Good evening, and welcome to Business Hook’s daily news podcast, where we bring you a roundup of the day’s top business stories. I’m Avni Raja, and today is the 29th of August, 2024.
Let’s start with the Asian markets. Most benchmark indices in the region ended the day in the red as investors assessed the sharp fall in Nvidia’s prices on Wall Street, despite strong second-quarter numbers. South Korea’s Kospi and Taiwan’s Taiex saw the deepest cuts as semiconductor stocks tanked. China’s Shanghai Composite and Japan’s Nikkei also ended lower.
Back home, despite a weak opening, the Sensex and the Nifty managed to end higher. The Sensex hit an all-time high of 82,285 before settling just above 82,000 for the session. The Nifty also surged to a record high of almost 25,193 before closing at 25,152. Of the fifty companies listed on the Nifty, 28 gained in Thursday’s session, while 22 declined. Tata Motors was the top gainer of the day, up over 3.5 percent. Grasim, M&M, and JSW Steel were the key laggards.
The surge in the Indian benchmark indices was driven by heavyweight Reliance Industries. Right ahead of its 47th Annual General Meeting, the company informed the exchanges that its Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on Thursday, September 5, to consider an issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1. Shares of Reliance Industries gained a percent and a half on this news, closing at 3,043 rupees apiece.
More from Reliance Industries—At the company’s 47th annual general meeting, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio users will get up to 100 GB of free cloud storage for their photos, videos, documents, digital content, and data. He called it a step towards the future, where AI services and the data processed by AI are both hosted in the cloud, allowing every user to access their data and AI services from anywhere and on any device. This offer, called the Jio AI-Cloud Welcome Offer, will be launched during the upcoming Diwali.
Shifting gears—Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has overtaken RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani to become the richest Indian. According to The Hurun Rich List 2024, Adani and his family saw their net worth soar 95 percent to 11.6 lakh crore rupees last year. Hot on his heels is Mukesh Ambani and his family, with a net worth of over 10 lakh crore rupees. Meanwhile, actor Shah Rukh Khan has made his debut on the billionaires’ list with a fortune estimated at 7,300 crore rupees.
The big global story—Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has become the first American non-tech company to hit a trillion dollars in market capitalization. By doing so, it has joined the club of tech majors Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta. The only other non-tech company to have achieved this feat is Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant, Saudi Aramco.
With that, it’s a wrap on this edition of the Business Hook News Wrap podcast. We will be back tomorrow with the day’s market wrap and other key developments in the world of business and the economy.