The benchmark stock indices opened the day on a flat note once again as private banks weighed on them.
Join us as we follow the top business news through the day.
IDFC First Bank shares zoom 10% after board nod for Rs 3,000 crore fund mop-up
Today's largest mover.
PTI reports: "Shares of IDFC First Bank on Friday jumped 10 per cent after the company said its board has approved raising up to Rs 3,000 crore through various means.
The stock, after a firm start, further zoomed 9.98 per cent to Rs 63.90 -- its 52-week high -- on BSE.
On NSE, it gained 7.40 per cent to Rs 62.40 -- its 52-week high.
The lender said there are significant opportunities for growth based on the strong capabilities it has built as well as the strong outlook for economic recovery in India.
The board of the bank has approved raising of funds "up to Rs 3,000 crore by way of issuance of securities, through one or more permissible mode(s), including but not limited to a private placement, qualified institutions placement, follow-on public offering or a combination thereof," IDFC First Bank said in a regulatory filing.
The bank said it may raise the fund in one or more tranches."
Long, tense with cat photo for relief; how the GameStop hearing unfolded
Tension, irate questions, people talking over one another, and a cat photo. Thursday's five-plus hour U.S. congressional hearing on GameStop had all of that, as top hedge fund managers, the head of Robinhood, and Roaring Kitty himself answered a barrage of questions over who was at fault in January's trading frenzy.
GameStop rose more than 1,000% during two weeks as retail traders using the Reddit platform encouraged each other to pile in , socking it to hedge fund managers who were short the stock - a bet GameStop would fall.
The trade deflated, however, after online brokerage Robinhood and several other brokers controversially restricted buying GameStop's shares - leaving retail investors frustrated but capping the losses for the hedge funds.
"Robinhood owns what happened and we need to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, who appeared to field the most questions at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services hearing.
Small VCs making a beeline for startups: Report
Funds keep pouring into startups.
PTI reports: "Investments into the startup ecosystem by micro venture capital funds, investments under USD 30 million, have jumped manifold to USD 341 million in the past three years through 730 deals across 566 startups, says an industry report.
In the past decade, micro VCs have emerged as promising players in the domestic startup investor landscape providing the much needed risk capital as well as hands on mentorship to their portfolio companies as they seek to achieve product market fit and become ready to scale with stable business models.
The number of micro VCs rose to 88 funds in 2020 from just 29 in 2014. The increase in the number is driven by the booming startup ecosystem, says a joint report by the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) along with Praxis Global Alliance.
The report is based on the responses from around 50 micro VCs on their investment strategies, portfolio companies as well as their value proposition for such invested companies.
Micro VCs have infused USD 341 million into the domestic startup ecosystem through 730 deals across 566 startups in the past three years, says the report.
Micro VCs typically invest in sunrise sectors, and around 60 per cent of such investments in 2020 were into the SaaS/AI sector, BFSI, healthcare and life sciences, consumer apps and platforms, ecommerce and listing platforms, but 52 per cent of funds in general are sector-agnostic.
IVCA president Rajat Tandon noted that over the years several smaller funds that started a decade ago have not only enabled an established startup-VC ecosystem that we witness today, but have also outgrown themselves, supporting their early bets in later rounds as well to such an extent that some of those startup founders have grown to become angel/VC investors or limited partners themselves.
Madhur Singhal, managing director at Praxis Global Alliance, said micro-VCs are making contrarian bets and supporting untested ideas.
The IVCA is the apex body promoting the alternative investment asset class in the country, promoting stable, long-term capital flow from private equity, VCs and angel capital."
Canada vows to be next country to go after Facebook to pay for news
Canada vowed on Thursday to make Facebook Inc pay for news content, seeking allies in the media battle with tech giants and pledging not to back down if the social media platform shuts off the country's news as it did in Australia.
Facebook blocked all Australian news content on its service over proposed legislation requiring it and Alphabet Inc's Google to pay fees to Australian publishers for news links.
Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, in charge of crafting similar legislation to be unveiled in coming months, condemned Facebook's action and said it would not deter Ottawa.
"Canada is at the forefront of this battle ... we are really among the first group of countries around the world that are doing this," he told reporters.
