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    need2know: Controlling fuel fire, relief for home buyers and fail-safe banks

    Synopsis

    A look at the top macro triggers that may move market on Thursday.

    ETMarkets.com

    Here’s a lowdown on top macro triggers that may move market on Thursday. This report was compiled from agency feeds.

    India to Take Long-tern View on Oil Prices
    India will take a long-term view on the retail pricing of petrol and diesel to shield consumers from volatility in global markets, the government said on Wednesday, suggesting it could change the way pump prices are calculated. Rising global crude prices are largely behind the recent surge in fuel prices, but heavy taxation by central and state governments account for about half the cost of petrol and 40% of the diesel price. Meanwhile, OPEC members from the Persian Gulf are leading early talks on when the cartel could start lifting production to “cool” the oil prices after Brent Crude hit $80 a barrel last week. As early as next month, OPEC may decide to reverse some of the production cuts in place since the beginning of 2017.

    Govt Won't Allow Any Bank to Fail: FinMin
    Financial services secretary Rajiv Kumar has said the government will provide capital support to public sector banks (PSBs) and not allow any one of them to default. On Tuesday, the State Bank of India had reported a record loss of Rs 7718 crore for Q4. The government said yesterday that one or two quarters of "pain upfront is okay" when the lenders are cleaning up books, but the worst for state-run banks is over. Most PSU banks reported losses in Q4 after making higher provisions for non-performing assets (NPA) or bad loans.

    IBC Amended: Relief for Home Buyers
    The Cabinet on Wednesday approved promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The changes allow promoters of micro, small and medium enterprises to bid for their companies and gives homebuyers a stronger say in the resolution plan for developers. The ordinance proposes to classify home buyers as "financial creditors" at par with lenders to help them swiftly get refunds from the defaulting real estate companies. The amendment was introduced months after a new Section 29A was added into the bankruptcy code in November, introducing four layers of ineligibility for potential bidders.


    Panna-Mukta-Tapti: RIL, Shell, ONGC Told to Pay $3.8 bn to Govt
    India’s oil ministry has ordered Reliance Industries, Royal Dutch Shell and Oil & Natural Gas Corp to pay $3.8 billion as the increased share of the government’s earnings from the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields after a UK court rejected challenges to the arbitration award that went against the companies. The liability is to be shared by the companies in proportion to their interests in the oil and gas fields in the Arabian Sea – ONGC (40%), RIL (30%) and Shell (30%). The demand was made a few days ago.
    Panna storyET Bureau



    Telco Majors Keep Market Share Intact
    Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular continued to add customers and hold on to market share in March amid continuing price wars and strong subscriber additions by 4G operator Reliance Jio Infocomm. Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea registered modest market share gains to 25.7% (25.57 %), 18.82% (18.76%) and 17.85% (17.47%), respectively, in March over the previous month as customers ported out from Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Telenor India and Reliance Communications. Reliance Jio recorded the highest customer additions in March, at 9.43 million, taking its market share to 15.76% from 13.08% in November.

    Competitive Ranking: India One place Up
    India has moved one place up, to the 44th position in the worldwide annual competitiveness rankings compiled by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). However, it is ranked the 12th most competitive economy out of the 14 Asian countries on the list. Globally, US is number one, driven by its strength in economic performance and infrastructure, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore in the second and third place, respectively. The Netherlands and Switzerland were the other two nations in the top five. China (13th) has climbed 10 spots since 2014.

    Model Contract Farming Law is Out
    The agriculture ministry has released the Model Contract Farming Act, 2018, which lays emphasis on protecting the interests of farmers, considering them as weaker of the two parties entering into a contract. It is a promotional and facilitative Act and not regulatory in its structure. In addition to contract farming, services contracts all along the value chain, including pre-production, production and post-production, have been included in the Act. The Act says that no permanent structure can be developed on farmers’ land or premises.


