Market news update

1.Mutual Fund Investors Spooked Or Smart?

Inflows into equity mutual funds crashed in June even as India's benchmark indices surged on hopes of a revival in the economy after lockdown curbs were eased. Net investments into equity and equity-linked schemes tumbled 95% over the preceding month to Rs 240.55 crore in June, according to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India. This was the third straight monthly drop.


Overall, net inflows of the mutual fund industry dropped 90% to Rs 7,266 crore from Rs 70,813.4 crore in May. "The fall is massive across debt and equity segments, with both shrinking by 95% each," said Prableen Bajpai, founder of FinFix Research & Analytics.

2. ICICI Bank Wants A Couple Of Billion

ICICI Bank Ltd. may return to raising equity capital after a gap of nearly 12 years as the Covid-19 crisis adds to the stress on banking balance sheets.

The private lender said in an exchange filing today that:

Its board has approved fundraising of up to Rs 15,000 crore.

The fundraise may be in one or more tranches via a follow-on public issue, private placement, preferential issue or a combination of these.

ICICI Bank joins many peers in raising capital amid the Covid-19 crisis which could lead to a spike in bad loans. In May, Credit Suisse estimated the need for additional capital at $20 billion (about Rs 1.5 lakh crore) over the next 12 months.

3. Harvard, MIT Stand Up For Foreign Students

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the federal immigration agency over new guidelines barring foreign students from remaining in America if their universities switched to online-only classes in the fall semester.

“We believe that the ICE order is bad public policy, and we believe that it is illegal,” Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow said in an email to affiliates.

This comes after U.S. ICE said visas will not be issued to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States. Those enrolled and in the U.S. will have to leave if their classes go fully online.

"We will pursue this case vigorously so that our international students and international students at institutions across the country can continue their studies without the threat of deportation," Bacow said, according to a report in The Harvard Crimson.

4. India-China: Defusing A Nine-Week Standoff

Indian and Chinese troops have begun pulling back from large tracts of land along their remote Himalayan boundary, a move aimed at defusing a nine-week standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbors that resulted in the loss of lives on both sides.

Armies are falling back at several places in Ladakh including Pangong Tso -- a glacial lake at 14000 feet in the Tibetan plateau -- and a region claimed by both the countries, an official with knowledge of the matter told reporters Wednesday, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media.

 

5. India Markets Pause And Slip

A five-day rally in the Indian equity markets came to an end in today's session with the benchmark indices ending lower post a last-hour sell-off.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 0.94% lower at 36,329.

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 0.9% lower at 10,705.

Selling pressure was mainly due to banking stocks. The Nifty Bank index, ended 0.2% lower, but fell over 500 points from the day's high.

U.S. equities climbed as the biggest tech companies continued to rack up gains, overshadowing new tensions between Washington and Beijing and the uncertain outlook for economic recovery.

The S&P 500 Index increased 0.6% as of 9:42 a.m. New York time.

Treasuries and the dollar were little changed.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.6%.

6. Gold ETF Holdings At Record Levels

Gold’s allure is only getting stronger as 2020 unfolds. International spot prices reached $1,800 an ounce and year-to-date inflows into bullion-backed exchange-traded funds topped the record full-year total set in 2009.

7. Air Asia Hits Financial Turbulence

AirAsia Group Bhd. shares slumped nearly 18% following a trading suspension that came as auditor Ernst & Young said the carrier’s ability to continue as a going concern may be in “significant doubt.”

In a statement to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange, Ernst & Young said AirAsia’s current liabilities already exceeded its current assets by 1.84 billion ringgit ($430 million) at the end of 2019, a year when it posted a 283 million ringgit net loss. That was before the coronavirus crisis,

 

8. TCS And The Talent Cloud


In the last six months, while the world was being shut down by a deadly virus, India’s Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. was busy turning necessity into virtue and virtue into a client pitch.

You and I call it ‘Work From Home’. India’s largest IT company calls it ‘Secure Borderless Workspaces’. (They even trademarked it.)

And while we don’t know when we’ll return to our offices and resume our pre-Covid routines, TCS is working to ensure its 4,48,464 employees don’t all return to office nor resume their pre-Covid routine. “We believe that by 2025, only 25% of our associates will need to work out of our facilities at any point of time; and every associate will be able to realize their potential without spending more than 25% of their time in a TCS office."