Stock Markets Today Latest Updates: Sensex tanks 674 points, Nifty below 8,100-mark at close; Axis Bank falls over 9%

Supply chain shock to have negative impact on auto component sector: ICRA

Rating agency ICRA on Friday said the supply chain shock due to the coronavirus pandemic will have negative impact for Indian auto component industry.

The COVID-19 supply chain disruptions will manifest into a demand shock lasting multiple quarters for the domestic industry, ICRA said in a statement.

The rating agency, which undertook an extensive survey across key auto component importers and exporters to understand the impact of disruptions in the global auto component supply chain because of the pandemic, said it expects a significant scale down in exports over the next two quarters.

OPEC producers debate possible oil cuts of 10 million barrels per day: Report

The OPEC+ crude oil exporter group is debating cutting global supply by 10 million barrels per day (bpd), an OPEC source said on Friday, adding that any further cuts must include producers from outside the alliance.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had brokered a deal that could result in Russia and Saudi Arabia cutting output by 10 million to 15 million bpd, representing 10-15 percent of global supply. Trump said he made no offer to cut US output.

The source added that OPEC+ is watching the outcome of a meeting between Trump and the oil companies later on Friday and that a final figure on cuts depends on participation by all oil producers.

RBI notifies changes in timing for money markets

Online grocery platform Grofers may hire 10,000 people for warehouses, delivery

Online grocery platform Grofers is looking at hiring 10,000 people for its warehouses and last-mile delivery to clear pending orders quickly and meet the spike in orders on account of the nationwide lockdown.

“We are looking to hire 10,000 people for our warehouses and last-mile delivery. This hiring will happen across all 26 cities that we are present in,” bigbasket vice-president-human resources Tanuja Tewari told PTI.

She added that the pressure is being felt across all cities with the challenges being higher in tier I cities.

E-commerce companies have been struggling to deliver orders after the 21-day lockdown, imposed to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, came into effect from 25 March.

COVID-19 expected to reduce housing sales by 25-35%

Unsold inventory in 2020 will largely remain stable, with single-digit annual decline of around 1-3 percent.

The nationwide lockdown has completely halted construction activity – project delays could run into several months for well-funded projects, and a couple of years for others. Nearly 4.66 lakh units across the top 7 cities earlier slated for completion in 2020 now face a high risk of delays.
 
The affordable housing segment, which gained significant traction over the last few years, may also take a hit by COVID-19.

The outbreak will significantly affect affordable housing’s target audience. With limited income and unemployment fears, buyers of affordable housing may defer purchase decisions, leading to an estimated 1-2 percent rise in unsold stock within this segment in 2020.

DoT likely to defer 5G roll-out

Limetray launches tech platform for local grocery stores 

Limetray, food tech platform, is rolling-out an online ordering system to enable local grocery, meat as well as local grocery shops to accept customer orders online through its platform.

The launch of this specialised technology platform will enable  local grocery, meat and provisional stores to take orders from customers without the need to step into the stores to buy essential provisions, grocery and meat items in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

CIL arm WCL slashes coal auction floor price for specific mines

Western Coalfields (WCL), a subsidiary of Coal India, has slashed the coal auction floor price of specific mines by 10 percent, a statement said.

With an effort to provide coal at cheaper price to consumers during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the reduced auction price will be applicable for coal from ‘mine specific source’ for all auctions to be conducted by WCL in April 2020.

“This will help both Power and Non-Power consumers to get coal at reduced price,” it said.
 

WCL had identified 11 out of its total 66 mines in November 2019 as ‘mine specific source’ specially for use of power plants at an additional add-on price of Rs 450 per tonne over the notified price.

Portea Medical launches home quarantine solution

Portea Medical has launched a home quarantine solution — ‘fit to fight corona’.

The company is offering both its direct customers and corporate partners, a 14-day home quarantine management  service to enable them to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and manage symptoms if any.

Meena Ganesh, MD and CEO, Portea Medical, said, “The COVID-19 has emerged as one of the biggest threats to global healthcare in modern times. With over 200,000 infections and a mortality rate of 4 percent, this virus has once again underscored the role that health-tech startups can play in such a scenario. Apart from accurate information and awareness on coronavirus, there is a need to ensure that people with low immunity such as the elderly are provided with basic healthcare services at home."

Shriram Group contributes Rs 10 cr to PM CARES Fund

Shriram Group has committed a contribution of Rs 10 crore to the PM CARES Fund.

The group has already contributed Rs 8 cores and is likely to contribute the balance Rs 2 crores after the banks open for operation this week.

