The Large Caps Are Weak but The Mid and Small Cap Segments Are Rising
It is quite clear that for the last few days, the smaller cap stocks are doing better than the big cap stocks
On Episode 514 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Pranav Haldea, Managing Director at PRIME Database Group; Kunal Shah, Head of Commodities at Nirmal Bang as well as Amit Pabari, Managing Director at CR Forex Advisors
(00:00) Stories of the Day
(01:00) The large caps are weak but the mid and small cap segments are rising
(05:12) The untold story. FPIs sold Rs 120,000 crore of stock in 2024 but they also bought Rs 120,000 crore worth of IPOs
(14:05) Gold prices hit a fresh high as banks struggle to move bullion bars around the world
(23:14) The rupee is on firmer footing this week
(30:06) Why companies from Schneider Electric to ABB are reporting sharp rises in profits
NOTE: This transcript contains the host's monologue and includes interview transcripts by a machine. Human eyes have gone through the script but there might still be errors in some of the text, so please refer to the audio in case you need to clarify any part. If you want to get in touch regarding any feedback, you can drop us a message on [email protected].
—
Good morning, it's Friday, the 21st of February and this is Govind Rajyathiraj, headquartered in Broadcasting and Streaming, as always from Mumbai, India's financial capital, which if I might remind you, once again, is getting warmer. The top stories and themes.
The large-cap stocks are weak, with the mid-cap and the small-cap segments are moving up.
The untold story. Foreign portfolio investors sold 120,000 crores worth of stock in 2024, but also bought 120,000 crores worth of initial public offers or IPOs.
Gold prices hit a fresh high as banks struggle to move bullion bars around the world.
The rupee is on a firmer footing this week.
And why companies from Schneider Electric to ABB are reporting sharp rises in profits globally.
The Middle Order Moves Up
So, which team is playing well, the small-caps or the large-caps? Well, it's quite clear that for the last few days, the smaller-cap stocks are doing better than the big-cap stocks and the large-caps, which represent stability, are also facing the brunt of the foreign portfolio investors as we've been seeing in recent months into this year, who of course own a lot of large-cap stocks to start with. So, the middle order is holding out, while the top order is on a weak wicket, so to speak.
Now, we will bring in several views today from a cross-section of markets, including initial public offer markets or IPO markets, gold, and of course, currency, which will hopefully give you sufficient material to ponder over the weekend on which direction the markets in general and specifically will be headed. Meanwhile, the Centex fell about 203 points to close at 75,735 after having swung a little bit, but not as wildly as other days. NSE Nifty 50 was down about 19 points to close at 22,913.
The middle and bottom order, like we pointed out, continues to do well. The Nifty small-cap index was up about 1.5%, while the Nifty mid-cap index was higher by about 1.3%. So, why are foreign portfolio investors selling in India, at least in the secondary markets? Now, there are a lot of macro reasons, which we've heard from corporate performance to rupee and so on.
The other angle that's emerging now with sharper focus is China. Remember, we did mention just earlier in the week that some $700 billion has rotated out of India back to China. Harald van der Linde, head of equity strategy for Asia-Pacific at HSBC, told Business Standard newspaper that apart from an earnings slowdown and rising US bond yields, the outperformance of Chinese markets is a key reason for the sell-off.
As to why the sentiments shift out of India back to China, he says, well, everyone wants to be in China between 2018 and 2021, and then sentiments start. The problem, he says, is that in India, the main attraction was high or very high earnings growth, which is now under question. And here's the important point.
He says that you always sell the market that's easiest to sell, and India is one of them. If there is ease of exit and entry, then that works to your advantage and your disadvantage as well. So, it's a combination of earnings concerns, rising bond yields, and the attractiveness of China and, of course, the ease of selling.
The immediate future is a little tough to call, he says, and it also depends on whether investors are in China, which will help India. But as long as China outperforms as it is right now, particularly after that launch of DeepSeek, then things look a little tougher for flows into India. What the market does want to see is clear earnings growth and the hope, of course, that China slows down.
On the earning side, of course, things are a little away. Der Linde told Business Standard that the market is uncertain whether India's earnings growth will be 15% or 10%. It all comes back to valuations, of course, but the perception right now is that Chinese equities are very cheap, and the growth there is also looking stronger.
So, HSBC is neutral on India and South Korea, overweight on China, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, and underweight on Taiwan and Japan. So, that gives you an Asia-wide view. Relatively stronger India themes are tech, which benefits from a weak currency, consumer discretionary over staples, thanks to more attractive valuations, and automotive companies, something that we've been pointing out here as well, which are seeing good growth, and here's the reason, in overseas markets as opposed to a relatively weak local market.
