Top 10 Business, Markets News In Under 5 Minutes: BQuick On Feb. 16
BQuick | Top news, must-read stories and columns – all served up in less than 5 minutes.
Here’s a roundup of the day’s top stories in brief.
1. Petrol At Rs 100 A Litre... And Taxes Are Half Of It
Nagarabandh in Madhya Pradesh has reached an unwelcome milestone on India’s fuel map. It’s at least one place where unleaded petrol now retails at more than Rs 100 a litre. But costlier crude oil is only partly to blame for the rise.
2. Nestle Reports Higher Profit; FMCG Sector’s Value Grows
Nestle India saw quarterly profit and revenue rise due to higher demand. The maker of the likes of Maggi, KitKat and Nescafe reported double-digit growth in domestic sales while its exports fell.
Meanwhile, NielsenIQ said that the fast-moving consumer goods sector saw its value grow for the second straight quarter on the back of festive season consumption.
3. Bitcoin Surges Past $50,000
Bitcoin’s record-breaking surge continued to shatter another milestone as the cryptocurrency crossed $50,000-mark for the first time. The world's largest cryptocurrency has jumped 73% in 2021 so far.
4. Sensex Surrenders Early Gains
Indian equities gave up gains from the early part of the trading day to end little changed as private banking stocks underperformed. Metal stocks were the biggest outperformers while IT stocks lagged.
Related Coverage
- Brookfield REIT falls on stock market debut.
- Why JPMorgan sees a 70% upside for Hindalco.
- Nifty Metal Index jumps to highest since Oct. 2018.
- Why Tata Consumer stock hit a record high.
5. Gautam Shah Says Don’t Wait For A Correction
India’s current bull market is “unique” and can’t be studied with traditional technical analysis parameters, according to Gautam Shah. The founder of Goldilocks Premium Research told BloombergQuint that there is much more upside to the market and such momentum cannot be easily broken.
6. India’s Logistics Sector Improving
As the Indian economy inches back towards normal, indicators reflecting the movement of goods across the country are moving higher, in some cases to record levels. Railway freight, truck rentals, and e-way bill collections have all risen in the recent months.
7. What Drove Indian Steelmakers’ Q3 Earnings
Listed steelmakers in India saw their profit and revenue rise in the December quarter aided by higher demand, better realisations, falling debt and improved cash flow. Here’s a closer look at the factors that helped steelmakers turn a profit.
8. Amazon’s First 'Make In India' Push
Amazon will start manufacturing Fire TV Sticks in India through a subsidiary of its partner Foxconn Technology in facilities outside Chennai. Production will start later this year, adding Amazon to a flock of tech firms that are setting up manufacturing operations in India.
9. How India Has Fared On Covid-19 Vaccination So Far
Within a month since India’s vaccination drive started, it has inoculated 8.4 million people. At this rate, India is likely to miss its target of vaccinating 250 million people by July. IndiaSpend looks at the important numbers on how the Covid-19 vaccination programme has progressed.
10. Okonjo-Iweala Is The First Female WTO Leader
Members of the World Trade Organization selected Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as their director-general, making the 66-year-old Nigerian developmental economist the first woman and the first African to lead the WTO. World leaders hope Okonjo-Iweala can help steer the WTO out of its negotiating morass and make it fit to govern the modern global trading system.