India’s power demand falls over 25% to 125.81 GW on 2 April 

India’s peak power demand slipped over 25 percent to 125.81 GW on Thursday compared with 168.32 GW the same period the previous year amid the lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak, showed power ministry data.

In actual terms, the demand fell around 43 GW on Thursday compared to the same day a year ago. However, the data showed that peak power demand met has stabilised around 120 GW after 22 March.

The government has imposed 3-week lockdown to fight the pandemic from 24 March.

The demand was down mainly due to lower requirements from industry and state power distribution companies (discoms) across the country due to the lockdown.

The peak power demand met is the actual highest energy supply during the day across the country.

Kuwait backs OPEC meet; resumes neutral zone shipments with Saudi Arabia

Kuwait supports Saudi Arabia’s invitation for a meeting between meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, an informal grouping known as OPEC+, to curb global oil supply and halt the oil price rout, oil minister Khaled al-Fadhel said on Friday.

The minister, cited by the state-news agency KUNA, also announced the resumption of crude shipments from the so-called Neutral Zone the country shares with Saudi Arabia for the first time in five years.

The shipment, of about one million barrels will be loaded on a tanker on Saturday and Sunday, for export to Asia, he said.

US economy to shrink at fastest rate since 1946: Morgan Stanley

The United States economy will shrink 5.5 percent in 2020, the steepest drop since 1946, with a huge 38 percent contraction predicted for the second quarter, Morgan Stanley said on Friday in a new batch of forecasts on the economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak.

The US bank said it had cut its first-quarter forecast to an annualised 3.4 percent contraction from a previous 2.4 percent, while in the second quarter the economy is predicted to shrink 38 percent, up from an earlier forecast of a 30 percent contraction.

US unemployment will also peak at a record 15.7 percent in the second quarter – that is up from a previous 12.8 percent forecast by the bank’s economists – with cumulative job losses of 21 million in the second quarter, Morgan Stanley said.

Deutsche Bank to hold annual general meeting online

Deutsche Bank said on Friday that it would hold this year’s annual general meeting online amid precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The bank will detail procedures for the meeting, scheduled for 20 May, at a later date.

Brent reverses losses to rise above $30 in early European trading

Benchmark Brent crude oil futures reversed losses incurred during Asian hours in early European trading on Friday to rise above $30 a barrel, with hopes of a huge global supply cut deal to support prices still alive.

Brent crude futures were up 7 percent, or $2.10, at $32.04 per barrel. Brent soared as much as 47 percent during Thursday’s session, its highest intraday percentage gain ever, before closing 21 percent higher, but still at less than half the $66 it was trading at at the end of 2019.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also moved back into positive territory, rising 1 percent, or 28 cents, to $25.6 a barrel, after surging 24.7 percent on Thursday.

LIC India Forever contributes Rs 105 cr to PM-CARES Fund 

Airtel, Jio to continue gaining market share

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will continue to gain market share at the cost of Vodafone Idea’’s “worsened” financial health that may deteriorate further in the wake of the AGR judgment, Axis Capital said in a note on Friday.

Axis Capital said it has trimmed its revenue estimates for wireless telcos. This is because muted subscriber additions as well as hit in 2G/3G conversions to 4G SIMs on account of the lockdown and a possible extension of certain curbs, could partially impact revenue growth that was expected in coming months from the tariff hike in December 2019.

“We cut FY21/22E (estimates) revenue of wireless providers by 1-6 percent and EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) margin by 20-100 bps (basis points,” Axis Capital said in the telecom sector report.

It said that while the tariff hikes undertaken by companies in December 2019 is likely to play out in nine months of calender year 2020 as subscribers come for recharge, the floor pricing may be delayed due to the lockdown.

Lockdown: Seeing improvement on e-commerce issues, says DPIIT secretary

The government has held several meetings with e-commerce players to resolve issues arising due to the lockdown, and now witnessing improvement on them daily, a top government official said on Friday.

Secretary in the Deparrment for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra said that with lot of follow ups on their issues, relaxations were given to them by the Home Ministry.

“We had meetings with them, most of their issues are being resolved. E-commerce position is much better now then what was there on day one of lockdown. Everyday you are seeing improvement,” he told PTI.

E-commerce representatives had shared the problems faced by them in movement of essential goods by delivery boys due to the lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak.

Tata Motors March 2020 production slips 75.3%

Sensex plunges over 700 points, Nifty below 8,100-mark 
 

Sensex tanked 708.66 points or 2.51 percent to 27,556.65 while Nifty was down 185.50 points or 2.25 percent at 8,068.30 at around 2.15 pm.

ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank were the top losers in the Sensex pack.

