Business News

Equity indices Sensex and Nifty closed higher for the third session in a row on Tuesday, following gains in telecom, tech and consumer durable shares amid a firm trend in the global markets.Stocks that were in focus included names like ABFRL, which rose 9.24%, Tata Consumer, which was flat, and HUL, whose shares increased 0.96% on Tuesday.Here's what Viral Chheda, Sr Technical Analyst, SSJ Finance & Securities, recommends investors should do with these stocks when the market resumes trading today.ABFRLAfter making low around 198 in Mar 2024, price has given a sharp upside move to make the 52 week high of 273. Price has given almost 35% returned from its lower level as buyers were having the upper hand over bears.As the prices are at one year high we can see some profit booking and can see the price of anywhere between 220-230 odd levels. For long stock looks good and can be bought at every dip.The Stochastics Oscillator is moving in the overbought zone indicating some correction from current level. Hence one can buy at dips of 230 and more at 210 with stop loss of 195 on weekly closing basis and upside can be seen till 320-370 in the 10-12 months.Tata ConsumerIn the weekly chart we have seen the stock has given a sharp upside move from its lower level of 682 to make an all time high of 1269 odd levels.From highs price has witnessed some correction as it retraced almost 32% of previous rally to make a low of 1083. In the last 3-5 weeks price has moved in range of 1080-1160 and in the current week with high volume price has breached the consolidation phase and moving above that level indicating further upside from here.The Stochastics Oscillator is moving in the upward trend along with an increase in volume indicating upside movement with limited downside risk. Hence one can buy at current level and more at dips of 1100 with stop loss of 1050 on weekly closing basis and upside can be seen till 1400-1550 in the 10-12 months.Hindustan UnileverAfter making the high around 2669 in Han 2024, price has witnessed a bear run to make the 52 week low of 2172 odd levels. Lower Top Lower Bottom pattern is formed as sellers were having upper hand over bulls.From lows, stocks have given some pull back and are closing above 20 DMA of 2250 indicating some upside move from here. Stock can face a minor resistance around 2300, once this level is taken out we can see sharp upside moves and can touch 2450-2550 in no time.For the long term, stock looks goods and can be bought at every dip. The Stochastics Oscillator is moving in an upward trend along with an increase in volume indicating an upside movement with limited downside move.Hence one can buy at current level and more at dips of 2200 with SL of 2150 on weekly closing basis and upside can be seen till 2450-2550 in next 6-8 months.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Tesla reported Tuesday that it made significantly less money in the first three months of the year because of its tepid car sales, reinforcing concern among investors that the company led by Elon Musk is losing ground in the market for electric vehicles. Profit fell 55%, to $1.1 billion, from the first quarter of 2023, the company said. And revenue fell 9%, to $21.3 billion. A slump in earnings was seen as inevitable after Tesla said this month that sales in the first quarter fell 8.5% from a year earlier and after the company announced plans to lay off more than 10% of its employees worldwide, or about 14,000 people. The job cuts were interpreted as a sign that Tesla was struggling to bring costs in line with sinking revenue. In the first quarter of 2023, Tesla made $2.5 billion and had one of the best profit margins in the industry, the company said a year ago. But it has been forced to cut prices, lowering the amount it makes on each car it sells. For a while, that strategy seemed to help bolster the company's sales, but Tesla now appears to be struggling to attract buyers even with lower prices. Tesla's operating profit margin last quarter was 5.5%, half as much as a year earlier and in line with how much other automakers tended to earn. Tesla investors are increasingly worried that its falling sales and profit are a symptom of larger problems, possibly pointing to the company's inability to effectively respond to increased competition from established automakers and new carmakers from China. Musk signaled recently that Tesla would focus on autonomous driving technology and a vehicle he called the Robotaxi, sowing doubt about the company's plans to develop a new, lower-priced model that could make electric cars affordable to a broader range of customers and people in more countries. Tesla said Tuesday that it remained on track to start producing a lower-priced vehicle next year. But in a change designed to reduce upfront investment, the car will use some new components and some borrowed from existing vehicles. That strategy will allow Tesla to make its new model without building new factories, the company said. Tesla's share price, which had fallen by about 40% this year, surged in extended trading Tuesday after its first quarter report. Investors appeared to be pleased that the company was still planning a more affordable model. (This article originally appeared in The New York Times.)

