Marketbuzz Podcast With Reema Tendulkar: Sensex, Nifty50 likely to open higher tracking Asian markets

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 are likely to start Tuesday’s session on a positive note tracking gains across Asian markets despite a sluggish session on Wall Street overnight. At 8:21 am, Nifty futures trading on Singapore Exchange — an early indicator of NSE’s Nifty50 benchmark index in India — were up 55 points or 0.3 percent at 18,194, having risen as much as 64 points earlier in the day.

About MarketBuzz: The CNBCTV18.com podcast on the big themes, vital news and key events that you should know before the opening bell, powered by CNBC-TV18 anchors. MarketBuzz is your daily morning briefing by CNBC-TV18 research analysts and anchors Sonia Shenoy, Ekta Batra, Anisha Jain, Nigel D’Souza and Mangalam Maloo to jumpstart your stock market investing. Subscribe to our free podcasts on Audioboom or listen on the featured podcast page on CNBCTV18.com.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s a look at buzzing stocks for trade on Nov 16

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Positive sentiment in Asian markets may push Indian headline indices to open higher on Tuesday. Here are the top 10 buzzing stocks for trade today:

Escorts | The company will increase prices of its tractors, effective November  21, owing to the steady rise in commodity prices. The price increase would vary across models and variants, Escorts said.

Steel Authority of India | Brickwork Ratings reaffirmed the ratings of the NCD issues of SAIL with a change in outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’. The change in outlook follows the strengthening of its balance sheet along with deleveraging supported by increased cash accruals from business operations, global economic scenario and increase in commodity prices since 3Q of FY21. Steel demand is expected to be at elevated levels during FY22 which is expected to benefit SAIL.

Cipla | The company has been added to the ‘Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index’. The index comprises 108 companies from 12 emerging economies.

Karnataka Bank | Pradeep Kumar assumes charge as Chairman of Karnataka Bank. He is a seasoned banker with nearly 4 decades of banking experience at the largest bank of the country, State Bank of India.

Sagar Cements | The company’s board of directors at its meeting to be held on November 18, is likely to take up for consideration, inter-alia, a proposal to raise resources to fund its expansion or acquisitions as opportunities may arise.

Graphite India | ICRA reaffirmed the long term rating at AA+ and short term rating at A1+ for Rs 1,000 crore bank working capital facilities of the company. The outlook on the long-term rating is revised to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’. ICRA assigned short-term rating at A1+ for Rs 300 crore commercial paper programme of the company.

Phoenix Mills | Canada Pension Plan Investment Board through its entity, CPP Investment Board Private Holdings (4) Inc, will invest up to Rs 1,350 crore in multiple tranches in Phoenix Mills’ subsidiary Plutocrat Commercial Real Estate. Post the subsequent tranches of investment by CPP Investments, it is envisaged that CPP investments may further increase its stake to 49 percent from 35.90 percent.

Ashiana Housing | The company has entered into a development agreement for developing a residential project in Jaipur on revenue sharing basis.

Kesoram Industries | The company’s board of directors will meet on November 20 to consider and approve various fund-raising options.

EPL | The company announced a major conversion of a leading brand partner Vicco Labs to 100 percent recyclable packaging. Vicco labs and EPL have jointly worked to convert Vicco’s ‘Turmeric’ range of products to recyclable Platina tubes.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin goes through major upgrade. Here is what it means

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin went through a major upgrade on Sunday that enables its blockchain to execute more complex transactions, potentially widening the virtual currency’s use cases and making it a little more competitive with Ethereum for processing smart contracts.

Smart contracts are self-executing transactions whose results depend on pre-programmed inputs.

The enhancement, called Taproot, is the most significant change to the bitcoin protocol since the SegWit (Segregated Witness) block capacity change in 2017. SegWit effectively increased the amount of transactions that could fit into a block by pulling data on signatures from bitcoin transactions.

Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis, a digital currency prime broker, said bitcoin’s potential applications have become broader with Taproot.

