1. Stocks Enter Correction as Rate-Hike Fears Return
The dread that gripped equity markets earlier in the week re-emerged Thursday as US stocks plunged into a correction on concern that rising interest rates will drag down economic growth.
Selling accelerated in the final hour of trading as major indexes breached round-number milestones they blew past just weeks ago. The S&P 500 tumbled through 2,600 and the Dow failed to hold 24,000. Both are headed toward their average price for the past 200 days, a level that technical analysts say may act as a magnet and a floor.
In the end, the S&P 500 sank 3.8 percent, taking its rout since a 26 January record past 10 percent to meet the accepted definition of a correction. The negative superlatives are piling up quickly: the index erased its gain for the year to close at a two-month low and is on track for its worst week since the height of the financial crisis.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
2. Singh Brothers Resign As Fortis Directors
Promoters of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, have resigned from the directorship of the company just over a week after the Delhi High Court allowed the enforcement of a Rs 3,500-crore arbitration award that Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo had won.
On 31 January, the Delhi High Court ruled that the Rs 3,500-crore arbitration award that Daiichi Sankyo won against billionaire Singh brothers for concealing information about erstwhile Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd is enforceable in India. Daiichi Sankyo had filed the petition to enforce the arbitral award it had won in 2016 in the Singapore tribunal.
The Japanese drugmaker had argued that Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh concealed important information while selling Ranbaxy in 2008.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
3. Competition Commission Imposes Rs 1.35 Billion Penalty on Google for Search Bias
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Thursday imposed a penalty of Rs 1.35 billion on Google after finding that the company abused its dominant position in online general web search and search advertising in India.
The ruling was based on a complaint filed in 2012 by Matrimony.com and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) against the search engine. The complainants had alleged that Google’s unfair business practices were leading to search bias and search manipulation.
After a detailed probe, the CCI, through a majority order, said the penalty was being imposed on Google for “infringing anti-trust conduct”.
(Source: Business Standard )
4. Banks Set to Raise Lending Rates, Pre-Empting RBI
India’s struggling economy is facing a new challenge: banks are raising interest rates even though the central bank is leaving its rates unchanged, as risks such as surging bond yields and more provisioning requirements erode their profit.
HDFC Bank, India’s second-biggest bank by assets, on Wednesday became the latest to raise some rates by 10 basis points. The same day, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy rate unchanged, to “carefully” nurture economic growth .
Other major banks are likely to follow suit, raising concerns of de facto rate increases in an economy that is growing at its slowest pace in three years and needs private investment.
(Source: Livemint)
5. After Zomato's Alibaba Funding, Swiggy Raises $100 mn From Global Investors
After being written off as a passing fad in 2016, the online food ordering business in India has proven itself resilient, with three of the largest players bagging big funding deals to help them grow and fight each other for supremacy in the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, the Bengaluru-based Swiggy announced that it had bagged $100 million (Rs 6.43 billion) in fresh funding from lead investor Naspers and Chinese online-to-offline platform for urban services Meituan-Dianping. This is the second round of funding Swiggy has raised in eight months.
While such funding rounds are typically in the pipeline for months, the announcement from Swiggy came less than a week after rival Zomato’s leading investor, Info Edge, disclosed that the company had entered into an agreement with Alibaba’s financial arm, Ant Financial, to raise $150 million (Rs 9.6 billion).
(Source: Business Standard)
6. Twitter Soars After Surprise Sales Gain, First Real Profit
Twitter Inc soared the most since its market debut in 2013 after it posted the first revenue growth in four quarters, driven by improvements to its app and added video content that are persuading advertisers to boost spending on the social network.
The company topped analysts’ average sales estimates in the fourth quarter and for the first time reported a real profit, a milestone in Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey’s turnaround effort. Monthly active users were little changed from the prior quarter at 330 million, a lower-than-projected total that the company attributed in part to stepped-up efforts to reduce spam, malicious activity and fake accounts.
The report adds to positive momentum in recent months for Twitter, which spent the second half of 2017 explaining how Russian-linked accounts – including automated bots – influenced content on its platform around the 2016 US presidential election.
(Source: Bloomberg Quint)
7. NDA Not Afraid to Bite The Bullet on Tough Reforms: Arun Jaitley
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday defended the imposition of long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) on equities in the Union budget, but acknowledged that it was an unpopular decision.
But unlike the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was not afraid to “bite the bullet” on tough decisions, Jaitley insisted.
“Whether it’s demonetisation, insolvency and bankruptcy code or goods and services tax (GST), these are difficult decisions... I can’t recollect between 2004 and 2014, a single structural reform of this kind being taken, the kind that we have undertaken,” Jaitley said during a discussion on Budget 2018-19 in the Lok Sabha.
(Source: Livemint)
8. Tata Steel, JSW Steel Now Face Off Over Bhushan Power
Tata Steel Ltd and JSW Steel Ltd have submitted binding bids for Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd, the debt-laden company that has been referred to a bankruptcy court by its lenders, two people with direct knowledge of the development said.
The liquidation value and the fair value have been fixed at Rs 9,000 crore and Rs 24,000 crore, respectively, the people said, requesting anonymity. JSW Steel has bid Rs 13,000 crore for the asset, one of the two people said. The value of Tata Steel’s bids couldn’t be ascertained.
Bhushan Power, which owes at least Rs 37,000 crore to a consortium of lenders led by state-run Punjab National Bank, is among the 12 large companies identified by the Reserve Bank of India for early insolvency resolution.
(Source: Livemint)
9. After SoftBank, eBay Writes Off Snapdeal Investment; Takes $61-mn Hit
US online retail giant eBay has written off its investment in ailing Indian e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal amounting to a loss of $61 million, which it recorded on its books for the year 2017. eBay has followed in the footsteps of Japanese investor Softbank which wrote off $1 billion in losses on account of erosion of value of the shares it held in Snapdeal, soon after it failed to engineer a merger of the company with Flipkart.
US online retail giant eBay has written off its investment in ailing Indian e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal amounting to a loss of $61 million, which it recorded on its books for the year 2017.
eBay has followed in the footsteps of Japanese investor Softbank which wrote off $1 billion in losses on account of erosion of value of the shares it held in Snapdeal, soon after it failed to engineer a merger of the company with Flipkart.
(Source: Business Standard)