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US authorities have given the Chinese owner of TikTok two additional weeks to divest the social media sensation in order to resolve national security concerns voiced by President Donald Trump's administration.A notice filed by TikTok owner ByteDance in federal court showed that authorities had extended the deadline originally set for November 12 to November 27.The Trump administration, which has claimed that the popular video-sharing app could be used for Chinese espionage, has threatened to ban TikTok unless it is sold to American investors. But the ban has been challenged in the courts.The latest filing said the deadline set by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews corporate deals for national security implications, had been extended.A statement from the US Treasury said the extension "will provide the parties and the Committee additional time to resolve this case in a manner that complies with the order" signed in August by Trump for B...

Kolkata | New Delhi: Diwali gift hampers have a lot more focus on health, hygiene and safety this year.In keeping with the times of the pandemic, companies are giving immunity-boosting products, wellness kits, yoga mats, sanitising appliances, personal protective equipment and even vouchers redeemable against healthcare products as Diwali gifts to employees, associates and customers. “This pandemic has pushed organisations to explore new ways of engaging with their employees and acknowledging priorities like health and well-being,” said Sudeep Ralhan, Walmart Global Tech India’s vice president-people.The company that provides technology services to the Walmart Group is giving journals on wellbeing, face shields and masks, door holders, hand sanitisers, oximeters and digital thermometers among other items to employees. 79218455Working from home is often taking a toll on the physical and mental wellbeing, and companies are looking into that aspect too.Money for Buying Covid EssentialsOnl...

Mumbai: The pandemic-led disruption hasn’t affected the campus hiring plans of top companies in FMCG, a sector that is the least affected by the crisis and is making a faster recovery than the rest of the economy. Consumer goods majors are recruiting as many students as last year or more from top colleges, and are adding new campuses to their hiring list, as they seek to get on board youngsters who bring with them fresh ideas and a grasp of new age technology.Procter & Gamble, Dabur India, ITC, Marico and Godrej are among companies that are strengthening their teams with recruits from leading B-schools (like IIMs, ISB and SPJIMR), engineering institutes (IITs, NITs, etc), as well as undergraduate colleges such as St Stephen’s, Lady Shri Ram and Shri Ram College of Commerce. Hiring is done virtually, which is helping the companies connect with a wider population of students.Dabur India will hire 10-20% more from top B-schools and engineering colleges this season compared with last. ...

Mumbai: The pandemic-led disruption hasn’t affected the campus hiring plans of top companies in FMCG, a sector that is the least affected by the crisis and is making a faster recovery than the rest of the economy. Consumer goods majors are recruiting as many students as last year or more from top colleges, and are adding new campuses to their hiring list, as they seek to get on board youngsters who bring with them fresh ideas and a grasp of new age technology.Procter & Gamble, Dabur India, ITC, Marico and Godrej are among companies that are strengthening their teams with recruits from leading B-schools (like IIMs, ISB and SPJIMR), engineering institutes (IITs, NITs, etc), as well as undergraduate colleges such as St Stephen’s, Lady Shri Ram and Shri Ram College of Commerce. Hiring is done virtually, which is helping the companies connect with a wider population of students.Dabur India will hire 10-20% more from top B-schools and engineering colleges this season compared with last. ...

NEW DELHI: Capping of performance security on infrastructure and construction contracts to 3% and bid security declaration in place of earnest money deposit as part of the third stimulus announced on Thursday will reduce locking up of capital and cost of bank guarantees for the sector, industry experts said.The announcements will help ease the liquidity issue for contractors, reducing their working capital requirements.The government also announced a Rs 1.10 lakh crore platform for infra debt financing with a Rs 6,000 crore equity infusion in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund to provide a boost to infrastructure financing.“Newly announced measures such as replacing earnest money deposit with bid security declaration will provide relief to contractors since it shall lower locked-up capital and reduce cost of bank guarantee,” Tata Projects managing director Vinayak Deshpande said.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced capping of the performance security on contracts ...

