US Election Jitters, Government fines RIL, Air Asia accused- Weekly Digest #21

After allegations by the ousted Tata Sons chairman, Cyrus Mistry, regarding irregular personal expense claims and certain company charges in AirAsia India, the airline owned by Tata Sons and Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd, AirAsia India said it will take strict action against anyone found guilty in the ongoing probe.
Ap per latest data released by SEBI, Mutual funds have pumped in over INR 8,000 crores in equity markets this month, taking the total investment to more than INR 21,000 crores so far in the current fiscal.
Brickwork Ratings has revised outlook of Tata Steel to negative while revising the ratings of its NCDs worth INR 6,500 crores. It has cited the reason as “heightened management risk” following the release of Cyrus Mistry.
Halfway through the Fy 2016-17, the government has run up a fiscal deficit of 83.9% of the full-year budget estimate. This has been largely on account of lower non-tax revenue growth.

Airtel has entered into a deal with Nokia to acquire and implement voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) calling technology which may be launched within this year. The deal has been valued at $60 million.
Passenger vehicle sales in the local market are estimated to have expanded 5% in October, a pace which has been considered healthy by the industry.
Enterprise software maker Freshdesk has raised $55 million in a new round of funding led by Sequoia Capital India, along with existing investor, Accel Partners.
Twitter India Head Rishi Jaitly announced his exit after a 4-year tenure as the head. Jaitly said he is quitting for “a personal civic calling“ in Chicago.

Indian stocks slumped on Wednesday concerning the tightly contested US presidential elections. Earlier the market had perceived Clinton as ahead in the race. However, latest polls showed a different image, causing a volatility in the market which led to Sensex slipping by 350 points.
S&P Global ratings have ruled out an upgrade on India’s rating for the next 2 years. It is still stable on its `BBB-‘ long-term and `A-3’ short-term sovereign credit ratings.
Bajaj Auto, India’s second-largest motorcycle maker is likely to reach 2.4 million units in sales in FY17, on the back of strong double-digit sales during the festive season.

India finalized a four tier Goods and Services tax structure, with slabs being 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. The rate for precious metals such as gold has not been decided yet and it will be the 5th rate, apart from the four mentioned above.
The Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) has initiated the sale of government’s stakes in various companies by selling 3% stake in Larsen &Toubro worth INR 4,000 crore. The sale will be held by block deal on Friday.
Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) and ICICI Bank reduced their home loan rates by 15 basis points each. SBI had announced rate cuts the previous day.
Since its second quarter results on October 21, Mindtree has witnessed 11% fall in 9 trading sessions, reaching a 52 week low of INR 425.
Bharti Airtel is set to receive $129 million from Zain Telecom to settle the Indian telco’s claims around litigation in Nigeria and other tax matters.

The government has asked Reliance Industries to pay about INR 10,000 crores for pumping out gas that flowed through field owned by ONGC. It has been given one month’s time to respond.
After a positive start, GST council has failed to reach a unanimous decision on the distribution of administrative power between center and state. The council is to meet again on 20th November to sort out the issue.
Heightened nervousness around the outcome of the US Presidential election outcome next week dragged down Sensex by 156 points to 27,274 points. Nifty ended at 8,434.
Following the news that US authorities could file charges against generic drug makers on suspicion of price collusion, shares of domestic pharma companies stumbled. Sun Pharmaceutical shed 7.41% to end at INR 652.

Source: The Economic Times