Month: January 2025

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) on Wednesday reported an 19% year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit (attributable to owners of the company) for the fiscal’s third quarter ended December (Q3FY25) to ₹2,984 crore. The company had reported a profit of ₹2,509 crore in the year-ago period. Sequentially, the consolidated net profit was up 15.2%. HUL shares ended flat at ₹2,341 apiece on BSE.

HUL’s consolidated total income stood at ₹16,050 crores during the quarter ended December (Q3FY25) from ₹15,781 crore in Q3FY24, a year-on-year rise of 1.7%. Sequentially, the revenue was down by nearly 1%.

The firm reported in its exchange filing that the Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter ending in December was ₹3,695 crore, compared to ₹3,666 crore in Q3FY24. The EBITDA margin was recorded at 23.7%, reflecting a decrease of 30 basis points from Q3FY24.

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India is among the top three least favoured Asian stock markets, according to a recent note by BofA Securities, with 10 per cent of the fund managers surveyed by the research and brokerage house remaining underweight on Indian equities from a 12-month perspective. 

On an overall basis, global fund managers expect less than 5 per cent return from Asia ex-Japan stocks in the next one year, BofA Securities’ survey findings suggest. 

182 panelists with $513 billion worth of assets under management (AUM) responded to the global fund manager survey (FMS) questions, BofA said, while 111 panelists with $214 billion worth of AUM responded to the regional FMS questions between January 10 and 16.

Only China (with a net 23 per cent fund managers) and Thailand (13 per cent) are the other two Asian regions where fund managers are more underweight as compared to Indian equities, survey findings suggest. 

In China, investor patience is being put to test yet again, BofA Securities said, as the sharp rally in September failed to hold on to the gains.  

“Unsurprisingly, growth optimism faded further, with net 10 per cent expecting the economy to strengthen, down from net 61 per cent in October. Structural bearishness calls shot up to near survey-highs, while allocations nosedived to near survey-lows. FMS thinks that cash hoarding by households is here to stay, while less than 25 per cent are comfortable adding exposure on further signs of easing,” BofA Securities said.

Japan, on the other hand, was the most preferred region within Asia where a net 53 per cent of the respondents / fund managers remained overweight, followed by Taiwan (20) and South Korea (3). 

“The optimism on Japan remains unscathed, as 20 per cent of the participants surveyed by BofA expect double-digit return from equities in the next 12 months,” BofA said. 

Tepid 2025 

Those at BNP Paribas Securities, too, see a tepid 2025 for Indian equities and expect returns to remain in single digits in the next one year. 

While high-frequency indicators in India are showing signs of bottoming out, analysts at BNP Paribas Securities see other headwinds (high food inflation, high US bond yields, rising dollar index and firming up commodity prices) that are likely to keep the market sentiment in check for most part of the year.

“The appetite for buying expensive emerging market equities should remain low, unless there are signs of a strong recovery in growth. Strong domestic inflows continue to support the Indian equity market, and we do not see any major risk to this. We see low likelihood of valuation multiples rerating in 2025 and expect market returns to track or slightly lag earnings growth,” wrote Kunal Vora, head of India Equity Research at BNP Paribas India in a recent note. 

APAC markets 

APAC ex-Japan economic outlook, according to the BofA, stayed at its second-weakest level in two years, with net 3 per cent of the participants seeing a weaker economy 12 months out versus net 39 per cent seeing a stronger economy in November.

“The bearishness on the economy rubbed off on return expectations with a majority expecting less than 5 per cent returns in the APAC ex-Japan equities in the next 12 months,” BofA Securities said. 

Semiconductors dominate the regional sector allocations, the survey findings suggest, followed by increasing allocations to banks and consumer staples, while real estate and materials lag. 

“AI/semis, dividends/buybacks and internet are favorite China themes while in India, IT services, a beneficiary of the falling rupee, jumps to the top with infra coming next,” BofA Securities said.

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A host of the world’s wealthiest individuals, collectively worth $1.2 trillion, gathered to witness the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The event, held Monday, attracted four of the five richest men globally, their combined wealth representing nearly one-third of India’s GDP, which stands at $3.55 trillion (nominal GDP in 2024: $3.89 trillion). 

Billionaire attendees and their net worth

Bernard Arnault

The LVMH chief, with a net worth of $179.6 billion, according to Forbes, and the fifth-richest person globally, attended the inauguration with his family, marking a significant appearance by the wealthiest family in France. 

Mukesh Ambani

India’s richest man, with a net worth of $98.1 billion, also attended the event, participating in pre-inauguration activities and a private meeting with President Trump. Arnault’s family, the wealthiest in France, and Ambani both attended various inauguration events.

Jeff Bezos

The Amazon founder and the world’s second-richest individual, with an estimated net worth of $239.4 billion, attended multiple inauguration events.

Mark Zuckerberg

Chief executive of Meta, worth $211.8 billion, was seen at various inauguration functions and co-hosted a pre-inaugural Ball reception. 

Elon Musk

The Tesla CEO, holding the title of the world’s richest person, with a staggering net worth of $433.9 billion, played a pivotal role in supporting Trump’s election campaign. 

The world’s three richest individuals, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk, also participated in multiple inauguration morning activities.

