BQuick On June 10: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes   

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

1. SBI Job Alert!

India’s largest lender is seeking applications to appoint a new chief financial officer on contract.

• The appointee will receive an annual remuneration of Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore for a three-year contract, according to an advertisement released by State Bank of India on Tuesday.
• The prospective applicant can be up to 57 years of age on April 1.
• The candidate must have a minimum work experience of 15 years, overseeing financial operations, preferably accounting and taxation matters, in banks, large corporates, public sector institutions or financial services organisations, the advertisement read.

The newly appointed CFO will be eligible for a two-year extension after the first term ends. More details here.

2. S&P Retains Faith In India

S&P Global Ratings retained India’s sovereign rating as it expects the nation to outperform its global peers despite a blip this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The global ratings agency affirmed the long-term sovereign rating of India at ‘BBB-’ and short-term foreign and local currency credit ratings at ‘A-3’, according to its media statement.
• The outlook on the long-term rating remains stable, it said.
• It expects GDP to decline 5% in 2020-21, mainly due to the pandemic.
• Despite that, the country is well placed to recover better than its peers.

Still, S&P cautioned against some intensifying risks for India. Find out what they are.

3. Relief For Amrapali Homebuyers

The Supreme Court asked banks and other lenders to disburse the remaining loan amount to buyers of homes in stalled Amrapali Group projects even if these accounts have turned bad.

• Homebuyers obtained loans but could not enjoy the fruits of their investments because of the delay in the projects, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said.
• It will be in the interest of buyers and banks if the pending projects are completed, it said.
• “The disbursement of further loans may be based on the present rate of interest fixed by the RBI; this we order in the peculiar facts of the case,” the bench, also comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, said.

Banks told the court that they will be willing to release the loans in a phased manner.

4. Nifty Rebounds; Nasdaq Hits 10,000 Ahead Of Fed Decision

Indian equity markets erased most of Tuesday's declines, ending with gains after a sharp surge in the last few minutes of the trading day.

• The S&P BSE Sensex ended 0.86% higher at 34,247.
• The NSE Nifty 50 ended with gains of 0.7% at 10,116.
• The PSU Banking index was the outperformer among the sectoral indices, ending with gains of 3.5%.
• Follow the day’s trading action here.

Most U.S. stocks fell as investors awaited reassurance on the Federal Reserve’s willingness to keep providing extraordinary support for the economy.

• The S&P 500 extended losses into a second day as a drop in energy producers offset gains in technology shares.
• A rally in giants such as Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. pushed the Nasdaq 100 toward a fresh record.
• Treasury 10-year yields slumped to as low as 0.79%.
• The greenback resumed losses, and has now fallen more than 2% in June.
• The Fed will consider penciling in rates near zero for this year and next to help the economy recover from its coronavirus-induced recession. The committee will release a statement tonight alongside its first quarterly forecasts since December, including a dot plot of its rate projections.

Get your daily fix of global markets here.

5. Ponting, Dhoni, And Asset Allocation

Lessons from consistently strong cricket teams about better asset allocation. By Niraj Shah.

• Just as Australia re-evaluated a successful captaincy and moved from Waugh to Ponting, people should re-evaluate portfolio leadership.
• Like the stability of India’s ODI top-order, if the groundwork is correct, clear, and constant, the ability to pick good players (asset classes) will not be difficult.
• Too often, people fall for mercurial ideas, akin to how the Pakistan or West Indies cricket teams perform.

The waxing and waning of these teams has parallels to the asset allocation backed performances in portfolios.

6. Hero MotoCorp’s Revival Hopes Pinned On Rural India

India’s largest two-wheeler maker expects rural demand to recover faster than urban, aided by improved crop production and the government’s fiscal stimulus, as the economy gradually eases lockdown restrictions.