Mumbai: London-based Kyma Capital, a minority shareholder in Vedanta Ltd has asked the board of the Anil Agarwal company to recall loans amounting to $956 million from its parent and sought a “special audit” by a “big four” firm.Terming it a clear-cut case of “siphoning of funds and value” that belongs to Vedanta Ltd and its stakeholders, the hedge fund alleged that the board seemed to have been “sleeping at the wheel” when related party transactions with controlling shareholders should have brought forth higher scrutiny from the board.This could well trigger a legal battle if a locally listed commodities company does not respond with the investor seeking an immediate call of the loan.“It is Kyma Capital’s view that this is a clear cut case of siphoning of funds and value that belongs to Vedanta Ltd, and all its shareholders,” it said in a note. ET has seen a digital copy of the note.Akshay Shah, a former Blackstone Group manager runs Kyma Capital, which owns less than one percent in V...

Mumbai: North Block’s Diwali bonanza to add momentum to an economy rebounding from the strictest lockdown on the planet appears to have convinced even the biggest D-Street sceptics that New Delhi wouldn’t spend way more than it earns, comforting both the bond market and confirming for the broader audience the likelihood of a V-shaped economic recovery.The Dhanteras announcements might have some fiscal implications of course, but those are well within the limits budgeted by investors that rightfully anticipated higher federal expenditure in a crisis.“Adding the recently announced and perhaps some more fiscal stimuli, we may still be around 8% of GDP ultimately in the fiscal gap,” said Suyash Choudhary, head — fixed income, IDFC Mutual Fund. “This may not require any further enhancements to the borrowing programme. Compared with our expectations earlier in the year, the pace of government spending has been more controlled and the draw down on tax receipts may turn out to be less dire.”Co...

Mumbai: HDFC Bank, India’s largest lender by market value, is back in the caution list of depositories for foreign investment – the first time in over a year. On November 9, the National Securities Depository (NSDL) put HDFC Bank stock on the so-called Red-Flag list after the total foreign holding in the lender crossed 71%. The maximum permissible foreign holding in the bank is 74% according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules. According to November 11 data, foreign portfolio investors’ holding in HDFC Bank was 71.16%. Overseas investors still have headroom to buy up to 15 crore shares of the bank.Red-flag in terms of foreign investment limit serves as a word of caution to the foreign investors making fresh purchases in the stock about the risks involved in such a purchase. If any such purchase is made beyond the permissible limit, which is 74% in the case of HDFC Bank, FPIs will be liable to sell the excess shares to domestic investors. For now, FPIs will still be able to buy fre...

Mumbai: A regulatory panel has recommended that the investment routes maintained for NRIs and foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) be kept separate as they now are, although the Centre was in favour of a merger to help achieve the ease-of-doing-business objective. Two top industry executives aware of the recommendations of the panel appointed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) told ET that the committee doesn’t favour a merger that was earlier proposed by the government as part of its broader commercial objective to ease business curbs and make India even more investor-friendly.However, the Sebi-appointed committee is reportedly of the opinion that such a merger would be fraught with regulatory complications since NRIs also use the investment route to make other investments, such as fixed deposits. Instead, the committee has suggested the existing portfolio investment scheme (PIS) be retained and NRIs also be given an option to come through the FPI route. That could boo...

Mumbai: Indian equities are poised to receive the highest portfolio inflows in a month in November led by an increase in the country’s weighting on MSCI indices. While foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have already pumped Rs 28,795 crore into stocks here so far in November, another Rs 30,000 crore is expected from overseas passive funds by the month-end as they buy stocks to align their holdings to the new MSCI index weights. The highest that overseas investors have pumped into Indian stocks in a month was Rs 45,727 crore in August 2020.MSCI will implement the long pending new regime on the foreign ownership limit (FOL) changes this month. The global index services provider has also included 12 Indian stocks to its standard index as part of its semi-annual review and dropped two stocks. With the proposed changes which will be applicable from November 30, India’s number of stocks in MSCI Standard Index will go up from 86 to 96.Global funds benchmark their scheme performances against in...

KOLKATA: Fresh home mortgages surged in India over the past two months, in line with the phased unshackling of the economy, indicating that demand remains robust despite the Covid-induced disruptions and income shrinkages.Leading home loan providers, such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation said that demand for home loans surged. All these lenders have witnessed double-digit growth in home loan advances, despite a lull between April and August.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that home loans from banks expanded 0.8% between April and August, indicating the possibility of pent-up demand driving loan growth in September and October. For example, Mumbai alone recorded sales of 7,929 housing units in October, 42% higher than the previous month, boosted by stamp duty cuts in Maharashtra and the festive period of Navratri and Dussehra, according to property consultant Knight Frank.ICICI Bank, which has more than half its retail loans in m...

NEW DELHI: Deepesh Nanda plans to have his honeymoon in Dubai.Concerns over Covid-19 and the need to follow multiple pandemic protocols have not deterred the Bhopal resident, a dealer in commercial vehicle tyres, and his fiancee from choosing the desert city as their honeymoon destination, where they plan to spend five nights next month.Nanda said his wife-to-be and he wanted to visit Dubai, which was also one of the locations for IPL this year. "I think the destination is following the necessary protocols," he said, referring to concerns over the pandemic. "Covid will go on for a while. For how long will we wait."Cooped up at home for almost the entire year, Indians are finally taking their flights for overseas leisure travel, mostly for certain destinations closer home, online travel agencies (OTAs) said. The Maldives and Dubai are top on the charts, in what could be the first signs of the return of overseas leisure travel. Recent booking patterns on India's b...

Mumbai: The market value of all Nifty companies topped Rs 100 lakh crore for the first time on Wednesday as stocks closed at an all-time high. Foreign investors bought shares worth Rs 6,027 crore, the highest single-day purchase in nearly three months. The Nifty is already the fourth most expensive global index on a trailing 12-month basis after Germany, US and France.Strong foreign fund buying amid hopes of a quicker recovery from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic have driven stocks to all-time highs in recent days. The Nifty rose 0.93% to 12,749 on Wednesday while the Sensex jumped 0.73% to 43,593. The 50-share index has climbed 67% since the lows of March when its value was Rs 58.91 lakh crore but its closing market cap on a dollar basis of $1.33 trillion is still lower than its peers in East Asian countries — South Korea’s Kospi is valued at $1.46 trillion while Taiwan’s TSEC is worth $1.38 trillion.Nifty’s market cap is 60% of all listed companies which together are value...

Mumbai | Kolkata: AION Capital-backed Clix Capital could walk away from the proposed merger with Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) if discussions on the deal continue to drag on, without a firm conclusion timeline. “We have to decide this urgently; we are happy to walk away from the deal and get on with our lives. This cannot go on forever,” Pramod Bhasin, the founder of Clix Capital, told ET.Clix Capital had submitted an indicative non-binding offer for LVB on October 8, but is yet to get any substantive response from the stressed lender that needs immediate capital infusion to survive. It is the only private-sector bank facing operational curbs imposed by the RBI on lenders having inadequate funds to cover for soured loans.Industry sources indicated that the talks have not been conclusive on the aspect of provisioning requirements against the ₹794-crore of contingent liability the bank has in relation to Religare deposits. Clix is also not comfortable on a potential hole in the bank’s book in...

Mumbai: The Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) has urged the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to get rid of the concept of peak margins and tighter initial margin norms for intra-day trading in shares which will be applicable from December 1.In a letter to Sebi, ANMI said the very concept of peak margin will have a domino effect on the business models of the brokers and the exchanges. “The ultimate casualty will be the absence of leverage and killing liquidity which has its side effects on the smooth functioning of markets and attracting foreign institutional investors who currently are the mainstay in our markets.”ANMI believes that such steps will have severe unintended consequences to the smooth functioning of Indian markets thriving on leverage, liquidity and offshore participations.Sebi introduced several rules over the last two years to safeguard retail investors from any potential financial fraud at a brokerage firm. The regul...

