Torrent Pharmaceuticals has acquired Curatio Healthcare

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is down by 109.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a gap down opening for Indian stock market.

Asian indices were mixed on Wednesday after S&P 500 set a new 2022 low overnight on Wall Street. The Japanese Nikkei fell by 0.67 percent, South Korea’s Kospi was lower by 0.43 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading deep in red and down by 1.63 percent in early morning deals.

The S&P 500 fell to its lowest level in almost two years on Tuesday on amid super aggressive Federal Reserve policy tightening, trading under its June trough and leaving investors appraising how much further stocks would have to fall before stabilizing.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.43 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.21 percent. The Nasdaq Composite was up by 0.25 percent.

Stocks News:

?Bharat Heavy Electrical has received order for setting up the 2×660 MW Talcher thermal power project Stage-III on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis from NTPC.

?Life Insurance Corporation of India has bought additional 2.01% stake in the Bharat Petroleum Corporation via open market transactions. With this, its shareholding in the company increased to 9.04%, up from 7.03% earlier.

?Torrent Pharmaceuticals has acquired Curatio Healthcare, which has a strong presence in the cosmetic dermatology segment with a portfolio of over 50 brands, for Rs 2,000 crore. It has entered into definitive agreements to acquire 100% in Curatio which reported revenue for FY21-22 at Rs 224 crore.

?Axis Bank will invest around Rs 50-70 crore to acquire a little less than a 10 per cent stake in Fairfax-backed Go Digit Life Insurance. The lender is already a promoter of Max Life Insurance Company.

?Bank of India has acquired over 5.5 per cent stake in Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) for Rs 10 crore. On September 27, 2022, the bank invested in the capacity of promoter shareholder of ONDC, an amount of Rs 10 crore in ONDC, under the private placement route.

?Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth Rs 2,823.96 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 3,504.76 crore on September 27, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Domestic and International Events

• The head of the World Trade Organization expects that global trade forecasts will be revised lower from the current 3 percent for 2022, citing the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and related food and energy crises.
• Oil prices were mixed in early Asian trade on Wednesday as support from US production cuts caused by Hurricane Ian contended with crude storage builds and a strong dollar.
• The net direct tax collection has increased 23 percent to Rs 7.04 lakh crore so far this fiscal, the income tax department said on Tuesday. The income and corporate tax collections were at a record high of Rs 14.09 lakh crore in 2021-22.
• Chinese monetary authorities are asking local banks to revive a yuan fixing tool it abandoned two years ago as they seek to steer and defend the rapidly weakening currency.

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