Asia’s manufacturing activity rose in October as Covid-19 infections eased in emerging economies, but rising input costs, material shortages and slowing Chinese growth blew the outlook.
The Hang Seng is down 1.2%, while the Shanghai Composite is up 0.1%. Nikkei is trading with a gain of 2.3%.
In the US stock markets, Wall Street indices opened a tizzy of trading on Friday with marginal gains.
The latest gains resulted in the best month for the broader market in nearly a year, as investors buoyed the company’s earnings growth against concerns over rising inflation and supply chain disruptions.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89 points to 35,820, while the S&P 500 rose 9 points to 4,605. The Nasdaq Composite closed 50 points higher at 15,498.
Back home, Indian stock markets have opened on a positive note after the SGX Nifty trend.
Market participants will be tracking the stocks of HDFC, Tata Motors, IRCTC and IRFC as these companies announce their September quarter results today.
Meanwhile, as many as three IPOs are involved. PB Fintech, SJS Enterprises and Sigachi Industries will start from today.
BSE Sensex is trading up 471 points. Meanwhile, NSE Nifty is trading with a gain of 122 points.
Tata Steel and Bharti Airtel are among the top gainers today.
On the other hand, Bajaj Finserv is one of the top losers today.
BSE Mid Cap Index is up 0.6% while BSE Small Cap Index is trading up 0.9%.
All sectoral indices are trading in green and realty sector and metal sector are the biggest buyers.
Shares of Blue Star and Minda Corporation hit a 52-week high today.
Rupee is trading at 74.97 against US Dollar.
Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% ₹47,670 per 10 grams.
Meanwhile, silver prices are trading with a fall of 0.2%. ₹64,418 per kg.
Crude oil prices fell today after China said it released reserves of gasoline and diesel to boost supplies, while investors opened long positions ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on Nov.
In pharma sector news, Zydus Cadila has agreed to reduce the price of its Covid-19 vaccine ₹265 One dose after frequent negotiations by Govt.
However, the final deal is yet to be done.
Zydus Cadila’s ZyCov-D is the first vaccine approved by India’s drug regulator for immunization of people 12 years of age and above.
The cost of a disposable painless jet applicator, to administer the vaccine needle-free ₹93 is required for each dose, which will bring the price up to ₹358 per dose.
Earlier, the Ahmedabad based pharma company had proposed the price of ₹1,900 for its three-dose dosage.
The vaccine – ZyCoV-D received emergency use authorization from the drug regulator on August 20.
Reportedly, Zydus Cadila can deliver around 20 million doses in November.
The government is currently procuring two more vaccines – Covishield at ₹205 per dose and Covaxin at ₹215 per dose.
Cadila Healthcare share price is currently trading up 0.3%.
Moving on to the news in the insurance sector, insurance companies have emerged as the big bidders for the shares of PB Fintech, the company that operates PolicyBazaar and Paisa Bazar portal.
ICICI Prudential Life, Max Life, Niva Bupa, Bajaj Life and HDFC Life are among the insurers that have received allocation in the anchor category ahead of PB Fintech. ₹56-bn IPO, opening today.
Some other funds that have received allocation in the anchor category are New World, Bailey Gifford, Fidelity and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
A total of 26.2 million shares have been allocated to over 150 funds ₹980 per share. The total allocation in the anchor category is for shares of value ₹25.7 billion
Anchor Book generated demand for more than 40 times the shares offered.
Policybazaar is a web aggregator where consumers can compare and buy insurance products from different companies.
At the upper end of the price band, PB Fintech is priced at ₹440 billion company looking to raise ₹37.5 billion new capital through IPO.
The net proceeds from the fresh issue will be used to increase the visibility of the brand. The company said it would use around ₹15 billion of net proceeds to fund marketing initiatives over the next three years.
In addition, it intends to use ₹3.8 billion to expand consumer base including offline presence; ₹6 billion for strategic acquisitions and investments; ₹3.8 billion to increase presence outside India; and some part for general corporate purposes.
How this IPO pans out remains to be seen.
Coming to the insurance sector, take a look at the chart below which shows the investment assets of non-life insurers and life insurers over the last 10 years:
see full image
According to Tanushree Banerjee, co-head of research at Equitymaster, the above chart is ample proof of how big a earning opportunity zero-cost float is for non-life insurers. Their investment assets under management are about 11 times that of life insurance companies.
Back in April 2021, Tanushree recommended high quality stocks from this space to her StockSelect clients.
If you want to become a Stock Select Subscriber,Here you can sign up.
This article is syndicated from equitymaster.com
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