Good evening, and welcome to Business Hook’s daily news podcast, where we bring you a roundup of the day’s top business stories.
Let’s start with Asian equity markets. It was another tepid session across Asia. With few local cues to consider, Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi each slipped almost one and a half percent. In China, the Shanghai Composite managed to end in the green, up half a percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up one-tenth of a percent.
Back home, the Sensex and the Nifty started the day in the green but failed to hold onto those gains. Selling intensified during the second half, leading both benchmark indices to close with losses of over one percent each. The Sensex ended the day at 80,220, while the Nifty slipped below 24,500, hitting its lowest level since the 14th of August. Of the fifty Nifty constituents, 47 ended the day in the red. ICICI Bank was the only stock that saw a significant uptick, rising by around seven-tenths of a percent. The midcap segment saw a sharper selloff, with that index down two and a half percent.
In the IPO space, Hyundai Motor India made a disappointing debut on Dalal Street. Against its issue price of 1,960 rupees, the automaker listed at 1,931 – but that wasn’t all. The auto giant's stock slipped seven percent during Tuesday’s session, closing at 1,820 rupees apiece. At around 28,000 crore rupees, the HMIL IPO was the largest India has ever seen; however, the retail response to the issue was subdued. Meanwhile, brokerages have shared mixed views on the stock. Emkay Global has initiated coverage on Hyundai Motor India with a 'reduce' rating, while Macquarie has assigned an 'outperform' rating.
Big news from the M&A space: the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group is further consolidating its position in India’s cement industry. Ambuja Cements, owned by the Adani family, has signed a binding agreement to buy a 46.8 percent stake in Orient Cement for 8,100 crore rupees. Ambuja Cements outbid Aditya Birla Group’s Ultratech, which was also in the race, to acquire the C K Birla group company. Recently, Ambuja Cements has also acquired Sanghi Cement and Penna Cement. With this latest acquisition, Ambuja is closer to achieving its targeted capacity of 100 million tonnes per annum in the current financial year.
In the earnings space, food delivery major Zomato has reported its second-quarter numbers. The company’s revenue from operations surged 68.5 percent year-on-year to almost 4,800 crore rupees, and its consolidated net profit jumped 389 percent to 176 crore rupees. The profit growth was driven by an increase in food delivery margins, and with Zomato’s quick commerce arm remaining near break-even. However, the company’s shares ended the day down by almost three and a half percent.