Stock Market News

20-October-2021

1. D-Day for IRCTC and its stakeholders.
a. The shares of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) declined to Rs.4,673.20 apiece in Wednesday’s early trading session.
b. The stock witnessed a record high of Rs.6,393 per share in Tuesday’s early session and closed at Rs.5,454.15 facing a 15% fall.
c. Further, the NSE banned the stock under F&O segment on Wednesday because it crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit (MWPL). More information about F&O can be learnt from my course on F&O.

2. BITO shines on Debut.
a. BITO, the first Bitcoin based ETF was introduced in the US on Tuesday. Upon debut, BITO saw strong investor demand marking a moment for the crypto industry.
b. The fund rose 5.4% to $42.15 and over 12 million shares worth $ 480 million were traded.
c. BITO was the most bought asset on Fidelity’s platform with more than 5,500 buy orders coming from customers as of 11:00 AM EST (Eastern Standard Time).
d. Bitcoin gained 3.1% to trade around $63,274 slightly below record high $65,000.

3. Issue of Bonus Shares helps IEX gain 20%.
a. The securities of Indian Exchange gained 20% and hit 52-week high because of bonus share announcement.
b. The company said “We wish to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company in their meeting scheduled on Thursday, October 21, 2021, shall inter-alia, also consider the proposal for declaration of Bonus Issue of Equity Shares subject to the approval of the shareholders of the Company”.
c. IEX had recorded a 59 percent year-on-year jump in the total traded electricity volumes to 8,997 million units (MU) in September.

4.Shriram Transport, Hero Fincorp plan to raise funds.
a. Shriram Transport and Hero Fincorp are planning to raise $400 million and $200 million respectively to meet the increased demand in the logistics space. The funds are being raised through syndicated offshore loans.
b. Loans may be offered on three-year or five-year maturities. They would be priced after adding a spread over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
c. Shriram Transport is likely to raise about $400 million with a five-year maturity. The six-month US-based LIBOR is now yielding around 0.16 percent. Shriram’s loans may be priced in the range of 4-4.50 percent.

5. Improvement in Coal Stock.
a. The situation of coal inventory has shown steady improvement and the number of power plants with zero days coal inventory has come down to 13 from 15 in the past week. Further, the number of thermal power plants with less than four days of inventory has reduced to 58 from 69 in the past week.
b. The improvement in the coal stock situation assumes significance in view of the ongoing shortage of the dry fuel at thermal power plants in the country.
c. The power ministry data also showed improvement in the power shortage situation as it came down to 2,060 MW on October 18 from 6,857 MW a week back.
d. The coal stock situation at power plants would further improve in coming days with government's efforts to scale up supplies.