All of this is HSBC. They also like hospitals for, I guess, obvious reasons, and private banks. Elsewhere, Nomura also released a report which says that despite a 16% correction in the nifty 50 in US dollar terms from its record high levels, it's still seeing muted returns in 2025.
Nomura is essentially seeing the nifty 50 reaching about 23,784 by December this year, which means an upside of just 2, rather 3.7% for the rest of the year. Nomura says the price-to-earning valuation multiple for nifty 50 has moved lower to 19 times one-year forward earnings from the September 24 peak of 21.3 times. There are other bull and bear cases, but I will not get into them.
A quick glance, meanwhile, at the energy market, and oil in specific, and where things are not moving right now. Oil prices were steady on Thursday after rising to a near one-week high in the previous session, thanks to a buildup in US crude stockpiles, according to Reuters. Brent futures were up slightly at about $76.41 a battle, even as US crude stocks rose by about 3.5 million barrels last week, market sources told Reuters.
How Foreign Portfolio Investors Have Been Buying IPOs
So, let's look at some supply and demand factors. Remember how the secondary market is also a function of flow of funds into the primary market, which have been substantial in the last year. First, the larger numbers. In the last calendar year, foreign institutional investors sold about 121,000 crores worth of stock.
But, and here's the interesting thing, they bought almost an identical amount of stock in the IPO market, or in initial public offers, according to Prime Database. Here's another interesting stat. Between IPOs and QIPs, or Qualified Institutional Placements by Institutional Investors, we've seen huge flows.
So, some 387,000 crores in the last 4 years went into IPOs. That's from everyone. And 250,000 crores, additionally, was invested by institutions in IPOs once again.
So, that's over 630,000 crores in 4 years going into IPOs, and maybe that's over $150,000 on an average per year. So, all of this tells you the sheer amount of institutional activity in initial public offers. Now, going forward, there are two questions.
First, how are things looking from a supply and demand point of view, and what could be the absorption capacity going forward? Which means, if we see a big flood of money into IPOs once again, could that affect how the secondary market behaves? So, I reached out to Pranay Haldia, Managing Director of Prime Database Group, based in Delhi, and I began by asking him how he was seeing the overall flows and the absorption in the markets.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Pranav Haldea: As you would already know, last year was a record year as far as mainboard IPO activity is concerned, and you had nearly 1.6 lakh crores being raised through mainboard IPOs. I will not even get into SME IPOs and other primary market activity, but on the mainboard IPOs alone, you had a significant amount of activity. And as far as the absorption was concerned, as I've been saying, in 2024, you saw an amazing confluence of supply and demand.
So, while you, of course, had these entire slew of companies looking to tap the IPO market, there was adequate demand as well. And not just from domestic investors, as is being reported mostly in the media, but even if you look at the foreign investors, while they sold heavily in the secondary market, they came in the primary market in a big way. There was tremendous liquidity last year, which is why you saw this kind of activity in the primary market.
If you add QIPs to it, you had a lot of QIP fundraising as well last year. And just before this call, I was looking at this data over the last four years, which is from calendar 21 to 24, and I saw that 3.87 lakh crores has been raised from mainboard IPOs and another 2.5 lakh crores from QIPs. This is all primary market activity.
In the same duration, the Sensex has gone up by 65%. So, a lot of times this dummy has been thrown about that whenever you have a large IPO, it kind of sucks the liquidity out of the secondary market. But I think the last 2-3 years have really shown that several large IPOs have hit the market.
I think I heard the same thing when the Zavato IPO happened. After that, of course, you had several 10,000 crore plus IPOs which have hit the market. The liquidity has been there, the absorption has been there, and the secondary market has risen all alongside.
Govindraj Ethiraj: And when you talked about 3.87 lakh crores and 2.5 lakh crores, you said four years, right? This is four financial years. Yes.
So, can you, for our listeners, distinguish between what is raised or sought to be raised through IPOs and QIPs? As for people who use the QIP route, who are the people who use that route? Where do they raise from?
Pranav Haldea: QIPs are basically used by already listed companies to raise fresh capital. Now, that capital which they are looking to raise can be for expansion, for acquisition, for any kind of new businesses that they might want to get into. As the name suggests, which is Qualified Institutional Placements, it is only targeted towards institutional investors.
