News Wrap | Sensex & Nifty Tank; Reliance Jio IPO Likely In 2025; Manufacturing Growth Picks Up

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 Monday, the fourth of November 2024.

Starting with the market sell-off in India: The Sensex and Nifty both rebounded slightly from their intraday lows but still closed down by over a percent each.The Sensex dropped over 900 points, ending around 78,800, while the Nifty fell more than 300 points, slipping below the 24,000 mark. Among the Nifty's fifty constituents, 42 declined while only eight advanced. Hero MotoCorp was the biggest laggard, falling over four percent despite reporting its highest-ever festive sales of 1.6 million units.

While bears have soured the mood on Dalal Street, there’s a bright spot in macroeconomic data: India's manufacturing growth picked up pace in October, breaking a three-month deceleration trend. The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 57.5 in October, up from an eight-month low of 56.5 in September. A PMI reading above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing activity, suggesting positive momentum in India’s industrial sector.

Shifting focus to the IPO market: According to a Reuters report, Reliance Industries is planning to list its telecom arm, Reliance Jio, on the stock exchanges in 2025. The report cites two unnamed sources, who indicate that Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate has finalised plans for the IPO, as it believes Jio has now reached a stable business and revenue base, solidifying its lead in India’s telecom sector. Analysts estimate the telecom business's valuation to exceed 100 billion dollars, making it a significant listing. Meanwhile, an IPO for Reliance Retail may be scheduled for a later date.

Here’s the latest on the Zomato packaging date controversy: Food safety officials in Hyderabad recently discovered button mushrooms labeled with a "future date of packing" at Zomato's Hyperpure warehouse. In response, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal has issued a clarification on social media platform X, attributing the issue to a manual typing error by the vendor. Goyal explained that this error affected 90 packets of button mushrooms, which the warehouse team had flagged during quality control. He added that to prevent similar issues, Zomato has now delisted the vendor from their database.

With that, it’s a wrap on this edition of the Business Hook News Wrap podcast. We will be back tomorrow with the next edition of our podcast. Have a great evening and check out our YouTube channel Business Hook for the top business developments of the day.