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IT Reality check for IT stocks as global slowdown worries take centre stage IT stocks have underperformed ever since the broader markets started rallying in February Rising headwinds to global economy and its impact on IT services demand need to be factored in Energy GAIL, BHEL sign pact for development of solar power projects GAIL shall be the project developer and BHEL shall act as an engineering, procurement, construction and project management contractor BHEL shall also provide operation and maintenance services during the initial period upon becoming successful bidder Pharma Drug major Aurobindo Pharma is recalling multiple lots of blood pressure lowering drugs in the US after the American health regulator found certain deviations from Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations.  Banking State Bank of India is going to open 55 wealth management centres across the country by 2020 to its attract high networth customers from private lenders

BigBasket raises $150 million from Mirae, Alibaba and CDC Group Mirae has pumped in about $60 million, while CDC and Alibaba have infused $40 million and $50 million, respectively BigBasket has previously stated that it aims to garner $2.5 billion (around 17,500 crore) in revenue by 2020 Fyle raises $4.2 million from Tiger Global, others With this round, Fyle has raised a total of $5.7 million Fyle will use the fresh funding to expand its US operations, and also invest in research and development MSTC makes tepid market debut, shares end 5% lower than issue price The 13-20 March MSTC IPO was subscribed 1.46 times at a revised price band of ₹120-128 per share The government offloaded 1.76 crore shares, or 25% of total paid-up equity, in the MSTC IPO Rail Vikas Nigam IPO opens today, analysts say issue fairly priced The issue is expected to raise about₹481 crore with a price band of ₹17-19 per equity share Post the issue, the government aims to cut stake in the compa

India's current account deficit widens to 2.5% of GDP in Q3- In absolute terms, current account deficit was $16.9 billion during the October-December 2018 period, up from $13.7 billion a year ago India's forex reserves rise for 3rd week in a row, now at $407 billion: RBI- In the week to 22 March, India's foreign currency assets increased by $1.031 billion to $378.805 billion, says RBI Gold reserves were unchanged at $23.408 billion, while reserves with the IMF fell $1.5 billion to $2.993 billion Govt set to borrow ₹4.42 trillion in first half of 2019-20- The govt envisages gross market borrowing of ₹7.1 trillion in 2019-20 (FY20) and net market borrowing of₹2.73 crore The govt borrowing target for FY20 is the highest in at least nine years. India's gross borrowing for FY19 stood at ₹5.71 trillion

RBI slaps ₹2 crore penalty on PNB for violating SWIFT norms - SWIFT is a global messaging software used for transactions by financial entities.The massive ₹14,000-crore fraud perpetrated by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi was a case of misuse of this messsaging software India seeks bids for $5 billion in transmission lines to fuel renewables growth - India will launch $5 billion of transmission-line tenders in phases, beginning in June, to route a targeted 175 gigawatts (GW) of power from renewable sources into the country's grid by 2022 India unlikely to implement tit-for-tat tariff hikes against the US on 1 April- India is unlikely to impose the long pending retaliatory tariffs against the unilateral steel and aluminium duty hikes by the Trump administration Sebi: From 1 April, shares can be transferred in demat form only - The decision that transfer of shares has to be compulsorily in demat form was taken back in March 2018. Sebi defers implementation o

US recession fears topple Sensex, Nifty by nearly 1% today- US bond yield curve inverts for the first time since 2007, stoking fears of a recession.Experts are optimistic that the India story will remain intact due to strong FII inflows Copper hits lowest in a month on growth worries- Benchmark LME copper dropped to a low of $6,295 a tonne, the weakest since 19 Feb, before recovering to $6,323.50 in official open outcry trading, a rise of 0.2%.Three-month LME aluminium, untraded in official rings, was bid down 0.9% at $1,886 a tonne The overall FMCG market by volume declined 1% in 2018 compared with a 7.5% rise a year ago- India’s overall fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) market shrank in the 2018 calendar year despite branded products, especially from listed companies, seeing double-digit growth, indicating falling demand for unbranded and unorganised products. 

