Good evening, and welcome to Business Hook’s daily news podcast, where we bring you a round-up of the day’s top business stories. I’m Avni Raja, and today is the 25th of September 2024.
Let's begin with the Asian equity markets. It was a mixed trading session in Asia. Chinese equities continued to rise a day after the Chinese central bank announced measures to stimulate the country’s struggling economy. China’s benchmark index, the Shanghai Composite, was up over one percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained a little over half a percent. However, Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi ended the day in negative territory.
Back home, the Sensex and the Nifty recovered in late trade to end the day higher. The Sensex inched closer to 85,200, and the Nifty closed above 26,000 for the first time, gaining a quarter of a percent. Of the Nifty Fifty stocks, thirty ended the day higher while twenty closed in the red. Public sector power transmission company Power Grid was the star of the trade, up four percent in Wednesday’s session. Tech stocks LTI Mindtree and Tech Mahindra were the key laggards.
It was a busy day in terms of IPO buzz, with reports suggesting that market regulator SEBI has approved public issue plans for Hyundai Motor India and Swiggy. The South Korean automaker is looking to raise at least three billion dollars through the initial share sale of its Indian arm. The Hyundai Motor India IPO is expected to hit the floor as early as October. Meanwhile, food delivery major Swiggy is reportedly looking to raise up to 1.5 billion dollars, with its IPO expected by November this year.
A big headline from the startup space – Chennai-headquartered tech firm Zoho Corp has become the latest Indian company to join the semiconductor bandwagon. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Sridhar Vembu, said on Wednesday that the semiconductor venture, of which Zoho is a part, has submitted its application to the government. The evaluation of the application is underway. However, he added that it was "too premature" to discuss the details of the venture, including the final location for the project.
Also from startup space - Zepto has been ranked first in LinkedIn’s Top Startups India List 2024 – an annual ranking of emerging companies where professionals want to work. With this, the quick commerce platform has made it to the top spot for the second consecutive year. Zepto was followed by compliance firm Sprinto and cloud storage management platform Lucidity.
That wraps up this edition of the Business Hook News Wrap podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with more. In the meantime, check out the Business Hook YouTube channel for today’s top business developments.