rs 475-500 per share.
Accordingly, the size of the IPO aggregates to Rs 3,042,51 crore comprising an offer for sale of 4.63 crore equity shares by Tata Motors amounting to Rs 2,313.75 crore, 97.17 lakh equity shares by Alpha TC Holdings Pte Ltd amounting to Rs 485.84 crore and 48.58 lakh equity shares by Tata Capital Growth Fund I, amounting to Rs 242.92 crore, subject to finalisation of basis of allotment, the filing added.
The initial share sale of Tata Technologies received bids for 3,12,64,91,040 shares against 4,50,29,207 shares on offer, as per NSE data.
Tata Technologies is the first company from the Tata Group to float an IPO in nearly two decades. Tata Consultancy Services was the last IPO from the group in 2004.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I thought so, too. Then I spoke to Brett Hollenbeck, a University of California, Los Angeles professor who has studied how we really respond to fake reviews and those ubiquitous little numbers: 4.5 stars, 4.8 stars, 4.2 stars.
Anyone about to hit the digital malls ahead of the holidays would benefit from Hollenbeck’s findings on how pernicious, and ubiquitous, review fakery can be.
How does one discover fakers? As Hollenbeck found, they’re hiding in plain sight. More precisely, sellers or their intermediaries publicly solicit fake Amazon reviews on Facebook.
They post descriptions of products, which they say consumers can have free of charge in exchange for a glowing review from a verified purchaser with photos.
The reviewer then buys the product so that the review is labeled as coming from a verified purchaser. Once he or she leaves a review, the seller refunds the purchase price and any transaction costs, and sometimes offers a bonus of as much as $15 a review, according to Hollenbeck; Sherry He, a professor at Michigan State University; and Davide Proserpio, a professor at the University of Southern California when the research was written. (He is currently on leave working at Amazon.) Their findings appeared last year in the journal Marketing Science.
Although the sellers don’t include the links, they often included enough information, such as the product type and pictures, for researchers to find the exact product and URL for which reviews were solicited. The team documented about 1,500 such items, including beauty products, humidifiers, teeth whiteners, cellphone accessories, home-improvement tools, bug zappers and electric foot massagers.
It’s in the stars to hold a product’s destiny
The products’ average rating jumped from 4.3 stars before solicitation to 4.5 stars after. After the Facebook recruiting ends, the rating gradually falls back to 4.1 stars.
That might not sound like a huge amount, but even a 0.2-percentage-point increase can dramatically improve how high a product ranks in an Amazon search. While the boost might be short-lived, the increase in the total reviews, sales rank and search position persists.
Though the researchers studied solicitation on Facebook and reviews on Amazon, the behavior isn’t limited to those websites. In fact, sites where users can leave reviews without being verified purchasers are thought by some researchers to have an even worse fake-review problem.
The fake reviews appear to work. The Behaviouralist, a London-based consulting firm that studies behavioral economics, in partnership with Which?, a British consumer advocacy and information group similar to Consumer Reports in the U.S., tasked 10,000 consumers with picking out dash cams, headphones or cordless vacuum cleaners.
Some consumers were shown fake reviews and some real reviews. Those who got the fake reviews were 5.8 percentage points more likely to pick products that Which? had recommended against buying. Overall, one additional star increased demand by 38%. In some cases, customers were responding to the review, in others, to the star rating—and sometimes both.
Perhaps surprisingly, more frequent online shoppers were likelier to be influenced by fake reviews because they’re accustomed to quickly assessing products via things such as rating and number of reviews, said Jesper Akesson, managing director of the Behaviouralist. “People develop these habits or heuristics that work most of the time but sometimes it really deceives them," he said.
Hollenbeck conducted his research in 2020, but there’s little reason to think the practices have ceased. The U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade estimated earlier this year that 11% to 15% of reviews for major product categories are fake.
Regulators respond
Regulators are trying to clamp down. The Federal Trade Commission in June proposed rules banning fake reviews and testimonials. The proposed rules would also prohibit related practices, such as company insiders reviewing their own products without disclosing their affiliation, reviews from fake people or of never-purchased products, or “review hijacking" where a company makes reviews for one product appear to apply to another by changing the listing.
Last year, Amazon filed a lawsuit against 10,000 Facebook group administrators who it said were soliciting fake reviews. But as old groups get closed down, new ones are created. Many of the sellers are overseas, and continually use new aliases and sock-puppet accounts. Hollenbeck’s research finds that Amazon eventually deleted many of the fake reviews, but often with a lag of 100 days.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a written statement that the company has “zero tolerance for fake reviews" and acknowledged that “fake review brokers operate outside of our stores, making it more challenging to detect, prevent, and enforce these bad actors alone." The company said it had taken legal action against 152 bad actors, and blocked over 200 million suspected fake reviews in 2022 alone.
“Facebook periodically deletes the groups and they pop back up again a week later," said Hollenbeck. Indeed, as of this Tuesday, I easily found a number of Facebook groups advertising free products such as furniture, ear phones, Christmas decorations, clothing, cordless vacuums and many other items in exchange for reviews. (Facebook’s policies prohibit buying, selling or trading for fraudulent reviews. The company has filed lawsuits against individuals perpetrating e-commerce abuse on its platform, including a fake review scheme.)
Hollenbeck and Akesson say their research has made them far more skeptical shoppers. They offer a few practical tips.
Both make a point to read mediocre reviews that are unlikely to be faked.
Hollenbeck says one surprising red flag is photos. Fake reviews are far more likely to have pictures than genuine ones. After all, who shares a banal photo of some minor consumer good?
Hollenbeck says he’s always cautious about those products that are one of four or five nearly identical search results. They’re just the sort of product that would benefit from a tiny ratings bump that a fake review can deliver.
Write to Josh Zumbrun at josh.zumbrun@wsj.com
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