Venture debt firm InnoVen Capital has invested INR 60 Cr in BharatPe to kickstart the fintech startup's 2021 fundraising. The funding comes at a time when the Delhi-based digital payments company had recorded 6.15 Cr merchant UPI transactions worth INR 3,334 Cr ($479 Mn) in November 2020 to lead the UPI-based peer-to-merchants payments market in India.

Avenue Supermarts Ltd, the owner of D-Mart chain of retail stores, on Wednesday crossed ₹2 trillion in market valuation after the stock surged nearly 17% in the last three weeks. The stock has gained in 11 out of 13 sessions tracking gains in the broader market. The scrip was trading at a record high of ₹3,094 on the BSE, up 3% with a market cap of ₹2.01 trillion.

Bharat Dynamics Limited or BDL has announced the receipt of a new order for Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs). In a regulatory filing BDL said that it has received a Konkurs-M ATGM order along with launchers and test equipment. The amount for which the order has been placed stands at Rs632.88cr (including taxes). Post this order, the order book of the company is now worth Rs8,100cr.

The European market usually kept away from outsourcing, has become a new market for Indian information technology companies amid the coronavirus pandemic. Big Indian IT companies such as Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys have won large deals or acquired units in the region as local businesses looked to “quickly transform” to adjust to the pandemic situation.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been recognized as a Leader in the Everest Group PEAK Matrix for Service Integrator Capabilities on Microsoft Azure. The company in its regulatory filing on Tuesday said that the report highlights TCS’ industry-focused next-generation solutions on Azure, spanning edge, Internet of Things, blockchain, and AI-/ ML-based solutions, as key strengths.

Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd plans to raise at least $5 billion through the sale of a U.S. dollar-denominated bond this month. Depending on investor response, proceeds could reach $8 billion which Alibaba is likely to use for general corporate expenditure. The plan, including the timeline, is not final and subject to change.

The NYSE is considering proceeding in delisting three major Chinese telecommunications firms after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin criticized its shock decision to grant the companies a reprieve. The NYSE’s potential pivot follows a whirlwind 18 hours in which the exchange caught US officials off guard, with the exasperation reaching the highest levels of the Trump administration.

A top ISRO scientist on Tuesday claimed he was poisoned more than three years ago. Tapan Misra alleged he was poisoned with deadly arsenic trioxide on May 23, 2017, during a promotion interview at ISRO headquarters here. "Fatal dose was probably mixed" with chutney along with Dosa, in snacks after lunch, he said. Misra is presently working as Senior Advisor at ISRO.

HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh on Tuesday said that the spurt in demand for homes in the last few months is not pent-up, and is a result of record low-interest rates, affordable prices and supportive government policies among other factors. As per Anarock Research, the top 7 cities witnessed sales of around 50,900 units in October-December 2020, rebounding to almost 86% of the same period in 2019.

'Ride the elephant to steer through the patchy road ahead,' says Emkay Research for State Bank of India. The current market price of SBI is ₹281 per share. The brokerage gives a buy rating for the stock with a target price of ₹340, 21% upside in the next 12 months. Emkay research further pointed out, "SBI is well-positioned to ride the economic recovery and further consolidate market share."

Brent oil prices rose on Wednesday to the highest since February after Saudi Arabia agreed to make bigger cuts in output than expected during a meeting with allied producers, while industry data showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week. Brent crude rose as much as 0.6% to $53.94 a barrel, the highest since Feb. 26, 2020. It was at $53.79 a barrel at 0147 GMT and gained 4.9% on Tuesday.

India is currently the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world and is home to 21 unicorns valued at USD 73.2 billion, India’s top envoy in the US has said. More than 50 startups might join the unicorn club as early as 2022. “Entrepreneurial activity has picked up in India. In 2020 India was among the top 50 innovative economies," India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said.

The finance ministry is hopeful of completing the strategic sale of SAIL’s Salem (Tamil Nadu) and Bhadravati (Karnataka) steel plants in this fiscal through March. however, the planned strategic sale of two SAIL plants will not add to the government’s divestment receipts for this fiscal. The sale proceeds will instead go directly to the state-run steelmaker as the two plants are its subsidiaries.

A downward-sloping Covid-19 graph and an upward-sloping Nifty50 chart in India have nudged Christopher Wood, Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jefferies, to increase exposure to Indian equities in his ‘GREED and Fear’ portfolio yet again. Wood has increased the weightage of Indian equities by 150 basis points to 14% in his Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative-return portfolio.

India’s stockbrokers have sought higher rebate ceilings for long-term capital gains taxes (LTCG) and an exemption of individual dividend tax liability of up to Rs 10,000 for each listed company to encourage savers to invest long term in equity assets. In a pre-budget letter to the tax authorities, the ANMI chairman Pramod Chandra Mody sought the increase in LTCG exemption limit beyond ₹1 lakh.