Flipkart invests $2 million in parenting social network Tinystep 

According to a report by Research and Markets, Indian baby care market is poised to grow at the rate of 13.66 percent CAGR over the coming years Flipkart invests $2 million in parenting social network Tinystep E-commerce major Flipkart has invested USD 2 million in parenting social network Tinystep. The company works in the sphere of pregnancy and parenting. With the latest fund infusion the company aims to work on better user experience and expand on their services.

 Commenting on the development Tinystep’s Suhail Abidi said “It has been a nail biting year. We’ve grown as a product, as a team and have learnt to now focus our energies on the new revenue model. Flipkart has been a great partner and supportive of us in all our endeavours, we’re excited about what’s ahead and we can’t wait for parents all over the world to fall in love with everything we have planned”. “We believe they are on their way to build a truly differentiated content-rich social network for parents. Baby Care is an important category for Flipkart and the investment in Tinystep will enable Flipkart to leverage Tiny step’s strong user community to build a network of influencers,” said Ram Papatla, 

Vice President at Flipkart. According to a report by Research and Markets, Indian baby care market is poised to grow at the rate of 13.66 percent CAGR over the coming years. In March 2016, the company received an undisclosed amount of funding from Matt Glick man who co-founded Baby Center


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Market may be positive, May's speech eyed;

 Reliance in focus Reliance will be in focus today. The flagship company of Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani Group, said profit on standalone basis increased 4.1 percent sequentially to Rs 8,022 crore in the quarter ended December 2016. Bottomline was boosted by other income that grew sharply by 32.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,025 crore despite higher finance cost. The market may continue to see positive trade amidst global investors awaiting UK PM Theresa May's Brexit speech. According to reports, May will lay out plan to exit the European Union that would see Britain lose access to the bloc's single market. The pound is already near 3-month low ahead of the speech

The pound's losses helped take some pressure away from the greenback, which has been burdened by investor uncertainty over the incoming Trump administration's policies. Asian markets saw a mixed start as investors were cautious ahead of May’s speech. Nikkei was down nearly half a percent, while the Korean market was trading higher by over half a percent. Back home, equity benchmarks closed at over two-month closing high on Monday. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 50.11 points at 27288.17 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12.45 points to 8412.80, extending last week's rally. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed India's growth forecast by as much as a percent. It revised its expectations to 6.6 percent versus the 7.1 forecast by the government, citing demonetisation.Reliance will be in focus today. The flagship company of Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani Group, said profit on standalone basis increased 4.1 percent sequentially to Rs 8,022 crore in the quarter ended December 2016.

 Bottomline was boosted by other income that grew sharply by 32.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,025 crore despite higher finance cost. Gross refining margin (GRM) increased to USD 10.80 a barrel from USD 10.1 a barrel and Singapore GRM jumped to USD 6.70 a barrel from USD 5.10 a barrel on sequential basis. Meanwhile, on macro front there was a big breakthrough on the GST front, as the council agreed a horizontal split of tax assesses for dual control. The new agreement on dual control outlined that tax assesses with a turnover above Rs 1.5 crore will be assessed and audited in a 50:50 ratio by the Centre and States. However, states got the right to assess and audit 90 percent of the entities with a turnover below Rs 1.5 crore, with the rest falling under the Centre's jurisdiction. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced a delayed roll out of the reform. The deadline for the tax's implementation has been pushed from April 1 to July 1. Among other asset classes, crude prices were trade steady as Saudi Arabia's commitments to reducing production offset a report forecasting US output would again rise this year. Gold continues to hold above 1200 dollars an ounce on Trump uncertainty and Brexit concerns. 


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Buy preference shares in secondary market

 To lock in ratesInvestors opting for fixed income instruments typically look for regular income. However changes in the tax rates, to be precise – increase in the tax rates, can be a big risk they are exposed to, as the income they receive may go down. To protect investors in preference shares below clause has been introduced by L&T Finance and IL&FS in the information memorandum of the preference shares issues. Change In Tax Laws :- In the event of any change in applicable tax laws on account of which the dividend received by the compulsorily redeemable preference shares (CRPS) holders becomes subject to any tax to the account of the CRPS

 Holders, the company shall declare and pay such additional amounts as dividend such that the total amount received by the CRPS holders as dividend (“Aggregate Dividend Rate”) in relation to the CRPS less the tax payable on account of the change in applicable law is equivalent to the Rate of Dividend as set out above. What the clause makes it clear that in case there is a tax introduced on the preference shares dividends, the company will raise the dividend declared on preference shares to such an extent that the in hand dividend will match the earlier committed dividend. This addresses one big risk faced by the preference shares investors.Under falling interest rate scenario, preference shares offers very attractive rate of return on investments, as compared to other fixed income securities. For examples, TATA Capital NCD maturing in 2020 offers a yield of 9.20% whereas

 Tata Capital preference shares are available at 8.25% yield to maturity. Also a point to note is the interest on NCD is taxable whereas the dividend on CRPS is tax free However there are two issues one cannot totally ignore. First is the lack of ample liquidity in these preference shares. Since the issue size is small, there is no guarantee that you will get exit at fair value. In simple words, buy these instruments if you are comfortable holding them to the maturity. If you see a capital gain in the next one year and you get an exit at fair price, then it won’t be a problem. However, if it does not happen due to lack of liquidity, you should not repent on your decision of investing in these instruments. Second is the provision that allows the preference share issuer to not pay dividend if the company does not make any profit in a particular year. Not that you have to forget the dividend for that year. It gets accumulated and paid later. Probability that the companies mentioned above will not have any profits to service preference share capital in a particular year is very low.

