Look who all are in the running for a hot seat in Nifty
Nadella becomes top boss at Microsoft
Carlyle arm likely to sell 5% in SBI Cards today
SEC again delays call on approval to Bitcoin ETF
Now let me give you a quick glance on the state of the markets.
Dalal Street looked headed for a gap-up start as Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 66 points higher ahead of the opening of Indian markets. Stocks in other Asian markets has a mixed start. Equities opened in the green in South Korea and Australia, while Japanese shares slipped. US technology shares rallied overnight on Wall Street helping Nasdaq to hit another record.
Elsewhere, the dollar pared gains. US treasury yields steadied from a tumble. Crude oil slipped after shedding nearly 2% from its highest level in years on Thursday.
That said, here’s what is making news.
First, the most exciting news. An Indian is now Microsoft top boss. Satya Nadella has been elevated as Chairman of Microsoft, a recognition of how dramatically he has transformed the world’s largest software maker as chief executive over the past seven years. He will continue to also hold the CEO position. This makes it the first time since 2000, when co-founder Bill Gates stepped down as CEO, that the same person is holding both positions, demonstrating the company’s confidence in Nadella’s ability to take it into the future.
Nifty may soon have two new members. Edelweiss Alternative Research says Avenue Supermarts, owner of DMart, and online job posting website operator Info Edge (India) are in the running for inclusion in the benchmark Nifty. The brokerage said currently the calculations do not show any confirmed Nifty inclusion or exclusion candidates. Edelweiss said Avenue Supermarts meets most of the criteria for inclusion, the only one absent being that it is not a part of the derivatives segment.
SBI Cards will be one counter to watch today. US private equity fund CA Rover Holdings, an affiliate of Carlyle Asia Partners, is looking to sell 5.1% stake in SBI Cards and Payment Services worth $682 million (Rs 5,000 crore) through a block deal on Friday, ET reported. The per share price band has been decided by the seller at Rs 1,002-1,041.30, some 4.7% discount to Thursday’s closing price of Rs 1,051 on NSE. As of March 31 this year, CA Rover Holdings held 11.61% in SBI Cards and Payment Services.
US regulators have once again punted their decision on whether to approve a Bitcoin ETF. The SEC said in a Wednesday regulatory filing that it will seek more public comment on a proposal to list a product on CBOE Global Markets. It’s the second time this year that the SEC has delayed giving an answer to the legions of crypto advocates pushing for a way to trade the largest cryptocurrency in an exchange-traded fund format.
And lastly, India’s foreign exchange reserves, which recently crossed the $600 billion mark for the first time, may be deceptive as they will be adequate to finance less than 15 months’ actual imports in FY22 against 20 months’ at current levels, a Reserve Bank of India research paper has said. “In terms of projected imports for 2021-22, the current level of reserves provides cover for less than 15 months, which is lower than for other major reserve holders,” warns the paper authored by RBI deputy governor Michael Patra and his team of economists.
Before I go, here is a look at some of the stocks buzzing this morning.
Tata Motors is understood to be mulling an option to extend its current CEO, Guenter Butschek’s term by another year, ET reported.
Kotak Institutional Equities has downgraded Wipro to ‘reduce’ from ‘add’ following a nearly 30% surge in share price over the past three months.
Religare Enterprises is considering an IPO of up to Rs 2,000 crore for its health insurance subsidiary Care Health Insurance.
HDFC Bank on Thursday said it would refund its auto loan customers the commission charged for a GPS device bundled with the loans from fiscal 2014 to 2020.
Do also check out over two dozen stock recommendations for today’s trade from top analysts on ETMarkets.com.
That’s it for now. Stay put with us for all the market news through the day. Happy investing!
