LIC sold 2% stake or 56.68 lakh shares in Bajaj Auto via open market transactions

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is up by 60.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.

Asian markets were trading on a positive note in the early session on November 18. The Japanese Nikkei is up by 0.26 percent and South Korea’s Kospi is up by 0.92 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down by 1.01 percent in the early morning trades.

Wall Street’s main indices ended modestly lower on Thursday in a choppy session as hawkish comments from a US Federal Reserve official and data showing the labor market remained tight led some investors to worry about more aggressive interest rate hikes. S&P 500 lost 0.31 percent whereas Nasdaq composite dropped 0.35 percent.

Stocks News:

?Citigroup has launched a block deal to sell shares in cosmetics-to-fashion retailer Nykaa, worth $125 million or Rs 1,000 crore. The report comes days after the lock-in expiry for pre-IPO investors in cosmetics-to-fashion retailer ended.

?BOFA Securities Europe SA has acquired 50.26 lakh shares in the Paytm operator, Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore PTE bought 60.03 lakh shares, and Societe Generale – ODI purchased 70.85 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 555 apiece. They in total bought Rs 1,005 crore Paytm shares through open market transactions. However, SVF India Holdings (Cayman) offloaded 2.93 crore shares in Paytm worth Rs 1,630.89 crore. SVF as of September 2022 held 11.32 crore shares or 17.45% stake in Paytm.

?Life Insurance Corporation of India sold 2% stake or 56.68 lakh shares in Bajaj Auto via open market transactions. With this, LIC’s shareholding in the company stands reduced to 5.2%, from 7.2% earlier.

?Bharat Electronics has signed an agreement with Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL/AVANI), a defence PSU. They will jointly address domestic and export opportunities in the areas of combat vehicles, main battle tanks (MBTs), infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) and related systems. It has also signed a MoU with Advanced Weapons and Equipment India (AWEIL), a defence PSU.

?Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net bought shares worth Rs 618.37 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net purchased shares worth Rs 449.22 crore on November 17, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Domestic and International Events

• The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, showing widespread layoffs remain low despite a surge in technology-sector job cuts that has raised fears of an imminent recession.
• Japan’s core consumer inflation accelerated to a 40-year high in October as a weak yen pushed up the cost of imported commodities, which were already surging due to global supply constraints. The data suggests Japanese firms may be shaking off their deflationary mindset as they gradually raise prices of everything from fuel to food in response to higher costs.
• The Federal Reserve may have to raise its benchmark interest rate much higher than it has previously projected to get inflation under control, James Bullard, who leads the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said Thursday.
• Oil prices fell more than 3 percent on Thursday, with demand squeezed by mounting Covid-19 cases in China and fears of more aggressive hikes in US interest rates. Brent crude fell $3.08 to settle at $89.78 a barrel, down 3.3 percent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $3.95, or 4.6 percent, to settle at $81.64 per barrel.

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