Investors Keep A Close Watch On US Fed Rate Decision

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out about SBI, IDBI bank hiking deposit rates, also find out about Bharti Airtel’s launch of Xstream multiplex. Business Term of the Day: WTO

India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday raised deposit rates by 15-20 basis points (bps) across three maturity buckets. The hike comes after two back-to-back repo rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in May and June to rein in runaway inflation. SBI last hiked deposit rates in February. IDBI Bank: Has raised interest rates by up to 25 basis points (bps) on retail term deposits of less than ₹2 crore.

201+Bharti Airtel: Has launched Xstream multiplex, a 20-screen platform with access to content portfolios from leading over-the-top (OTT) partners available on its Xstream app. Users will be able access the multiplex service on a metaverse platform called Partynite Metaverse. Separately, Fitch Ratings has revised the outlook on Bharti Airtel’s long-term foreign-currency (FC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to `Stable’ from `Negative,’ and affirmed the FC-IDR and senior unsecured bond rating at ‘BBB-‘.

 

NTPC: The state-owned utility firm will begin commercial operations of its 15 MW solar capacity at Kawas Solar Project in Gujarat. The capacity is part of the 56 MW Kawas Solar Project located in Kawas near Surat.

 

 

Ashok Leyland: Commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland’s electric mobility arm, Switch Mobility, expects an orderbook pipeline of 1,000 electric buses by the end of this financial year, feeding the significant demand boom for electric buses for public transit that India is witnessing. The company is also aiming to launch its electrified range of light commercial vehicles within this fiscal.

 

PNB Housing Finance: Will raise up to ₹2,000 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis. The housing finance company, promoted by the city-headquartered Punjab National Bank, was looking to raise equity capital worth ₹4,000 crore and struck a deal with joint-venture partner Carlyle Group, among other investors. However, the deal fell through following regulatory and legal challenges.

 

Sterlite Technologies: The maker of fibre optic cables and other telecom gear expects to increase sales by as much as 25% to ₹7,000 crore this fiscal, helped by ₹11,000 crore worth of orders including those from Europe and the US. The company is also building open-RAN, or O-RAN, solutions, to help telecom service providers deploy 5G networks.

 

GR Infraprojects: Subsidiary GR Bandikui Jaipur Expressway Private Ltd. has executed a concession agreement with the National Highways Authority of India. The project worth ₹1,368 crore includes construction of a 4-lane greenfield expressway spur from Delhi-Vadodara Greenfield expressway near Bandikui to Jaipur in Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1 in Rajasthan on hybrid annuity mode. (remove)

 

Moving on to markets

The markets are likely to open on a flat note as global cues turn mixed.

SGX Nifty Futures quoted 15,717 levels, indicating a minor cut of 15-odd points.

All eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve’s (US Fed) rate decision post their 2-day June meeting.

As per street estimates, the central bank is expected to raise interest rates by at least 50 basis points after the US inflation soared to 41-year high of 8.6 per cent in May.

While the US equity markets closed on a mixed ground, Asia-Pacific markets, too, followed similar suit.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones was down 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 slipped to 0.3 per cent, whereas, tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite advanced 0.1 per cent.

Likewise, indices in Asian markets like Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down 0.6 per cent. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.8 per cent after Chinese retail sales and production data beat estimates. (remove) Meanwhile, prices of oil bounced-back in trade. Brent crude inched up to $121 per barrel and WTI Crude hovered around $119 a barrel. Business Term of the day

he World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. The WTO is based on agreements signed by a majority of the world’s trading nations. The main function of the organization is to help producers of goods and services, as well as exporters and importers, protect and manage their businesses.