EU fines Google 1.49 bn euros for anti-trust breach European Union regulators have hit Google with a 1.49 billion euro (USD 1.68 billion) fine for abusing its dominant role in online advertising.It's the third time the commission has slapped Google with an antitrust penalty. Brexit delayed: British PM Theresa May requests three-month extension May has written to European Council President Donald Tusk to ask for a delay until 30 June EU leaders are expected to discuss May's request for a Brexit delay at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday Thyssenkrupp, Tata Steel get EU extension of JV remedy deadline Thyssenkrupp, Tata need more time to work out remedies

Ola raises $300 million from Hyundai, Kia Hyundai Motor Group and Kia Motors together invested $300 million in India’s ride-hailing giant Ola, marking their biggest combined investment. The round is part of a strategic partnership under which the companies will jointly work toward creating mobility solutions for global markets . Kotak Realty Fund ties up with DivyaSree Developers to start $400 mn office fund The fund’s strategy is to develop greenfield projects across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai Shapoorji Pallonji gears up to list solar EPC biz Shapoorji Pallonji Groupwill soon file draft documents with the markets regulator to raise ₹4,000 crore by selling shares in its solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business to the public for the first time.

NCLAT gives conditional nod to ArcelorMittal's₹42000 cr plan for Essar Steel -  it will be subject to its final order in the appeal filed by the promoters. RCom pays ₹460 crore to settle Ericsson dues - RCom owes a total ₹571 crore billion rupees to Ericsson, including a one-time settlement of ₹550 crore and interest payments of ₹14.2 crore L&T set to buy 20.4% in Mindtree , make open offer for another 31%- held by Café Coffee Day (CCD) founder V.G. Siddhartha along with his two Café Coffee Day affiliate firms in Mindtree Ltd.

Etihad will invest in Jet Airways, but several conditions apply- As per the MoU for Jet-Etihad deal, 15% of the total share capital of Jet Privilege —pledged to HSBC for a $150 million loan—will have to be made available to Jet Airways. Etihad has also sought completion of the ₹4,000 interim financing in Jet Airways before making an investment. As part of the interim financing, lenders shall infuse ₹750 crore into the company Bharti Airtel to slash direct stake in Infratel- Bharti Airtel Ltd will slash its stake in the telecom tower company by more than half to 18.3 percent. Airtel's unit, Nettle Infrastructure Investments Ltd, will buy a 32 percent stake in Bharti Infratel, the telecom tower company said. NTPC and Power Grid to form pan-India power distribution firm in an equal JV- State run NTPC Ltd and Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd (PGCIL) may shortly set up the National Electricity Distribution Company (NCDC)—a pan-India power distribution firm in an equal joint venture

Jet Airways gets ₹2,050 crore loan from PNB, shares surge- Jet Airways India Ltd rose 4% to ₹250 after  the company has secured fresh credit facilities of ₹2,050 crore from state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) that could provide a temporary lifeline to the cash-strapped airline. Levi Strauss IPO to raise as much as $587 million- The company expects to offer 36.7 million shares priced between $14 and $16 The bank with India's worst bad debt will sell $1.4 billion of loans- IDBI Bank Ltd., the lender with India’s worst-bad loan ratio, is seeking to curtail its soured debt by selling 100 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) of stressed assets and stepping up efforts to recover dues from delinquent borrowers.

