Microsoft bid for ‘forced’ takeover of TikTok’s US ops irks Chinese Economic indicators dampen market spirit
The DGCA has asked SpiceJet to stop its five-day discounted sale of tickets as the government-imposed fare limits, with upper and lower fare limits, are in place till November 24. SpiceJet on Monday morning announced a five-day "1+1 offer sale", offering one-way base fares starting as low as Rs 899 and a complimentary voucher with a maximum value of Rs 2,000 per booking for use in future bookings.
Job searches for remote work or work from home in India have increased by over 442 per cent between February and July, the highest globally. Amid the pandemic, many jobs have become work-from-home jobs and with the flexibility and a variety of career options, it has become more popular than ever, global job site Indeed said. The job postings grew in sectors such as software tech, healthcare and marketing.
Multiplex operator PVR's rights issue has been oversubscribed, according to data available with stock exchanges. Its rights issue opened on July 17 and closed on July 31. According to issue subscription data, PVR proposed to issue 38.23 lakh equity shares. The company's board had fixed rights issue price at Rs 784 per equity share, including a premium of Rs 774 a share over face value of Rs 10 per share.
A potential shotgun wedding to Microsoft Corp for TikTok’s US operations provoked an outcry on Monday on Chinese social media as well as criticism from a prominent Chinese investor in TikTok owner ByteDance.
The US tech giant formally declared its interest on Sunday after President Donald Trump, who has cited national security risks posed by the Chinese-owned short video app, reversed course on a planned ban and gave the two firms 45 days to come to a deal.
The proposed acquisition of parts of TikTok, which boasts 100 million US users, would offer Microsoft a rare opportunity to become a major competitor to social media giants such as Facebook Inc and Snap Inc.
Microsoft, which owns the business social media network LinkedIn, is also seeking to buy TikTok’s Canadian, Australian and New Zealand interests.
ByteDance has not publicly confirmed the sale talks. But in an internal letter to staff on Monday seen by Reuters, the company’s founder and CEO Zhang Yiming said the firm had started talks with a tech company to clear the way “for us to continue offering the TikTok app in the US.”
Clinching a deal that will satisfy all parties and potentially act as a lightning rod for US-China relations will be a tall order.
People close to the situation have told Reuters that all of TikTok could be worth $50 billion, but the forced sale of the US division and some other units alone will likely yield much less than that.
“A forced deal under Washington’s shotgun could open up for endless litigations if it should result (in) an unfavourable outcome to private shareholders,” said Fred Hu, chairman of Primavera Capital Group, an investor in ByteDance.
Stock market’s benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty continued their losing trend due to deteriorating economic indicators on account of rising Covid cases and the lockdown impact.
RBI policy announcements scheduled for later this week also kept investors cautious and bearish. The Sensex declined 667 points, or
1.77 per cent, to 36,939.60 in one of the biggest single-day fall in the last five months. The Nifty-50 closed below 11,000 at
10,891.60, losing 181.85 points, or 1.57 per cent.
The market, after outperforming global peers in July, saw profit taking on Monday as the July manufacturing PMI data came lower at 46 compared to 47.2 in June, an indicator of low economic activity in the country compared to other parts of the world.
The July manufacturing PMI data in China came in at 52.8 and the Euro area PMI came in at 51.8, which seemed to have raised alarm bells among investors in India.
Domestic loan growth also moderated to 5.8 per cent year-on-year for the fortnight ended July 17,
2020, said a report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services, adding “We expect loan growth of private banks to moderate to around 10 per cent versus around 18 per cent projected earlier (pre-Covid) for FY21.”
Financials lost the most on Monday, as the Nifty Bank Index fell 2.33 per cent, led by IndusInd Bank (-3.74 per cent), Kotak Bank (-3.57 per cent), Axis Bank (-2.93 per cent), HDFC Bank (-2.60 per cent) and ICICI Bank
(-0.88 per cent).
IT stocks also saw profit booking after gaining maximum among all sectors in July. The Nifty IT Index was down 0.64 per cent led by TCS (-1.42 per cent), Infosys(1.11 per cent) and Tech
Mahindra(1.05 per cent). “Most private banks reported sequential decline in loan growth,” Motilal Oswal said.