“More flexible transaction types and lower costs are likely to support more development of DeFi (decentralized finance) and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on bitcoin, and could set the stage for a wave of technological progress on the original crypto network,” she added.

The run-up to Taproot’s activation has spurred, in part, a rally in bitcoin, pushing it to an all-time high of $69,000 on November 10. Over the last two months, bitcoin has surged about 47%.

WHAT IS TAPROOT?

The Taproot upgrade consists of three separate upgrade proposals. However, at its core, the upgrade introduces a new digital signature scheme called “Schnorr” that will help bitcoin transactions become more efficient and more private. Schnorr can also be leveraged to let bitcoin users execute more complex smart contracts.

WHEN WAS TAPROOT OFFICIALLY ACTIVATED?

Taproot was officially activated on Sunday on block 709,632. Blockchains settle transactions in batches or blocks. Each block can contain only a certain number of transactions.

Discussions on this particular upgrade began as early as 2016, market participants said. The Taproot upgrade has been included in the bitcoin software since September.

WHAT IS ITS IMPACT ON BITCOIN?

The biggest impact would be the bitcoin network’s ability to process more smart contracts, similar to what Ethereum does.

Katherine Dowling, general counsel & chief compliance officer at digital asset investment firm Bitwise, said bitcoin has historically been much more limited in processing smart contracts compared with Ethereum.

“But, while bitcoin likely won’t ever be as flexible as Ethereum from a smart-contract standpoint, with Taproot that gap will now narrow. And that means we’ll likely see an increase in day-to-day applications for bitcoin,” she added.

WHAT ARE THE OTHER ENHANCEMENTS?

Taproot increases privacy by obscuring what type of transaction is being executed. The Schnorr signatures can make more complex transactions on the bitcoin protocol, such as those from wallets that require multiple signatures, look like just any other transaction. This makes transactions more private and more secure.

Bitcoin transactions will also become more data-efficient, optimizing block capacity and leading to lower transaction fees, said Genesis’ Acheson.

WHAT DOES TAPROOT MEAN FOR INVESTORS?

Bitwise’s Dowling said these large scale upgrades have paved the way for the next phase of innovation in the bitcoin network. She noted that the last major upgrade in 2017 helped launch the Lightning Network, which facilitated much faster and cheaper bitcoin payments than before.

She expects Taproot to lead to similar wave of innovation in bitcoin centered around smart contracts.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Vodafone Idea evaluating govt option to convert interest dues into equity: CFO

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea is evaluating the option of converting interest dues arising out of the deferment of statutory payments into equity, a senior company official said on Monday. The company is also in talks with banks and investors for raising funds and part of the proceeds is likely to be utilised towards meeting obligations related to debt maturing this fiscal, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) Chief Financial Officer Akshay Moondra said during the company’s earning call.

VIL MD and CEO Ravinder Takkar said the company expects to conclude fund raising plan by the end of the current financial year. VIL board in September 2020 had approved raising up to Rs 25,000 crore but the company could not go ahead with its fund-raising plans. Takkar said that the government reform package is a significant positive development and alleviates several investors’ concerns. “We believe there will be renewed interest from investors. We are also in the process of updating our business plan. Once it is finalised we will make suitable disclosures on fund raising. We expect to conclude this exercise during this fiscal year,” he said. The government has given the option to defer all their dues payment for spectrum and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) by four years to provide debt-ridden telecom companies an opportunity to improve their cash flows and invest in business.

“For the AGR dues, we are in discussion with the DoT (Department of Telecom) to determine the final amount in line with the Supreme Court judgement. Further, there is an option to convert such deferment into equity. We are evaluating this and we will be reverting on our decision on upfront conversion of interest into equity by the deadline of January 12, 2022,” Moondra said. According to him, the company is also in discussions with banks and investors for raising both debt and equity. “These discussions also include some kind of arrangement of funding to be able to meet immediate maturities of debt which are coming up in the remaining quarter of FY’22.” Last week, VIL reported a narrowing of consolidated loss to Rs 7,144.6 crore for the September quarter on account of an increase in mobile services tariff and cost optimisation. The company had posted a loss of Rs 7,218.2 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

In the latest September quarter, its consolidated revenue declined about 13 per cent to Rs 9,406.4 crore. The same was at Rs 10,791.2 crore in the year-ago period. VIL’s total gross debt, excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due, as of September 30, 2021 stood at Rs 1,94,780 crore. The amount comprises deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1,08,610 crore, AGR liability of Rs 63,400 crore that are due to the government and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 22,770 crore.

