BQuick On Sept. 17: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes
Top news, must-read stories and columns—all served up in less than 10 minutes.
This is a roundup of the day’s top stories in brief.
1. Harsimrat Kaur Badal Set To Quit Modi's Cabinet
Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal announced in Lok Sabha that party leader and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal will quit the Modi government in protest against the three farm bills tabled by the Centre in Parliament.
In his speech during a discussion on two of the farm bills -- the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, Sukhbir Singh Badal said the proposed laws will "destroy" the 50 years of hard work done by successive Punjab governments to build the farm sector.
"I announce that Harsimrat Kaur Badal will resign from the government," he said in Lok Sabha.
The Punjab party is Bharatiya Janata Party's the oldest ally.
2. Dr. Reddy's Settlement: Brokerages' Verdict
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. said it has settled litigation with a unit of Bristol Myers Squibb Co. related to patents for Revlimid (lenalidomide) capsules, used to treat various kinds of cancer.
Celgene, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb, has agreed to provide the company with a license to sell volume-limited amounts of generic lenalidomide capsules in the U.S. beginning on a confidential date after March 2022, it said in a statement.
The agreed-upon percentages of the settlement are confidential.
Nirmal Bang Securities said this might add up to $800 million to company's topline. But, this is assuming that the settlement
terms are in line with that of Natco Pharma Ltd.
But not all brokerages agree.
3. A Flying Debut, And A New IPO On The Block
Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd. more than doubled on the first day of trading after the technology company last week closed one of India’s most successful initial share sales of this decade.
Demand exceeded shares on offer by 151 times as retail investors piled into a company that gets almost all its revenue from digital services.
The debut is the best since October, when state-owned Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corp. surged 127% on listing.
Here are key insights about the company and its stock market debut.
Computer Age Management Services Ltd., a mutual fund transfer agency, expects its revenue to grow at an annualised rate of 12-13% in the next five years.
“The revenue is highly correlated with AUMs (assets under management) of mutual funds. Whenever AUM grows, clients have an advantage as they get fee remission, and the company sees revenue growth,” Anuj Kumar, chief executive officer at the Warburg Pincus- and National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.-backed company, told BloombergQuint in an interview.
“If mutual fund AUM is expected to grow 17-18% on a compounded basis for the next 5-6 years, then the company’s revenue growth will be expected to be between 12 and 13%,” he said.
CAMS IPO opens on Sept. 21.
4. Nifty Snaps Two-Session Streak; Gold Drops 1%
Indian stocks ended two days of gains, mirroring losses in Asian and European equities after the U.S. Federal Reserve highlighted uncertainty about an economic recovery.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.8% to 38,979.85.
The NSE Nifty 50 Index also fell by the same magnitude amid volumes that were 20% below the 30-day average.
Sixteen of the 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. declined, led by a gauge of realty stocks
Follow the day’s trading action here.
7. Spooked Indians Remain Thrifty
It’s playing out as expected. As the national lockdown wore on in April and May, Indians stocked up on everything from staples to biscuits and ready-to-cook items. There was also a burst of pent-up demand when economic activity resumed slowly June onwards. Now, both those effects are wearing off, as many economists had warned would happen.
Consumption in rural India, which was strong in the initial phases of the lockdown when the Covid-19 infection and fatality counts were much lower, has declined by nearly 10%, according to Dhairyashil Patil, president of All India Consumer Products Distributors Association.
Spooked by the potential hit of the pandemic from salary cuts and job losses, people have cut back on spending.
8. Questions Facing India In Its Fight Against The Virus
The Covid-19 virus is spreading in India at the fastest pace in the world with the highest single-day infections and deaths. BloombergQuint spoke to infectious disease experts on what it means and what the nation must do.
India’s mortality rate at 1.6%, touted as among the lowest in the world, should be looked at as false relief, the experts said. One needs to dig deeper.
The high recovery rate too, according to experts, is meaningless. The statistic needs to discarded from an epidemiological standpoint.
9. India’s ‘Command And Control State’ Is Bizarre On Interest Rates
The Indian State fails to understand that the interest rate is not a political tool, but the most critical price in a competitive setting, writes Raghav Bahl.
The “interest on interest” petition should have been thrown out of the venerable Supreme Court on Day One.
State governments asked to borrow to offset unpaid goods and services tax compensation are being asked to pay, not earn, interest on legitimate income!
There’s an equally bizarre ring in the call to pay a guaranteed 8.5% on Employees Provident Fund deposits.
Don’t forget the Supreme Court order that includes interest on financial instruments while calculating the licensable adjusted gross revenue of telecom companies.
No wonder we stumble and fumble around creating a genuine market economy.
10. India’s First Private Jet Terminal Opens
India opened its first exclusive terminal for private airplanes to cater to the world’s fastest growing ultra-rich population.
The new terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport will allow movement of 150 jets daily, Delhi International Airport Ltd. said in a statement.
The new terminal will be able to handle over 50 passengers an hour.
An exclusive wing will allow the private jets to skirt the rush at passenger terminals.