New Delhi: Gland Pharma has flagged evolving India-China political relations as a risk factor in a red herring prospectus (RHP) filed with markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India in the run-up to the launch of a Rs 6,480 crore initial public offering (IPO) of shares that opened to the public on Monday. The ongoing IPO is touted as potentially the largest such fundraise by a pharma company.The pharma company that is majority-owned by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International has noted in its filings with Sebi that it could face supply disruptions in the future arising from the border confrontation that took place between India and China on June 20.“Any degradation in India-China political relations or any future military confrontations could result in curbs or delays on the import from China into India of materials and equipment that we require to operate our business, increase in duties on imports from China into India, curbs on the export of finished products from Indi...

Brokerages have maintained a buy rating on ITC as its FMCG business performed better than market expectations in the September quarter. The stock ended down 0.7 per cent at Rs 172.80 on Monday. The company on Friday posted a 19.65 per cent drop in standalone net profit to Rs 3,232.40 crore. Revenue from FMCG business rose to Rs 8,916.25 crore from Rs 8,615.14 crore in the same quarter last year. Antique, IIFL, Elara, Jefferies, Kotak Institutional and CLSA have maintained buy ratings on the stock. “FMCG 2QFY21 performance confirms our thesis of K-shaped business recovery. Industry tailwinds, multiple margin levers and falling capex are likely to support healthy FMCG profit,” said CLSA, raising estimates by 3-4 per cent on improved fundamentals. At 14.5 times FY22 earnings, valuation appears to be compelling while a higher payout implies an attractive 5 per cent dividend yield, said Jefferies, maintaining a target price of Rs 265 on the stock.79140774 from Economic Times https://ift.t...

Mumbai: Bank shares pushed the benchmark indices to all-time closing highs on Monday but their contribution to this record-breaking rally since late-March is probably the lowest in the past decade. The banking and finance sector, which has the highest weightage of 36.41% on the main indices, has recouped a portion of its influence on the benchmarks but it is still below the all-time highs. Investors are pinning hopes on shares of these lenders to push the market higher.The sector has regained 5.3% weightage in the Nifty index in the last four months thanks to the rally in bank shares after it fell to 31.13% in June from 42% in January — when the market hit the previous all-time highs. After the selloff started on February 19, bank shares were most hit on worries that economic disruptions due to the lockdown would result in a spike in bad debts.The Nifty Bank index has gained over 15% in the last one month. The rise in weightage could lead to these shares attracting majority of the fore...

Mumbai: Amazon Prime Video entered sports live streaming in India — showing cricket from New Zealand — in a move that may redraw the rights ecosystem in India and impact the duopoly of broadcast networks Star and Sony. Amazon has won the exclusive rights to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) matches, which had been with Star and Disney India since the 2017 rights cycle.Star did not renew its deal with NZC after the last India tour in February this year. The Disney-owned broadcaster is heavily invested in cricket — it holds rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) until 2022. Star also holds the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) rights until the 2022-23 season.Amazon has picked up the India rights for NZC until the 2025-26 season for an undisclosed amount. The deal will allow Prime Video exclusive access to all international matches to be played in New Zealand, including the India team’s next tour scheduled for March 2022.79140408“Over the ...

MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: India's large generic drug makers that depend on the US for 60% of their exports revenues are hopeful that their growth opportunity in the world's largest pharmaceuticals market will improve under a Joe Biden presidency, industry officials said.The industry is closely watching what stance the president elect will take with regards to the generic drug industry, and hope that he would not pursue President Donald Trump's push for 'made in America' medicines."Obamacare (Affordable Care Act that aimed to provide affordable health insurance coverage for all US citizens) will be back in focus, which will further improve the growth opportunity for Indian pharmaceutical industry," Dinesh Dua, chairman Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council told ET. Another representative of an Indian pharma lobby group said these are early days and any impact of the new administration on the industry will be seen only after January 2021. While Trump's stand...