Minutes of RBI’s monetary policy committee meeting to be released today

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out about the government’s plans to reduce the quantum of stake sale in BPCL, and also find out about RBI’s decision to reject 6 applications for banking licences

Business Term of the Day: Open offer

India is considering selling up to a quarter of state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd after failing to attract suitors for the whole firm, two officials said, as the government’s divestment programme moves slower than expected. New Delhi is considering inviting bids for a 20%-25% stake in BPCL, instead of an outright sale of its entire 52.98% holding, the two government officials, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel reported a nearly three-fold rise in net profit at Rs 2,008 crore in the Q4FY22 led by gains from tariff hikes and exceptional income. In the same quarter last year Airtel posted a net profit of Rs 759 crore. Meanwhile, consolidated revenue for the quarter rose 22.3 per cent to Rs 31,500 crore on a year-on-year basis. The management said that a strong balance sheet and cashflows enables them to pay spectrum liabilities.

The Reserve bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said that it has rejected six applications of licenses to set small and universal bank licenses after finding them unsuitable..Bansal’s firm Chaitanya India Fin Credit Pvt. Ltd was among 11 applications for setting up a bank under the RBI guidelines for on-tap licensing of universal banks and small finance banks. The five other applications that were also rejected by the central bank are UAE Exchange and Financial Services Ltd, REPCO Bank and a consortium led by former Citibank employee Pankaj Vaish. For small finance bank licence, RBI has found unsuitable applications of VSoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd and Calicut City Service Co-operative Bank.

The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rate surged to a record high of 15.1 per cent in April, with rise in prices of vegetables, fruits, milk and fuel, government data released on Tuesday showed. WPI inflation has been in double digits for the thirteenth months in a row now. According to the data released last week, retail inflation had also surged to an 8-year high of 7.79 per cent in April. As such, another round of repo rate hike is expected in June, with its quantum being as high as 40 basis points.

The RBI’s latest meeting’s minutes, where it delivered a surprise rate hike of 40 bps points, will be released today, and will be on investors’ radar.

Zydus Lifesciences: The pharmaceutical firm said its board will meet on May 20 to consider share buyback. The stock was under pressure since November 2011 and corrected nearly 50 percent from its high of Rs 664 a share.

Moving on to markets

The Sensex and Nifty are looking to start Wednesday’s trade on a quite note, after gaining the most in three months the previous day.

US stocks surged overnight with the Dow gaining 1.34 per cent. Most Asian markets gained this morning.

Oil prices were also up in early deals on hopes of demand recovery in China as the country eases its Covid-19 restrictions.

Brent crude futures rose 1 per cent each to $113 a barrel.

Business Term of the day

An open offer takes place when the company wishes to raise capital efficiently. As a secondary market offering, the open offer allows stakeholders of a company to buy shares/stocks at a lower price when compared to the stock’s prevailing market price.