Stock Market Latest Updates: Benchmark indices erase losses, Sensex, Nifty close marginally lower; auto, bank stocks decline

Moody’s outlook for Indian power sector turns negative

Moody’s Investors Service has changed its outlook for the Indian power sector to negative from stable on declining power demand, payment delays and an adverse impact from government measures that favour consumers over utility companies.

It said power demand will drop at least four to 5 percent in fiscal 2021 due to slowing activity and policy actions. Besides, companies are vulnerable to policy moves and payment delays from state-owned distributors.

“In addition to declining power demand  — which will hit short-term power prices and the utilisation of coal-based power plants — state-owned distribution companies that rely on subsidies could delay making payments to power companies as the government is likely to pivot subsidies towards social and healthcare spending amid efforts to contain the outbreak,” said Abhishek Tyagi, Moody’s Vice President and Senior Analyst.

Hindustan Zinc board approves interim dividend of Rs 16.50/share for FY20

The board of Hindustan Zinc (HZL), a subsidiary of Vedanta, has approved an interim dividend of Rs 16.50 per equity share for FY20 amounting to Rs 6,972 crore.

Vedanta owns 64.9 percent stake in the company, while the centre retains a 29.54 percent stake.

HZL has intimated that its board of directors, through resolution passed by circulation on Tuesday, has approved interim dividend of Rs 16.50 per equity share – 825 percent on face value of Rs 2 per share for the financial year 2019-20 amounting to Rs 6,972 crore, Vedanta informed the BSE on Friday.

HZL is one of the largest integrated producers of zinc and lead and a leading producer of silver.

Indices stages sharp recovery; Sensex above 31,000-mark, Nifty at 9,133

Indices erased most of the losses ahead of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s press conference at 4 pm on Friday.

It is expected that the finance minister may announce relief package for agriculture and aviation sectors. 

Sensex was trading 48.51 points or 0.16 percent lower at 31,074.38 while the Nifty was down 9.95 points or 0.11 percent at 9,132.80 at around 3 pm.

M&M, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma and ICICI Bank were the major losers in the Sensex pack.

Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Tata Steel and NTPC were the gainers.

Airline stocks rise ahead of FM’s media briefing

#CNBCTV18Market | Airline stocks higher in trade on hopes of relief package pic.twitter.com/sDmW6Smx1Z

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Lesser-known firms win ONGC’s 49 oil, gas fields

Lesser-known firms such as Duganta Oil and Gas and Orissa Stevedores Ltd have won 49 small and marginal oil and gas fields that state-owned ONGC had bid out on government direction.

ONGC had at the close of bidding in January received bids for 50 out of the 64 small and marginal oil and gas fields it offered in a bidding round for raising production by involving private companies.

Of these, the company has now awarded 49 of them.

“Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) placed Notice of Award (NoA) to seven successful bidders in 13 contract areas comprising of 49 marginal oil and gas fields,” the company said in a statement.

ONGC clubbed the 64 fields in Gujarat, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu into 17 onshore contract areas by clubbing some of them. These have a cumulative 300 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent natural gas reserves.

As many as 12 companies made 28 bids for 50 fields at the close of bidding on 17 January. Sources said 28 bids were received for 14 clusters, covering 50 fields, but none for three clusters that cover 14 fields.

German economy shrinks 2.2% in Q1 as virus hits

The German economy shrank by 2.2 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period as shutdowns in the country and beyond started to bite, official data showed Friday.

The figures from the Federal Statistical Office offered a first glimpse of the damage caused by the coronavirus crisis to Europe’s biggest economy, which the government is trying to limit with a raft of rescue programs.

The decline in the January-March period was the biggest since 2009.

March was the month in which the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe, with first Italy and then other countries imposing sweeping restrictions on public life and businesses.

Germany itself started shutting down in mid-March.

Affordable renting through PPP gives impetus to realty

Mrinal Kumar, Partner, General Corporate, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. said, “Government-funded housing in cities being converted to Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) through public-private partnership (PPP) will give a much required impetus to the revival of the real estate sector and other related industries. The affordable rental scheme is a step towards addressing the issue of housing of urban poor and migrant workers and will provide them with access to quality accommodation and security to encourage these workers to not return to their native places in a crisis like COVID-19. Industries, manufacturing units and institutions will also be incentivised to develop AHRC on their unutilised land.”

