Business News

The capital of Bihar stood in thrall to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday when the charismatic leader held a spectacular roadshow in Patna in the thick of Lok Sabha elections. A distance of about a kilometre and a half was covered by the prime minister, who stood atop a vehicle painted in the hue of saffron and bedecked with flowers and images of the leader and cutouts of the lotus, the BJP's poll symbol. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is an NDA partner, Deputy CM and state BJP president Samrat Choudhary and local MP Ravi Shankar Prasad were perched beside Modi as he waved at the euphoric crowds shrieking with joy from beyond iron barricades put up by security personnel. The BJP, which depends heavily on the prime minister's persona in elections, had demonstrably worked hard to make "The Modi Show", the name given to the Patna event, a grand success. The vehicle, on which the leader stood, followed a swarm of women supporters, dressed in saffron saris with turbans of the same shade on their heads, besides badges inscribed with the lotus pinned on their dresses. Known for his ability to strike a rapport with the common people, Modi waved at the citizens, many of them standing on balconies or beside windows of their houses, which were decorated with mini bulbs and flowers to welcome the leader. On the streets, many bystanders furiously clicked on their mobile phones to capture the momentous occasion, while others stood waving placards and banners with slogans in praise of the PM. Modi, who became the first prime minister to have held a roadshow anywhere in Bihar, charmed the citizens with his humility when he bowed down with folded hands to greet groups of priests who stood on either side of the road, performing an "aarati" in the honour of the devout leader. The PM arrived here in the evening, after a day of gruelling poll campaign in the adjoining state of West Bengal, and was greeted at the airport by leaders like Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha, assembly Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav and the BJP's state general secretary in charge Bhikhu Bhai Dalsania. The PM drove straight to Bhattacharjee Road, the point of commencement of the roadshow which concluded at Udyog Bhavan, a stone's throw from the historic Gandhi Maidan where Modi delivered his famous maiden speech in Bihar more than eight years ago, unfazed by bombs going off at the venue. Chants of mantras and blowing of conch shells reverberated through the landscape as the PM climbed atop the vehicle, which party supporters called a "rath", a veritable chariot that would propel the BJP-led NDA towards electoral victory. People from various faiths seemed to have come out on the streets to welcome the PM, with many burqa-clad women spotted among the citizens, joining the chorus of "Jai Shri Ram". Many onlookers also flashed their phone lights, obviously drawing inspiration from rallies of Modi where he has been known to make people do the same by way of showing solidarity. The roadshow, just a day ahead of third phase of voting, marks yet another episode in the PM's intensive campaign in the state, where he has so far addressed seven election rallies. After retiring for the night at the Raj Bhavan, Modi is scheduled to pay a visit to the famous Sikh shrine Takht Harmandir Patna Sahib before addressing rallies in Hajipur, Muzaffarpur and Saran, which go to polls in the subsequent phase.

Bomb threat sent Delhi police into a tizzy on May 12, the second time in a matter of weeks after the school bomb hoax. The Indira Gandhi International Airport and two hospitals in the capital city got bomb threats via email on Sunday, which led to frenzied searches at the locations.The two hospitals are Burari Government Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Mangolpuri. Responding to the incidents, the Delhi Police quickly launched an investigation.Delhi fire service said that Indira Gandhi International Airport also received a bomb threat email.Officials received the first call at 3:15 pm from Burari Hospital, followed by another from Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital at around 4:26 pm, media reports said. "Bomb threat email were received at Burari Government Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Mangolpuri, search operation underway," Delhi fire service issued a statement."An email was received at Burari Hospital regarding a bomb threat. The local police and Bomb Disposal Teams (BDT) are at the hospital, checking for any suspicious activity. Nothing has been found yet," news agencies reported quoting Delhi Police.A few days ago, a large number of schools (as many as 131, according to some reports) in Delhi and Noida received bomb threat mails, which caused huge panic among students, parents and the authorities.Following the school scare episode, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an official statement calling the email a "hoax." An official MHA statement said, "There is no need to panic. The mail appears to be a hoax. Delhi Police and security agencies are taking necessary steps as per protocol."