Grasim buys Soktas India for ₹165 crore- Soktas India will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Grasim after the completion of the transaction.Soktas is in the business of manufacturing and the distribution of premium cotton fabrics Reliance Capital plans to reduce debt by ₹10,000-12,000 crore in 3-4 month s- Reliance Capital said it has an overall strategy to reduce debt by approximately ₹10,000-12,000 crore in the next 3-4 months Flow-driven rally in rupee may run into wall as polls loom- Rupee has rebounded about 2% since early February, Rupee is no longer the worst performer this year among Asia’s emerging market currencies

Banks risk adding $25 billion bad debt on Supreme Court decision Power sector was among the hardest hit with the govt identifying as stressed 34 plants with outstanding debt of about ₹1.8 trillion -If the RBI directive is upheld, many of these would immediately be pushed into insolvency court  OECD cuts global outlook again and warns worse may be ahead- Weakness in the euro area and China are proving more persistent, trade growth has slowed sharply and uncertainty over Brexit has continued. The OECD expects expansion to slow to 6% next year from 6.2% in 2019 US stops duty benefits for $5.6 billion of Indian exports - India says GSP withdrawal will not hit trade hard, may impose retaliatory duties on 29 US imports

Trump says dollar too strong, swipes at Fed for rate hikes- The U.S. economy is doing well in spite of the actions of the central bank, President Donald Trump said Saturday that the U.S. dollar is too strong, and took a swipe at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as someone who “likes raising interest rates.” Trump asks China to lift tariffs on US farm products- US asked China to immediately remove all tariffs on U.S. agricultural products because trade talks were progressing well.US also delayed plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on Chinese goods on Friday, as previously scheduled. Rupee volatility comes down as Indo-Pak tension eases a little- Between February 13 and 27, the local unit lost 0.62 per cent against the greenback

Scooter mania continues as Europe's Voi bags new funding- One of Europe’s largest electric scooter sharing startups, Voi Technology AB, announced it has closed a $30 million round of funding to help it expand across Europe. Zomato to sell UAE food delivery business for $172 million- Zomato and Delivery Hero will enter services agreements under which Zomato will continue to run the business on its own platform.Info Edge, an online services firm, will own a 26.38% stake in Zomato after the deal closes Brookfield eyes warehousing, rental housing to expand India realty portfolio- The company is exploring more options in the real estate sector to expand its portfolio beyond commercial office space.Brookfield is currently in the final leg of acquiring Hotel Leelaventure Ltd’s hotel assets in India for about Rs. 4,500 crore, a transaction that will mark its entry into the Indian hospitality sector. Hotstar Original- Hotstar, the over-the-top (OTT) streaming service owned

Industry Company Positive News Negative News Sugar India's cabinet on Thursday approved a plan to spend up to Rs 1,054 crore to pay interest on loans to the sugar industry for a year Tata motors Tata Group is exploring strategic options for its Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc unit including a potential stake sale in the struggling luxury carmaker. Auto Car makers reported growth in sales last month on account of improvement in consumer sentiment as compared to January. TeleCom The telecom firms are loaded with debt, forcing them to look at multiple avenues to raise funds and reduce leverage Jet Airways 2 more totaling to 20% of total aircrafts grounded due to non payment of lease payments IL&FS GT identified financial irregulation amounting to 13000 crore during special audit IDBI Bank Received govt nod to handle import export from Iran Titan Second biggest jewel company in market cap Tata Sons Merge 1000 subsidiaries to focus on consumer and retail

Most bearish rupee forecaster sees a slide to 80 per dollar- The rupee may weaken to 80 per dollar by September as a dovish turn by the cen tral bank lowers the currency’s yield appeal , said Sue Trinh, head of Asia forex strategy at RBC in Hong Kong. The prediction is way more bearish than the 71.25 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey and implies a drop of more than 11% from current levels. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority starts distressed assets fund in India- ADIA sets up a distressed assets fund in India, anchoring it with a $500 million commitment. ADIA is partnering Kotak Investment Advisors for Kotak Special Situations Fund, which will target NPA opportunities in India First 7-Eleven store in India to open this year, pact signed with Future Retail- The world’s largest chain of convenience stores, 7-Eleven, will make its India debut later this year.The Future Retail subsidiary plans to set up 7-Eleven stores as well as convert some of its existing locations to the