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Mumbai: Shares of IIFL Finance plunged 20% Tuesday, the lowest tradeable limit of the day, after the Reserve Bank of India asked the company to stop disbursing and sanctioning gold loans with immediate effect on Monday. Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance, two of the country's top gold financing companies, rose as the central bank's move is expected to benefit these firms.IIFL shares closed at ₹477.7, after experiencing their largest single-day fall since November 2008. Muthoot Finance ended 2.1% higher at ₹1365.2 after rising as much as 10.6% earlier in the day. Manappuram Finance was up 1.3% to close at ₹186.2 after gaining up to 8.2%.Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance will directly benefit from the move as gold financing is their core business, said Raj Gaikar, research analyst at Samco Securities."Muthoot Finance mainly focuses on the gold loan lending business while Manappuram is engaged in other formats of lending businesses also. More than 80% of Muthoot Finance's total loans are gold loans, this indicates they will focus on gaining customers of IIFL," said Gaikar. "Since Gold prices are already soaring to lifetime highs, these two companies are likely to be big beneficiaries."Gold prices crossed ₹65,000 for for the first time, touching an all-time high, during the day on MCX Tuesday.Over 32% of IIFL Finance consists of gold loans with assets under management (AUM) of ₹20,733 crore.

Mumbai: Shares of Tata Motors gained 3.5% to an all-time high of ₹1,022 on Tuesday following the announcement of the demerger of its commercial and passenger vehicle divisions. Various analysts said upsides in the stock could be limited from the current levels after the 132% surge in the price in the past one year.Motilal Oswal Financial, while downgrading its ratings on Tata Motors to 'neutral' from 'buy' with a target price of ₹1,000, said the current price has factored in all triggers."While the demerger seems to be a step in the right direction, we do not foresee any need to revisit our target price," said the brokerage. "Given the limited upside after the recent sharp run-up, we downgrade the stock to 'neutral'."108249850Post demerger, the passenger vehicles (PV) and commercial vehicles (CV) businesses will be two separately listed entities. Investors can opt to hold either the CV business, which includes the truck and buses segment, or the more profitable PV business, which includes the UK-based subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and electric vehicles segment. Analysts said the benefit of having a separate listed CV entity is that this business can access capital markets."We don't see this as any value unlocking event as the respective businesses were being adequately valued in the current valuation," said a note by ICICI Securities. "However, a potential value-unlocking event post this separation of businesses into two listed companies could also be the listing of its electric PV business, wherein it enjoys a dominant market share." ICICI Securitas has set a target of ₹ 1,000 per share.While downgrading Tata Motors' ratings, Emkay Global stated that the recent run-up offers limited upside potential."We do not envisage major fundamental changes as both businesses were run independently by their respective CEOs since 2021," said a note by Emkay Global.Nomura said Tata Motors' PV business has more potential to create value over the next few years. It has seen a turnaround after 2020, with market share ramping up from mid-single digits to 13.5% currently.HSBC Securities said, in a positive scenario, the demerger could provide a 25% upside from the current stock price over the next 12 months.

India and the UK are in the final stages of negotiating a free trade agreement with time running out as New Delhi gets ready to hold general elections in the next two months.A team of British trade negotiators is visiting New Delhi to iron out differences on India's demand for more visas for its workers and a social security agreement, and UK's asks for access in India's government procurement and inking a bilateral investment treaty before a trade pact.Officials said most talks have been completed at the negotiator level and a final decision on signing the FTA now rests with the two governments."It is a political call now. The UK has been raising more demands- sometimes tariffs, sometimes government procurement," said an official.Earlier, the two sides were discussingthat an announcement was likely in the first week of March followed by signing of the pact by the top leaders around March 12. New Delhi's demand for an agreement to avoid double contribution to social security funds by Indian professionals working for a limited period in Britain saw some level of acceptance by the British negotiators, people aware of the development said, but this requires the nod of UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. The move will be beneficial for Indian IT workers in the UK. The UK also wanted access to India's government procurement, especially centrally funded projects in states, something that New Delhi is not comfortable with."The UK wants more than what India gave the UAE. India should be cautious because whatever concessions it gives the UK would most likely get replicated in the EU and EFTA agreements," said a trade expert.

Mumbai-based Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL) has reduced the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) to Rs 73.50/Kg effective from midnight of 5th March 2024/ morning of 6th March 2024, the company said on Tuesday. "Due to reduction in gas input cost MGL is pleased to announce reduction in CNG price by Rs 2.5/Kg in and around Mumbai," the company said, adding that MGL’s CNG price now offers attractive savings of 53% compared to petrol and 22% compared to diesel at current price levels in Mumbai.This reduction in CNG price would help to increase the consumption of natural gas in transportation segment, which is a step towards making India cleaner and greener, the company added.MGL's scrip ended at Rs 1564.85, up 1.15% on the BSE, Tuesday.