Eighty-five per cent of about 12,000 freshers set to join the country's largest lender SBI in FY25 are engineering graduates, its chairman Dinesh Khara has said. The bank is in the process of onboarding up to 12,000 freshers in the roles of probationary officers and associates in FY25, and there is no bias towards onboarding engineers in the ranks, Khara said, stressing that this is not by design. After training the over 3,000 POs and over 8,000 associates with some banking knowledge, they will be channelised into various business roles. It can be noted that this comes at a time when the banking sector is increasing its dependency on technology as it looks for newer ways of enthralling the customer, while some players are also grappling with challenges on this front. "We expose them into banking and thereafter, channelise them into various roles in business and IT, depending on their aptitude and temperament, and that is something which is helping us ensure that there is a continuous supply of tech manpower to the bank," Khara told PTI. The development also comes at a time when the attrition in the IT sector - a favourite job avenue for engineering grads - is going down, leading to lower hiring by such firms even as the supply of engineering grads is high. Khara said SBI invests a lot in terms of training the manpower and also has a dedicated in-house institute focused on instilling technology skills. Every staff has to be ahead of the curve on technology, Khara said, pointing out that the bank handles a huge volume of transactions, and the same has to go through. "Technology is very important, and none of us can ignore it," he said, adding that the bank also gets guidance from the regulator on such aspects on a regular basis. Lately, the sector regulator RBI has increased its focus on technology and penalised banks for shortcomings. Khara declined to share the overall tech spending by the bank but stressed that it is the highest in the industry, while an official said it is much higher than the industry average of 7-8 per cent of the operational expenses.

The shares of Indegene will list on the exchanges on Monday and the unlisted market trends indicate robust listing gains for allotted investors.The company's shares are trading with a GMP of Rs 290 in the grey market, and considering the upper price band of Rs 490, the stock is expected to list with a premium of over 60%.Ahead of the issue opening, the company raised nearly Rs 549 crore from anchor investors.Some of the marquee investors who participated in the anchor round include Capital Group, Fidelity Investments, Loomis Sayles and Company, Jupiter Asset Management, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, SBI Mutual Fund, and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, among others.The IPO comprised fresh equity issue worth up to Rs 750 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 2.93 crore equity shares by existing investors.Under the OFS, Manish Gupta, Rajesh Bhaskaran Nair, Anita Nair, Carlyle, Brighton Park Capital, and Nadathur Family Office, among others, offloaded shares.The funds raised through the fresh issue would be used to pay debt, fund capital expenditure requirements, payment of deferred consideration for one of its past acquisitions, fund inorganic growth, and general corporate purposes.Analysts believe Indegene IPO gave investors a unique opportunity to invest in a leading provider of digital-led commercialisation services tailored for the life sciences industryFounded in 1998, Indegene offers solutions that help enable biopharmaceutical, emerging biotech, and medical devices companies to develop products, launch them in the market, and drive sales throughout their life cycle.The company combines over two decades of healthcare domain expertise and our technology platforms to provide solutions that assist life science companies in clinical trials, support their regulatory and safety operations, aid in the launch of their products in the market, and drive sales and marketing through the life cycle of their products.For the period ended December 2023, the company clocked revenue from operations of Rs 1,969 crore and posted a profit after tax of Rs 241 crore.Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India, J P Morgan India, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) are the book-running lead managers to the issue.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Indian market recouped losses to close in the black. The S&P BSE Sensex rose over 260 points, while the Nifty50 reclaimed 22,000.Sectorally, buying was seen in telecom, metal, oil & gas, power, and utilities, while selling was seen in banks, realty, and IT stocks.Stocks in focus include names like Hindustan Zinc, which was up more than 15% to hit a fresh record high, while Escorts Kubota rose over 3% on Friday.We have collated a list of three stocks that either hit fresh 52-week highs, or all-time highs or saw a volume or a price breakout.We spoke to an analyst on how one should look at these stocks the next trading day entirely from an educational point of view: Analyst: Kunal Kamble, Sr Technical Analyst at Bonanza PortfolioHindustan Zinc: AvoidOn August 31, 2015, Hindustan Zinc took the support of 200 and 50-EMA (placed at 127) and rallied up to 340, but then corrected towards the 200-EMA (placed at 157), making a higher low.It rallied again towards the previous level of 340 and retracement was seen towards the 50-day EMA placed at 245 forming an Ascending Triangle pattern with a shortfall, indicating a breakout on the upside.A breakout was witnessed on March 28, 2024, and the stock since then has rallied towards 530 levels – a move expected to extend towards 560 levels.However, at the current market price, it is better to avoid a fresh entry and any throwback to the 400 level would be an opportunity to enter. 110051792Escorts: Buy On DipsEscort is running its 3rd wave and 5th wave, targeting towards 3721 level and extended moves can be expected towards 40,000 levels.The price has taken support at 50 EMA and moved upward, which will be a strong support in the coming months.A dip towards the 2,800 level would be an opportunity to enter long in the security. 110051769(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

