Business News at 10:00 am on 9th July, 2024

Let’s begin, the four Tata Group airlines have completed the harmonisation of operating manuals in the run-up to the Vistara-Air India merger and amalgamation of AIX Connect with Air India Express, a company statement said on Monday. Following the completion of the harmonisation of the operating manuals, Air India said there will be two separate manuals, one for the full-service carrier Air India and the other for the low-cost cost-carrier, Air India Express. Before this, all four airlines had separate operating manuals. The harmonisation will enable Tata Group airlines’ to align best practices and adopt common operating procedures. Over the last 18 months, a team of more than 100 members have worked to align on the best practices and adopt common operating procedures, Air India said.
Over to Industry news, Dutch investment group, Prosus is close to leading a funding round of $100 million in omni-channel jewellery startup, BlueStone, industry sources said. The round is likely to value BlueStone at around $960 million, more than double its valuation of $440 million as of September 2023.The round, which is expected to be a mix of primary and secondary share sale, may also include VC firms like Peak XV Partners, Steadview Capital, and Think Investments, sources added. Around $60 million of the round is expected to be a primary capital raise, which BlueStone will plough back into the business. The balance will be a secondary component, in which early investors are likely to offload a portion of their shares.’
Now news from market, IPO-bound MobiKwik is leveraging its Pocket UPI offering for a bigger unified payments interface market share. The company’s share in wallet transaction value rose to 23.1% in May from 11.3% in March, according to latest data from the Reserve Bank of India. It also recorded the largest number of prepaid payment instrument wallet transactions by value during the month, at Rs 2,673 crore. Pocket UPI, which MobiKwik rolled out in February, enables users to make UPI payments through the firm’s wallet without linking their bank account. The widespread adoption of the platform in Tier 2 and 3 cities has helped increase wallet transactions. It has only a 0.12% share in the overall UPI transaction market, dominated by PhonePe and Google Pay.

Update on Monsoon, The India Meteorological Department on Monday predicted heavy rainfall over Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra, coastal Karnataka, parts of central, northeast and adjoining eastern India and Uttar Pradesh over the next five days. The active’ phase of monsoon progress, which commenced a fortnight ago, has already wiped out the 10% deficit witnessed in June. Till Monday in the current monsoon season, the rains stood 2% above the benchmark long period average. Monsoon rains between 96% to 104% of LPA is considered normal. The current figure is 102%. With the exception of central India, where rainfall received so far was 5% below benchmark till Monday, rest of regions – northwest 10.8%, south peninsula 12.8% and northeast 1.2% have received ‘above normal’ to normal rainfall.
Next on Budget, The government reopened the window for fresh applications from companies willing to invest under the Production Linked Incentive scheme for white goods and shifted to a system of quarterly processing of incentive claims for the sector. This will be the third round of applications under the scheme. The moves signal a more liberal approach by the government in doling out the sops, given that the PLI scheme hasn’t made much headway in many sectors, partly due to the stringent conditions attached. Quarterly release of the incentives may be made applicable to other sectors covered by the PLI as well, sources said. The PLI scheme for white goods is to run from 2021-22 to 2028-29, with an outlay of Rs 6,238 crore.
Moving to banking sector, Non-banking financial companies are likely to witness a slowdown in disbursements during the April-June period due to prolonged electoral activity and extreme heatwave-linked disruptions. However, the long-term outlook on the sector remains positive, say analysts. Quote Q1 being a seasonally-weak quarter and factoring in some uncertainties around the monsoon and slowdown in CV sales, we expect the growth in disbursements to be muted across the NBFC pack, unquote brokerage firm Emkay Global Financial Services said in a report. Nomura, too, is expecting a moderation in disbursement growth in the first quarter of the current financial year owing to a slowdown in unsecured loans amid increased regulatory oversight. Nomura, too, is expecting a moderation in disbursement growth.
Lastly, here’s a look at the key stocks to watch in trade. These are MGL, Concor, Godrej Consumers, Jupiter Wagons, Senco Gold, Sun Pharma. Mahanagar Gas has announced a price increase for Compressed Natural Gas and domestic Piped Natural Gas to partially offset rising gas costs whereas Godrej Consumer Products reported a mixed performance across its global operations for the latest quarter.