Category: BUSINESS

New Delhi: The total number of broadband subscribers in India grew slightly in December 2024, reaching 944.96 million from 944.76 million in November, the Ministry of Communications said on Tuesday.

This was a marginal monthly growth rate of 0.02 per cent. The top five broadband providers continued to dominate the market, accounting for 98.40 per cent of the total broadband user base, which includes both wired and wireless connections.

Urban telephone subscribers also saw an increase, rising to 663.37 million in December from 660.62 million in the previous month.

The urban segment witnessed a net addition of 3.50 million subscribers, with a monthly growth rate of 0.53 per cent.

Overall, the total number of telephone subscribers in the country stood at 1,189.92 million at the end of December, with a net addition of 2.78 million users.

The overall tele-density, which indicates the number of telephone connections per 100 people, increased to 84.45 per cent in December from 81.67 per cent in November.

Urban tele-density saw a rise to 131.50 per cent, while rural tele-density improved slightly to 58.22 per cent, as per the Ministry.

Meanwhile, the demand for mobile number portability (MNP) remained strong, with 13.85 million subscribers submitting MNP requests in December.

This pushed the cumulative number of MNP requests to 1,079.19 million since its introduction. The number of active wireless subscribers, based on peak visitor location register (VLR) data, stood at 1,060.34 million in December 2024.

Meanwhile, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, around 13.45 million subscribers submitted their requests for MNP in October last year, taking the cumulative MNP requests from 1,039.11 million at the end of September to 1,052.56 million in October.

Wireline subscribers grew from 36.93 million in September to 37.79 million by the end of October, according to the government data.

As of October 31, BSNL, MTNL, and APSFL, the three PSU access service providers, collectively held a 23.29 per cent share of the wireline market.

Mumbai: IndusInd Bank shares were locked in a 20 per cent lower circuit on Tuesday as the lender’s internal review projected an adverse impact of approximately 2.35 per cent on its net worth (as of December 2024).

The steep fall erased around Rs 14,000 crore in the bank’s market value. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 720.35, to go below the lower band on the NSE.

The bank’s net worth is expected to decline by nearly Rs 2,100 crore after accounting discrepancies of 2.35 per cent of its net worth were found in its derivatives portfolio during an internal review.

The Hinduja-promoted lender plans to absorb this loss in its Q4 earnings or the first quarter of the next fiscal year (FY26).

The internal review findings have sparked a string of target price cuts from several brokerages for the bank’s stock amid fresh turmoil, days after the Reserve Bank of India allowed only a one-year extension to Chief Executive Officer, Sumant Kathpalia.

The bank has appointed an external agency to independently review and validate its internal findings on the derivatives portfolio, as per the Reserve Bank of India’s September 2023 guidelines on bond investment classification and valuation.

IndusInd Bank will face a “litmus test” from the succession viewpoint and the board is likely to evaluate both external as well as internal candidates, Citi said. Recent developments have raised the risk perception and impact disclosed borrowings cost too, it added.

“We downgrade IIB to ‘HOLD’ from ‘BUY’ as we cut multiple to 1.0x from 1.4x driven by uncertainties relating to earnings quality and future leadership. Woes continue for IIB since an irregularity was unearthed in derivative accounting,” said Gaurav Jani from PL Capital- Prabhudas Lilladher.

This discrepancy spanned across a 5-7 year period till March 31 2024, however, due to an RBI directive, there are no irregularities with effect from Apr 1 2024.

“In our view, this episode had a bearing on RBI’s decision to extend MD and CEO’s tenure only for 1 year. Valuation is 0.9x on FY27 ABV and we trim target price to Rs 1,000 from Rs 1,400,” said Jani.

Mumbai: The Indian equity benchmark indices opened lower on Tuesday amid weak global cues, as selling was seen in the IT, media and private bank sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.35 am, Sensex was trading 371.74 points or 0.50 per cent down at 73,743.43 while the Nifty declined 104.25 points or 0.46 per cent at 22,356.05.

Nifty Bank was down 349.75 points or 0.73 per cent at 47,867.05. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 47,872.30 after declining 567.80 points or 1.17 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 14,946.10 after declining 252.05 points or 1.66 per cent.

According to market watchers, US President Donald Trump’s flip-flop tariff policy and the high uncertainty that it has triggered has started impacting US stock markets.

