BQuick On March 28: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes

Introducing Election Soundtrack, a daily podcast that’ll get you up to speed with everything that you need to know about Elections 2019.

This is a roundup of the day’s top stories in brief.

1. Jet’s Lenders Reach Out To Two Potential Investors

Lenders to Jet Airways (India) Ltd., led by State Bank of India, have reached out to two potential investors, just days after they became majority equity holders in the airline.

• According to two people familiar with the matter, lenders have reached out to U.S.-based private equity investor TPG Capital and the Tata Group for a potential investment in the struggling carrier.
• According to the two people quoted above, lenders reached out to the two bidders since they had previously showed interest in Jet Airways but talks had fallen through.

The conversations are at preliminary stages.

2. Cars Get More Expensive

Automakers have started increasing prices to offset higher input costs even as they grapple with a slowdown.

• Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said it will hike prices by 0.5-2.7 percent on an average, according to its exchange filing.
• That will make its passenger and commercial vehicle models costlier by Rs 5,000-73,000.
• That's because of a record commodity price rise seen this year, according to M&M President Rajan Wadhera.
• Last week, Tata Motors Ltd. increased prices of its car and SUVs by up to Rs 25,000.

The price hike may improve margin, but won’t compensate the sales slowdown.

3. CBDT Sounds The Alarm

The Central Board of Direct Taxes sounded a warning and asked the Income Tax Department to take "all possible actions urgently" as the direct tax collection target remains short by about 15 percent, with the financial year closing in less than a week.

• On March 26, Neena Kumar - member of CBDT’s revenue team - sent a letter to all the regional chiefs of the department stating that the tax collection figures have “been reviewed and it is seen that as against the budget collection target of Rs 12 lakh crore, only 85.1 percent of the target at Rs 10,21,251 crore has been collected as on March 23”.
• The officer, who is responsible for supervision of I-T department's tax collection work across the country, underlined the areas that are sluggish vis-a-vis direct tax collections obtained from personal, corporate and advance tax categories.

CBDT has asked the supervisory tax officials to pull up their socks.

4. Sensex Rallies, Dow Rebounds

Indian equity benchmarks ended near a six-month high on the derivatives expiry day.

• The S&P BSE Sensex closed 1.08 percent or 412 points higher at 38,545.
• The NSE Nifty 50 ended at 11,570, up 1.09 percent.
• The broader market index represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index ended 1.05 percent higher.
• In the March series, the 50-share gauge ended 7.2 percent higher, the best F&O expiry in four months.

Follow the day’s trading action here.

U.S. stocks climbed as the rally in Treasuries eased and investors looked to China for the latest developments in the standoff over trade.

• The S&P 500 Index rebounded, led by consumer and raw-material companies.
• Treasury 10-year yields rose from a 15-month low, while the greenback extended its gain into a third day.
• The pound slid after the U.K. Parliament rejected eight possible options for a new Brexit strategy.
• Oil slumped after President Donald Trump renewed his criticism on OPEC. Gold fell.

Get your daily fix of global markets here.

5. Triple Whammy For Consumer Companies

Soaps, shampoos, detergents, food items...they're all piling up at consumer goods distributors and wholesalers across the country, according to people in the trade that BloombergQuint spoke to.

• There’s a cash crunch in the system and people are not buying as they used to, indicating a slowdown in the economy, said four distributors across four states.
• Wholesalers are also not purchasing anymore as there is pile up of inventory at every level of the distribution chain, a distributor in north India said.

Here’s what Dabur, Parle and other consumer goods companies have to say.

6. Catholic Syrian Bank Gears Up For IPO

Canadian investor Prem Watsa’s Indian bank has started preparations for a stock market listing this year, its chief executive said.

• Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd., in which Watsa’s Fairfax India Holdings Corp. received approval to take a controlling stake, is gearing up for a listing that may involve a Rs 400 crore ($58 million) initial public offering, according to Chief Executive Officer C. VR. Rajendran.
• Last year, Toronto-based Fairfax agreed to invest $168 million for a 51 percent stake in the bank, the first time the Reserve Bank of India allowed a foreign firm to take a majority interest in a local lender.
• At the same time, the RBI told privately held Catholic Syrian Bank that it should list its shares before Sept. 30 this year, according to Fairfax India’s latest annual report.

But the listing won’t dilute Fairfax’s holding in the bank.

7. India’s Second Unicorn Of 2019

BigBasket is raising $150 million in fresh funding at valuations that will make India’s largest online grocer the nation’s newest unicorn.

• The startup’s board approved $50-million fundraise from existing investor Alibaba Group, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies.
• The U.K. government-owned CDC Group, known for its investments in Africa and South Asia, will put in another $50 million.
• South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments will invest $59.9 million.
• BigBasket will issue 100 equity shares at $11.43 apiece, and one million compulsory convertible preference shares at $114.29 each.
• At this price, the startup will be valued at about $1.2 billion, according to BloombergQuint’s calculations.

Fresh capital will give BigBasket firepower to take on Amazon India and Flipkart.

8. Mobile Vs Card Payments

Looking to make a digital payment for a cup of coffee or purchase an air ticket online? You can choose to pay using a credit or debit card. But you can also whip out your mobile phone and pay with a bank app or a prepaid wallet.

• With the expanding suite of digital payment options, the hold that ‘plastic money’ or credit and debit cards had over customer spending is slowly reducing.
• The share of card payments fell to less than half of retail digital payments in the 12 months till January 2019, shows data from the Reserve Bank of India compiled by BloombergQuint.

Rising mobile payments is a consequence of faster growth on a smaller base.

9. Modi Sir, Surgically Erase Ten Economic Stats If You’re Back As PM

In this second report card on Prime Minister Modi’s economic policies, Raghav Bahl details the 10 big missteps by the government.

• This doesn't include the poorly-planned note ban of 2016.
• The one-legged GST is still a ‘reform’, so let's leave that out from here.
• GDP growth is at a six-quarter low, but let that be, too.

So what are these ‘10 Modinomics Mistakes’? Read here.