Stock Market LIVE: Sensex climbs 150 pts, Nifty around 17k; most sectors gain

Share Market LIVE Updates: Indian stock market started in the green as Sensex goes above 57,700 and Nifty adds 50 pts. Most sectors start in green with Adani stocks gaining in early trading. Wall Street ended lower on Tuesday as Tech and Bank stocks continued to remain under pressure. Asian markets are also mostly trading lower in the morning session.

Indian stock market will be firmly under the grips of bears as global banking stocks continue to remain volatile. Domestically, RBI policy decisions will drive the market in the coming weeks. RBI will begin its 3-day monetary policy meeting on April 3rd and the outcome in key rates and economic outlook will be announced on April 6th.

FCI procures season’s first wheat in Madhya Pradesh, buys 10,727 tonne

The Food Corp. of India (FCI) procured 10,727 tonne of wheat on Monday, the first day of 2023-24 rabi marketing year. The quantity was purchased at the minimum support price of ₹2,125 per quintal in Madhya Pradesh, said Ashok Meena, chairman and managing director of the government agency.

“Though procurement in Madhya Pradesh was kicked off on March 20, we have purchased the season’s first wheat on Monday amid huge supply from farmers," Meena told reporters on Tuesday.

Last year on the same day, zero quantity of wheat was procured, and the total quantity in March last year was 10,000 tonne, FCI head informed.

Gold prices slip as fading banking jitters dampen demand

Gold prices dropped on Wednesday as easing worries over a potential bigger fallout from the global banking crisis increased appetite for riskier assets and dampened demand for the safe-haven metal.

Spot gold was trading 0.4% lower at $1,966.48 per ounce, as of 0356 GMT, after rising 1% on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures slipped 0.3% to $1,967.50.

"We've seen a natural retracement ... gold is pulling back after a failed 'bid' to break above $1,975," said Matt Simpson, a senior market analyst at City Index.

But some investors "still seem to be holding onto gold 'just in case' there's another skeleton or two lurking in the closet," he said and that gold might catch another bid heading into the European session.

Contagion risks loom over Adani Transmission and Adani Ports, says Fitch

Ratings agency Fitch has said that two Adani Group subsidiaries are exposed to heightened contagion risks as a result of governance weakness at the conglomerate's sponsor level.

Adani Transmission Limited and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone are prone to risks which could affect financial flexibility, said Fitch.

The Adani Group is back in fire-fighting mode after media reports called into question the Indian conglomerate’s ability to repay debt, reviving a selloff in its stock.

Hindustan Zinc shares trade ex-dividend today on record date; stock falls

Shares of Hindustan Zinc Ltd dipped more than 2% to ₹295 on the BSE in Wednesday's opening trading session as the stock started trading ex-dividend on the record date which has been fixed on March 29, 2023.

Hindustan Zinc Ltd, owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal, announced its fourth interim dividend of ₹26 per share, amounting to a total payout of ₹10,985.8 crore. According to an exchange filing, the record date for the payment of the dividend is March 29, 2023, as previously communicated.

Adani Group refutes news report claims regarding repayment of loans against share

Adani Group has called out ‘The Ken’ that claimed the company of not repaying USD 2.15 billion in share-backed debt to its promoters. The giant enterprise, in its recent press release, called the Ken's claims in an article to be ‘baseless’ and said that all corresponding shares pledged for those facilities have been released.

Adani Group also mentioned its share pledge position as on 31 December 2022 and the current share pledge position as on March 27, 2023.

The company also said the repayment of debts has drastically reduced the pledge positions for Adani Green, Adani Ports, Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises. With this, only residual share pledges associated with Operating Company facilities are left for repayment.

Hiring intent for manufacturing, services sector up 10 pc for Q1 of FY24: Report

Even as there is an ongoing global turmoil, hiring intentions in services and manufacturing sectors for the first quarter of 2023-24 are 10 per cent more than the year-ago period, a report said on Tuesday.

According to the TeamLease Services' 'Employment Outlook Report' for the Services and Manufacturing sectors for Q1, FY24, despite the ongoing global turmoil, hiring intent in India has steadily increased over the past year.

In comparison to the same quarter in the previous year (April-June 2022-23), hiring intentions in the services and manufacturing sector in the first quarter of FY24 is 10 per cent higher as close to 64 per cent of employers the employers interviewed said they are keen to increase their resource pool across industries.