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Sebi revamps secondary market advisory committee 

The Secondary Market Advisory Committee is chaired by IIM Ahmedabad Professor and former whole-time member of Sebi, Jayanth R Varma. Markets regulator Sebi has reorganised the committee that advises it on matters related to secondary market, including suggesting steps to improve market safety, efficiency and transparency. The Secondary Market Advisory Committee is chaired by IIM Ahmedabad Professor and former whole-time member of Sebi, Jayanth R Varma. Besides Varma, the expert panel consists of 19 members, including top executives of nation's leading bourses NSE, BSE and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd (MSEI) as well as government representatives. 

Members of the committee include BSE's Ashish Kumar Chauhan, NSE's Chitra Ramakrishna, and MSEI's Udai Kumar. All of them are Managing Directors and CEOs of their respective stock exchanges. Managing Director of ICICI Securities Anup Bagchhi and Kotak Mahindra Bank Joint MD Dipak Gupta are also members of the committee. Apart from them, Rose Mary K Abraham from Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and some Sebi officials are also part of the panel.

 The committee is mandated to review the developments in secondary market, recommend measures for changes and improvements in market structure in view of the impending changes, look into investor protection measures in the stock exchanges and suggest improvements. Moreover, the expert panel also suggests Sebi on measures for reducing the transaction costs, changes if required in the risk management and regulatory framework in secondary market, among others.

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Sensex, Nifty open higher; 

Infosys up 3% on Q3, TCS down 1% Infosys is up 3 percent on its Q3 results. BHEL, ONGC, Coal India and L&T are gainers while ITC, TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs, Bahrti Airtel and Asian Paints are losers in the Sense .Earnings review: Girish Pai, Head of Research at Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, said that the guidance revision is a definite positive in the short-term. However, he is more worried for medium and long-term growth on both structural and cyclical parameters. Margins, too, will be a big worry, he said, adding that changes in the H1B visa hike could lead to 100-350 basis points margin cut for the IT companies. Moshe Katri, MD of Wedbush Securities said that margins and performance in the financial services are the big positives from Infosys. Infosys tightening its guidance for the ongoing fiscal was on expected lines. Moshe is neutral on the company.  

India’s retail inflation rate grew 3.41 percent in December from November’s 3.63 percent, confirming fears of weak demand as households, hit by a demonetisation-induced cash crunch, put off spending. Low inflation levels can indicate poor demand and weak economic activity. The moderation is sharper on an annualised basis. Factory output grew by a surprisingly robust 5.7 percent in November, running contrary to retail sales data showing slide in household spending and muted corporate investment hit by an economy-wide cash-crunch. Factory output measured by the index of industrial production (IIP) is the closest approximation for measuring economic activity in the country’s business landscape. 9:30 am Results: Tata Consultancy Services , the country's largest IT services provider said its third quarter (October-December) profit increased 2.9 percent sequentially to Rs 6,778 crore, driven by the strong digital business and great execution work. It touched USD 1 billion-mark in profit for the first time. Revenue during the quarter increased 1.5 percent to Rs 29,735 crore and dollar revenue growth was 0.3 percent at Rs 4,387 crore compared with previous quarter. Constant currency revenue growth for the quarter was at 2 percent with volume growth of 1 percent on sequential basis. 


Buy, sell, hold: 12 stocks to watch out as earnings start The market has opened higher with a big push from Infosys. The Sensex is up 125.98 points or 0.5 percent at 27373.14, and the Nifty up 31.10 points or 0.4 percent at 8438.30. About 546 shares have advanced, 185 shares declined, and 219 shares are unchanged. Infosys is up 3 percent on its Q3 results.Infosys has reported a 2.8 percent sequential growth in third quarter profit at Rs 3,708 crore and a 0.2 percent degrowth in revenue at Rs 17,273 crore. Dollar revenue declined 1.4 percent to USD 2,531 crore compared with previous quarter. Infosys revised its full year revenue guidance to 8.4-8.8 percent from 8-9 percent in constant currency. BHEL, ONGC, Coal India and L&T are gainers while ITC, TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs, Bahrti Airtel and Asian Paints are losers in the Sensex. The Indian rupee opened lower by 7 paise at 68.16 per dollar on Friday against previous close 68.09. Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank said, "This week saw the dollar Index come down to trade below 101 levels. Given the dollar weakness, we expect the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 67.90-68.15/dollar today." The dollar index recouped some of its losses but still trades lower as Trump trade loses steam. The yen traded at 114.8 per dollar, on course for a 2 percent gain this week. Asian shares dipped but remained on track for weekly gains while the dollar was poised for a losing week, as investors weighed whether President-elect Donald Trump would stress growth-boosting steps when he takes office. On Wall Street, major indexes finished lower a day after Trump failed to elaborate on his economic stimulus plans in his first news conference since his Nov. 8 election victory. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent, after rising to its highest levels since late October in the previous session. It was up 1.8 percent for the week. Japan's Nikkei stock index rose 0.4 percent, on track to shed 1.2 percent for the week. Many investors remained hopeful that markets will get a lift from a wave of financial deregulation that could follow Trump's inauguration, including a rollback of some of the Dodd-Frank financial reform that Congress enacted after the financial crisis and bank bailouts.