So, you have FPIs, mutual funds, insurance companies, but only institutional investors who subscribe to these QIPs. Does that answer your question?
Govindraj Ethiraj: Yeah. You talked about FII selling and we've, of course, seen consistent selling since September 27th last year and on to the 2025 calendar as well. Would you have any sense of numbers in terms of if that shift or some of that shift has or that money has gone into IPOs in India?
What could those numbers be like?
Pranav Haldea: So, just as an example, in the calendar year 2024, FPIs sold equities worth 1.21 lakh crores in the secondary market, while they invested 1.20 lakh crores in the primary market. The same figure for 2023 was a positive for both primary and secondary. So, while they bought 43,000 in the primary market, they also bought 1.27 lakh crores in the secondary market.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. So, you're saying that last year, they almost technically, I mean, it may not be the same, I mean, money is obviously fungible, but they bought as much IPO stock as they sold in the secondary markets.
Pranav Haldea: Not just IPOs, but all primary markets. So, this also includes QIP and other primary market outlooks.
Govindraj Ethiraj: If you were to look ahead now for, let's say, the next three months or so, or the rest of the current quarter and onwards, how are the markets looking on the same parameters? One is the ability of foreign portfolio investors to buy, including in the IPO or QIP. And secondly, the issuance and the retail investor sentiment as well.
Pranav Haldea: A few things have obviously changed over the last quarter. One is constant concern in terms of the corporate earnings over the last two quarters. The second is what's been happening in the US.
Of course, from coming in, yields rising, there's been a flight of capital as far as FPI money is concerned. But I still fundamentally do believe that there is demand for good quality paper at good valuations. If you do see some issues in the primary market, you just had the mega issue of HexaWare recently as well.
While retail and H&I did not participate in a big way, you had significant QIB demand, which may have helped the IPO go through. Over the next couple of quarters, these concerns still remain. We don't have any trigger per se right now, which we can look forward to.
But I think pickup in earnings would help improve the sentiment. Foreign investors have been exiting from the secondary market and entering via the primary market. Domestic institutional investors, just by the sheer flows which they have, 25,000-30,000 crores worth of SIP money coming on a month-on-month basis, have actually become the primary players in the primary market as well.
From the past when FPIs used to decide the price, now it's the DIIs who decide the price. And actually, they've been able to get a better bargain. And FPIs are following the DII behaviour, and then they're investing into the primary market.
So I think both as far as the secondary market is concerned and the primary market is concerned, DII participation has increased manifold. This is something which I expect to be heard to say.
Govindraj Ethiraj: So if you look at the valuation outlook, what you're saying seems to suggest that the valuation outlook for IPOs is better than what it is for secondary markets right now. But then there are also some other angles or aspects. For example, many investors, maybe not these investors, institutional investors, invest for the listing day pop.
So how do you see that playing out in the next few months for those IPOs that will come?
Pranav Haldea: A lot of institutional investors also play for the listing day pop as the SEBI study showed. You know, as far as individual investors are concerned, I think the number was that 3 out of 4 investors actually exit within a month of listing. So look, as far as IPOs are concerned, I think it's very important to know what your strategy really is.
Are you coming in only for the listing gain or are you coming in for the long haul? Mostly, obviously, investors are coming in for the listing gain and typically in a bullish secondary market, you do find that most of the IPOs give a positive return on listing. Very few investors come in for the long haul because that requires a lot of hard work in terms of studying the offer document, understanding the company, understanding the sector, the promoters, directors, what kind of corporate governance practices are being followed and then coming in.
So again, to answer your question, if you are coming in for the listing pop, if there is a bullish sentiment in the market, the chances are quite high that you will gain on listing. Of course, there's a grey market premium also, which a lot of investors like to track which gives a sense of whether there would be a listing pop or not. So what you've seen is that there is a significant amount of exit in the first couple of months, but you know, they do have a slightly longer term perspective than other investors.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. Thank you so much for joining me.
—
Where Will Gold Prices Go Now?
So gold prices have once again risen to an all-time high, hovering above the $2,950 per ounce level on Thursday, thanks of course to continued concerns over President Donald Trump's tariff threats. Spot gold is at about $2,951 per ounce as of Thursday after hitting $2,954 earlier on Thursday itself. This is the 10th record high this year, according to Reuters.
So gold prices, traditionally a safe haven asset in times of wars, and I guess in times of world leaders who cannot make up their minds, have gained about 12% this year. All eyes are now on the $3,000 mark, which is something brokerages had projected last year itself, but more for later in 2025. On Wednesday, President Trump said he would announce tariffs related to lumber, that's wood, cars, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals over the next month.