“S&P 500 and Nasdaq declining by 2.6 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively yesterday is the market’s response to Trump’s tariffs and the possibility of US recession by the year end. We will have to wait and watch how the situation develops,” they noted.

A significant consequence of the ongoing market correction is that India is now outperforming the US.

During the last one month, while S&P 500 is down 7.5 per cent Nifty is down only 2.7 per cent. More importantly, the dollar index is down from 109.3 when Trump assumed presidency to 103.71 now.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Zomato, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, M&M, Tata Motors, TCS, PowerGrid, NTPC and Bajaj Finance were the top losers. Whereas, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma, ITC, Adani Ports and Titan were the top gainers.

In the last trading session, Dow Jones declined 2.08 per cent to close at 41,911.71. The S&P 500 declined 2.70 per cent to 5,614.56 and the Nasdaq dropped 4.00 per cent to close at 17,468.32.

In the Asian markets, Japan, Seoul, Bangkok, China, Jakarta and Hong Kong were trading in red.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling on March 10 as they sold equities worth Rs 485.41 crore. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 263.51 crore, on the same day.

New York: Shares of Tesla are sliding again Monday as confidence in Elon Musk’s electric car company continues to disintegrate following a post-election “Trump bump”.

In afternoon trading Monday, Tesla shares fell $36.66, or 14%, to $226.11. That’s the lowest Tesla shares have traded since late October, reflecting investors’ newfound pessimism as the automaker’s sales crater around the globe.

Many analysts have blamed Tesla’s sagging stock — and auto sales — on Musk’s support of President Donald Trump and other far right candidates around the world.

Musk pumped $270 million into Trump’s campaign heading into the 2024 election, appeared on stage with him and cheered Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November. Tesla stock soared to $479 per share by mid-December, but have since tumbled back to earth, losing 40% of their value.

Following his big campaign donation, Musk has become the face of the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn government downsizing efforts, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The department has promised massive federal worker layoffs and drastically reduced government spending.

Analysts have said that doesn’t appear to sit well with potential Tesla buyers, generally perceived to be wealthy, environmentally-conscious liberals who have turned to electric vehicles in an attempt to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

Tesla sales are falling in California, the company’s biggest US market, and the company recorded its first annual global sales decline last year.

The latest auto sales figure from China show that Tesla sales there have been nearly halved from February a year ago.

Similarly, Tesla sales plunged 45% in Europe in January, according to research firm Jato Dynamics, even as overall electric vehicle sales rose.

The sales numbers were particularly bad in Germany and France in January, down roughly 60% each, more than the average decline for the more than two-dozen European countries surveyed. Sales in France fell another 26% in February.

Tesla showrooms in the US have been besieged by protesters, its vehicles vandalised and bumper stickers appearing on its cars with sayings such as, “I bought it before Elon went nuts.”

In addition to backing Trump, Musk has also shown support for the far-right, pro-Russian, anti-Muslim party in Germany, called the British prime minister an “evil tyrant” and called Canada — a major Tesla market —”not a real country”.

Tesla is not the only Musk-led company to run into trouble recently. His X social media platform crashed several times on Monday, which Musk blamed on a “massive cyberattack.

Last week, a massive rocket launched by Musk’s SpaceX exploded and broke apart over Florida, about two months after another of the company’s rockets failed, sending flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos.

Port Louis: Mauritius is pressing for amendments to its trade agreement, including Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) with India, Foreign and Trade Minister Dhananjay Ramful said.

In an interview with PTI Videos at his office in Port Louis, he underscored the need to revisit the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) to restore Mauritius’ position as a preferred investment conduit, as foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows from the island nation to India have declined sharply since the treaty’s revision in 2016.

“Amendment in DTAC is still under discussion. Two issues, I think, need to be sorted out. From what I’ve been told, once this is sorted out, then they will sign the protocol,” he explained, hinting at unresolved sticking points in the negotiations.

The minister announced that a second session of the joint committee will convene soon to revisit both the CECPA and the DTAC, aiming to address trade imbalances and taxation issues.

“We have signed the CECPA, the comprehensive free trade agreement with India. And, there is a dip from the Mauritius side. We don’t export that much to India,” Ramful told PTI Videos.