Other high-profile attendees included

Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO) > Net worth: $1.1 billion

Tim Cook (Apple CEO) > Net worth: $2.2 billion

Miriam Adelson > Net worth: $31.9 billion

Rupert Murdoch (Former Fox News Chairman) > Net worth: $22.2 billion

Phil Ruffin(Casino executive) > Net worth: $4.7 billion

Howard Lutnick > Net worth: $1.5 billion

Vivek Ramaswamy> Net worth: $1 billion 

Billionaires host inaugural ball

Several of these billionaires, including Zuckerberg, Adelson, Tilman Fertitta (Net worth: $10.2 billion), and Todd Ricketts (family net worth: $4.2 billion), co-hosted a pre-inaugural Ball reception. 

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, was invited but hadn’t been seen at the swearing-in. Other high-profile figures, including Stephen Feinberg, Warren Stephens, Jared Isaacman, Steve Witkoff, Linda McMahon, and Kelly Loeffler, were reportedly offered positions in the administration.

Net worth of Donald Trump

Forbes estimates President Trump’s net worth to be at $6.7 billion, largely due to his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social. 

Billionaire wealth vs global economies

The combined net worth of these attendees is nearly one-third of India’s GDP, which ranks as the world’s fifth-largest economy at $3.55 trillion. India, a rapidly growing economy, showcases how the wealth of a select group of individuals can rival the economic output of entire nations. 

The wealth present at Trump’s inaugural events could rival some of the top economies. To put this into perspective, the nominal GDP in current US dollars for Indonesia, which ranks 16 globally is $1.48 trillion and the Netherlands, ranked 17, is $1.14 trillion.

The presence of such influential figures at the inauguration of a pro-business president signals potential shifts in economic policies and priorities.

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Sharing insights on discount broking firm Zerodha’s success and growing client base, co-founder Nithin Kamath took to social media platform ‘X’, formerly Twitter, to announce that Zerodha has 16 million clients with a combined asset under management worth Rs 6 trillion. 

In a post on ‘X’, Kamath said “Over 1.6 crore Indians trade and invest with us. Almost 30 per cent of these investors came to us through referrals by other Zerodha customers. All Zerodha investors today trust us with 6 lakh crores of their assets.” 

The milestone, Kamath added, was achieved “without advertising”, and Zerodha might be the only business-to-customers (B2C) company to have achieved this feat, he boasted.

“In hindsight, not advertising has helped us stay true to our philosophy of not pushing people to trade, no spam, etc,” Kamath said. 

The Zerodha chief executive officer (CEO) further elaborated that India is a very tough market to earn in, and even if they had advertised, they would have given up a lot of our profits to Google, Facebook/Meta, etc.

Founded in 2010, Zerodha aimed at breaking all barriers in the way India used to trade. Its name ‘Zerodha’ is a combination of Zero and ‘Rodha’, the Sanskrit word for barrier. 

According to its website, over 10 million clients place millions of orders every day through their investment platforms, contributing over 15 per cent of all Indian retail trading volumes. 

In earlier interviews with media channels, Kamath was seen comparing advertising with addiction. 

“Advertising is like being on cocaine. Once you start, you can’t stop,” he was quoted as saying. 

Meanwhile, on January 14, Kamath informed his followers on ‘X’ that Zerodha Fund House crossed the milestone of having assets under management (AUM) worth Rs 4,000 crore as of January 2025. The feat was achieved within its first year as India’s direct-only asset management company (AMC).

“The good thing about being passive-only is that it aligns the incentives for both the customers and us. For the customers, it means access to good, low-cost products,” he said.

More than half of the investor base comes from smaller towns and cities, he said. 

Launched in 2023, Zerodha Fund House is a joint venture between Zerodha and Smallcase with seven schemes spanning debt, equity, and gold ETFs.

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Sebi is looking at introducing a system where an investor can sell shares as soon as they are allotted in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to curb grey market activity, chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said on Tuesday.

The chief of the capital markets regulator also announced that the top two proxy advisory firms are on the verge of launching a portal which will be a repository of related party transactions and will be useful in judging the governance standards in a company for any stakeholder.

It can be noted that many IPOs in the recent past have seen very high subscriptions, and many of the issuances have also made huge listing-day gains which result in the grey market activity of passing on allotted shares.

Buch, an i-banker turned markets regulator, reminisced that during her banking days, this grey market activity used to be called “curb trading”.

“We feel that if anyway investors want to do that, why not give them that opportunity in a proper regulated way?” Buch said, addressing an Association of Investment Bankers of India (AIBI) event here.

“The idea is whatever is the grey market that is going on, pre-listing, we think that is not suitable. If you got an allotment and want to sell your right, sell it in the organised market,” she explained reporters later.

Buch said discussions are underway with two stock exchanges to put in place the “when listed” facility where shares can be traded during the three days between the allotment and listing.

“As soon as the allotment is over, the entitlement to that share gets crystallised. Then the person should have the right to sell that entitlement,” Buch said.

On the plans of proxy advisors to launch the Related Party Transactions (RPT) portal, the Sebi chief said the two major entities in the fray are on the verge of launching the facility.

It will be a valuable resource for anyone looking to judge the governance of a company and will be a step towards democratisation of information on RPTs, she said.

Buch said proxy firms play an important role in the market and attributed their success to the reliance on the subscriber pays model rather than issuer paying.

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