• “One can cue that given agricultural activities like increase in crops, increase in sowing, normal monsoon forecast and the fiscal stimulus more directed towards rural, these economies are likely to do better than urban. We will have to watch out the trend as we move forward,” Niranjan Gupta, chief financial officer at Hero MotoCorp Ltd., said in a post-earnings conference call.
• But it’s difficult to forecast how demand will pan out in the fiscal ending March 2021, he said.
• Hero MotoCorp’s sales tumbled 42% in March and 25% year-on-year during the fourth quarter.

For a brief period, Gupta said, retail sales will chase production, but it will be made up for when manpower returns.

7. Modi’s Latest Attempt To Fill The Tax Shortfall

India is pushing to sell land parcels and properties of state-owned companies after legal hurdles had stalled the plan for years.

• The government is working on monetising non-core assets of state-run firms and government departments to mop up revenue, an official told BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity.
• Earlier attempts by the government to sell land holdings of public sector undertakings had faced obstacles like litigation and ongoing disputes on land holdings.
• State-owned firms have been asked to settle their long-pending disputes so that such land holdings can also be hived off, the official said.

The move comes as tax collections are expected to drop in the ongoing financial year. Read the BQ Blue exclusive here.

8. Wockhardt-Dr. Reddy’s Deal Terms Amended

The board of Wockhardt Ltd. approved an amendment to a Rs 1,850-crore deal with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. for sale of select divisions of the Mumbai-based drugmaker’s branded generics business and a manufacturing facility to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their valuations.

“In the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequent government restrictions, there has been a reduction of revenue from the sales of the products forming part of the business undertaking during March and April 2020,” Wockhardt said in an exchange filing.

The agreed consideration of Rs 1,850 crore will now be paid as:

• Rs 1,483 crore: on closing date under business transfer agreement.
• Rs 67 crore: deposited by the purchaser in an escrow account will be released subject to adjustment.
• Rs 300 crore: will be held by Dr. Reddy’s on the closing date for assessment of the Covid-19 impact.

Here’s how the “holdback amount” will be released.

9. Covid-19 Recoveries Top Active Cases In India

Covid-19 infections neared the 2.8-lakh mark on Wednesday, as India continues to ease restrictions imposed during the two-month lockdown.

• India added 9,985 fresh cases in the 24 hours preceding the Health Ministry’s 8 a.m. update on June 10, taking the total tally to 2,76,583.
• This includes 7,745 deaths and 1,35,206 patients who have recovered.
• Authorities reported 274 deaths and 5,893 recoveries during the same 24 hours.
• The country has now reported more than 9,000 fresh cases for the seventh straight day.
• India’s total recovered Covid-19 patients surpassed the total active cases for the first time today.
• Meanwhile, confirmed cases in Delhi crossed 30,000 with the city emerging as a new hotspot after Mumbai.
• While Delhi took 78 days to record its first 10,000 Covid-19 cases, it took 13 days to record the next 10,000 cases and another eight to reach 30,000 cases.

Track news and developments around the Covid-19 pandemic here.

Globally, cases crossed 72 lakh leaving over 4.11 lakh dead.

• China started offering experimental vaccine shots to workers of state-run companies travelling abroad.
• Iran’s health ministry warned the public against letting their guard down after and assessment showed only 22% of the population observed social distancing.
• The top U.S. infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci called the coronavirus pandemic his “worst nightmare” and warned that the deadly outbreak is far from over.

Follow the global spread of the virus here.

10. India, China Start Easing Border Standoff

India and China have taken steps to de-escalate a six week-long standoff in the Himalayan region after a weekend meeting of senior military officials.

• Both sides have moved back forces in Ladakh ahead of another round of talks between senior military personnel, the second in less than a week, Indian officials with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News.
• The discussions on Wednesday will decide on de-escalation at another location around the Galwan River -- a region that was a key trigger for the 1962 Sino-Indian War, they said, asking not to be identified as the talks were private.

The standoff at Pangong Tso is likely to be discussed separately between senior military commanders.