Takkar said the company has started working on raising mobile tariffs and it is expected to be in place very soon. “Some activity on tariff hikes has started to happen. Tariff hikes which are the next important step will also take (place) soon. For us, particularly as a company, we will not shy away from raising tariffs,” Takkar said. During the September quarter, VIL increased the entry level prepaid pricing plan from Rs 49 to Rs 79 in a phased manner as well as hiked the tariffs for some postpaid plans. Takkar said that VIL will soon launch a music streaming service and ramp up gaming, education, skilling and health segment offerings to monetise digital traffic on the company’s network.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Petrol, diesel prices unchanged for 12th day in a row

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Fuel prices were kept unchanged for the 12th consecutive day on Tuesday across various cities in the country including the national capital Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, etc. Earlier on November 4, the government had slashed excise duty on petrol and diesel to bring rates slightly down from the record-high levels.

Currently, the cost of one litre of petrol in Delhi stands at Rs 103.97 per litre and of diesel at Rs 86.67 per litre. In Mumbai, the petrol and diesel prices stand at Rs 109.98 per litre and Rs 94.14 per litre, respectively.

After the excise rates were cut, at least 23 states and Union Territories also announced a cut in VAT rates on petrol and diesel, giving a big relief to consumers.

Oil companies revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on the average price of benchmark fuel in the international market in the preceding 15-days, and foreign exchange rates.

The prices of petrol and diesel are reviewed by oil marketing companies such as state-run Indian Oil on a daily basis and any revision is implemented from 6 am.

Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. Rajasthan levies the highest value-added tax (VAT) on petrol.

Globally, oil prices settled mixed on Monday as investors wondered whether crude supplies will increase and whether demand will be pressured by the recent surge in energy costs, the strong dollar and rising COVID-19 cases, according to news agency Reuters.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Twitter expands free data access for app developers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Twitter Inc said on Monday it will expand free access to the social networking site’s data to help software developers create tools and products that could promote safer online conversations or curate content.

The move is part of Twitter’s growing effort over the past year to decentralize the company, a vision that aims to give users more control over what content they see in their Twitter feed or have new ways of sharing content on the site, Amir Shevat, Twitter’s head of product for the developer platform, said in an interview.

The effort to increase developer access also comes as Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies are facing global scrutiny over how their algorithms surface certain content and their role in allowing misinformation or hate speech to spread.

Starting on Monday, developers can access data on up to 2 million tweets per month through Twitter’s application programming interface (API) at no cost.

The company also changed its API policy to allow for more use cases, including removing restrictions on competing with Twitter, Shevat said.

“I want everyone to be able to define their preferences and have their own curated content that’s adjusted to them,” Shevat said. “We can only do this if developers are in on it.”

Some examples of apps built with Twitter data include Block Party, which was founded by software engineer Tracy Chou and allows Twitter users to filter out content they do not want to see.

Another app built by software engineer Janique-ka John lets users more easily search for Twitter Spaces, the company’s live audio chat feature.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Dollar climbs to 16-month high amid inflation worries

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The US dollar surged to a 16-month high on Monday, while Wall street was wobbly. The US Treasury yields also ticking upwards.

Lingering concerns about global growth amid signs of rising inflation were a boon to safe havens.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six peers, hit 95.420 on Monday, its highest since July 2020, and was last up 0.3 percent.

On Wall Street, US stocks lost their grip on a strong opening, sliding to flat to negative territory around midday trading.

Rising Treasury yields also helped push equity prices lower.

