Adani Group promoter hikes stake in two group companies

Opening Bell:

Gift Nifty is down by 13.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.

Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower at the start of a week where key economic data from major economies will take center stage. On Tuesday, India will release its inflation and industrial output figures for August, while China will announce its industrial output, retail sales, and most notably, house sale prices on Friday. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was near the flatline while the Topix climbed 0.28%. South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.27% in early morning trade, while the Kosdaq was down 0.28%. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 18,156, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 18,202.07 on Thursday. Hong Kong cancelled trade on Friday, due to the city seeing its heaviest rainstorm in 140 years.

Stocks gained slightly on Friday but logged in a losing week amid renewed worries that the Federal Reserve may raise the policy rates more than expected earlier. The S&P 500 edged up 0.14% to snap a three-day losing streak and finish at 4,457.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.22%, while the Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.09% gain. Major averages also capped off a losing week. The S&P and Nasdaq dropped 1.3% and 1.9% for their first negative week in three. The Dow finished about 0.8% lower.

Stocks News:

👉Adani Enterprises/Adani Ports: Adani Group promoter firm has increased its stake in two of the group’s listed companies as the conglomerate continues to work on the strategy to recover from the effects of the damaging reports. The promoter group in stock exchange filings said it has increased its stake in flagship Adani Enterprises to 71.93% from 69.87%. In a separate stock exchange filing, the promoter group informed that it has also increased its stake in Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd from 63.06% to 65.23%.        

👉Kotak Mahindra Bank: The RBI has approved the appointment of Dipak Gupta as interim managing director and chief executive officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank for a period of two months instead of four, indicating its intent to appoint a full-time chief during this period. The appointment of Gupta was necessitated by the sudden resignation of founder Uday Kotak effective 1 September. The RBI approved Gupta’s appointment for a period of two months with effect from 2 September, Kotak Mahindra Bank said in a stock exchange filing.

👉SJVN: Subsidiary SJVN Green Energy has signed power purchase agreement with Bhakra Beas Management Board for 18 MW Solar power project. The project will be developed on the land parcels of BBMB in Himachal Pradesh & Punjab. The project is scheduled to be commissioned by August 2024.

👉Coffee Day Enterprises: IDBI Trusteeship has moved the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal to initiate insolvency proceedings against Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd for an alleged default of ₹228 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday. Coffee Day Enterprises is the parent company of the Coffee Day group. “The company is seeking appropriate legal advice and will take all appropriate steps to protect its interest in the matter,” Coffee Day Enterprises said in the statement on the stock exchanges.

👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 224.22 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) bought Rs 1,150.15 crore worth of stocks on September 8, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s foreign exchange reserves are up by $4.039 billion to $598.897 billion for the week ending September 1, latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday. Previously, forex reserves were down by $30 million at $594.85 billion for the week ended on August 25.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will introduce the wholesale version of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee-wholesale, in the call money market by October, senior central bank officials said on September 10. “(It will be) very soon. Interbank borrowing in wholesale CBDC we are going to start this month itself. Either this month or next month. We are testing it. Once we are ready, we will be able to start,” Ajay Kumar Choudhary, an executive director at the RBI, said on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi. The RBI launched the pilot for its wholesale CBDC in November 2022 with a focus on the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.
• Oil prices gained almost 1% to a nine-month high on Friday on rising U.S. diesel futures and worries about tight oil supplies after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended supply cuts this week. Brent futures rose 73 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $90.65 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 64 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $87.51.
• Gold ticked up on Friday buoyed by a slight retreat in the dollar, while investors hunkered down for more economic data next week to gauge the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike plans. Spot gold inched 0.1% higher at $1,920.49 per ounce by 2:06 p.m. EDT (1806 GMT). U.S. gold futures settled little changed at $1,942.70.

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