Counting of votes for UP Assembly elections begins

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out about SEBI’s decision to clear the LIC IPO, also find out about RIL’s decision to terminate lease for 835 Future Retail stores

Business Term of the Day: Supply shock
The counting of votes for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, held from February 10 to March 7 in seven phases, has begun. The exit polls predicted that the BJP is poised to comfortably return to power. power for an unprecedented second term.   India’s markets regulator has cleared the share sale proposal of state-run Life Insurance Corp. of India, or LIC, paving the way for the government to launch India’s largest initial public offering. Although the government has targeted to launch the IPO by the month-end, several officials have indicated that the plan may be delayed because of the current geopolitical concerns.   The Cabinet committee has approved State Bank of Indian MD Ashwani Bhatia to the post of whole-time member at SEBI. His appointment is for a period of 3 years from the date of taking charge. The Tata Group firm said its Singapore-based JV Resurgent Power Ventures has won the bid to acquire the stressed asset of South East UP Power Transmission Company through its resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Tata Power did not disclose the bid offered by Resurgent Power Ventures. Raymond: The leading textile and apparels firm said it has appointed Sunil Kataria as the CEO of its lifestyle business. It has strengthened its leadership team by on-boarding the seasoned professional reckoned for leading large-scale business transformations and creating strong consumer brands in India and Southeast Asia. Hindustan Unilever (HUL): The FMCG major appointed Madhusudhan Rao as the executive director, beauty and wellbeing and personal care segment, and Deepak Subramanian as the executive director for the home care segment. Rao takes over from Priya Nair, who will move into a global role as chief marketing officer for beauty and wellbeing and Subramanian will take over from Prabha Narasimhan, who has decided to leave the company to pursue an external opportunity, the company said in a release. Future Retail: The company informed BSE, that it has received certain termination notices in respect of sub-leased properties of Reliance Industries. So far notices have been received for 342 large format stores and 493 small format stores. Historically these stores accounted for 55-65% of retail revenue operations of the company. Moving on to markets Asian markets were sharply higher today as Japan’s Nikkei jumped 3% on hopes for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine ahead of their first high-level meeting since Moscow invaded its neighbour. Overnight, Wall Street finished sharply higher. Nifty futures trading on Singapore exchange were higher at 16,612, signally a strong start for Indian markets. Traders will be eyeing the outcome of recently held state elections as vote-counting starts from 8 am Business Term A supply shock is an unexpected event that suddenly changes the supply of a product or commodity, resulting in an unforeseen change in price. A positive supply shock increases output causing prices to decrease, while a negative supply shock decreases output causing prices to increase.