ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

On Monday, the rupee crashed by Rs 1.08, or 1.57 per cent, to end at a historic low of 69.89 against the US currency as the Turkish currency, lira, plunged, sending global currencies into a tailspin.

The bank also reported its highest ever gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio at 30.78 per cent, up 283 basis points (bps) sequentially. Provisions stood at Rs 5,236 crore in the June quarter, 157 per cent higher than what it had reported in Q1FY18.

The Centre had invited EoIs twice for its 51 per cent stake in PHL — in October 2017 and April 2018 — with the second EoI eliciting a better response.

The Kolkata-headquartered bank, however, has pruned the losses substantially on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Its net loss for the fourth quarter last fiscal had stood at Rs 3,509.63 crore.

On July 13, the Fortis Healthcare board had approved a Rs 4,000-crore offer from IHH Healthcare for 31.1 per cent stake in it, valuing the cash-strapped firm at Rs 8,880 crore.

The RBI’s contention is that preference shares do not count towards the equity share capital. Many analysts had questioned the Kotak Mahindra Bank move, saying that the move is not in line with the spirit of the RBI’s guidelines on cutting promoter stake in the bank.

Growing trade imbalance would worsen current account deficit (CAD). Already, the rupee’s depreciation has raised fears of costlier imports while the country’s ability to take advantage of a weak currency to improve exports remains limited.

While flag-carrier Air India delayed payment of salaries to its employees for the fifth consecutive month before disbursing them on Tuesday, private airlines have seen a significant drop in yields.

A shift away from determining airport tariffs on the basis of costs incurred by the airport developer is expected to disincentivise the company to incur excessive capex or operating expenses in order to seek higher aeronautical tariff.

“If global currencies show further meltdown, the rupee will also fall further. It could touch 75 in the next 4 or 5 months,” said a forex analyst.

Both Tata Steel and JSW Steel on Monday declined to comment on whether they had submitted their revised bids or not till the time of going to the press.

The duty on cell imports, analysts had said, could potentially raise solar power tariffs by 50 paise per unit and have significant implications for the country’s ambitious renewable capacity addition programme.

Last Thursday, Jet Airways’ founder Naresh Goyal said at the company’s annual general meeting that he felt “guilty and embarrassed” for the company’s shareholders losing their money, given that the airline’s shares have fallen sharply due to the financial troubles.

The CSO data revealed that inflation in vegetables declined by (-) 2.19 per cent last month, compared to 7.8 per cent in June. The rate of price rise in fruits slowed down 6.98 per cent, as against over 10 per cent in the previous month.

Sensex also logged its second straight session loss, plunging over 224 points to a near two-week low of 37,645. The NSE Nifty fell by 73.75 points
to end at 11,355.75.

For a sample of 1,054 companies (excluding banks and financials), net sales have jumped a smart 20 per cent plus year-on-year.

The draft has also suggested introduction of a pre-set timeframe for offering differential pricing or deep discounts by e-commerce players to customers.

The airline says that its account with all the banks as on date is ‘standard’

Cumulative growth for April-June period at 5.2%; manufacturing sector up 6.9% against 0.7% decline in year-ago month

SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said he expected additions of bad loans to be more controlled going forward, and loan recoveries to gather pace as default cases are resolved at the bankruptcy court.