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- Week 18
Week 18
Bid(en) Won! 🏆
Good Morning,
Welcome! I hope you have your “Subah Kee Chai” ready and you're excited to read your weekly 10-minute digest.
Just in! Joe Biden won the US Presidential Election and will serve as the 46th President of the United States of America. Whatsapp introduced cool new features, and a large sum of untaxed money was found in Chennai! Lastly, I shared my summary of an interesting article I read in the week. Let me know what you think!
I hope you enjoy today's newsletter,
Now let’s get into the news.
Markets
Markets
Equity indices finished the week with a positive 5% increase, as the markets extended a five-day streak on Friday.
was a top gainer rising 3.58% after Reliance Retail secured an INR 9555 crore investment from Saudi Arabia's wealth fund. Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Bank sat next to Reliance as the top gainers. On the contrary, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, and Nestle India were among the top losers. Despite uncertainty around the US election, global equities rallied strongly on expectations of a fiscal stimulus package in the near future. In addition, the US Federal Reserve stated that its interest rate will be left at a record near zero percent, indicating positive support towards the economy during the pandemic. The price of gold rose a decent amount throughout the week sitting at INR 51,800 for 10g of 24k gold. Lastly, the
closed at a 10-week low due to growing uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the US election.
COVID-19
On Thursday,
signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India to buy 30 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca. While no date has been confirmed for a COVID-19 vaccine, the drugmaker hopes to have vaccines in production by 2021.
In other news, nineteen passengers traveling from
on Air India tested positive for COVID-19.
Tech
On Friday, WhatsApp introduced its
for India after receiving approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Starting Friday, people across India will be able to send and receive money through WhatsApp. WhatsApp Pay, with a market of 400 million users, will compete with Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and Walmart-owned PhonePe. The payment service will be available in 10 different languages and will have a tie-up with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India ad Jio Payments Bank. The payment service is designed with a strong set of security and privacy principles, including entering a personal UPI PIN for each payment. Have you tried it out yet? Will this method help India move out of a cash-based economy?
In other news, Whatsapp also announced
to allow users to have more control over their conversations. The feature was rolled out worldwide to users on Thursday. If the feature is turned on, messages of a particular chat will disappear after seven days to keep the conversation more private. Photos, videos, and other media files shared will disappear if the feature is on, however they will automatically save to your camera roll depending on your settings. This feature, however, does not prevent people from screenshotting a conversation and saving a chat.
Give me back my crown!
India's smartphone shipments bounced back and reached a record level of 14% year on year growth rate. During this quarter,
ended Xiaomi's reign as the number one smartphone brand in India. Samsung captured 18% year on year growth in its smartphone shipments. The biggest catalyst to the improving smartphone market was pre-festive season launches and aggressive advertising. With new iPhones, Samsung's, and Xiaomi's; what are you buying this festive period? I think it's time for an upgrade ;)
250 million!
On Monday, Walmart-owned fintech platform PhonePe crossed the
milestone. A statement from the company reported over 100 million active users and 2.3 billion app interactions in October. PhonePe, which competes with Paytm, MobiKwik, and Google Pay allows users to send and receive money, recharge mobile allowances, make utility payments, and buy gold and other investments. It's recently launched Switch platform allows users to place orders on over 220 applications such as Ola, Oyo, and Myntra. PhonePe is on the rise in the fintech industry!
Nation
That's some serious tax fraud!
The Income Tax Department searched five locations in Chennai and Madurai on Wednesday in a case pertaining to an IT infrastructure group based in Chennai. After a successful search, the officers
. Evidence from the search found bogus investments to an unknown Singapore-based company, five shell companies used to siphon out INR 337 crore and allotment of preference shares to project inflated capital before banks and investment companies to obtain fraudulent loans and other forms of finances. Proceedings will be initiated under the Black Money Act, 2015 soon, according to the Income Tax Department.
Big picture:
One of the key reasons for the demonetization in 2016 was to unearth unaccounted income by banning the use of INR 1000 and INR 500 notes. However, with new scam/fraud stories released daily, was the decision to demonetize effective?
Coal Winners
On Monday, the Government announced that
were the first private companies chosen to operate the coal mines in the country without end-use restrictions. India is the second-largest consumer of coal, and the auction to allocate coal mines to the private sector is to attract investment and reduce imports. Vedanta Ltd won the biggest coal mine with an annual production capacity of 6 million tonnes.
Fun Fact:
Auctions are conducted in two stages. The first is a submission of a technical bid, which is evaluated by the coal ministry. The companies who qualify then submit financial bids, which outline the percentage of revenue that would be paid to the government.
Where on Earth should you invest?
I wanted to use this section to share an interesting article I read in the week. For fun, let's assume you lived on Mars and had to invest your hard-earned money on Earth. Since you live on Mars, you aren't biased towards any country on Earth and you don't have any specific details on any of the stock markets. What percentage of your investible capital will you invest in India or the Indian markets? Would you put all your money in India? The article highlighted some of the key investor trends that are consistent among investors. It identified that home country bias is a tendency investors usually succumb to as an individual/company favors investment from your own country, and this is a characteristic featured worldwide.
However, the world is yet interconnected. What do you use for all your research? Google! and on what device? An Apple or Samsung? And on which platform? Facebook? Instagram? Whatsapp? Twitter? Lastly, what type of car do you own? A Honda? We use the global marketplace in every aspect of our lives, yet when it comes to investing our portfolios favor our domestic market.
It is interesting to think about where you would invest your capital if you had no knowledge of the markets. Here is an exercise for you: sit down, sip some tea, and clear your mind. Think of yourself as a layman/alien, where are you investing your money? Let me know your feedback! I am excited to hear what you think.
Sports
With the IPL nearing a close, Mumbai Indians secured their place in the final for 6th time since 2010 after beating Delhi Capitals on Thursday by 57 runs. The game was exciting for Mumbai fans, as the bowling team picked up 3 wickets before Delhi registered a single run! Mind-blowing! The Delhi Capitals take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad tomorrow. Who do you think is making it to the final? The final is on Tuesday, the 10th of November! I am excited about this one!
In other sports news, Real Madrid stars Eden Hazard and Casemiro tested positive for COVID-19. Kai Havertz from Chelsea experienced the same.
Other News
1.
is set to invest USD 150 million into Biocon Biologics, a biosimilar arm of Biocon. Goldman Sachs values the company at USD 4 billion.
2.
will invest USD 2.27 billion in Telangana to set up multiple data centers.
3. This Diwali will be a bit different in
, as the Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa issues an order banning the use of firecrackers.
4. Domestic flights are set to remain capped
till the 24th of February, a three-month extension from the original deadline of the 24th of November.
5.
to buy Columbia Asia for INR 2100 crore.
Quiz
The week was dominated by the US election, so here is a quiz with an American theme.
What two names of US capital cities rhyme but share no vowels?
Can you get it? Think!
See you next week!
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Quiz Answer: Austin and Boston
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Written by: Adnan Bahrainwala (Founder of Subah Kee Chai)