Business

According to CLSA, the Indian cement sector may see a price increase of 4% in the second half of FY25 and this will be good news for companies that have been affected by low prices across India for the last several quarters. However, the sustainability of these price increases remains a key monitorable factor, according to the brokerage. Cement prices increased by Rs 10-30 per bag in early December. The increase was the highest in the eastern and central regions of India at Rs 20-30 per bag, while the rest of the regions saw an increase of Rs 10.This means that cement prices across India have increased by 3.5% quarter-on-quarter so far in the third quarter. However, prices are still down 5% year-on-year. According to CLSA, cement demand remained weak throughout October, but it gradu...

According to data compiled by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association, retail sales of vehicles across categories in India rose 11.21 percent to 32,08,719 units in November as against 28,85,317 units in the same month last year. Retail sales of two-wheelers rose to 26,15,953 units in November as against 22,58,970 units in the same month last year. This shows a robust growth of 15.8 percent.

Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday, as top importer China took its first step toward easing monetary policy for the first time since 2010 to boost economic growth, state media reported, citing a politburo meeting. Brent crude futures rose $1, or 1.4%, to $72.12 a barrel at 1356 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.09, or 1.6%, to $68.29. "Oil prices are likely to jump as monetary policy easing in China has boosted risk sentiment," said UBS analyst Giovanni Stauno. China's growth has stalled, as a slowdown in the property market has hit confidence and consumption. China's slowdown also led oil producer group OPEC+ to decide last week to postpone its plans for higher output until April. China will adopt a "moderately loose" monetary policy, a ter...

The State Bank of India (SBI) has projected that India's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at 6.3% during the current financial year (FY25), lower than the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) forecast of 6.6%, which was revised upward from 7.2% earlier. "We believe GDP growth for FY25 will be lower than the RBI forecast and are pegging it at 6.3%," SBI said. On Friday, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced the central bank's revised estimate for GDP growth. This came after the country's economy grew at 5.4% in the July-September quarter of FY25, the lowest growth in seven quarters. This marked the first time in five years that the RBI revised its growth forecast upwards - in this case from 7% to 7.2% - but later lowered it. While such adjustments were common in previous years, th...

IGL share price jumped nearly 4 per cent in mid-day trade on December 5 after the city gas distributor announced that the board will consider a proposal to issue bonus shares on December 10. "It is notified that the Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on December 10, 2024 to consider a proposal to issue bonus shares in the prescribed proportion to the equity shareholders of the company, subject to the approval of the shareholders," a statement issued by the company on December 4 said. The company has not announced the bonus ratio and is likely to announce it on December 10. IGL stock reacted sharply to the announcement of the company's corporate action and the stock rose 3.82 per cent in morning trade to hit an intraday high of Rs 374 per share on the NSE. The stock opened...

Funding raised by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) from mutual funds (MFs) grew nearly 47 percent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 2.33 trillion in October 2024. Sequentially, funding support by MFs to NBFCs increased by 0.3 percent compared to September, according to CARE Ratings. Mutual funds (MFs) credit exposure to NBFCs, which includes commercial paper (CP) and corporate debt, has remained above Rs two trillion for more than half a year now. Moreover, CP has remained above the one trillion mark for almost a year, currently at Rs 1.22 trillion. Banks' credit exposure to NBFCs stood at Rs 15.4 trillion in October 2024, showing a growth of 6.4 per cent year-on-year. On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, the amount increased by 0.5 percent. However, the proportion of NBFC exposure re...