Companies & Markets
Hitachi India has picked up stake in MGRM Net Ltd, a company involved in the IT service business in India as part of its efforts to expand its Social Innovation Business using digital technologies.
Consequent to the acquisition, the name of the company would be changed to Hitachi MGRM Net.
The market continued its uptrend on Thursday on the back of strong global cues after taking a pause on Wednesday. The Sensex gained 95.61 points, or 0.28 per cent, to close at 34,427 and the Nifty 50 Index added 39.10 points, or 0.37 per cent, to end at 10,565. The BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices outperformed the Sensex.
Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Metal was up 4.46 per cent, Basic Materials 2.76 per cent and Capital Goods 1.06 per cent.
Technical view
A day after claiming that there was a Rs 70,000-crore cash shortfall in the system, SBI Reseach on Thursday termed the ongoing shortage in cash supplies as "superficial", citing a decline in cash withdrawals from ATMs in the March quarter over the previous quarter.
After tepid listing, defence public sector undertakings Mishra Dhatu Nigam, and Bharat Dynamics and Hindustan Aeronautics their shares rally on the back of deals struck at the recent Defence Expo in Chennai.
Mishra Dhatu Nigam gained 9.98 per cent on Thursday on the BSE to close at Rs 168.60. The stock hit the upper circuit early morning trade and was locked in the upper circuit for the rest of the trading session.
The Midhani stock has gained 87.33 per cent after it listed almost flat at the initial public offering price of Rs 90 per share on April 4, 2018.
Shares of Merck zoomed nearly 19 per cent on Thursday after Procter & Gamble announced it will acquire a 51.80 per cent stake in the company for Rs 1,289.88 crore as part of a global deal under which it is taking over German firm Merck KGaA's international consumer health business.
The global deal is for about 3.4 billion euros (Rs 27,677 crore) in cash.
P&G will acquire Merck's majority shareholding in Merck (India) and make a mandatory tender offer to minority shareholders.
ArcelorMittal and Nu Metal will get another chance to prove their credentials to take over Essar Steel, facing insolvency proceedings in bankruptcy court.
The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday declared invitation of the second round of bids for Essar Steel as invalid, brightening the chances for these two companies to another chance to acquire the bankrupt steel maker.
The country’s largest software firm, TCS, on Thursday beat the street expectations by posting its highest-ever incremental dollar growth for the fourth quarter even as the company rewarded investors with a 1:1 bonus issue and a final dividend of Rs 29 per share.
Fortis Healthcare on Thursday said its board has approved evaluation of binding offers from suitors and formed an expert committee to assess the same. The advisory committee will be chaired by Deepak Kapoor, former chairman and CEO of PwC India, the company said in a statement after its board meeting. The company had received binding offers from Manipal/TPG consortium and Munjal and Burman family offices. It had also received non-binding expression of interests from IHH Healthcare Berhad and Fosun Health Holdings.
Metal prices are spiralling on fears of strain in global supply chain due to US sanctions on Russian firms. Nickel futures in Shanghai surged to the highest in almost three years on Thursday. The metal on Shanghai Futures Exchange surged 5.9 per cent to 109,790 yuan ($17,490) a tonne, its strongest level since June 2015.
Aluminium rallied as much as 7.1 per cent, a record intraday gain, to $2,718 a tonne in London. Since the start of April, prices are up more than 30 per cent.
Dark clouds are looming over the proposed disinvestment of national carrier Air India, with major domestic airlines pulling out of the race and right wing leaders red flagging the government plan.