Mumbai: Overseas investors were buyers of Indian equities worth ₹17,932 crore across 15 sectors between April 1 and 15, as per National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) data.Power sector received the highest inflow from foreign investors, who bought shares worth ₹5,143 crore after buying ₹45 crore in March. In 2023, the sector witnessed inflows worth ₹2,477 crore. With the government expected to boost the country's power capabilities as part of its ambition to make India into a manufacturing hub, the focus is on the companies that will benefit from the revival of the sector. Foreign portfolio investors continued to pump money into the financial shares with the sector receiving ₹3,212 crore inflows in the first half of the month. The sector received inflows of over ₹52,000 crore last year. 109546023Consumer services, automobiles and telecommunications also received foreign inflows worth over ₹1,500 crore each in the first 15 days of April. Overseas investors bought shares worth ₹1,228 crore in the capital goods sector, after infusing funds worth ₹3,789 crore in March. The sector had previously received strong inflows worth over ₹40,000 crore last year.Foreign investors offloaded shares worth ₹12,525 crore across eight sectors in the first half of April. IT witnessed the highest selling by foreign investors at ₹4,658 crore after they sold shares worth ₹1,659 crore in the sector in March. The sector saw foreign outflows worth over ₹7,000 crore in 2023.Fast moving consumer goods witnessed a shift in sentiment from foreign investors as they turned net sellers in the sectors worth ₹4,351 crore after buying shares worth ₹6,241 crore in March. Consumer durable and oil & gas sectors also saw foreign selling worth ₹1,624 crore and ₹923 crore, respectively.

Mumbai: The Volatility Index or VIX - stock market's fear gauge - unexpectedly plunged nearly 20% on Tuesday, as strengthening expectations of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance winning by a wide margin in the upcoming general elections further boosted risk-on sentiment in the market. Analysts said an imminent change in the lot size of Nifty derivative contracts from Friday could have also contributed to Tuesday's drop in the VIX - the third-largest fall in a day."The drop in VIX is unprecedented, as previously readings of VIX near 8-9% were seen when markets were making a top. This is showing that traders have become overly positive about the upcoming days."VIX, an index based on Nifty option premiums, is a measure of traders' perception of near-term risks to the market. When traders foresee higher uncertainty, VIX increases and vice-versa. In the past, VIX has tended to spike in the run-up to key events, like elections, when the outcomes tend to be uncertain. Soon after the election outcomes, VIX plunges with the uncertainty out of the way."Usually, option premiums stay highest during the month of polling until the day of the announcement of results," said Srivastava. "Last elections, we saw a movement of about 3% on results day, and a movement of about 7-8% in 2014, but this time the market has eliminated the outlook of a single-day movement and has already priced in and discounted the gains of the election results."109545964The drop in VIX on Tuesday was unprecedented and may be signalling that the market is complacent, said analysts. "This fall (in VIX) ahead of elections is unique because it always moves up before the announcement of the poll results," said Rajesh Palviya, head of technical and derivatives research at Axis Securities. "It also indicates that the market is confident or even overconfident about the outcome of the elections."The Sensex and the Nifty ended 0.1% higher on Tuesday in a choppy session, while the mid-cap and small-cap indices surged over 1% each.The VIX has mostly traded in the band of 11-14 in recent months. It hit a high of 16.7 in February before sliding to current levels. The gauge closed at 10.19 on Tuesday. In the past five years, the highest level that VIX has surged to was 86 in March 2020 - at the start Covid."VIX is trading at the lower range of its price band, which may not sustain as going ahead any uncertainty or event can lead to a pullback," said Palviya.A change in the lot size for Nifty options from the expiry of April contracts on Thursday also added to the fall in VIX."The lot size of Nifty have been cut from 50 to 25 starting the May expiry. This will lead to an increase in liquidity and a reduction of the bid-ask spread of OTM (Out of the Money) call and put options," said Apurva Sheth, head of research at Samco Securities. "The reduction in spreads may have led to a fall in India VIX calculation which considers both the near and next month's OTM option premiums for calculations."Analysts said signs of receding tensions in West Asia is also easing uncertainty. "We saw a fall in India VIX as the tensions related to a war between Iran and Israel have subsided, along with the results of market heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC Bank and RIL already declared, which has reduced volatility," said Ruchit Jain, lead research analyst at 5Paisa.com. "Premiums have declined in both call and put sides, which is beneficial for option sellers but negative for option buyers, as the move in premium has been disproportionate."

