– DoT moots 4-yr moratorium on AGR, spectrum payments
– Sebi wants T+1 settlement for trades
– Cairn expects $1.06 billion refund in retro tax case
– Pay hikes may be at pre-Covid levels in FY22
Now lemme give you a quick glance on the state of the markets.
Dalal Street is likely to have a positive start this morning. Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 40 points higher at 8:40 hours (IST). Asian markets opened mixed on Wednesday as investors sought to lock in profits after recent rallies and US Stock settled mixed after an extended weekend. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.11 per cent.
Elsewhere, the yield on 10-year Treasuries was at 1.37%. The dollar hovered near a one-week peak on Wednesday against major peers, buoyed by higher Treasury yields and a weaker euro amid caution before a European Central Bank policy decision. Bitcoin traded around $47,000.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, paring overnight losses, with producers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico struggling to restart operations nine days after Hurricane Ida swept through. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 27 cents, or 0.4%, to $68.62 a barrel.
That said, here’s what is making news.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has proposed a ‘trade-plus-one’ (T+1) settlement cycle from January 1, where the trades will get settled the day after the transaction. Initially, exchanges can pick stocks where they want to offer the next-day settlement. Under T+1, the buyer would get shares in the demat account and the seller the sale proceeds the day after the trade. Currently, trades are settled two working days after execution. T+1 will put India among a handful of countries that have the shorter settlement cycle. In a circular on Tuesday, Sebi said stock exchanges may choose to offer the T+1 settlement cycle on any of the stocks after giving a notice of at least one month on the change to all stakeholders.
After a sluggish movement since March, the stock of Reliance Industries (RIL) has gained nearly 18% within a month ahead of the company’s launch of affordable smartphones on September 10. Nearly a quarter of the total smartphones are priced below Rs 7,500 per unit. This may help the company to reach the 500 million subscriber base by FY24 and improve ARPU by 10-15%. India’s largest company by revenue and market capitalisation is slated to launch an entry level smartphone priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,500 in partnership with Google. Out of the total 430 million smartphones sold in India, around 25% are in the affordable segment. Therefore, lowcost sets in this segment would help RIL to migrate feature phone users to smartphones faster.
Stocks that exhibit lower fluctuations relative to the benchmark indices are often considered to be boring given the general perception that their performance is subpar compared with the growth stocks. But, an analysis by ETIG shows that these boring stocks tend to perform better on a longer investment horizon. The Nifty Alpha Low Volatility 30 index has delivered a 19.2% return annually over the past decade compared with the 13.1% gain in the Nifty 50. In addition, the 10-year rolling return of the former index has outperformed the benchmark by more than 4% on a consistent basis.
LASTLY,
El Salvador’s historic adoption of bitcoin as legal tender on Tuesday was beset by teething problems, as an angry protest by mistrustful citizens, technological glitches and a dip in the cryptocurrency clouded the rollout. The bold experiment got off to a bumpy start when shortly after midnight, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele complained the government-backed bitcoin app was not available on various internet platforms including Apple and Huawei.
NOW Before I go, here is a look at some of the stocks buzzing this morning…
As budget carrier SpiceJet firms up plans to restart flying Boeing MAX, the airline is seeking more discounts on future deliveries of
the aircraft from Boeing and a meeting in this regard is to take place in the US at the end of September.
Embassy Office Parks REIT has raised Rs 300 crore in non-convertible debentures (NCDs) at a 6.80% quarterly coupon from long-term investors that include insurance companies.
CreditAccess Grameen is planning to expand into new states, as the microfinance firm has become more confident about handling the stress
arising out of the pandemic.
Shapoorji Pallonji-backed Sterling and Wilson Solar is said to be in sale talks with bulge bracket private equity funds, including Canadian funds such as Brookfield and CPPIB, as well as Indian conglomerates such as Adani Group and Reliance Industries, hoping to reap the benefits of increased interest in renewable energy in the country.
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 with us for all the market news through the day. Happy investing!
