Business News at 05:30 pm on 8th July, 2024

Let’s begin – Indian dealmaking witnessed a total of 501 deals in Q2 2024, valued at $21.4 billion, stated Grant Thornton Bharat Dealtracker, Q2 2024 report. The Q2 recorded the highest quarterly volumes since Q2 2022, while values declined due to absence of big-ticket M&A transactions. Per the details, M&A and PE deals together stood at 467, valued at $14.9 billion. This reflects a 9 per cent increase in volumes, however, in value terms, deals posted a decrease of 28 per cent, primarily due to the previous quarter’s $8.5 billion Reliance-Disney mega-merger. The quarter featured one-billion-dollar deal and 30 high-value deals, marking a 58 per cent increase in high-value deals compared to the previous quarter, which had only 19 high-value deals including three billion-dollar deals.

Up next – Stocks like RVNL, IRCON International, IRFC, and other listed railway companies were trading at their new all-time high. Shares of Rail Vikas Nigam soared 15.6% to a fresh record high of Rs 567.50. While the Indian Railway Finance Corporation rose by 9.44% to a new all-time high of Rs 206. RailTel rallied over 7.5% to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 559.40. According to Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President of Research at Religare Broking, order wins and expectation of continued focus on railways infra development in Union Budget is driving these stocks higher. On Friday, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the production of 2,500 new general passenger train coaches and approved an additional 10,000 coaches.

Moving on – MSME body Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises has urged the government to introduce a sector-agnostic production linked incentive scheme tailored specifically for MSMEs, with a focus on employment generation. In its detailed 10-point recommendations to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ahead of the first full budget of the Modi 3.0 government on July 23, FISME highlighted the need for a revised PLI framework that prioritizes sectors capable of generating maximum employment per unit of investment, positioning MSMEs to gain significantly. FISME expressed concerns about the existing PLI scheme’s ad-hoc and potentially lobby-driven approach, which may neglect crucial sectors. The organization emphasized the absence of key metrics such as job creation—an area where MSMEs demonstrate strong performance.

In another development – LIC Mutual Fund on Monday announced that it has appointed Nikhil Rungta as Co-Chief Investment Officer – Equity (Co-CIO) with effect from 19th June 2024. Nikhil Rungta’s appointment assumes significance as the Co-CIO is key personnel for schemes run by the Asset Management Company. Nikhil Rungta has over 16 years of experience in the equity and capital markets segment at reputed financial organizations. He holds an MBA (Finance) from Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and is a qualified Rank Holder Chartered Accountant. He is also a trained Financial Risk Management professional having certification from the Global Association of Risk Professionals, USA. Prior to this appointment, Nikhil Rungta has served as Equity Fund Manager – SBI Pension Funds.

Meanwhile – Larsen and Toubro announced that its Renewable arm has secured a mega order from a leading developer in Middle East to develop two Gigawatt scale Solar PV plants. Earlier last month, L&T had announced bagging a solar-cum-storage plant order in India. Now, with the fresh mega orders, L&T’s renewables portfolio is poised to reach 22 GWp (Gigawatt Peak) cumulative capacity, comprising solar and wind generation projects already commissioned and those in the making. According to the company, the value of significant order is between Rs 1000 crore and Rs 2500 crore, large orders are worth Rs 2500 crore- Rs 5000 crore, major orders are in the range of Rs 5000 crore- Rs 7000 crore and mega orders are above Rs 7000 crore.

In other news – Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are expected to see a sequential growth of around 2% in revenue in the April-June quarter. The growth, which will be similar to the preceding quarter, will be led by an increase in data consumption, new subscriber additions and postpaid adoption, according to analysts. However, analyst estimates suggest Vodafone Idea will continue to witness a decline in revenue for the third straight quarter. The telecom operator could see a 0.5% sequential fall in revenue to Rs 10,550 crore, owing to subscriber loss and the absence of network expansion. Vodafone Idea is expected to see its losses narrowing marginally to Rs 7,600 crore from Rs7,675 crore in the January-March quarter, according to analysts.

Lastly – The benchmark equity indices closed the trading session on a negative note on July 08. The BSE Sensex fell 36 points or 0.05% to finish the day’s trading at 79,960.38, while the NSE Nifty 50 closed 3.30 points or 0.01% lower at 24,320.55. Bank Nifty closed in the red down 234.55 points or 0.45% at 52,425.80. Bucking the trend, Nifty Midcap 100 closed 201.25 points or 0.35% lower at 56,888.20.