Expresso Business and Finance News Highlights of the Week on 21 July 2024

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Expresso Business and Finance News Highlights of the Week on 21 July 2024

Expresso Business and Finance News Highlights of the Week on 19 July 2024 Transcript

Let’s begin…HDFC Life Insurance Company on Monday reported its fiscal first quarter profit at Rs 478.97 crore, up 14.9 per cent in comparison to Rs 416.71 crore during the corresponding quarter of previous year. The company’s net premium income for the quarter stood at Rs 12,548.42 crore as against Rs 11,507.89 crore during the same period last year. HDFC Life’s annualised premium equivalent, which is a measure of new business written by a life insurance company, came in at Rs 2,866 crore for the quarter. This was up 23 per cent as against Rs 2,328 crore recorded during Q1FY24. The company recorded Value of New Business for Q1 at Rs 718 crore, reflecting a growth of 18 per cent both YoY.

 

Up next, AI and machine learning jobs are the highest paid among the new-age roles offered by the corporate sector, according to a report. The report by talent platform foundit released on Thursday showed that the freshers in AI/ML roles have the highest average minimum salary (Rs 7.8 lakh per annum) and average maximum salary (Rs 10.3 lakh per annum), indicating a strong demand for the skills even at the entry level. The AI/ML professionals are also the highest paid in the mid- and senior-levels across the new-age roles. Mid-level AI/ML professionals (7-10 years of work experience) have an average maximum salary of Rs 28.6 lakh per annum, followed by Rs 25.3 lakh for software development jobs.

 

In other news, the Big Five audit firms in India are facing a talent crunch. A regulatory clampdown and a higher number of “relatively safer” career opportunities elsewhere are pulling chartered accountants away from the audit profession. A senior partner at a Big Five firm told FE that the auditing verticals in top firms are operating with 20% lower staff than the required strength. At present, the top five firms have around 12,500 people in their audit function. Quote The amount of work is increasing every year but the staff strength is not growing as fast. Although we need to increase the capacity to handle the additional work and deal with the regulatory oversight unquote said audit vertical head at a Big Five firm.

 

Moving on, City gas distribution companies Indraprastha Gas and Mahanagar Gas might have seen flat to marginal volume growth sequentially in the June quarter, and a fall in earnings on year. As per Elara Capital, IGL and MGL’s EBITDA earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is set to decline 16% and 31% on year, respectively, led by a 26-38% decline in EBITDA per scm margin partly offset by 7-11% volume growth. Quote Gross margin should decline sequentially for IGL as well. However, with normalization in opex (operational expenses) which was elevated in 4QFY24, unit EBITDA would likely be flat sequentially at Rs 6.6/scm against Rs 8.6/scm in the corresponding quarter last year unquote said Kotak Institutional Equities.

 

In another development, In a series of optimistic evaluations, multiple brokerage firms have revised their target prices for HCLTech stock after the company maintained its fiscal year revenue guidance at 3–5% year-on-year and the operating margin at 18–19%, despite a challenging first quarter. As a result, the stock rose nearly 5% intraday to a three-month high of Rs 1,636.40 on the NSE. Eventually, the stock erased most of its gains to end 0.5% higher at Rs 1,568. Nuvama Institutional Equities maintained their ‘buy’ rating, elevating the target price from Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,800. Quote HCLTech’s sharp re-rating has been driven by higher growth than peers and rectification of its capital allocation policy fundamentals that shall sustain in FY25 too uquote they stated.

 

Next up, With the mandi prices of key pulses varieties – tur, urad and chana – declining due to rising imports, the government is currently assessing stock availability with the big retailers for ensuring that moderation in prices is passed on to consumers. Nidhi Khare, secretary, department of consumer affairs, told FE that they are monitoring pulses held with wholesalers, importers and retailers as imports of pulses have eased domestic supplies. Khare in a meeting on Tuesday attended by the officials of the major retailers including Reliance Retail, D Mart, Tata Stores and Spencer’s stated that mandi prices of chana, tur and urad in key mandis have declined by around 4% compared to prices prevailed in June, but “retail prices are not seen similar decline”.

 

Lastly, Thematic and sectoral funds have become the flavour of the season, with both fund houses and investors registering an over four-fold increase in monthly inflows over the past six months and drawing more than 55% of the total equity investments in June. Last month, nine new fund offerings raised as much as Rs 12,974 crore. Monthly inflows into thematic and sectoral funds soared to Rs 22,532 crore in June, from Rs 4,805 crore in January. The growing demand for such funds also reflected in the number of NFOs (22) launched during the period. Quote this is an effect of the bull market progressing, wherein investors are now seeking new growth opportunities and decent valuations unquote said Anand Vardarajan, chief business officer, Tata Asset Management.


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