Benchmark 10-year yields were last at 1.61 percent and are up from a one-month low of 1.42 percent last Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.07 percent, the S&P 500 was flat, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.21 percent.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, was up just 0.05 percent.

A surprisingly strong report last week on U.S. inflation weighed down markets, as investors wondered if the Federal Reserve might be forced to raise rates sooner to combat price pressures. Now, investors are grappling with the looming holiday season, apparent progress on restarting the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic, and price increases that are higher than expected and don’t seem to be as transitory as some hoped.

“Inflation is being driven by the unusual supply shocks tied to the restart. We expect these imbalances to resolve over the next year, but see inflation as persistent and settling at a higher level than pre-Covid,” wrote Blackrock analysts in an investor note. “Although price rises are broad based, the mix of inflation shows the unusual restart dynamics at play.”

OIL DIPS

Those prices concerns were apparent in crude oil prices, where expectations of increased supply, mixed with worries demand could drop amid higher energy prices, helped push the commodity to a one-week low. The dollar’s surge also helped drive down oil, making it more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

Brent crude was last down 0.5% at $81.76 a barrel. US crude fell 0.47 percent at $80.41 per barrel.

“The market now seems to be less concerned about the current supply tightness, expecting it to be short-lived,” Rystad senior markets analyst Louise Dickson said. “Traders are instead refocusing on the return of two bearish factors – the possibility of more oil supply sources and more COVID-19 cases.”

The market has been weighed down by ongoing speculation that President Joe Biden’s administration could release oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, while the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week cut its world oil demand forecast for the fourth quarter.

Safe-haven gold looked set to continue a seven-session winning streak, with spot gold prices climbing 0.11 percent to $1,866.13 an ounce.

–With agency inputs

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Oil prices settle mixed on uncertainty over crude supply, demand, and strong dollar

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Oil prices ended mixed on Monday as the investors were uncertain whether crude supplies will increase and demand will be pressured by the recent surge in energy costs, the strong dollar and rising COVID-19 cases.

Brent futures settled down 0.2 percent to $82.05 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.1 percent, to $80.88.

In early trading, the oil market factored in speculation that President Joe Biden’s administration could fight high prices by releasing crude oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Hoever, skepticism about that approach caused US crude to edge higher, according to a Reuters report citing John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

The US dollar touched 16-month high against a basket of currencies as investors worried about the global economy, putting pressure on oil.

A stronger dollar makes oil more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

Last week, US energy firms added oil and natural gas rigs for a third week in a row, encouraged by a 65 percent increase in US crude prices so far this year.

US shale production in December is expected to reach prepandemic levels of 8.68 million barrels a day, according to Rystad Energy. Meanwhile there are indications demand may be slowing due to heightened coronavirus cases and inflation.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week cut its world oil demand forecast for the fourth quarter by 330,000 bpd from last month’s forecast, as high energy prices hampered economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a Reuters report, UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said all indications point to an oil supply surplus in the first quarter of 2022.

Europe has again become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting some governments to consider re-imposing lockdowns, while China is battling the spread of its biggest outbreak caused by the Delta variant.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would scrap its dual share structure and move its head office to Britain from the Netherlands.

-With agency inputs

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US stock markets: How S&P 500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Russell 2000 fared on Monday

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Major stock indices on the Wall Street were wobbly on Monday, ending the day mostly flat.

The S&P 500 remained flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged barely higher, while Nasdaq fell less than 0.1 percent.

Traders were cautious ahead of earnings reports later this week from several big retailers including Home Depot and Walmart on Tuesday and Target on Wednesday.

On Monday:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.86 points, less than 0.1%, to 36,087.45.

The S&P 500 fell 0.05 points, less than 0.1%, to 4,682.80.

The Nasdaq fell 7.11 points, less than 0.1%, to 15,853.85.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.84 points, or 0.4%, to 2,400.93.

For the year:

The Dow is up 5,480.97 points, or 17.9%.

The Nasdaq is up 2,965.57 points, or 23%.

The Russell 2000 is up 426.08 points, or 21.6%.

–With agency inputs

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow