Paytm Bank fined, Infosys partners PROG Holdings, Disney-Reliance merger faces scrutiny, JSW Steel Italy relaunches Piombino plant.

Opening Bell:

The Gift Nifty is up by 60.5 points, indicating a positive opening for the Indian stock market.

US stocks, following a record-setting rally driven by favorable inflation data and AI enthusiasm, showed mixed performance on Friday. The Dow Jones dipped 0.15%, closing at 38,937.30, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.06% to 5,099.20. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.21% to 16,125.58, reaching a new high, propelled by gains in AI-related stocks like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

Stocks News:

👉 One 97 Communications: The Financial Intelligence Unit-India has imposed a penalty of Rs 5.49 crore on Paytm Payments Bank for violating money laundering norms. The announcement of the penalty comes hours after the board of parent firm Paytm approved the discontinuation of several inter-company agreements with Paytm Payments Bank.

👉 Infosys: PROG Holdings, Inc. and Infosys announced an agreement that is expected to evolve and scale PROG Holdings’ technology operations as an integral part of the company’s ongoing cloud- and AI-focused technology modernization and innovation efforts. The collaboration will enable PROG Holdings to take advantage of Infosys’ digital services.

👉 The merger of Walt Disney’s and Reliance’s media assets in India, valued at $8.5 billion, may face antitrust scrutiny due to their combined market influence. Legal experts are concerned about the merged entity’s strong cricket broadcasting rights portfolio and its impact on advertisers. With 120 channels, Disney-Reliance would surpass Zee as India’s top television entity. Analysts anticipate Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance to hold a 35% share of India’s television viewership. India’s antitrust watchdog is expected to closely examine the television landscape, focusing on cricket rights and market dominance.

👉 JSW Steel: JSW Steel Italy SRL, the step-down subsidiary of the company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Industry and Made in Italy, the Tuscany Region, and the Municipality of Piombino to commence and relaunch the steelworks site in Piombino.

👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 3814.53 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold Rs 128.94 crore worth of stocks on March 01, provisional data from the NSE showed.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s goods and services tax (GST) collection for February reached Rs 1.68 lakh crore, marking a 12.5 per cent increase from the previous year. This growth was driven by a 13.9 per cent rise in domestic GST transactions and an 8.5 per cent increase in GST from imported goods.

• India’s foreign exchange reserves surged by of $2.98 billion to $619.07 billion for the week ending on February 23, latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday. Previously, forex reserves dropped by $1.13 billion to $616.1 billion, for the week ended on February 16, 2024.

EMERGING	LATEST	% 1D
Hang Seng	16,589	0.5 %
Shanghai Composite	3,027	0.4 %

DEVELOPED	LATEST	% 1D
Dow Jones	39,087	0.2 %
DAX	17,735	0.3 %
FTSE 100	7,683	0.7 %
Nikkei	39,911	1.9 %
Straits Times	3,136	(0.2) %