Moody’s Investors Service on Friday downgraded four Adani stocks from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. The others have maintained their ‘stable’ outlook. The group has halved its revenue growth target and aims to scale down fresh capital expenditure. The billionaire now seeks to rebuild investor confidence after its listed entities have lost more than $120 billion in market value.
India topples France as UK’s largest Scotch whisky market
India has overtaken France to become the UK’s largest market of Scotch whisky in terms of volume with a 60 per cent hike in imports in 2022 over the previous year, according to figures from Scotland’s leading industry body.
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said that India imported 219 million 70cl bottles of Scotch compared to France’s 205 million last year – representing growth of the Indian Scotch market of more than 200 per cent in the past decade.
As one of the key sectors of focus for the UK in the free trade agreement (FTA) talks with India, now in their seventh round of negotiations, SWA pointed out that the hike in volume still makes up only a fraction of the Indian whisky market due to high tariffs.
“Despite double-digit growth, Scotch whisky still only comprises 2 per cent of the Indian whisky market,” the association said on Friday.
“SWA analysis shows that a UK-India FTA deal which eases the 150 per cent tariff burden on Scotch whisky in India could boost market access for Scotland’s whisky companies, allowing for an additional GBP 1 billion of growth over the next five years,” it noted. (PTI)
India’s Bharat Heavy Electricals posts surprise profit on power demand
State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals on Friday reported a surprise quarterly profit, boosted by the mainstay power business.
Standalone net profit more than doubled to 310 million rupees ($3.8 million) for the third quarter that ended Dec. 31, from 142.6 million rupees a year earlier, the company said in an exchange filing. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss of 501 million rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
BHEL, a maker of equipment that caters to captive power plants, nuclear turbines, rail transportation and defence products, is one of the beneficiaries of the increased demand for power in the country.
India is expecting annual electricity demand to grow at an average of 7.2% over five years ending March 2027, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), an advisory body to the federal power ministry, said last year.
The power segment, which accounts for the bulk of revenue, reported a 44% jump in profit before tax.
Total revenue from operation barely grew 0.4% to 49.39 billion rupees, while total expenses rose 2.2%. (Reuters)
Investors face growing commodities risk lurking in ESG funds
The dark side of ESG investing has the potential to undermine a whole generation of clean-tech strategies.
Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer at the Church of England Pensions Board, said the risks posed to the renewables boom via the mining industry aren’t getting nearly enough attention. The upshot, according to the 47-year-old, is that portfolios intended to uphold environmental, social or good governance principles may end up being exposed to human rights abuses and environmental damage via supply chains.
“The auto sector is massively exposed, as are wind turbine manufacturers,” Matthews said in an interview. There’s also “huge demand” for minerals such as copper and lithium, which are “enormously important to low-carbon technology.” (Read More)
Adani Group cuts revenue growth target, capex amid rout sparked by Hindenburg
The Adani Group has halved its revenue growth target and aims to scale down fresh capital expenditure, days after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research put out a tweet, talking about a negative report on the conglomerate that it had published.
The billionaire now seeks to rebuild investor confidence after its listed entities have lost more than $120 billion in market value post-Hindenburg’s scathing report about the group.
Gautam Adani’s conglomerate will now shoot for revenue growth of 15% to 20% for at least the next financial year, down from the 40% growth originally targeted, said a Bloomberg report. (Read More)
Wall Street stocks end on a mixed note on Friday, dollar gains on tighter policy outlook
The toughest week for Wall Street in nearly two months came to a quiet end on Friday, as stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, but it still ended the week with a drop of 1.1%, which was its worst since December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 169 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.6%.
Stocks have been struggling since rallying in January on hopes that the economy could avoid a severe recession and that cooling inflation could get the Federal Reserve to take it easier on interest rates. Worries have worsened recently that a still-strong jobs market could push upward on inflation and keep rates at a higher-for-longer level, much as the Fed has been warning.
Higher rates can drive down inflation, but they also raise the risk of a recession and drag down investment prices. And central banks around the world are intent on tightening the screws by raising rates further, even if at a slower pace than before.
“For most central banks the risk is that they have tightened too little, not too much,” economists led by Ethan Harris wrote in a BofA Global Research report.
“The ultimate gauge of success here is not avoiding a recession, but getting inflation on a path back to target,” Harris wrote.
Investors will get more updates on inflation next week when the government gives its latest monthly updates on prices at both the wholesale and consumer levels. (AP)
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