News Wrap | Asian Markets Slip, Sensex & Nifty Up, Piyush Goyal Slams Amazon | August 21, 2024

Let’s start with Asian markets. Most markets in the region ended the day lower due to weak cues from Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite were down almost three-tenths of a percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with a loss of nearly a percent.

((INDIAN MARKETS))
Back home, Indian equities, which had started the day in the red, managed to close marginally higher. The Sensex ended the day above 80,900, and the Nifty was just shy of 24,800. Of the fifty stocks on Nifty, 37 gained in today’s session, 12 declined, while one remained unchanged. Pharma major Divis Lab was the star of the day’s trade, gaining almost four percent. Tech Mahindra was the key laggard, down almost a percent and a half after a brokerage downgrade.

((PIYUSH GOYAL))
The big story from the policy space: Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has questioned American e-commerce giant Amazon’s business practices in India. Speaking at the release of a report on the impact of e-commerce, Goyal referred to Amazon’s losses in India and asked the audience if it smelled like predatory pricing. He said, “When Amazon says we are going to invest a billion dollars in India and we all celebrate, we forget the underlying story that the billion dollars are not coming in for any great service or any great investment to support the Indian economy. They made a billion-dollar loss in their balance sheet that year. They have to fill in that loss. And how did that loss get caused?”.

((ZOFF FOODS))
In the startup space, JM Financial Private Equity has invested 40 crore rupees in Asquare Foods and Beverages, the parent company of the direct-to-consumer spice brand Zoff. Announcing the investment, the PE firm said that it expects Zoff to emerge as one of the leading spice brands in the future. The spice maker plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen brand-building efforts, enhance production capacities, and bolster offline distribution network.

((TOTO IN INDIA))
And before we wrap up, here’s one piece of news for those of you who are fascinated with Japan’s TOTO toilets – the Japanese sanitaryware maker is looking to strengthen its presence in India's Tier two and Tier three cities. TOTO India, which has completed a decade of manufacturing a range of products at its Halol plant in Gujarat, plans to expand its distribution network by adding 40 new channel partners in 2024.