European stocks sink as pandemic hits business

European stock markets sank on Friday, erasing meagre gains for the week, as more companies flagged a hit to business from the coronavirus pandemic while oil prices extended their previous day’s gains on hopes of a global supply cut.

With virus-fighting lockdowns raising the risk of a prolonged global downturn, investors continued to seek the safety of the US dollar and government bonds, pushing US Treasury yields near their lowest in three weeks.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.4 percent, taking MSCI’S All Country World Index down 0.3 percent.

NFL sees record fertiliser sales at 57 lakh tones during last fiscal

State-owned National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) on Friday said it has sold record 57 lakh tonnes of fertilisers during the last fiscal year.

In a regulatory filing, NFL informed that it has “registered the highest-ever fertiliser sales in 2019-20, fifth time in a row.”

NFL has recorded total fertiliser sale of more than 57 tonnes of all products, beating its previous best of 48.95 lakh tonnes achieved during 2018-19.

“With this, the company achieved a sales growth of 16.2 percent over the previous year,” the filing said.

The sustained sales growth of NFL has helped in retaining its position of second highest marketer of fertilisers in the country, it added.

Silver futures climb on firm global cues

Silver prices on Friday rose 3.17 percent to Rs 41,135 per kg in futures trade as participants widened their bets amid a firm trend in precious metal overseas.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange, silver contracts for May delivery gained Rs 1,263, or 3.17 percent, to Rs 41,135 per kg in 4,058 lots.

Similarly, silver contracts for July delivery climbed Rs 1,253 to Rs 41,333 per kg in 528 lots.

Traders said fresh bets by participants in line with a firm trend in global markets mainly led to rise in silver futures.

In the international market, silver was quoting 0.02 percent higher at $14.67 an ounce in New York.

Market trims morning losses, Nifty regains 8,200-mark

Markets trimmed the morning losses and Nifty regained 8,200-mark in the afternoon trade.
 

Sensex was trading 246.75 points or 0.87 percent at 28,018.56 while Nifty was down 46.95 points or 0.57 percent at 8,206.85 at around 1.45 pm.

Mexico’s Corona beer producer halts brewing over pandemic

The Mexican brewer of Corona beer said Thursday it was suspending production because of the health emergency in the country over the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

Grupo Modelo — whose brands also include Pacifico and Modelo — said the measure was in line with the Mexican government’s order to suspend all non-essential activities until April 30 to slow the spread of coronavirus.

“We are in the process of lowering production at our plants to the bare minimum,” the company said in a statement, adding it would complete the suspension in the following days.

Mexico’s government has said that only key sectors such as agribusiness will be able to continue to function.

Cyient inks pact with Hitachi Rail to accelerate signalling technology deployment

IT firm Cyient on Friday said it has signed an agreement with Hitachi Rail to deliver a series of project engineering services to support the latter in accelerating the evolution of its signalling technology.

The partnership will also help Hitachi Rail in expanding and enhancing its project execution capacity, Cyient said in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Cyient will develop and operate a central delivery centre for Hitachi Rail in India, and a regional centre in the US, it added.

These centres will be responsible for delivering engineering services (such as application logic design, hardware design, software configuration, and verification and validation) for Hitachi’s global signalling projects that use proprietary interlocking platforms, the statement said.

Lenders agree to extend deadline for submitting bids for DHFL

Markets continue to remain volatile

The market continued its journey southward and is trading in red down by 1.8 percent dragged mainly by selling pressure in BFSI stocks despite gains in global peers, said Sundar Sanmukhani, head of fundamental research desk, Choice Broking.

Investor sentiments continued to weigh amid uncertainty over COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact.

With fresh cases of Coronavirus rising day by day, concerns over looming economic recession are keeping investors on edge. Factory activity data released yesterday which grew at a slowest pace in four months also dented sentiments, said Sanmukhani.

“BFSI heavyweight stocks like Kotak Bank, ICICI  bank, HDFC among others were among top contributors in today’s decline. However, healthy gains in Pharma stocks like  Cipla, Lupin among others restricted the downfall. Broader indices too were under selling pressure trading with cuts down by 1 percent. The markets are expected to continue their volatility  till there is clarity on the situation after the lockdown ends on 14 April 2020,” he said.

Cycle Pure Agarbathies donates Rs 1 cr to PM CARES Fund

Cycle Pure Agarbathies, from agarbathi to aerospace conglomerate NR Group, extended support to the country and government in combating COVID-19 with a donation of Rs 1.08 to PM CARES Fund.

The brand. which has been in the prayer and worship space from the last 70 years, has initiated a series of funding and donation activities along with an in-depth business continuity plan for its employees to overcome coronavirus.

