RBI to announce monetary policy statement at 10 am today

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out why M&M has terminated its decision to sell Ssang Yong Motor, also find out why Flipkart has raised its internal IPO valuation to $60-70 bn.

Business Term of the Day: Government borrowing

Walmart’s Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60-70 billion, and now plans a US listing in 2023 instead of this year, two people directly aware of the plan said. Flipkart, which competes with Amazon.com Inc in India’s booming e-commerce space, had earlier set an IPO valuation goal of $50 billion. The main reason for waiting for the IPO is due to Flipkart’s internal plan to boost valuations further by focusing on two of its relatively new businesses—online healthcare services and travel bookings.

 

 Mahindra & Mahindra: The carmaker said on Thursday that a deal to sell its bankrupt unit, SsangYong Motor Co to South Korean electric carmaker Edison Motors Co had been terminated. The receiver of SsangYong cited Edison’s inability to deposit the bid amount for the termination of the deal, Mahindra said in an exchange filing.

 NTPC: Maharashtra government has approved a joint venture between state-run MahaGenco and India’s largest power generator NTPC which will set up an ultra-mega solar power park with a total generation capacity of 2,500 MW.

Indiabulls Real Estate: The company approved the issue price of its Rs 1,500-crore QIB offering at Rs 106.38 per share.

Moving on to markets

The key benchmark indices are likely to start Friday’s session on a muted note ahead of the RBI’s crucial monetary policy announcement. At 7:45 am, the SGX Nifty futures were quoting at 17,750 levels, indicating an opening gain of 20-odd points for the Nifty50.

The market will keenly watch the Reserve Bank of India’s inflation and growth projections in the wake of the continued increase in oil and commodity prices. Many analysts, meanwhile, expect the central bank to keep the key rates unchanged.

Business Term of the day

Government borrowing plays an important role in government’s finances to meet its spending requirements. Government borrows through issue of government securities called G-secs and Treasury Bills. Borrowing is a loan taken by the government and falls under capital receipts in the Budget document.