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Nifty below 8400, Sensex in red; 

Tata group stocks drag Tata group stocks TCS, Tata Steel and Tata Motors are down 1-2 percent. Infosys is down 1 percent and Dr Reddy's Labs are losers in the Sensex. Among gainers are ONGC, Coal India, HDFC, GAIL and HUL.Expansion: Adani Ports and SEZ will invest Rs 6,000 crore for the development of third phase of Mundra Port. The upcoming capacity expansion of Mundra Port, touted as one of the top multi-purpose ports in the country in terms of traffic held, would lead to employment generation for 600 people, sources said. A token MoU to this effect was signed in the presence of Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.

 Essar Ports too plans to develop port facilities along the Gujarat coast at an investment of about Rs 10,600 crore, a move that is expected to result in employment generation opportunities for 1,000 people. - Infosys Q3 profit up 3%, raises FY17 dollar revenue guidance After a initial spurt in early trade, the market has slipped into red dragged mostly by Tata Group stocks. The Sensex is down 12.27 points at 27234.89 and the Nifty is down 13.40 points at 8393.80. About 835 shares have advanced, 931 shares declined, and 271 shares are unchanged.

 Tata group stocks TCS, Tata Steel and Tata Motors are down 1-2 percent. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services , has been named the new Chairman of Tata Sons, roughly three months after the former Chairman Cyrus Mistry was unceremoniously ousted.The new chairman will take charge from February 21. Infosys is down 1 percent and Dr Reddy's Labs are losers in the Sensex. Among gainers are ONGC, Coal India, HDFC, GAIL and HUL. Meanwhile, oil prices edged up, supported by reports on details of OPEC output cuts, although lingering doubts over producer compliance with supply reduction targets weighed on the market. Traders said that prices were also supported by comments from top crude exporter Saudi Arabia that its output had fallen below 10 million bpd, levels last seen in early 2015. That would also mean that the kingdom has cut production by more than the 486,000 bpd it agreed to under a global deal to stem a fall in oil prices

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 US firms want more clarity in India's tax policies: 

Official "US companies are optimistic about doing business in India. They see the reforms as a positive sign of India's willingness to make the needed improvements to its business climate," US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets, Arun Kumar told PTI.  US firms want more clarity in Indias tax policies: Official American companies are keen on investing in India but they want to see improvement in business climate like clarity in tax policies and streamlining of "complex" regulations, a top Obama Administration official has said. "US companies are optimistic about doing business in India. 

They see the reforms as a positive sign of India's willingness to make the needed improvements to its business climate," US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets, Arun Kumar told PTI. With roots in Kerala, Kumar is also Director General of US and Foreign Commercial Service and one of the top ranking Indian-Americans in the outgoing Obama Administration. "Given the growth potential of the Indian market, US companies will be monitoring the situation closely over the next year to see how these reforms are implemented," he said. Specifically, 

US companies will be eagerly following the implementation of GST to see if it provides greater predictability and consistency in the application of taxes, he said. Kumar said US companies will also be interested to see progress in implementing the 25 recommendations made at the 2016 US-India CEO Forum, which offered suggestions for opening up trade and investment in diverse areas ranging from healthcare to energy to defence. Responding to a question, Kumar said while US companies have responded positively to these reform efforts, they will continue to seek improvement in business, climate issues such as clarity in tax policies, less burdensome regulations, and protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. "Companies working in India's infrastructure sector note that the permitting process is often confusing and inefficient. 

Some report that they need to obtain as many as 110 clearances before starting a project," he noted. "Streamlining India's permitting process and reforming land and labour regulations can help to unlock new investments in India's infrastructure and smart cities sectors," he said. In addition, companies seek a more transparent and predictable policy environment, including consistent notice and comment procedures in the rule-making process, in order to plan investments and inform long-term business decisions, he added. "We should also focus on encouraging open trade and investment policies with a goal of enabling India to be seamlessly integrated into global supply chains," he said. In a wide-ranging interview, Kumar appeared bullish on India-US trade and business relationship. "The big picture is that we enjoy a thriving trade and investment relationship. In 2015, US-India bilateral trade reached USD 109 billion, up from USD 37 billion in 2005," he said


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