He's already imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports and 25% on steel and aluminium. Meanwhile, there are concerns over rising inflation in the United States, reinforcing the Federal Reserve's stance to hold off on further rate cuts. I reached out to Kunal Shah, Vice President and Head of Commodities Research at Nirmal Bank Commodities, and I began by asking him how gold prices were looking globally and then in India.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Kunal Shah: Gold prices have run ahead of its expectation. We were expecting gold to test $3,000 somewhere in the second half of this year, but just in one month and 20 days, we are seeing this price. So, an unbelievable rally in gold, a lot of reason attributed to it.
And we feel that this rally has more steam left right now rather than just expecting a nominal return. Gold in a current environment where we are seeing unprecedented debt levels of the US, where if you look at the US balance sheet and overall US debt and the amount of debt which is going to mature this year, $9 trillion is the debt which is going to mature this year. Already US 10-year bond yields are at 4.5%. And you look at what is happening, you have no idea how they are going to service this debt and how they are going to repay this debt. So, this is a big problem going forward. And the implication this has on the US dollar is extremely negative going forward. So, irrespective of what Mr. Trump is doing right now, the inflationary expectations are surging in the US. So, on one hand, what the US actually needs is an easy monetary policy or money printing in order to service their debt. And on the other side, the inflationary expectations are moving up. So, how they are going to service their debt and how they are going to bring those yields down and pump more money in order to repay those debts and service those debts.
So, it is a very, very, whatever noise we are hearing from Mr. Trump, it seems like more of a diversion than the actual problem. And gold right now seems to be in the safe place and it is going to do well going forward. The entire economic power is shifting from West to the East and West is not able to tolerate that.
And that's the reason why gold is behaving the way it is right now.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. And how are you seeing the outlook? Okay, let me ask you another question.
So, what are the various factors that are driving up? One is traditional demand, including, let's say, from countries like India and China. But the newer demand, which could be central banks, that's one.
So, what is driving it? And secondly, how are you seeing the domestic outlook in India?
Kunal Shah: There are various factors. Like you rightly said, the most important factor which is driving gold demand is the central bank. Okay.
Central banks have been buying 1000 tonnes of gold for the last three years. But that's not the number 1000 that is not important. The reason why central banks are buying gold is at the core right now.
And that is basically driving the gold prices. The central banks are buying gold because there's no alternative available right now for them. What alternative central banks have in order to protect from the massive currency devaluation which may take place in the US?
What alternative central banks have in a scenario where the Russian asset for free is three years backed by the US? So, there is no way the central banks are not going to buy the dollar bonds or they are not going to go back to the dollar. So, here, the only thing which is left for them is gold.
They are not going to buy anything but gold. And that's the narrative which is being played. Second reason, inflationary expectation.
There are two possibilities. Trump really sticks to what he has said and comes up with the aggressive tariff plan and he puts the reciprocal tariff. In that scenario, gold is going to go further because the inflationary expectation will go up.
US inflation will surge from 3% to 5%. And another scenario is, in spite of whatever is happening, the US comes up with massive monetary easing in order to service their debt, in order to repay their debt. In that scenario, the dollar will collapse.
So, there are two roads going forward, as per me. So, we are entering into a very dangerous phase. And that is driving gold demand.
Because of tariff, the parity of gold is being completely distorted. Gold is quoted at a $40 premium in New York as compared to London. So, the entire equation, traditional equations have changed.
The London vaults are getting empty. All the gold is going back to the US. And yeah, physically going back to the US.
And so, the entire equation of gold, the physical market of gold, the equation is changing. And that is very bullish going forward in a longer run. So, already, it has run up by 8% to 10% at the start of the year.
There can be a small bout of profit-taking correction, which will keep coming. Whenever you see news like Russia ceasefire happening, there will be profit-taking corrections. But still, it is going to provide a refund to central banks.
It is going to provide refuse to investors. And I remain constantly very bullish about the overall outlook. And for the next two to three years, I don't see any reason why it should crash.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. What about domestic prices? How are they looking to you in the near future?
Kunal Shah: So, the domestic prices have corrected on account of the domestic demand has gone down by 15% to 20% on account of higher prices. In India, it is holding at 86,500 as of now when we are talking. So, there can be a small profit-taking which can take prices to around 84, 83,000.