WhatsApp to move ahead with privacy update despite backlash
The public uproar isn't stopping WhatsApp.
Reuters reports: "Facebook Inc's WhatsApp said on Thursday it will go ahead with its controversial privacy policy update but will allow users to read it at "their own pace" and will also display a banner providing additional information.
In January, the messaging platform informed users it was preparing a new privacy policy, under which it could share limited user data with Facebook and its group firms.
It sparked a global outcry and sent users to rival apps Telegram and Signal, among others, prompting WhatsApp to delay the new policy launch to May and to clarify the update was focused on allowing users to message with businesses and would not affect personal conversations.
In India, the messaging app's biggest user base, Facebook executives fielded questions from a parliamentary panel on the need for the changes, days after the country's technology ministry asked the messaging platform to withdraw them.
In its latest blog https://bit.ly/3ufc9Eq, WhatsApp said it will start reminding users to review and accept updates to keep using the messaging platform.
"We've also included more information to try and address concerns we're hearing," it added.
WhatsApp's announcement comes as parent Facebook moved to block all news content in Australia on Thursday, facing backlash from publishers and politicians, prompting a senior British lawmaker to label the move as an attempt to bully a democracy."
Jan. local air traffic grows 5% over Dec.
Domestic air traffic grew 5% in January over the preceding month with carriers ferrying a total of 77.34 lakh passengers, according to DGCA’s monthly report.
IndiGo increased its market share to 54.3% from 53.9% in the previous month. It was followed by SpiceJet with a share of 12.8% and Air India at 10.3%. SpiceJet continued to record the highest passenger load factor (average seat occupancy) at 76.6%, followed by Vistara (70%) and IndiGo (69.3%).
IT industry can double in size in 4-5 years: Vijayakumar
The Indian IT industry has the potential to double in size over the next 4-5 years by capturing about 20% of the projected trillion-dollar incremental spending on technology during this time, according to C. Vijayakumar, president & CEO, HCL Technologies.
“If you look at all the projections, there is at least a trillion dollars of incremental spend in the next 4-5 years,” he said at a Nasscom event.
“I think, as an industry, we should get at least a 20% share, which means $200 billion growth over the next five years,” he added.
“It could potentially double the industry,” Mr, Vijayakumar said speaking at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum 2021.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh and Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte, who were also part of the discussions, expressed similar views.
Indian shares flat, private sector lenders drag
A flat start to the day for stocks.
Reuters reports: "Indian shares were little changed on Friday, with losses in high-flying private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank countering gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.01% to 15,117.20 by 0444 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was 0.06% lower at 51,291.93. Both indexes were on track to finish the week 0.7% lower after two straight weeks of gains.
"There is a sense that valuations in certain cases are stretched and some people are booking profits," said A.K. Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital in Mumbai.
He said there might be some volatility and lower volumes on Friday as bigger players would stay out of the market due to a local holiday in the financial capital of Mumbai.
The top three drags on the Nifty 50 were ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank , each falling about 1%.
Private sector banks saw a rally in early February before investors began selling this week. For the month, they are still up 14.8%.
Reliance Industries Ltd rose 1.4% and was the top boost to the Nifty. Local media reported that the conglomerate's talks with Saudi Aramco for a stake sale were back on track.
State-run banks rose further, adding as much as 2.8% to hit a more than one-year high, and on track to finish the week over 16% higher.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that India had shortlisted four state-run lenders for possible privatisation.
Oil India Ltd jumped 4% after the company in consortium with Engineers India decided to bid for Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's 61.65% stake in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.
Other Asian stock markets pulled back from record highs, as rising bond yields and disappointing U.S. jobless data hurt investor confidence about a speedy economic recovery from the pandemic."
Telcos deposit ₹13,475 cr. for spectrum auction
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have submitted a total earnest money deposit (EMD) of ₹13,475 crore for the spectrum auction scheduled to start from March 1, according to information disclosed by the Department of Telecom on Thursday.
The total EMD amount is close to one-fourth of the amount required to be eligible for buying all spectrum, worth a base price of ₹3.92 lakh crore, put on the block.