Since 2000, Mauritius has channeled a cumulative USD 175 billion in FDI into India, accounting for 25% of India’s total FDI inflows. However, following the 2016 amendment, which introduced measures to curb tax avoidance, FDI inflows from Mauritius have plummeted from USD 15.72 billion in 2016-17 to USD 6.13 billion in 2022-23.

Despite this decline, Mauritius remained India’s third-largest FDI source in 2022-23. For the fiscal year 2023-24 (April–March), FDI equity inflows from Mauritius rebounded to USD 7.97 billion, elevating it to the second-largest source of FDI into India after Singapore. For the first quarter of 2024-25 (April–June), inflows stood at USD 3.21 billion.

Ramful also emphasized Mauritius’ demand for parity with Singapore. “We want to make sure that we get the same or better consideration, if not the same, that is being given to Singapore,” he stated, signaling the country’s intent to reclaim its edge as a top investment hub.

Beyond taxation, Ramful pitched Mauritius as a strategic gateway for Indian investors targeting Africa’s 1.3 billion consumers. “Indian investors should also take the opportunity of using Mauritius as a platform, as a gateway to invest in Africa… Mauritius is there as a platform where we can facilitate and provide incentives,” he said.

The Indian companies have already invested over USD 200 million in Mauritius in the last five years, a figure Ramful hopes will grow with enhanced bilateral frameworks.

In an interview with the PTI Videos, Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius Anurag Srivastava, on Sunday said India and Mauritius are likely to sign “significant agreements” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day state visit starting March 11 to advance economic ties.

New Delhi: Elon Musk on Monday said a massive cyber attack has hit his X social media platform, that disabled millions of users across the globe, including in India, from accessing the popular platform.

The X platform went down in a massive global outage as users were unable to access the micro-blogging platform.

“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing…,” said the billionaire in a post.

“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X,” he said, adding that it is an attempt to silence him and his platform.

X, formerly Twitter, went non-operational for millions of users during the day.

According to platform outage tracking platform DownDetector, the X outage peaked at around 15:00 hours

A user commented: “Is Twitter down? Anyone getting the same issue? Can’t open the comments section”.

“Thanks for the update. It’s unreal how badly they want to shut down free speech,” another posted.

“Looks like someone really doesn’t want X to thrive. Wonder who’s behind it,” said another.

DownDetector reported a huge spike, with users rushing to lodge their complaints about the social media site on other platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

During the downtime, X stopped working completely while the users were unable to post tweets or even open pages on the platform.

X was acquired by Musk in October 2022 for $44 billion.

After the acquisition, X rarely went off the grid unlike its peers Facebook and Instagram.

Recently, the tech billionaire raised prices of its top-tier subscription service (Premium+) for his X social media platform by a massive 35 per cent for both new and existing users in India, including across global markets.

New Delhi: The current market turbulence provides saner entry points for long-term investors, a new report said on Monday, adding that the mid to long-term story for Indian equities continues to hinge on earnings upcycle.

“On earnings, while we are navigating a near term slowdown, the medium-term trends stay encouraging. India’s corporate profits as a proportion of GDP have reverted higher over the past 4 years after secularly declining for 12 years between 2008-2020,” according to the report by the SBI Funds Management Limited.

“Sectorally, we have stayed constructive on discretionary consumption as a secular theme given the disproportionate boost the category derives from rising incomes as India’s GDP approaches US$3,000 per capita,” it mentioned.

The thrust in the Union Budget through lower taxes comes as a tailwind for this sector. On the other hand, “we also stay positive on manufacturing and investment cycle related plays from a longer-term standpoint and believe the recent correction may present interesting opportunities in some of these names,” the SBI report said.

As the current panic subsides, the report believes markets will become more discerning and move back towards companies which have strong business models, long-term earnings growth visibility and sustainable cashflows.

Now that the RBI has initiated the policy rate easing cycle, given the view that the space currently is limited, the emerging issue to be tackled would be the dynamics of liquidity.

“This would be an ongoing process and should have a material impact on the shape of the curve as well as on spreads going forward,” said the report.

While rate easing remains a theme that still warrants portfolio duration to stay around the upper bands, it must be appreciated that market dynamics could limit the extent of incremental gains.

