Surgical Strike’s Impact, RIL all time high, ICICI Prud Life weak debut: Weekly Digest #16

The world’s biggest retailer Walmart Stores is exploring an equity partnership with Flipkart to take on common rival Amazon in India. The companies are engaged in early talks and a meeting is scheduled this week.
Godrej Consumer Products has filed a case against former managing director Arumugham Mahendran in the Bombay High Court, accusing him of breach of trust by misusing classified information for his insecticide business that will compete with Godrej brands Good Knight and Hit.
Zomato has acquired logistics technology startup Sparse Labs, as it looks to improve the delivery experience for consumers. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) hit a seven-year high on the National Stock Exchange on Monday at INR 1,129.Experts said the rally is not over yet.

A decade after the Ambani brothers split, Reliance Communications (RCom) Chairman Anil Ambani announced that his telecom company has “virtually“ merged with Reliance Jio Infocomm, owned by elder brother Mukesh.
Air India’s turnaround -announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day Speech -seems unlikely, as the national carrier has reported operating loss of INR 246 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal.
State-run Coal India plans to repurchase 1.7%, or INR 10.89 crore shares in the mining company at INR 335 each. Of the total shares it is aiming to buy back, 15% has been earmarked for purchase from small shareholders.

Exactly a year after strengthening regulation of the 13-year-old commodity derivatives market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has taken the first steps towards its growth by allowing exchanges like MCX and NCDEX to launch options in commodities.
MRF became only the third company in the country’s stock market history to break past the INR 50,000 per share mark on Wednesday as an all-around rally in tyre stocks helped the Chennai-based firm to outperform the Sensex and Nifty in 2016.
The Union Cabinet has approved strategic disinvestment of Bharat Pumps and Compressors and closure of Hindustan Cable.
The Cabinet has approved an INR 2,256-crore makeover of the IT backbone for indirect taxes in anticipation of the Goods and Services Tax.

Following a surgical strike by India in the PoK, benchmark indices dropped by 1.6% -their biggest single-day fall in three months. The rupee also weakened 0.6% to INR 66.86 against the dollar.
Unocoin, a Bengaluru-based Bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in a funding round from Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with international investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future and FundersClub.
Amidst a selloff trend in Indian equity markets, NSE-listed Jubilant Life Sciences has raised $300 million through a sale of unsecured bonds by its pharmaceuticals arm in Singapore, according to people directly familiar with the details of the offering.
Shares of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company extended their losses and ended 11% down at Rs 297.65 after debuting at a discount to its issue price on Thursday. The issue price was INR 334 per share.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council approved draft rules for the proposed levy and agreed to a refund mechanism for central and state tax holidays that will continue under the new GST regime. India’s biggest indirect tax reform is set to roll out by April 1 next year.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has allowed use and in-flight charging of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 manufactured after September 15 after the ban was put on the same following incidents of the battery getting blasted while it was charging.
Stepping up action in the Rs 5,600-crore NSEL money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate today attached assets worth INR 1,170 crore of Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL).
State oil firms have raised the price of petrol by 28 paise and cut that of diesel by 6 paise.The new prices will be effective Saturday, Indian Oil Corp said in a statement.

Source: The Economic Times