Market Movers: Massive farm loan waiver in MP, LIC stock purchases under radar & S&P warning over RBI spat
Synopsis
S&P Global Ratings said the circumstances that led up to the recent resignation of Urjit Patel as RBI governor were credit negative for the country.
India’s largest domestic institutional investor LIC surprised markets by having picked up stakes in companies such as Swan Energy, Granules India, Rajesh Exports, Omaxe India, Future Lifestyle, Tata Coffee and Gateway Distriparks at elevated prices at a time liquidity dried up at smaller counters making exits difficult for many HNI investors. India’s largest fund has come under the radar of market watchers for its questionable judgement over investments in several stocks shortly before they crashed.
Aadhaar returns for use in banks, telecom
S&P warns over RBI spat
S&P Global Ratings said the circumstances that led up to the recent resignation of Urjit Patel as RBI governor were credit negative for the country and the increasing involvement of the Indian government in affairs of the central bank could undermine the hard-fought improvements in the banking system over the past few years. Remember, the global rating agency has an investment grade BBB rating for India with a stable outlook.
MP announces massive farm loan waiver
Stocks Recommendations
Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday she would bring her Brexit deal back to Parliament for a mid-January vote, pledging to get assurances from the European Union before then to break a deadlock over Britain’s fraught efforts to quit the bloc. With just over 100 days until Britain is due to leave the EU, May faced accusations from some lawmakers that she was trying to force a deeply divided parliament into backing her deal by running the clock down to exit day. A mid-January vote could oblige lawmakers to make a decision between her deal or leaving without one on March 29, a nightmare scenario for many businesses.
Top banks in race for IL&FS assets
Lenders including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s private equity firm Rare Enterprises are among a dozen bidders for the securities business of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), which is the first IL&FS subsidiary to be put on the block.
A local court in Mumbai has admitted industrialist Nusli Wadia’s criminal defamation case against Ratan Tata and 10 board members of Tata Sons and has “issued process”, thereby kick-starting the trial for charges of criminal defamation.
FB verifying political advertisers
Facebook, for the first time globally, is embarking on a strictly offline process to verify identity and locations of political advertisers in India ahead of the general elections next year. The social network, which counts India as its largest market by users, has written an email on December 8 to individual advertisers and agencies that they must provide scanned copies of address and identify proofs, which will be verified through visits by its India-based team.
· Demand for diesel fell 5% and that of cooking gas shrank 8%, contracting India’s total oil demand in November. A combination of higher prices, drop in vehicle sales and decreasing use of polluting industrial fuels is said to have contracted the oil demand by 0.87%.
· Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu will this week review the proposed ecommerce policy that is being put together by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). The policy is likely to propose restrictions for differential and predatory pricing strategies such as deep discounts used by ecommerce firms