“At the same time, current dynamics in market yields, provides opportunities that enable a more relative value with lower risk that can be played through specific funds. This should also align with investor preferences in terms of risk tolerance and tenors,” said the report.

Short tenor bond funds continue to provide higher accrual, wider spreads as well as an optimum risk/reward that provide opportunities over the coming months as well as into the coming year.

Seasonality factors typical of March quarter continue to play out that should normalise over the next fiscal beginning. This also provides attractive opportunities over the near term across all categories of money market products.

“The vagaries of equity market volatility also make hybrid products more relevant in the current market context,” the report noted.

Mumbai: The Indian benchmark indices opened higher on Monday amid mixed global cues, as buying was seen in the IT, PSU bank and financial service sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.30 am, Sensex was trading 125.06 points or 0.17 per cent up at 74,457.64 while the Nifty added 39.35 points or 0.17 per cent at 22,591.85.

Nifty Bank was down 7.00 points or 0.01 per cent at 48,490.50. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 49,305.15 after gaining 114.55 points or 0.23 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 15,539.95 after rising 35.65 points or 0.23 per cent.

According to market watchers, the important question which investors have in mind when the new trading week begins is: will Nifty’s outperformance last week continue?

The declining intensity of FII selling witnessed last week is a positive. But the market momentum witnessed last week is unlikely to continue beyond a point since the element of uncertainty is high.

“Investors can play it safe by focusing on domestic consumption themes which will not be impacted by the potential tariffs. Export oriented segments like IT and pharma will be volatile responding to news flows surrounding US actions,” said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

After a negative opening, Nifty can find support at 22,450 followed by 22,350 and 22,300. On the higher side, 22,600 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 22,700 and 22,800, said experts.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid and Tata Steel were the top gainers. While, IndusInd Bank, M&M, L&T, ITC, Titan and Maruti Suzuki were the top losers.

In the last trading session on Friday, Dow Jones gained 0.52 per cent to close at 42,801.72. The S&P 500 added 0.55 per cent to 5,770.20 and the Nasdaq gained 0.70 per cent to close at 18,196.22.

In the Asian markets, Only Japan and Seoul were trading in green. Whereas Bangkok, China, Jakarta and Hong Kong were trading in red.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling on March 7 as they sold equities worth Rs 2,035.10 crore. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,320.36 crore, on the same day.

Baghdad: The United States has declined to renew a waiver that had allowed Iraq to buy electricity from Iran without running afoul of sanctions, a US official said Sunday.

The previous waiver expired Saturday and the US Department of State did not renew it, the US embassy in Baghdad said in a statement.

The decision came as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” on Iran, which is “designed to end Iran’s nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile programme and stop it from supporting terrorist groups,” the statement said.

“We urge the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible, and welcome the Iraqi Prime Minister’s commitment to achieve energy independence,” the statement said.

Despite its oil and gas wealth, Iraq has suffered from decades of electricity shortages because of war, corruption and mismanagement and has become heavily reliant on imported Iranian gas as well as electricity imported directly from Iran to meet its electricity needs.

Power outages are common, especially in the scorching summer months. Many Iraqis have to rely on diesel generators or suffer through temperatures that exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

The waiver that expired applied to direct electricity imports. It remains unclear whether Iraq will be able to continue to import gas from Iran for its power plants.

The US embassy statement asserted that electricity imports from Iran were only 4 per cent of electricity consumption in Iraq

But a spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity, Ahmad Moussa, said that should gas imports also be forbidden it “would cause Iraq to lose more than 30 per cent of its electricity energy” and that the government is looking for alternatives.

Already, Moussa said, Iranian gas had stopped supplying power plants in Baghdad and the central Euphrates region for the past two months, and the supply to southern power plants had been unstable.

A senior official in the electricity ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly, said the ministry had not yet been officially notified of the US decision regarding gas imports.

He said Iraq could lose about 8,000 megawatts of energy from power stations operating on Iranian gas and another 500 megawatts of electricity supplied directly by Iran.

There are some 7.5 billion euros in an Iraqi bank account set aside as payment for Iranian gas and about 6.5 billion euros have already been disbursed since the beginning of the year, the official said. The funds are limited in how they can be used and are only released when Iran needs to purchase food, medicine or other humanitarian supplies.