Omidyar Network India’s Rs 1 cr rapid response funding initiative to 20 organisations

As a part of its rapid response funding initiative for COVID-19, Omidyar Network India announced a Rs 1 crore funding to a collective of 20 grassroot civil society organisations for their rapid community response to COVID-19 (RCRC).

This funding will help migrant labourers and their dependents in rural areas by providing information (eg. social distancing, quarantining), enumeration and counselling migrants, supporting those at starvation risk, channeling food, and motivating frontline workers.

They also plan actionable research to understand the impact of COVID-19 in rural areas, and identify livelihood opportunities.

Kerala, Delhi, other states approach Nirmala Sitharaman seeking clearance of pending GST dues

CCI approves stake-buy in Religare Health Insurance by Trishikhar Ventures

Fair trade regulator Competition Commission has approved acquisition of 18.95 per cent stake in Religare Health Insurance Company by Trishikhar Ventures under the green channel route.
 

Trishikhar is a part of Kedaara Group, which invests in a variety of companies through acquisitions and corporate restructurings, while Religare provides general insurance products relating to health segment, the Competition Commission of India said in a press release.

The green channel concept — recommended by the high-level panel that reviewed competition law — allows automatic system for speedy approval for certain categories of merger and acquisitions.

Bank shares tank after Moody’s changes outlook on Indian banks to negative

Bank shares on Friday dropped up to 15 percent after Moody’s Investors Service changed the outlook for Indian banking system to negative from stable.

Shares of RBL Bank tumbled 14.99 percent, Kotak Mahindra Bank tanked 7.77 percent, IndusInd Bank fell 7.33 percent, ICICI Bank 6.56 percent, SBI 4.34 percent.

Also, City Union Bank slumped 4.21 percent, Axis Bank dipped 3.86 percent and Federal Bank 3.26 percent.

The BSE Bank index was quoting lower by 3.74 percent at 20,098.85.

Virus deaths, unemployment accelerating across Europe, US

Coronavirus deaths mounted with alarming speed in Spain, Italy and New York, the most lethal hot spot in the United States, while the outbreak has thrown 10 million Americans out of work in just two weeks and by Friday had sickened more than a million people around the globe.

The public health crisis deepened in New York City, where one funeral home in a hard-hit neighborhood had 185 bodies stacked up — more than triple normal capacity. The city has seen at least 1,500 virus deaths.

“It’s surreal,” owner Pat Marmo said, adding that he’s been begging families to insist hospitals hold their dead loved ones as long as possible.

Mobile subscriber addition seen lower at 0.5 million in March: Experts

The subscriber addition tally for mobile operators is estimated to have tanked to 0.5 million in March against a monthly average of 1.5-3 million on account of coronavirus-led lockdowns, according to industry experts.

Sector observers said the situation is likely to continue this month as all-India lockdown is scheduled to be in place till 14 April.

Many states had already started imposing movement restrictions for general public to combat the spread of coronavirus by mid-March. The 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced on 24 March.

S&P confirms US AA+ rating with stable outlook

The financial rating agency Standard and Poor’s confirmed on Thursday the AA+ rating for the United States’ long-term debt despite the recent passage of a historic $2 trillion aid package to combat the novel coronavirus.

S&P also indicated that it had no intention of changing the rating for the time being due to a stable outlook.

“The sovereign ratings on the US reflect its diversified and resilient economy, extensive monetary policy flexibility, and unique status as the issuer of the world’s leading reserve currency,” the dollar, S&P said in a statement.

Cisco expands small business product portfolio

Small businesses, representing millions of individual companies and accounting for two-thirds of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are facing the dual challenges of keeping pace with a dynamic ecosystem, while continuing to provide enhanced customer experience and service.

Cisco is doubling down its focus on serving small businesses by offering customers and partners a simple, secure, and flexible portfolio with new solutions tailored to small businesses.

Collected under the Cisco Designed brand, the newly launched portfolio comprises new offerings that have been curated for small businesses, and address their networking, security, collaboration, cloud, and internet connectivity needs.

IndiGo plunges over 7% in intra-day trade

Coronavirus likely ended record US job growth in March

The US economy likely shed jobs in March, abruptly ending a historic 113 straight months of employment growth as stringent measures to control the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and factories, confirming a recession is underway.

The labor department’s closely watched employment report on Friday will not fully reflect the economic carnage being inflected by the contagious coronavirus. The government surveyed businesses and households for the report in mid-March, before a large section of the population was under some form of a lockdown, throwing millions out of work.

Friday’s report could sharpen criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the public health crisis, with President Donald Trump himself facing criticism for playing down the threat of the pandemic in its initial phases. Already, data has shown a record 10 million Americans filed claims for unemployment benefits in the last two weeks of March.