- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy and business for Monday, March 25, 2024:
Indian stock exchanges prepared for a challenging last week of March and the 2023-24 fiscal year with just three trading days. On Monday (25), the exchanges remained closed due to the festival of Holi, while Friday (29) will also be a market Holiday on account of Good Friday. The BSE Sensex had closed on Friday (22) at a level of 72,831.94. Market veteran Arun Kejriwal in his column on Konnexio Network wrote “The current value of NIFTY is at 22,096.75 points which is a mere 113.95 points or 0.52% higher than the March series open at 21,982.80 points. With three trading sessions to go, and such a volatile market, the series is clearly up for grabs and can go in any direction. If the bulls slip up, they could see the series being lost in next to no time. Expect markets to be super volatile over the next three days which would culminate in the end of the series as well.”
India’s Berger Paints Ltd announced on Sunday that it will produce a stabilising agent for its paints using technology from a college run by the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur in Howrah district of the eastern state of West Bengal. The company has inked a technology transfer agreement to explore pilot-scale and subsequent industrial-scale production of green ammonia by an electrocatalytic method without using green hydrogen. “Currently, we procure stabilisers from external sources. But this technology of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, which has proven lab outcomes, is far more environmentally friendly and will also provide us with a cost advantage,” Berger Paints MD & CEO Abhijit Roy told news agency PTI.
Proptech firm REA India, which owns Housing.com and PropTiger, is not actively looking for acquisition for further growth but the company is open to evaluate “interesting” opportunities that complement the business or help in securing new technologies, its CEO Dhruv Agarwala said. REA India, which is part of Australia-based REA Group, will focus on consolidating its both businesses — real estate classified platform Housing.com and residential brokerage portal PropTiger.com, he added. In an interview with PTI, Agarwala, who is also CEO of Housing.com and PropTiger, said there is no plan of acquisition in near future. He emphasised that the focus would be on growth of existing businesses, makeing them stronger.
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., operator of India’s largest airline IndiGo, has projected a slower capacity growth in the 2024-25 fiscal year beginning April 1. The budget carrier anticipates “early double digits” expansion in capacity and passenger numbers, as stated in an analyst presentation last week. The forecast indicates a deceleration, compared to the previous quarter’s growth and current fiscal year guidance. In the last quarter, IndiGo experienced nearly 27 per cent capacity growth and over 23 per cent increase in passengers carried. The airline also achieved its target of expanding capacity beyond mid-teens and flying over 100 million passengers in the fiscal year ending March 31.
India has “incredibly affordable” airfares and the country’s aviation market has the kind of growth potential where Akasa Air as well as other carriers can do well, according to the nearly two-year-old airline’s chief Vinay Dube. Akasa Air prepares to take the international skies on March 28 with the first overseas flight from Mumbai to Doha, Dube also asserted that the airline is not about “marketing gimmicks”. Akasa Air is aiming to be among the world’s top 30 airlines by 2030 and will go public in future. “We think we have a great financial future. Listing is in our future… but you never say never. We hope to list some day,” he told PTI in an interview last week. The carrier, which started flying in August 2022, has a fleet of 24 planes and a domestic market share of 4.5 per cent.
(With agencies)