However, compared to the fourth quarter of FY23, the hiring outlook has witnessed a dip of 4 per cent.

Irdai permits insurers to fix commissions for intermediaries without compromising interest of buyers

Insurance regulator Irdai has removed the individual ceiling of commission to be paid by insurers for the sale of their products.

The board of an insurance company should frame commission policy keeping in mind the interest of the policyholders and agents, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in a gazette notification dated March 26.

Flexibility in commission is also aimed at increasing insurance penetration and bringing cost efficiencies.

The commission fixed by the board of an insurer must be within the allowable expenses of management (EoM) limit.

These Regulations shall be called the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Payment of Commission) Regulations, 2023, it said.

The total commission payable under life insurance products, including health insurance products, should not exceed the Expense of Management (EOM) limits specified under the above regulations, as per the notification.

Govt introduces surcharge for Gpay, Paytm, others on transactions above ₹2,000

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has issued a circular in which it suggested "Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI)" fees on merchant transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

The governing body of the UPI payment system added that the PPI fees would be levied on transactions above ₹2,000 on UPI. It will result in an interchange at 1.1% of the transaction value.

The interchange fee is levied to cover the costs of accepting, processing, and authorising transactions. This is likely to make the transaction costlier. The new rule will be implemented from 1 April.

Stocks to Watch: Adani Enterprises, RIL, Tata Power, Vedanta, IDBI Bank, NTPC, Britannia Industries, Jindal Stainless, JSW Energy and Kalyan Jewellers

Indian markets recorded a broad-based selloff on Tuesday as the focus shifted toward the upcoming RBI policy. Smallcap stocks continue to see a downward slope, while auto and IT stocks extended their losses. Also, bears held the grip of the market amidst a drop in investors' risk appetite and FY23 tax harvesting.

India bond yields seen tad higher tracking U.S. peers

Indian government bond yields are likely to rise in the early session on Wednesday, tracking an uptick in U.S. peers, while traders await the April-September borrowing calendar.

The 10-year benchmark 7.26% 2032 bond yield is expected to be in a 7.30%-7.36% range after closing at 7.3240% on Tuesday, a trader with a private bank said. Indian markets are closed on Thursday for a local holiday.

Some uptick is likely but any major move before the financial year-end can be safely ruled out, the trader added.

U.S. yields rose further overnight, as investors become more optimistic that recent stress in the banking system will be contained. The two-year yield was trading above 4.10%, while the 10-year yield was trading close to 3.60%.

Indian bond yields ended higher on Tuesday, as states raised a record 412.14 billion rupees ($5.02 billion) amid strong demand from insurance companies.

India's exports hit record in 2022-23 at USD 750 bn: Piyush Goyal

India's total exports crossed USD 750 billion with two-to-three days still left in financial 2022-23, and is the highest by the country ever.

The milestone export figures were provided by Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal today speaking at industry body Assocham's annual session.

"The naysayers have been proven wrong. I am happy to share today that India has crossed USD 750 Billion of exports. There has been growth in both goods & services exports," Goyal said at the event.

"Given the fact that the whole world is in recession, inflation is at an all-time high for most developed countries, interest rates are shooting up and there's a sense of doom & gloom in rest of the world, India's performance has filled us with pride," he added.

India is opening doors wider to international trade, Goyal said.

NHPC to issue ₹5,600 crore worth corporate bonds next financial year

The govt-backed, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, has announced to raise up to Rs.5,600 crore of debt during the next financial year through corporate bonds, the company said on Tuesday.

The company in its stock filing informed that the funds will be raised through the issuance of corporate bonds in one or more series/ tranches on a private placement basis and/ or the raising of Term loans/ External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) in suitable tranches.

Adani Refutes Reports on Debt Repayment Concerns as Shares Slide

The Adani Group is back in fire-fighting mode after media reports called into question the Indian conglomerate’s ability to repay debt, reviving a selloff in its stock.

Adani units slumped Tuesday after India’s Economic Times said the group is seeking to renegotiate the terms of $4 billion worth of loans, citing people it didn’t identify.

The declines — which saw the flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. sink more than 7% — were compounded by a report from The Ken flagging concerns over the group’s repayment of $2.15 billion of share-backed loans. The business news website said regulatory filings showed that banks have not yet released a large portion of founder Gautam Adani’s shares.

Adani Group refuted the reports in separate statements Tuesday, calling the Economic Times’ claims “baseless speculation." Later in the day, the company addressed The Ken report, saying it had paid off share-backed financing amounting to $2.15 billion and that the stock pledged for those facilities had been released.