One Nation, One Ration card much-needed

Puneet Chopra, Partner, MSC (MicroSave Consulting) said, “The announcement of One Nation One Ration Card is much needed. On the lines of a unique Aadhaar and digitization of various subsidies, it will allow a range of temporary migrants to avail  PDS benefits".

“Free food grains to migrants for two months will ensure food security for over 8 crore people at this time, when livelihoods have been taken away from them. It will also ensure the cultivators from whom government procures food grains receive some returns, as they have struggling to market their produce and generate some income for their dependents”

Reliance Industries stock up

#CNBCTV18Market | Reliance springs 2% from low point of the day pic.twitter.com/FWWXo1AlUt

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Wage hikes, easy credit facilities, to aid migrants, street vendors

Manu Gupta, Co-Founder, SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society), a not-for-profit organisation, said, “The finance minister’s announcements regarding the relief measures for the migrant workers and street vendors is heartening, after having seen their plight and hearing their painful stories from across the country since the lockdown began. The wage hikes, easy credit facilities and food security measures that were announced will be a big support for their recovery. By the virtue of the informal nature of their professions and lives, civil society can aid the process of the benefits reaching the last mile through better targeting and community-based efforts. Concurrently, we can also deliver the necessary information to keep themselves safe while getting back to their usual lives.”

Office leasing activity drops in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru: Knight Frank

Office leasing activity across India’s three tier-one cities — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — witnessed a drop due to the impact of COVID-19, according to the latest Knight Frank Asia Pacific market bulletin released on Friday.

Given the present situation, the lockdown in India coupled with the challenges of a global recession is likely to dent prospects for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) office market.

Bengaluru’s office market witnessed its highest gross take-up in a decade and the strong leasing momentum continued into Q1 20.

In 2019, office rents in the National Capital Region of Delhi rose by four percent, driven by growth in co-working sector. Despite the record leasing activity last year, Knight Frank expects demand for grade A office space to soften.

“The situation is extremely dynamic and hence it would be challenging to provide a forecast for the year,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director of Knight Frank India.

FM’s announcement aimed at infusing liquidity

Harish Sharma, Executive Director, REPL (Rudrabhishek Enterprises), said, “The first tranche came as breather amid corona crisis as the MSME sector received a big push. The announcements have been made with an aim to infuse liquidity and ease the functioning of the MSME. By tweaking the definition of MSMEs, the benefits will extend to a lot of units. Along with this, the collateral-free automatic loan for MSMEs worth Rs 3 lakh crore for four years coupling it with a no repayment of principal amount for the first 12 months will give a big relief to almost 45 lakh units. The 50,000 crore equity infusion through Fund of Fund will help the MSME units in leveraging it at daugter-fund levels and in expanding their size. By disallowing global tenders from the project worth Rs 200 crore, the government has eased out the competition for the MSMEs. This will give more opportunities to them and therefore, enormous growth can be expected in time to come.”

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Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, a much-needed booster for MSMEs

Ravi Saxena, MD, Wonderchef, said, “The first installment of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ comes as a much-needed booster for the MSME sector. Collateral free loans of 3 Lakh crore, and equity oriented Fund of Fund Rs 50,000 crore will give much needed liquidity to the companies in such a time of crisis. 20,000 cr worth of subordinate debt can prevent many companies from bankruptcy. By disallowing global tenders in government procurement up to Rs 200 crore the government has paved the way for MSME units to embark on a new journey of growth. Change in dedication of MSME is a small but very meaningful step in the right direction. Boosters to the real estate sector, NBFC’s and DISCOMs are also very pragmatic in nature. Cash flow of companies has been helped with measures like support in TDS and EPF while practical considerations have been given to assessment and filing dates of returns,” he said.
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Economic stimulus package gives push to liquidity

NBFC Financepeer Founder Rohit Gajbhiye said, “The major emphasis has been laid on improving the Liquidity which is the need of the hour. NBFCs have been reeling from quite some time and COVID19 pandemic added to the injury. The special liquidity scheme and the partial credit guarantee scheme 2.0 will provide much respite to the sector. This is a very well planned move given the fact that banks and other debt markets have low risk taking ability the govt has taken the onus on itself. This paves way for improving the credit flow in the system through a sustainable approach.”

Rupee ends flat

#Rupee ends unchanged at 75.56/$ vs Thursday's close pic.twitter.com/7jwhm63OLb

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Sensex falls 131 points, Nifty above 9,100-mark 

Indices continued to recover as Sensex was trading 131.37 points or 0.42 percent lower at 30,991.52 while the Nifty was down 30.05 points or 0.33 percent at 9,112.70 at around 2 pm.

M&M, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finance were the major losers.

HC asks RBI, Centre to respond to plea for action against Google Pay for flouting UPI rule

The Delhi High Court has sought response of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Centre on a plea seeking action and suspension of operations of the Google India Digital Service in UPI through its application ‘‘Google Pay’’ till it fully complies with interoperability.

Justice Asha Menon, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, issued notices to the RBI, the Centre and Google India Digital Service Pvt Ltd and granted them three weeks to file their responses.

The petitioner approached the high court after Google Pay did not allow him to contribute to the PM CARES Fund, without making another VPA or UPI ID on its own app.

Petitioner Shubham Kapaley tried to use his already existing VPA/ UPI ID for other transactions as well, however, the same issue of denial of interoperability persisted.

Franklin Templeton MF gets in touch with investors for voting process

After winding up its six debt schemes, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has now taken the first step towards returning investors’’ money as it has started getting in touch with them with regard to voting process to get their consent.

However, a negative outcome in the voting may delay the process to liquidate assets of the scheme and payment of money to investors, the fund house said.

The move comes days after markets regulator Sebi asked the fund house to focus on repaying investors at the earliest.

In a letter to investors on Thursday, Franklin Templeton India President Sanjay Sapre said,” Franklin Templeton is committed to ensuring an orderly and equitable exit for all investors at the earliest possible time and we have been working hard to expedite the process of returning your money.”

Mumbai Airport wins best staff award

GVK-MIAL managing Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has been recognized under the Best Airport Staff in India and Central Asia 2020 by Skytrax.  The airport also ranked amongst the top 10 best airports worldwide under the 40-50 million passenger’s category.

Talks on raising states’ borrowing limits underway

Sources Say Govt actively discussing raising states' borrowing limit for FY21. Increasing the limit as part of stimulus measures not ruled out

Alert: State govt borrowing limit pegged at 3% of GDP. States allowed Rs 3.2 lk cr of mkt borrowing/50% Of FY21 ceiling in 1st 9 mths pic.twitter.com/01EyiVvczq

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Vedanta gives seeds to Odisha farmers

The Vedantas alumina refinery in Odishas Lanjigarh has provided seeds to the needy peasants in the area to help them develop a vegetable cultivation plan, a company official said.

The initiative aims to mitigate the effects of COVID- 19 on agriculture and allied activities in the area, the official said.

In the fight against the global pandemic, the alumina refinery is looking at restoring and sustaining the livelihood of the local communities, he said in a statement.

As part of this effort, the Vedanta team has helped develop a vegetable cultivation plan for the local farmers, whose source of income has been impacted adversely by COVID- 19.

Sharad Pawar writes to PM, seeks aid for crisis-hit sugar industry

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking bail out for the sugar industry from the crisis “aggravated exponentially” by the unprecedented lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Pawar noted that Modi — even before the lockdown came into force in March-end — had taken some “important” policy initiatives like MSP, export of sugar, buffer stock and interest subvention on capex for ethanol production duly supported by financial measures, seeing the key industry was faced with a crisis.

In his letter, sent on Thursday, Pawar sought the prime minister’s “urgent intervention” to bail the industry out from the crisis now aggravated by the lockdown.

Mahindra Lifespace appoints Arvind Subramanian as MD, CEO

Realty firm Mahindra Lifespace Developers on Friday said it has appointed Arvind Subramanian as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company with effect from 1 July.

The board approved the decision in its meeting on Thursday.

He will succeed Sangeeta Prasad who resigned on 7 February this year. She had worked with the Mahindra group for over 11 years.

Arvind joined the company as chief executive officer of Mahindra Happinest, the affordable housing business, in September 2018.

Arun Nanda, Chairman, Mahindra Lifespaces Developers said, the company is poised for strong growth in a rapidly consolidating market. At Happinest, Subramanian has demonstrated his ability to imagine and engineer a new future for the sector, for the company and for our customers.

Cause of employee earnings strengthened

Lohit Bhatia, President, Indian Staffing Federation said, “The second set of announcements by the Government seems to strengthen the cause of employee earnings (via proposal of national floor minimum wages), social security format for coverage of Gig and platform workers, as well as enhancing the coverage of ESIC to include all workers in a hazardous industry, besides extending to employers with less than 10 workers also as an option. Thursday’s announcement read in line to Wednesday’s focus on MSME sector with over 3.5 lakh cr of liquidity infusion coupled with turnover up to 100Cr treated as MSME will allow these 45 lac enterprises to grow further, employ more, and cover under social security schemes like ESIC providing healthcare benefits to nearly 12 cr workers and families. We wait to read the fine print and details of the said announcements which clearly show a movement towards Formalization will begin in the coming years”

Nirmala Sitharaman may announce package for agriculture sector 

Sources say FM @nsitharaman likely to announce relief measures for Agriculture and related activities. Govt wants to address agrarian distress, reports @TimsyJaipuria pic.twitter.com/cn4JCKEJ4s

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Stimulus package addresses marginalised sections

Anand Ramanathan, Partner, Deloitte India, said, “The government has addressed the needs of the marginalized sections such as small farmers, urban poor, tribals and migrant labour through the announcements today. The inclusion of the unorganized sector in the labour code will have implications for a large part of the informal economy across sectors.  Overall, existing schemes such as a kisan credit, MNGREGA, MUDRA yojana, Food security and PDS have been used to positively  impact over two thirds of the country’s population from a food, health, livelihood and housing perspective.

Standard Chartered GBS donates Rs 3.4 cr  in fight against COVID-19

Standard Chartered Global Business Services Pvt Ltd (GBS) has donated Rs 3.4 crore to support the fight against COVID-19 virus in India.

GBS has extended its support to the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), a unit of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCBS-TIFR) to develop local reagents, a solution that is used during the RNA testing to detect the virus.

It is also supporting NCBS for testing of 2,800 underprivileged people. With United Way, Bengaluru, GBS is funding 2,000 protective kits comprising of three-layer masks, disposable shoe covers, surgical gloves etc., and 2000 COVID-19 test kits that will be handed over to government hospitals.

GBS has also donated 25,000 face masks to Concern India, who in turn will be handing over these masks to the government hospitals and health workers.

Markets trading with minor losses at half-time

The Indian markets at half-time are trading with minor losses as headline index Nifty consolidates between 9,040-9,120, said Aditya Agarwala, Senior Technical Analyst, YES Securities.

Further, bulls have absorbed the initial selling pressure and have kept the Index above the lower end of the broad trading range i.e., 9,000, he said.

“A sustained trade beyond 9,120 could trigger short covering rallies taking the Index to levels of 9,200-9,250. On the flip side, if bears maintain their selling pressure and push the Index below 9,040, then it can slide to lower to 8,970-8,900,” said Agarwala.

Banks, auto and media stocks continue to drag the Index lower while oil and energy stocks are active in trade on Friday.

European markets have opened with in the green with gains of 1 percent across all major markets which could bring some buoyancy in our markets as well, he said.

Indices recover as Sensex down 214 points, Nifty close to 9,100-mark 

Market recovered slightly in the afternoon session as Sensex was trading 214.29 points or 0.69 percent lower at 30,908.60 while the Nifty was down 54 points or 0.5 percent at 9,088.75 at around 1 pm.

M&M, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Finance were the major losers.

The gainers included Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, NTPC, HUL and Nestle India.

MFI industry hopes repayments to start from June

The micro-finance institutions (MFIs), which have been hit severely in the wake of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, are expecting that the repayments of loans given to the borrowers will actually start from June, an official of the industry body said on Friday.

Most employees of micro lenders have come back to their offices in green zones and have been able to establish contacts with their clients, either over phone or visiting them physically, Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) CEO Harsh Shrivastava said.

“No state is disallowing opening of the MFI offices in green zones. The MFI portfolio is spread across the country and a substantial portion of that is in the green zones,” Shrivastava told PTI.

Since 4 May, the begining of the third phase of the lockdown, employees of micro lenders have joined their offices in green zones, though collections and disbursements have not been started, he said.

Sensex recovers from early losses

#CNBCTV18Market | #Sensex up more than 150 points from day's low pic.twitter.com/ZKo35hLTm8

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Airbus must be ‘resized’ to tackle crisis, bosses told, says report

Planemaker Airbus has told top staff that the company must be “resized” in plans to be set out by around end-June and is ready to cut jet production again to tackle any second wave of the coronavirus crisis, people briefed on the matter said.