NEW DELHI: Large public sector companies have spent a little over Rs 50,200 crore towards capital expenditure in April FY25 alone, which is 6.46 per cent of their full fiscal target of Rs 7.77 lakh crore, an official said. The pace albeit is slower than Rs 54,177 crore capex spent in April FY24, about 7.3 per cent of the full year budget target of Rs 7.42 lakh crore. "The capex spending will pick up going forward. Also, the numbers for April are still provisional and will go up in the revised final numbers," the official told PTI. The capital expenditure during the first month of 2024-25 fiscal was driven by railways, road, and oil and gas sectors. The Indian Railways and sector PSUs spent Rs 26,641 crore in April, followed by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at Rs 6,645 crore. Among oil and gas sector PSUs, ONGC incurred capex of Rs 2,318 crore, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Rs 2,423 crore in the first month of the current financial year. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd spent Rs 1,155 crore and Rs 417 crore, respectively in April. Power sector PSU NTPC spent Rs 2,083 crore. The finance ministry tracks capital expenditure of public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have an annual investment target of over Rs 100 crore. The Interim Budget for 2024-25 set a cumulative capital expenditure target of Rs 9.01 lakh crore for all public sector undertakings. Of this, Rs 7.77 lakh crore worth capex is to be spent by PSUs with over Rs 100 crore of annual capital expenditure target. In 2023-24, large PSUs spent Rs 8.05 lakh crore towards capex, exceeding the budget target of Rs 7.42 lakh crore.

The fourth quarter results season is coming to a fag-end, and analysts said despite earnings largely meeting expectations, there is a noticeable moderation in the overall earnings landscape.Some notable companies that will announce their earnings this week include Varun Beverages, Zomato, Airtel, Siemens, Power Finance Corp, Mahindra and Mahindra, HAL, and JSW Steel, among others. Overall, around 501 companies are set to release their quarterly numbers this week.Here's what's on the Q4 earnings table next weekMay 13Varun Beverages, Zomato, Jindal Steel, Tube Investments, Aditya Birla Cipla, UPL, Sanofi India, Chalet Hotels, Karur Vysya, Inox India, KPI Green, Electrosteel Castings, Bombay Bumrah, CE Info Systems, Cera Sanitaryware, Ethos, Aarti Pharmalabs, Alembic, Yasho Industries, Nelcast among others will announce their earnings on tomorrow.May 14Bharti Airtel, Siemens, Shree Cements, Colgate-Palmolive, Oberoi Realty, Patanjali Foods, Bharti Hexacom, AIA Engineering, Apar Industries, Apollo Tyres, Radico Khaitan, Devyani International, BASF India, Shyam Metalics, PVR Inox, Zydus Wellness, Bajaj Electrical, and others will release their fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, May 14.May 15Power Finance Corp, Canara Bank, Mankind Pharma, Jindal Stainless, Rail Vikas Nigam, Dixon Technologies, Honeywell Automation, LIC Housing Finance, NLC India, Hatsun Agro Products, Tirdent, Jyothy Labs, NCC, Titagarh Rail Systems, Asahi India Glass, Clean Science and Tech, among others, will announce earnings for the quarter ended March 2024.May 16Mahindra and Mahindra, HAL, GAIL, Solar Industries, Info Edge, Container Corp, Biocon, Data Infrastructure Trust, Motherson Sumi Wiring, Endurance Technologies, Ratnamani Metals, Crompton Greaves, Triveni Turbine, among others, will declare quarterly results on Thursday.May 17JSW Steel, Zydus Lifesciences, NHPC, Astral, Global Health, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Godrej Health, Pfizer, Sobha, Poly Medicure, Amber Enterprises, Zee Enterprises, Shipping Corp, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries, Rashtriya Chemicals, Varroc Engineering, Nava, among others, will announce results for March quarter.May 18Ujjivan SFB, Dodla Dairy, Tide Water, IFGL Water, Vimta Labs, IRISI Business Services, Vikrant Global Capital Prithvi Exchange, and BDH Industries will declare Q4 results on Saturday.