But I see again, gold is going to do well. What is going to happen with the Indian rupee, that remains a key concern. So, if the rupee is going to appreciate further or depreciate further, that is going to be the key thing to watch out for.
And if the dollar is crashing, then the rupee should ideally strengthen. So, the gains on the domestic bourses shall be restricted by the weakness in the US dollar and the strength you can see in the next three to six months in the Indian rupee. And that should take gold prices in India to somewhere between 88,000 to 90,000 rupees on the MCAX.
So, we remain very positive for the next two to three years for gold.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Kunal, thank you so much for joining me.
Kunal Shah: Thank you. Thank you, sir.
—
Meanwhile, the action in the gold market or the intensity of it, something Kunal just referred to, is causing other problems in unexpected places, according to a fascinating report in Bloomberg. And this is as much a story of global trade as it is about interesting logistics. So, keep listening.
In London, teams have apparently been working hard to dig gold bars out or retrieve them from the Bank of England's vast underground vaults in the heart of the city. The reason, the bars have to be delivered to traders because while trades can be initiated on computers, bullion bars have to be physically moved in such large volumes that it has now exposed severe logistical bottlenecks in the global gold market, according to Bloomberg. So, the bank's vault keepers are apparently busier than they've ever been in years.
And while on the other hand, logistics companies are obviously strained and refineries are packed with orders to recast gold bars from London into a form that can be delivered into the U.S. futures market. Gold bars are flying around. More than 20 million troy ounces worth about $60 billion have entered the depositories of New York's Comex Exchange since the day of the U.S. presidential election, that's November last year, with much of it originating from the London gold market, which is also the world's largest. The Bank of England holds about 420,000 gold bars and January saw the biggest outflow since 2012. Remember, India too has had gold stock in these vaults and has been slowly bringing them back into India. Staff apparently dug out about 8,145 bars, averaging 370 per working day, but then there is a backlog.
So, all of this is taken in armoured trucks operated by firms like the Brinks company, which also, by the way, moves valuable cargo in India from the bullion yard at the back of the bank to airports outside London. But, says Bloomberg, rather than flying directly to New York, they first diverted to refineries in Switzerland to be recast into smaller 1kg ingots that can be delivered against futures contracts on the Comex Exchange in New York. More chaos ensues there because the new ingots have to be registered and stored before being dispatched again.
Well, the moral of the story, I guess, apart from gold, maybe look for stocks of companies who are transporting it and given how things are going, we will be seeing good business there for some time.
The Rupee Stabilises
The Indian rupee led amongst major Asian currencies and settled at a one-week high on Thursday, thanks to dollar sales from foreign banks and softness in the US dollar according to Reuters. The rupee closed at Rs. 86.66 against the dollar, slightly up for the day and it was, more importantly, the best performer amongst regional currencies that rose thanks to a gain or gains in the Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen. The Yen, by the way, has hit its strongest level in more than two months as investors ramped up bets on further rate hikes from the Bank of Japan. So, a few weeks ago it appeared that the Reserve Bank of India was letting go and the rupee would somewhat float away to a more natural level. The last week or so does not suggest that that's really happening, with the Reserve Bank of India seemingly intervening quite often.
So, what's really going on? I reached out to Amit Prabhari, Forex expert, and I asked him how he was seeing the rupee and the management of it right now.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Amit Parbari: Other Asian currencies have gotten much stronger as compared to the rupee. So, for example, UHDCNH was trading at 7.37. It has moved from 7.37 to 7.26 kind of a level. UHDJPY was trading close to 1.56, 1.57 and it has moved from 1.57 to close to 1.50. And as far as the rupee is concerned, it has not appreciated that much compared to the dollar index for other Asian currencies.
Govindraj Ethiraj: And these are the main Asian currencies. So, and what does that say about the dollar itself?
Amit Parbari: November to Jan was a time period when the dollar was getting stronger in anticipation that Trump is going to put tariffs, inflation is going to rise in the entire world, and emerging market countries will suffer because of their export getting down. Now, that looks a little bit subtle. I think, as you've discussed last time on your channel, that if we see Trump, whatever he says in the election or what he says, he puts tariffs by only 10 to 20% of that scale.
So, for example, in 2017, when he said he is going to put tariffs by 25%, he just put 5%. So, basically, that story goes, and if you understand Trump, he's a pro-businessman. So, he doesn't want a stronger dollar per se.
That is why in 2017, the dollar index was trading at 101. At that point of time, it came down to 89 in one year. And in this entire five-year tenure, the dollar index never broke into that 101 kind of a level.