Chief Executive Guillaume Faury told Airbus bosses to “face reality” in a briefing on the crisis, which has left an estimated 14,000 aircraft or two thirds of the global airliner fleet idle and manufacturers and airlines battling to save cash.

Faury once again warned that Airbus may not survive without change and insisted that “radical,” “proactive” and urgent steps were needed, according to people briefed on the presentation.

Biocon Q4 net profit falls 42% to Rs 123 cr 

Biotechnology major Biocon has reported a 42 percent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 123 crore for the quarter ended March 2020, mainly on account of one-time coronavirus-related impact on its biologics business.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 214 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Biocon said in a statement.

Consolidated total income of the company rose up by 6 percent to Rs 1,644 crore as against Rs 1,557 crore for the same period year ago, it added.

“Q4FY20 witnessed a muted growth of 6 percent with revenues at Rs 1,644 crore due to operational challenges including one-time COVID-19 related impact on our biologics business,” Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said.

IEX Q4 net rises 20% to Rs 45.61 cr

Power sales volume jumped nearly 40 percent at Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) to 13,835 million units (MU) in the January-March period, following which its March quarter consolidated net profit witnessed a significant rise.

The IEX had recorded electricity sales volume of 9,908 MU in the quarter ended 31 March 2019, IEX said in a statement on Friday.

For the 2019-20 financial year, IEX recorded power sales volume of 53,862 MU, up from 52,189 MU in 2018-19.

Elaborating further the company said, “TAM (term ahead market) volumes increased 89 per cent year-on-year. The southern distribution utilities continued their preference for TAM contracts. On the price front, the day ahead market saw an overall decline in prices by 14 percent during Q4 FY’20.”

InterGlobe Enterprises inks pact to take part in sale process of Virgin Australia

Rahul Bhatia-led InterGlobe Enterprises signs agreement to participate in sale process of Virgin Australia. InterGlobe is bound by confidentiality requirements of agreement pic.twitter.com/FVJiQgh193

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 15, 2020

Relief needed to cushion bottom of pyramid

Wilfred Sigler, Director – Marketing & Sales, CRIF High Mark, a microfinance credit bureau said, “The slew of relief measures announced by the Finance minister  is much -needed to cushion the bottom of the pyramid. This aid at the grassroot levels will ensure the health and safety of the workers and farmers who are most hit by the pandemic. The Rs 1500 crores interest subvention for the Mudra-Shishu Loans will be instrumental in helping small businesses bounce back and strengthen the microfinance segment. Rs 2 lakh crore concessional credit for farmers, fishermen through Kisan Credit Cards is an additional measure to empower and boost rural economy. Collectively, these measures will instil more credit and confidence among the deserving Indian population.”

Stimulus package to push India-bound investments

Rajesh Narain Gupta, Managing Partner, SNG & Partners, said “This is one chance to showcase finest reforms to push India bound investments and therefore labour reforms need to be progressive in line with international experience. In zeal to protect labour it should not so happen that there are more bureaucratic hurdles. Business being the golden goose need to be kept alive and a fine balancing is required to ensure that the entrepreneurship is encouraged”

Labour codes announced will provide benefits for workers

Rohit Poddar, Managing Director, Poddar Housing and Development Ltd. and Joint Secretary, NAREDCO Maharashtra, said “The government has rightly focused on ensuring an ecosystem to provide essential resources to migrant workers and daily wage earners, while the sector is eagerly waiting for a fiscal package for revival. Labour codes announced will enable better compliance along with a plethora of benefits for the workers. Rs. 70,000 cr boost to housing and MIG through extension of CLSS shall help in creating job opportunities leading to investment of Rs.70000 cr in housing. This shall also stimulate the demand for steel, cement, transport and other raw construction material. We look forward to the Affordable Rental Housing complexes for migrant workers and urban poor that shall help in addressing the housing problems for these workers.”

Sensex tumbles 301 points, Nifty at 9,065

Sensex tumbled 301.18 points or 0.97 percent to 30,821.71 while the Nifty was down 78.00 points or 0.85 percent at 9,064.75 at around 11.55 am.

M&M was the top loser in the Sensex pack dropping over 5 percent. Other losers included Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank and Hero MotoCorp.

NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and Nestle India were the gainers.