Adani spokesman Jugeshinder Singh earlier tweeted that the report was a “deliberate misrepresentation."

Discoms seek tariff hikes up to 40% as demand, costs soar

As India braces for a scorching summer, electricity tariffs in the country may surge as much as 40% amid expectations of record-high demand.

Power distribution utilities plan to raise tariffs ranging from single digits to as high as 40% across states if approved by the state electricity tariff regulators. Discoms in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh have already proposed increases in tariffs.

For instance, discoms in Madhya Pradesh have recommended a hike of 3.2% due to a projected revenue gap of ₹1,527 crore in FY24. In turn, state-owned Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd has proposed a tariff hike in the range of 30-40% for residential and commercial consumers.

Vedanta announces fifth interim dividend of ₹20.50 per share, record date fixed

Mining mogul Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday declared its fifth interim dividend of ₹20.50 per equity share or 2050 per cent for financial year 2022-23, amounting to ₹7,621 crore. The company has fixed 7 April, 2023, as the dividend record date.

“Approved the fifth interim dividend of ₹20.50 per equity share i.e., 2050 per cent on face value of ₹1/‐ per share for the financial year 2022‐23 amounting to ₹7,621 crores," the company said in a regulatory filing.

The interim dividend will be paid within stipulated timelines as prescribed under law, the exchange filing further noted.

This is in addition to ₹81 per share in dividends the Anil Agarwal's company announced for FY23 so far.

Sebi slaps penalties totalling ₹36 crore on PNB Finance and Industries, CCCL, other entities

Sebi on Tuesday imposed penalties totalling ₹35.67 crore on PNB Finance and Industries Ltd, Camac Commercial Company Ltd and various other entities, including promoters Samir Jain and Meera Jain who have also been barred from the securities market.

Apart from the market ban, Samir Jain and Meera Jain have been restrained from holding any key managerial position or associating with any listed public company. These restrictions will be in place till the two companies comply with the minimum public shareholding requirement under Sebi norms, according to two separate orders.

India asks state-run banks to conduct more robust stress tests

India has asked state-owned banks to focus on their stress testing methods after they were found to have fallen behind on developing models that are meant to ward off risks of failure.

The matter was reviewed at a March 25 meeting of the bank leaders with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who met to discuss progress of a reform agenda for the lenders, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Sitharaman in June announced that banks would come up with stress-testing models that would help them respond to customer needs and competition.

RIL, ReNew, 9 others secure solar PLI sops

Reliance Industries Ltd, Tata Power Solar, and ReNew are among companies chosen to receive ₹14,007 crore worth of government incentives to encourage the local manufacturing of solar modules under its production-linked incentive scheme.

Overall, Solar Energy Corp. of India, the state-run company set up to implement the National Solar Mission, has allocated 38,600MW of capacity to 11 companies.

India aims to boost its renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, with solar power accounting for over half of the goal. To meet this ambitious target, the government is encouraging domestic production of solar modules and trying to reduce its dependence on imports from China, with which it shares an uneasy relationship and a significant trade deficit.

Wall Street ends down on Tuesday with tech; investors assess bank comments

U.S. stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday as investors weighed comments from a top U.S. regulator on struggling banks and sold shares of technology-related names after their recent strong run.

Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve's top banking regulator, told a Senate panel that Silicon Valley Bank did a "terrible" job of managing risk before its collapse.

Shares of Apple and Microsoft along with other technology-related shares ended down and were among the biggest drags on the S&P 500.

"It's a little bit of a follow-through from yesterday's pullback in tech stocks. You're seeing a little bit of profit-taking," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. "Some of the enthusiasm is waning a little bit."

The S&P 500 technology index was down 0.5% on Tuesday, extending this week's declines, but remains up sharply for the quarter.

The KBW regional banking index was down 0.2% on the day. Shares of First Citizens BancShares Inc were up slightly, a day after the stock rose more than 50% after it said it would acquire the deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bank.

Bank stocks have sold off sharply in the wake of problems at Silicon Valley and other banks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 37.83 points, or 0.12%, to 32,394.25, the S&P 500 lost 6.26 points, or 0.16%, to 3,971.27 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 52.76 points, or 0.45%, to 11,716.08.

"The prospect of stricter regulations for banks with deposits above $100 billion is raising the anxiety level for those that are perceived currently to be struggling," James said.

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