So, it shows that, in a way, history has shown us that Trump does not like stronger dollars.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Interesting. Okay. So, let me come to know what's happening here in India.
So, there was a feeling a few weeks ago that the Reserve Bank of India was likely to let the rupee go at least a little bit and float away. It appeared for some time that that was the case, but now it looks like we are back to some form of intervention, and therefore, the rupee seems to be holding. Would that be a correct assessment?
Amit Parbari: This reminds me of a famous Hindi film dialogue where they say, do not underestimate the power of a common man. I will say, do not underestimate the power of the RBI. What I liked about this entire momentum was that it kept the trader, the speculator, the importer, the exporter, all thinking about what is coming next.
And that is a sign what you want from a top level person in any institute or any place. So, if everyone knows what I'm going to do, it doesn't make sense. So, your moves are known.
So, by moving, you know, from 84, it went to 88, and from 88, it came down to 86 and a half. That has kept the market confused. Prior to this move, for the last 14 months, the last 14, 18 months, it was only one sided, and our currency is going to get devalued.
From 82 and a half, it is going to 83, 83 and a half, 84, although RBI was keeping in the range, but overall, it was getting weaker only. So, every time everyone wants to buy it, USD, INR pair, or want to go long in dollars. By this move, people are now scared.
They cannot have one trade. And that is exactly what you want in the market, to have two sided momentum. So, the trader is not going to only go long.
It can have both sides ' momentum.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Does that mean that the Reserve Bank of India is allowing the rupee to therefore float a little bit or to find a natural level or not?
Amit Parbari: It was trading from 83 to 84. It was in a range bound momentum. From 84 to 85, it took 478 days for the rupee to reach one rupee level.
And from 85 to 86 in 15 days, 86 to 87, another 15-20 days, and 87 to 88, 10 days. So, basically, they are dealing, they are not controlling that much. But saying that they're coming the way they had come in between from 88 to 87.
Dealers were saying probably they must have sold close to 10-12 billion dollars near 87-95. But because of that, it has come down to 86-50 or 86-80 kind of a level at that point of time.
Govindraj Ethiraj: You just told me a little while ago that you're visiting a lot of exporters in Southern India right now. So, obviously, they're all looking to understand how the rupee will behave because they're obviously trying to tie up contracts and things like that. So, what are you telling them?
Amit Parbari: Between 2018-2021, what has happened? Volatility was there on both sides. So, probably being the Trump era, you want to derive a value of the dollar or rupee by doing some kind of fundamental analysis or technical analysis or quantitative analysis.
In a normal scenario, we give a weightage of 90% to all of this scenario and 10% on sentiments. But right now, the scenario says that you have to give 60% weightage to all of that and 40% weight on sentiments. And sentiment is primarily driven by what Trump will say tonight.
So, when you have such a scenario, then the best way to solve the problem is to hedge your exposure well. Rather than predicting the value of rupee or dollar or euro or pound, it is better that you plan your hedges well. If you are planning your hedges well, then you will be able to sustain your margins.
Otherwise, it will be really difficult for an exporter or importer to manage his bottom line.
Govindraj Ethiraj: Amit, thank you so much for joining me.
Amit Parbari: Pleasure is mine. Take care.
So, Very Boring Stocks Are Resuming In The Stock Markets
French energy management automation group Schneider Electric posted sharply higher net profits and revenue for 2024 on continued strength in energy management beating market views according to the Wall Street Journal. The reason is artificial intelligence. And you might say, once again, artificial intelligence trends continue to boost data centre demand, the company said in a call with reporters.
That's Schneider. So, data centres, data centers as a segment continue to report the strongest demand and sales growth according to Schneider in that report in the Wall Street Journal. But Schneider is not alone.
Other companies in similar lines of businesses like Switzerland's ABB and Siemens and the US-based Eaton have all been posting solid results in the last quarter thanks to data centre demand according to the Wall Street Journal.
And Google Stores Coming Here
After Apple stores now brace for Google stores in India, a Reuters report says Google is close to deciding on locations where it will open its first physical retail stores outside the United States. Google has only five physical stores, all in the United States, which sell products like Pixel phones, watches and earbuds, while Apple has 500 plus stores worldwide. So now Google is in advanced stages of finalising locations in and around the capital of Delhi and Mumbai.
If it opens in Aerocity area in Delhi, which is a little unlikely, though, and BKC in Mumbai, maybe a little more likely, then all of this will be next to Tesla showrooms. How will that help? I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's good to know.