    YOU ALSO NEED TO KNOW

    SC Halts Expansion of Sterlite Plant in TN
    In an interim order on Wednesday, the Madras High Court directed the Vedanta Group to halt construction of the second unit of its Sterlite copper smelter in Thoothukudi, even as violent protests continued for the second consecutive day. The police opened fire again on Wednesday to control unruly crowds demanding closure of the Vedanta unit, resulting in the death of a 22-year-old man and injury of others. On Tuesday, eleven people were killed and several were injured in clashes with the police.

    India's Billionaire Count to Rise 3 Times by 2027
    India has the third largest number of billionaires in the world, and in the next decade, as many as 238 additional ultra high net worth individuals will join this elite club. A report by AfrAsia Bank Global Wealth Migration Review, says India currently has 119 billionaires, and this number is expected to swell to 357 by 2027. Over the next 10 years, while India is expected to create 238 additional billionaires, its neighbour China is likely to add as 448 such individuals.

    Fortis: Truncated Board to Consider All Previous Bids
    The truncated board of directors of Fortis Healthcare met on Wednesday, after four directors either resigned or were voted out, to initiate the process for considering all the bids that were submitted earlier for the hospital chain, said two people familiar with the development. If the board decides to re-examine the bids, it would render infructuous the May 10 decision to recommend the Munjal-Burmans bid to shareholders for approval.

    Whistleblower writes to Sebi against Infosys
    A whistleblower has written to market regulator Sebi complaining against Infosys and alleged that IT major's current chairman Nandan Nilekani had failed to uphold the highest standards of corporate governance practised earlier by the IT major. The whistleblower said Infosys had "quietly revealed", in its annual report, that it had signed agreements for mutual release of claims with three directors, including former Chairman R Seshasayee and Jeff Lehman (ex-head of nominations and remuneration committee). "The only reason why company signed such claim release agreement with those directors is because they found certain wrongdoings in the investigation reports. The release of which will be damning indication on the company and those directors," the whistleblower claimed.

    Top Video
    Underpenetrated Mortgage Sector Offers Big Opportunity: Bharat Pareek, DHFL

    Underpenetrated mortgage sector offers big opportunity: Bharat Pareek, DHFL

    Pareek in an intervew to ETMarkets.com said that mortgage penetration in India at around 10 per cent of GDP is way lower than 30 per cent of that of other emerging markets such as Malaysia and Taiwan.


    Top Quote
    'It Is Really Tough Being a Private Sector Company in India'

    FUNDAMENTALS

    Direct Tax Collections Up 18%: Direct tax collections for FY18 crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark, registering an increase of 18% over the previous fiscal. "During the last Financial Year 2017-18, net direct tax collections have crossed Rs 10.03 lakh crore mark which is 18% higher than the collections during the FY 2016-17," the Finance Ministry said in a tweet.

    Rupee Down: The Indian rupee ended at 68.43 against the US dollar on Wedensday —a level last seen on 29 November 2016 -- down 0.56% from its previous close of 68.04.

    Bonds Down: Government bonds (G-Secs) dropped on sustained selling pressure from banks and corporates. The 7.17% 10-year benchmark bond maturing in 2028 weakened to Rs 95.46 from Rs 95.72, while its yield moved up to 7.85% from 7.81%. The 6.68% G-Secs maturing in 2031 eased to Rs 88.7525 from Rs 89.10, while its yield edged up to 8.07% from 8.03%. The 6.84% G-Secs maturing in 2022 went-down to Rs 96.2950 from Rs 96.45, while its yield gained to 7.82% from 7.78%. The 7.59% G-Secs maturing in 2026, the 7.16% G-Secs maturing in 2023 and the 6.79% G-Secs maturing in 2027 were also quoted lower to Rs 97.25, Rs 97.00 and Rs 92.75 respectively.

    Call rates down: The overnight call money rates closed lower to 5.80% from Tuesday's closing level of 5.90%. It resumed higher at 6.10% and moved in a range of 6.10% and 5.80%.

    Liquidity: The Reserve Bank of India, under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility, purchased securities worth Rs 14,767 crore in 16-bids at the overnight repo auction at a fixed rate of 6.00% on Wednesday morning, while it sold securities worth Rs 7,853 crore in 34-bids at the overnight reverse repo auction at a fixed rate of 5.75% as on May 22.




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    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
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