Good evening, and welcome to Business Hook’s daily news podcast, where we bring you a roundup of the day’s top business stories.
First, let’s take a quick look at the Asian markets. After last week’s roller-coaster ride, most Asian indices started the new week in the green. Korea’s Kospi was up over one percent, while Japan’s Nikkei gained half a percent. However, China’s Shanghai Composite closed marginally in the red.
Back home, Indian equities ended the day almost unchanged. Both the Sensex and the Nifty were flat, with the Nifty closing above 24,300. Out of the fifty Nifty stocks, 30 declined, 19 gained and one remained unchanged. Oil and gas major ONGC was the star of the trade, up around three percent. NTPC and Adani Ports were the biggest laggards, down over two percent each.
On the deal street, Bharti Global, the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises, announced it will acquire a 24.5 percent stake in Britain’s largest telecom company, BT Group. Bharti will purchase the stake from Altice UK, BT Group’s largest shareholder, for four billion dollars. This transaction will make Bharti Global the largest stakeholder in BT Group. It’s worth noting that in 1997, BT had invested in Bharti Airtel. Bharti’s shares ended the day flat.
In stock-specific action, most Adani Group stocks ended the day in the red. This followed allegations from the U.S. short-seller firm Hindenburg Research, accusing SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband of past investments in offshore funds that were also used by the Adani Group. However, Madhabi Puri Buch refuted the claims, calling them "baseless" and "malicious."
In the startup space, OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal has invested 830 crore rupees into the company through his Singapore-based entity, Patient Capital. According to sources quoted by PTI, this investment is part of OYO's latest funding round, which raised 1,457 crore rupees. This will increase Agarwal's stake from 30 percent to 32.5 percent.