India Stocks: Summary of Top Articles

Vedanta Resources is planning to raise up to $1.5 billion through the sale of 5-year USD-denominated bonds. This will be its first global issuance focused on refinancing since the restructuring of its UK holding company in January, according to the Economic Times. The raised funds will be used to refinance $1.07 billion due in 2027 and $1 billion due in 2028, both of which will be redeemed in October.

Vedanta has recently raised $0.5 billion through stock sales, but it is still said to be under financial stress. With this bond issuance, the mining conglomerate continues its efforts to reduce overall leverage.

Mankind Pharma plans to raise over 900 billion rupees through a combination of non-convertible bonds and short-term commercial paper for the funding of the acquisition of Bharat Serums and Vaccines for 1363 billion rupees in July, as reported by Economic Times. The average borrowing cost is around 8.5% and the company aims for the borrowings to have maturities ranging from 1 to 5 years.

By acquiring Bharat, the 4th largest pharmaceutical company in India, rapidly expanded its leading position in the areas of gynecology, infertility treatment, and women's health. This pharmaceutical giant also plans to raise funds through stock next year.

The federal cabinet has approved the establishment of the fifth semiconductor facility in India in Sanand, Gujarat by Keynes Technology, as reported by Business Standard. This assembly, testing, marking, and packaging plant will invest 330.7 billion rupees and have the capacity to produce 6.3 million chips per day.

The government has approved the establishment of four facilities under the 7600 billion rupees India Semiconductor Mission by Micron, Tata, and CG Power.

According to Mint, a total of about 30 million kW of renewable energy generation capacity could not find buyers as the industry awaits the introduction of uniform tariffs and improvement in grid connections. At least 15GW of capacity is still unable to find power purchase agreements, while at least 14GW is waiting for power supply contracts.

Old renewable energy projects, mainly focused on photovoltaic technology, are finding it difficult to find buyers. The mountain of unsold electrical capacity arises as India is increasing its green power project bidding targets to 50 million kW per year until 2027-28.

Citing the findings of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), it has been reported in the Hindu Businessline that individual investors are selling more than 50% of the allocated shares within the first week after listing, and more than 70% of the shares within one year. The study aggregated IPO data from 144 companies listed from April 2021 to December 2023, revealing that approximately 70% of IPO investors are from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

The latest survey by SEBI reinforces the fact that the majority of new IPO investors participate to make quick profits.

ICICI Bank has denied making any salary payments to Madhavi Puri Dandu, a former employee of SEBI who retired in October 2013, according to Hindu Businessline. The opposition party accuses Dandu of holding a position at ICICI Bank and continuing to receive income from the bank to this day.

The head of India's market regulator has received much criticism after baseless accusations from American short-selling firm Hindenburg Research. While she denies any wrongdoing, in order to maintain the image of a fair overseer, regulatory authorities must dispel doubts about her integrity.

Hero MotoCorp is reportedly in talks to make a strategic investment in Altigreen Propulsion Labs, a startup established 11 years ago. Hero is said to be investing up to 90 billion rupees for a stake in the company.

If this acquisition is successful, Hero MotoCorp will contribute to diversifying into the three-wheeler segment of the new electric mobility market, where rivals Bajaj Auto and M&M are leading the way.

Indian stock brokers are expected to increase brokerage fees in the coming weeks to address a series of anticipated regulatory changes that could affect profitability, as reported by Business Standard. Leading brokers are set to start collecting fees for stock trading soon, with a possibility of uniformly increasing fees for intraday and derivatives trading by 10-30%. Several small securities firms have already raised their fees.

This movement suggests the end of the zero-broker era that has attracted millions of new investors to the stock market and promoted active trading.

With the urgent opening of dark stores, cash-rich quick commerce platforms are scrambling to secure talent to manage expanding infrastructure and supply chains, as reported by the Economic Times. Intense competition is underway to find suitable locations, increasingly expensive and difficult to locate in major cities, to set up micro-warehouses to provide services in nearby regions. BigBasket, Zepto, Flipkart Minutes, Swiggy Instamart, among others, are actively recruiting and acquiring talent.

Quick commerce is gaining momentum in India. With recent high valuations and ample funding from fundraising, companies are gearing up for business expansion, leading to new battles in two key areas: talent deployment and dark stores.