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BQuick On April 11: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes

BQuick | Top news, must-read stories and columns – all served up in less than 10 minutes.

A voter displays his inked finger and thumb at a polling station during the first phase of voting for national elections in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India (Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg)  
A voter displays his inked finger and thumb at a polling station during the first phase of voting for national elections in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India (Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg)  

Listen to Election Soundtrack, a daily podcast that’ll get you up to speed with everything that you need to know about Lok Sabha polls 2019.

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

1. Jet Airways: Goyal May Be Plotting A Comeback

Former Jet Airways (India) Ltd. Chairman Naresh Goyal is likely to submit an initial bid for a stake in the airline on Thursday, sources told PTI.

  • SBI Capital Markets Ltd., which invited Expression of Interest for stake sale extended the deadline to April 12.
  • The bidding norms allow Goyal to participate in the sale process.
  • Goyal has also pledged half of his stake in Jet Airways with Punjab National Bank as the airline he founded battles a crippling financial crunch.
  • At prevailing prices, Goyal's 26 percent holding is valued at close to Rs 800 crore.

Goyal also gave a non-disposal to PNB, barring him from selling his 51 percent holding in the airline.

2. Election Marathon Begins

Indians voted in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls 2019—the world's largest election exercise. 91 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies went to polls today, including eighteen seats across the ‘Hindi heartland’ – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.

BQuick On April 11: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes
  • After filing her nomination from Congress stronghold Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "not invincible" and reminded the Bharatiya Janata Party not to forget the 2004 polls when the United Progressive Alliance won despite opinion polls predicting a victory for the incumbent AB Vajpayee government.
  • Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal claimed that anti-Bharatiya Janata Party votes have been deleted across India at an “unprecedented scale”.

Catch live updates from the first phase of polling here.

3. Biggest Election Issue, According To Raghuram Rajan

Creating enough jobs for millions coming into the workforce every year continues to be the biggest challenge for India’s economy, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan told Bloomberg.

  • “The biggest issue in this election seems to be on the economic front—the issue of jobs,” Rajan said, stressing over the need to shift people from agricultural jobs to jobs in manufacturing and the services sector. “For people already out of it, create better jobs.”
  • The key to employment is hidden in the country’s construction sector, Rajan said.
There are tons of houses, ports, airports and railway lines to be constructed, but for that you also need to fix (issues relating to) land acquisition.
Raghuram Rajan, Former Governor, RBI

No party is laying out very strong reform agenda, said Rajan.

4. Nifty Flat, U.S. Stocks Fluctuate

Indian equity benchmarks ended marginally higher after a volatile trade as the first phase of Lok Sabha elections began today.

  • The S&P BSE Sensex 21 points higher at 38,607.
  • The NSE Nifty 50 Index ended at 11,596, up 0.11 percent.
  • Both the benchmark indices fluctuated between gains and losses at least over 10 times in today’s trade.
  • The broader market index represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index ended 0.12 percent higher.
  • Seven out of 11 sectoral gauges compiled by NSE ended lower.

Follow the day's trading action here.

BQuick On April 11: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes

Treasuries ended a two-day rally and the dollar advanced as data confirmed the economy remains on solid footing at the same time inflation is muted.

  • Stocks were mixed ahead of the start of earnings season.
  • The 10-year Treasury yield rose toward 2.50 percent after data showed a strong U.S. labour market and tepid price gains, boosting confidence the Federal Reserve can remain in its patient stance toward rates.
  • The dollar rose the most in a week, while the pound fell as Prime Minister Theresa May accepted the European Union’s offer to push the Brexit deadline out six months.
  • West Texas crude fell 0.7 percent to $64.21 a barrel.

Get your daily fix of global markets here.

5. India Inc.’s Profit Estimates Get Bumped Up

For stocks worldwide, it may be time to worry about the upcoming earnings season. But there’s one place where profit estimates are surging: India.

  • The fundamentals of corporate India are improving, and the average analyst projection for next year’s earnings at S&P BSE Sensex Index companies has jumped to a record high -- not just in rupee terms, but also in U.S. dollars.
  • That’s a stark contrast with members of the MSCI All-Country World Index and MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which have seen steady declines in estimates.
  • “We expect the earnings recovery momentum to continue this quarter as well with aggregate earnings growth expected in mid-double digits,” said Jyoti Vaswani, the Mumbai-based chief investment officer at Future Generali India Life Insurance Co. overseeing Rs 4,000 crore ($570 million) in assets.

Here’s are the sectors which will lead the rise in earnings.

6. Don’t Being So Stingy, India Inc.

If a clutch of Indian companies chose to part with the excess cash they are sitting on, they can make shareholders richer by about $16 billion.

  • That’s the takeaway from a dividend and buyback study conducted by proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services.
  • The study, which analysed FY18 financial statements of BSE 500 companies, identified 75 firms which can return cash up to Rs 1.1 lakh crore.
  • “These companies have large cash holdings and can distribute about half of their on-balance sheet cash to shareholders, as dividends or buybacks,” the IiAS report said.
  • “While we recognise that companies need to maintain liquidity for organic and inorganic growth, we question how much is enough.”

Find out which companies have the potential to return the most cash.

7. Not Just Oil And Gold Pulling Down Imports

High oil prices and strong demand for consumer goods like diamonds and smart phones had pushed up India’s import bill through much of 2018. That, together with modest export growth, led to a widening of India’s trade gap.

  • The early months of 2019 have shown some relief with imports in some of these categories stabilising.
  • While oil prices remain volatile, non-oil non-gold imports have seen some moderation.
  • This trend, while helpful in reducing India’s trade deficit, may not be entirely positive for the economy as it could show moderation in demand.
  • In particular, imports of diamonds and mobile phones have contracted for three consecutive months till January, according to trade data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

An adverse base effect due to high imports in the year-ago period has also brought down growth rates.

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8. PNB Finds A Buyer For Old Headquarters

Punjab National Bank has found a buyer in the taxman for its old headquarters in New Delhi, according to a senior government official, capping year-long efforts to sell the building as the state-run lender tries to recover from the setback of India’s biggest banking fraud.

  • The Central Board of Direct Taxes has agreed to buy the property in the prime Bhikaji Cama Place locality in South Delhi for Rs 600 crore, the official said on the condition of anonymity as the details are not public yet.
  • CBDT is the apex tax body in India under the Department of Revenue.
  • The bank has been looking to raise around Rs 8,600 crore by selling assets since the Rs 14,000-crore fraud involving jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi was unearthed at a Mumbai branch.

Besides CBDT, the CBIT and Customs were also interested in buying the building.

9. Tata Steel Workers No Longer Convinced

Tata Steel Ltd.’s European workers said they’re unsure the company’s planned joint venture with Thyssenkrupp AG should go ahead as the combination may favour the German firm’s operations.

  • Thyssenkrupp offered concessions to regulators earlier this month to win antitrust approval for a European steel joint venture, including selling plants in Belgium, Spain and the U.K.
  • The two companies are trying to ease concerns flagged by European regulators that their combined steel operations would have too much control over market supply and prices.
  • Tata’s European Works Council, which includes U.K. and Dutch labour unions, said those proposals raise concerns the joint venture is not one of equals.

The works council said it was seeking an urgent meeting with Tata’s chairman.

10. Alexa, Are You Eavesdropping On Me?

Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening.

Sometimes, someone is.

  • Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers.
  • The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices.
  • The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa’s understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands.

While mostly mundane, sometimes the team hears recordings they find upsetting, or possibly criminal.

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