Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Friday, July 19, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:
The Indian market's benchmark indices —Nifty and Sensex—increased during Thursday's trading. Sensex and Nifty both were up by around 0.77 percent.
IT giant Infosys was up 2.2 percent during yesterday's trading session. Investors expected a good earnings report, and Infosys delivered. The company's revenue for the first three months of FY2025 increased by 3.3 percent. Jas Bardia writes that Infosys is now pulling in more money than ever from the financial services sector. It made a total of 34 deals in the last three months, a record high. Infosys's earnings from India-based companies also grew. Jas notes that this is a pattern among Indian IT companies, as their clients in the west continue to tighten their budgets.
A-S-K Asset and Wealth Management Group handles assets worth more than 80,000 crore rupees. So when such an entity comments on the market, you take notice. Bharat Shah, whole-time director of the group, doesn't think the market is overvalued. This is in contrast to a lot of other financial gurus, who get startled seeing the price-to-earnings ratio multiples. Speaking to Dipti Sharma, Shah said that today's market is ripe with opportunities, and that investors have never had a more diverse group of stocks to choose from. He feels that the classic notion that small and midcaps will eventually fizzle out is wrong, and that the Indian equity markets have matured enough to think long-term and move on from the boom-and-bust cycle.
This week, Byju's faced a legal showdown with the Board of Control for Cricket in India over non-payment of dues. The National Company Law Tribunal has admitted BCCI’s insolvency petition against Byju’s, resulting in Byju Raveendran losing control of his company. Byju’s will now be overseen by a bankruptcy resolution professional until the legal matter is closed. Other edtech companies, like Unacademy and Vedantu are struggling too. Is this the end of edtechs as we know them? Mansi Verma answers.
The Union Budget will be unveiled on Tuesday. Employment and jobs will be key focus areas for the government. Political experts pointed out that rising unemployment was one of the reasons that the BJP government could not secure a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha election. Our partners at howindialives.com examine a report by the Reserve Bank of India on the jobs situation in India. The controversial report has a lot of loopholes, which are fact-checked. RBI said that 46 million additional jobs were created between 2022 and 2024, which is a tall claim. Such optimistic interpretations of data might not serve the on-ground reality too well.
There's been a sudden boom in equity trading. But that isn't restricted to just stocks and mutual funds: investors are now dabbling in futures and options too. Different types of investments result in different kinds of tax compliance. Ahead of the ITR filing deadline of July 31, Shipra Singh writes about how you need to report different kinds of investments to the taxman. Stocks trading, intra-day trading, and futures and options all have different regulations. Make sure to read this piece if you follow any of these trading methods.
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Show notes:
Infosys regains its stripes, outpaces peers on the back of financial services, India businesses
Why Bharat Shah thinks the weariness around midcaps and smallcaps is outdated
Byju’s bankrupt: Is the edtech crisis deepening?
Finding jobs: What surveys tell us about India’s biggest puzzle
F&O, intraday and delivery trading: How different types of trading are reported