Tata Medical & Diagnostics, a unit of Tata Sons, has initiated talks with US-based Moderna to form a partnership and launch its COVID-19 vaccine in India. The company may partner with the Centre's Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) to conduct clinical trials of Moderna's shot. The mRNA vaccine has already received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 72.95 per dollar on Monday against Friday's close of 72.97 thanks to volatile trade observed in the domestic equity market. On January 22, the rupee ended flat 72.97 per dollar against the previous close of 72.99. At 10:03 IST, the Sensex was down 27.19 points or 0.06% at 48,851.35, and the Nifty was down 3.50 points or 0.02% at 14,368.40.

About six Indian companies, including Paytm and EtechAces Marketing and Consulting, are eyeing an international listing. EtechAces Marketing and Consulting is the holding entity of Policy Bazaar and PaisaBazaar. These firms are awaiting detailed guidelines from the corporate affairs ministry and the revenue department. They are expecting the details to be clearer in the upcoming Union Budget.

JM Financial Limited’s total income in the financial results for the December ended the third quarter of FY21 declined 1.60% YoY to Rs 890.99 crore compared to Rs 905.45 crore in Q3FY20. Profit before Tax (PBT) increased 8.56% to Rs 330.76 crore in Q3FY21 compared to Rs 304.68 crore in Q3FY20. However, the net profit in Q3 increased by 14.74% YoY to Rs 180.76 crore compared to Rs 157.54 crore.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts counting on Bitcoin to bounce back above the $40,000 level face a hurdle thanks to faltering demand for the biggest fund tracking the digital asset, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The pace of flows into the $20 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust “appears to have peaked" based on four-week rolling averages, JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou opined.

Yes Bank reported a profit of Rs151cr in Q3FY21 against a loss of Rs18,560cr in Q3FY20. The net profit increased by 16.5% QoQ from Rs129cr in Q2FY21. Net interest income rose to Rs2,560.4cr from Rs1,065cr YoY, a growth of 140.5% YoY. It grew 29.7% QoQ from 1973 in Q2FY21 aided by higher NIMs. Non-Interest Income for Q3FY21 stood at Rs1,197cr, grew 69.4% QoQ from Rs707cr.

Blackstone has filed a draft red herring prospectus with market regulator Sebi for a mega IPO by its portfolio company Aadhar Housing Finance to raise Rs 7,300 cr. The listing of Aadhar Housing Finance would be the first IPO of an Indian portfolio company backed by the US private equity giant in the past five years. ICICI Securities, Nomura, & Citi are the investment bankers advising Blackstone.

Major players of SIAM Automobile Finance & Insurance felt the need to augment demand with easier and affordable access to finance & insurance. These measures can greatly incentivise customers to reconsider vehicle purchases, which hit an all-time low in Q1-21. Gopal Bansal, Chairman, SIAM Finance opined, “Closer association between Auto and Finance sector would ultimately benefit the customers”.

Oil prices slipped for a 2nd straight session on Monday as renewed lockdowns raised fresh concerns about fuel demand. Brent crude futures for March fell 15 cents, or 0.3%, to $55.26 a barrel by 0158 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for March was at $52.19 a barrel, down 8 cents, or 0.2%. Signs of weaker demand weighed on the market due to lockdowns in Hong Kong & China.

Kotak Mahindra Bank is expected to register over 20% YoY growth in profit and over 15% rise in net interest income for the Q3 2020, with sequentially stable asset quality. PPoP is likely to be strong with growth of more than 30% YoY aided by lower cost to income ratio. Motilal Oswal also feels loan growth at (-3.3)% to remain under pressure, but deposits may show healthy traction.

Vedanta Chairman, Anil Agarwal’s $10 billion fund is being set up in collaboration with Centricus to invest in government-owned firms planning for divestment. The fund will be structured is such a way that he gets a 27% interest in the acquired entities. It will submit expressions of interest, conduct due diligence and bring in expert management teams to run acquired companies.

L&T might register a double-digit decline in profit for the Q3 2020 due to higher depreciation and interest cost, but order inflow is expected to remain strong. The company will announce its quarterly earnings on January 25. The revenue growth is expected to be driven by core EPC business. Narnolia Financial Services expects order inflow of around Rs 62,000 cr for Q3FY21, driven by infrastructure.

Bengaluru-based CynLr is one of the few robotics startups of India which is incorporating machine vision to make robotic arms more intelligent and human-like. They are widely used to carry out assembly operations, load carrying and to perform repetitive tasks without losing efficiency in factories. However, only big players can implement this technology due to its capital intensive nature.

Yes Bank, which would have seen its non-performing assets (NPA) ratio touch 20% in the Q3 had it not been for an SC order, is expecting it to decline from the next quarter, MD and CEO Prashant Kumar suggested. He further opined that collection efficiency has rebounded to 96% and cheque bounce rate has come down to 9% from 19% during the peak of the pandemic.

Tata Steel Ltd’s scheme to sell its Netherlands operations to Swedish steelmaker SSAB AB may hit a roadblock as two large SSAB shareholders have expressed reservations about the deal. SSAB has told Tata Steel that it may not be able to close the deal within the six-month internal deadline agreed to in November. Concerns around carbon footprint for Swedish steelmaker SSAB may stall the deal.