Reliance-Disney merge, HDFC Bank’s 90% Credila sale approval, Biocon’s $20M guarantee, JSW wins port project.

Opening Bell:

Gift Nifty is down by 36 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.

Asian stocks traded mostly higher on Monday ahead of a slew of economic data this week including Chinese activity gauges and the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% and Topix rose 0.6%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5%, while the Kospi added 0.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were flat.

The US stock market ended mixed on Friday, while all three Wall Street benchmarks scored weekly gains led by artificial intelligence stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 62.42 points, or 0.16%, to close at 39,131.53, while the S&P 500 rose 1.77 points, or 0.03%, to end at 5,088.8. The Nasdaq Composite settled 44.80 points, or 0.28%, lower at 15,996.82.

Stocks News:

👉 Reliance Industries and Walt Disney are merging their media operations in India, with Reliance expected to hold a 61% stake in the combined entity. Disney is reevaluating its strategy in India due to tough competition. The distribution of shares may change depending on Disney’s additional local assets. Reliance is also considering acquiring Tata Play Ltd., in which Disney has a minority stake.

👉 HDFC Bank has received RBI approval to sell 90% of HDFC Credila’s share capital, as announced in a filing. Last year, HDFC Ltd (now merged with HDFC Bank) had entered agreements for the potential sale to a private equity consortium for around ₹9,060 crore.

👉 Biocon: The biopharmaceutical company has given a corporate guarantee of $20 million in favour of Mizuho Bank to secure a term loan facility of $20 million extended to the company’s step-down subsidiary Biocon Generics Inc by the bank. The corporate guarantee is valid for 5 years.

👉 JSW Infrastructure: The JSW Group company has received the letter of award from the VO Chidambaranar Port Authority for mechanisation of the North Cargo Berth-III (NCB-III) for handling dry bulk cargo at the port on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis through the PPP route.

👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 1,276.09 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 176.68 crore worth of stocks on February 23, provisional data from the NSE showed.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s foreign exchange reserves declined to $616.10 billion as on February 16, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on February 23 showed. At $616.10 billion, the forex reserves were down $1.13 billion from the previous week. However, it follows an even larger decline of $5.24 billion in the week ended February 9, resulting in the latest figure being the lowest in two months. The reserves were last lower when they stood at $615.97 billion as on December 15.
• Japan’s business-to-business service prices rose 2.1 percent year-on-year in January, slowing from a 2.4 percent annual gain in December, central bank data showed on Monday. The Bank of Japan is closely watching service price movements to see whether inflationary pressure is broadening in the economy to warrant phasing out its massive stimulus.
• Crude oil prices steadied after the biggest drop in three weeks, with prices still trading in a narrow range. Brent oil traded 0.15% lower at $81.50 a barrel after declining by 2.5% on Friday, with US West Texas Intermediate down 0.18% at $76.35.