NEW DELHI: One of India’s most industrialised states takes a much larger share of funds under the rural employment guarantee scheme than its poorest — and more populous — state, puzzling policymakers as they firm up the work demand target for the current fiscal.Tamil Nadu and Bihar are a study in contrast, admit senior government officials and experts. Over the past five years, Tamil Nadu accounted for 10-15.3% of the country's annual work demand submitted by individuals, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), while Bihar made up just 4-5.7%, according to the rural development ministry data.As for the person-days generated under the scheme, Tamil Nadu’s annual share has been in the range of 8.6% to 13.1% over the past five years, while Bihar’s remained in the 5-8% range.The expenditure under the scheme was 7.6-12.7% of the national level in Tamil Nadu, against 5-7.5% in Bihar.Southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have been cornering a larger share of MGNREGS funds than other states with similar population or workforce for some years now despite being more progressive, central and state government officials conceded.Reasons for DisparityBut the disparity between Tamil Nadu and Bihar is the most discernible.“These two states are true outliers in the MGNREGS scheme of things,” one of them told ET.Officials and some experts cite two likely factors for this disparity: a more efficient administrative set-up as well as higher participation of women in MGNREGS work in Tamil Nadu.109541806Another official said more than 80% of active MGNREGS workers in Tamil Nadu are women, while it’s about 54% in Bihar.“This suggests that in Tamil Nadu, the scheme is probably being used to supplement family income in many cases, while in Bihar, it’s primarily being tapped to address rural distress or poverty alleviation,” he said.Suspecting possible fund diversion under the MGNREGS, finance ministry officials had earlier called for plugging leakages, especially at the state level.109541811The contrast becomes all the more pronounced when the gross domestic product and population of both the states are compared. Tamil Nadu accounted for 8.7-9.2% of the country’s nominal GDP annually over the past five years, while Bihar’s remained at just about 3%.According to the 2011 census, Bihar’s population, however, is 44% higher than that of Tamil Nadu, which means its workforce is no smaller than the southern state.

TV broadcast distribution companies are bundling traditional and digital services to arrest subscriber churn with platform-agnostic content consumption and on-demand viewing getting more prevalent, say industry executives.Having lost customers to over-the-top (OTT) platforms, traditional TV distribution platforms are looking at bundled services to retain customers. In 2023, the domestic pay TV industry lost two million customers, according to a Ficci-EY report.Telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have been bundling data and content for several years. Among standalone players, DTH company Tata Play has been bundling linear TV and OTT offerings for subscribers through a single billing.Airtel is offering a combination of direct-to-home (DTH), broadband, and OTT through the Airtel Black plan, while Jio has been providing linear TV and OTT through wired broadband service, JioFiber. In fact, Airtel Black has helped the Bharti Airtel-owned DTH platform, Airtel Digital TV, build customer stickiness. "Today 25% of our DTH acquisitions are happening through the converged plans," Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said during the company's Q3 earnings call.Dish TV has also launched an integrated bouquet that offers both linear TV and OTT content to consumers for the same price. The move is part of the company's strategy to stem customer churn and save capex on new customer acquisitions."We felt that there is a need gap in the market to provide a bundled offering to customers who want one subscription for both TV and OTT content," said Dish TV CEO Manoj Dobhal. He added that the initiative will help the DTH company retain subscribers amid increasing churn in the industry.109541777"Our capex will come down if we manage to retain subscribers because of this initiative. It will also help us acquire new customers," Dobhal said. Cable TV operator GTPL Hathway is bundling cable TV services with broadband to retain customers. Both DTH and cable TV service providers are facing 0.5-1% customer churn every month. During its Q4 earnings call, GTPL Hathway chief strategy officer Piyush Pankaj said the company's overarching strategy involves the convergence of both cable TV and broadband services to provide holistic bundles to subscribers. He also added that the company is adding other services such as gaming, OTT, and TV to offer a holistic offering to subscribers."This will not only help improve customer stickiness, thereby reducing the churn but will also help us increase our ARPU and thus improve our margins," Pankaj said.