The government will acquire a stake in debt-ridden telecom firm Vodafone Idea

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is up by 95.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for the Indian stock market.

Within Asian indices, Japanese Nikkei is up by 0.3 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged by 0.4 percent and Chinese Shanghai added 0.15 percent gain.

On Wall Street, Dow Futures remained steady as key benchmark indices ended higher amid choppy trend. Dow Jones gained 0.61 per cent, Nasdaq surged 0.60 per cent whereas S&P 500 shot up 0.66 per cent.

Asian stocks (except China and Hongkong rode a global rally on Thursday, making broad gains as oil prices steadied at lower levels not seen since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. European stock markets traded higher Thursday, boosted by the positive close on Wall Street, with investors focusing on the latest European Central Bank policy-setting meeting.

Stocks News:

?HDFC Bank has mobilised Rs 3,000 crore from bonds to fund business growth. The bank issued and allotted bonds to investors on a private placement basis. These unsecured, subordinated, fully paid-up, non-convertible, Basel III compliant perpetual debt would carry a coupon rate of 7.84 per cent.

?Mahindra and Mahindra bullish on green mobility, will drive in its first electric sports utility vehicle – XUV 400 – early next year. The company globally unveiled the five-seater model which comes with a driving range of 456 km (ARAI certified) on a single charge and can attain 0-100 km per hour acceleration in 8.3 seconds.

?Coal India informed investors that increasing coal prices remains difficult in the current context when the economy is grappling with high inflation. The miner was seeking to raise prices to mitigate high input costs on account of high diesel and explosives prices, among others. CIL has not raised prices in the last four years.

?The government will acquire a stake in debt-ridden telecom firm Vodafone Idea after the stock price of the company stabilises at Rs 10 or above. Vodafone Idea board has offered a stake to the government at a par value of Rs 10 per share. The finance ministry had cleared the proposal to acquire stake in VIL in July.

?Cerberus Capital and Asset Reconstruction Company of India (Arcil) have dropped out of the race to acquire more than Rs 48,000 crore of distressed loans of Yes Bank. They did not submit a counter-bid against a binding offer by JC Flowers ARC.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net bought shares worth Rs 2,913.09 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 212.61 crore on September 8, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Domestic and International Events

• The European Central Bank made its largest-ever interest rate increase Thursday, following the US Federal Reserve and other central banks in a global stampede of rapid rate hikes meant to snuff out record inflation that is squeezing consumers and pushing Europe toward recession. The bank’s 25-member governing council raised its key benchmarks by an unprecedented three-quarters of a percentage point for the 19 countries that use the euro currency.
• India on Thursday imposed a 20 percent duty on exports of various grades of rice, according to a statement seen by Reuters, as the world’s biggest exporter of the grain tries to calm local prices.
• The Federal Reserve is “strongly committed” to fighting inflation, but there remains hope it can be done without the “very high social costs” involved in prior campaigns to control surging prices, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday.
• British retailers saw the slowest growth in sales since the end of COVID-19 lockdowns last year as shoppers tightened their belts in the face of soaring inflation, business consultancy BDO said on Friday.

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