Month: March 2025

JSW Steel Managing Director Sajjan Jindal claimed that Tesla boss Elon Musk will not be able to compete with Indian automakers. He dismissed the expectations of Musk disrupting the Indian market.

“Elon Musk is not here. He is in the US….we Indians are here. He cannot produce what Mahindra can do, what Tata can do—it’s not possible,” Jindal stated at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards programme.

He also appreciated Musk’s achievements and credited US President Donald Trump as well.

“He (Musk) can do under Trump’s shadow, in the US. He’s super smart, no question about it. He’s a maverick, doing spacecraft and all that. He’s done amazing work, so I don’t want to take anything from him. But to be successful in India is not an easy job,” Jindal said.

Social media users reacted

Following Jindal’s claim, several social media users have reacted to his statement. Most users have criticised his claim.

One of the users commented, “Good entertainment. How much these companies invest in R&D? One company I see still makes the three wheeler since my childhood day and I am already a confirmed social media until!”

Social media users reacted

Following Jindal’s claim, several social media users have reacted to his statement. Most users have criticised his claim.

One of the users commented, “Good entertainment. How much these companies invest in R&D? One company I see still makes the three wheeler since my childhood day and I am already a confirmed social media until!”

“Decade back, the same doubts were cast on @elonmusk by US industrialists, automakers, and even NASA—and all were proven wrong. You can’t defeat someone who relentlessly pursues their goals despite setbacks. Think twice before forming conclusions,” added another.

“He is right; Babus will not tolerate Musk’s tantrums,” one of the users commented.

“This guy will be proven wrong. That ego will be shattered. Wait and watch,” added one of the users.

Another concerned user, “Happy to hear this take. If we have better cars, why aren’t we able to sell them around the world like Tesla, BYD, Toyota? You can deny the facts and get claps. We should be ready to tackle Tesla in India.”

Some users also echoed Jindal’s sentiment.

One of the users said, “Tesla is exorbitantly expensive. He will be in competition with a different league. Mass Market will be different. A healthy competition will push up our capabilities also. Definitely, we support TATA and Mahindra. Tesla will be only a small market.”

“He could be right. If you think why, then just look into the past. Why General Motors, Ford closed their business in India. For car market Indian are more aligned with Asian cars like Japan or South Koria but not America or Europe (sic),” added one of the users.

Tesla in India

Jindal’s statement comes after Tesla signed a lease agreement for a showroom in Mumbai, according to a report by Reuters. The carmaker has secured a five-year lease starting from February 16, 2025. Tesla has also identified showroom locations in New Delhi and Mumbai. The development comes after Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the United States last year.

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Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the new chairman of the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has emphasised the need for transparency regarding conflicts of interest within SEBI’s board.

On Friday, March 7, speaking at Moneycontrol Global Wealth Summit 2025, Pandey announced that the regulator will soon introduce a plan to disclose any conflicts of interest within SEBI’s board to the public.

This would be in line with maintaining trust and transparency, which Pandey said is crucial to the stability and credibility of India’s capital markets.

While speaking at his first exclusive media address after becoming SEBI Chief, he acknowledged that a well-regulated market instills confidence among investors, which is vital for continued growth.

His remarks come at a significant time, as his predecessor, Madhabi Puri Buch, has been under legal scrutiny.

The Bombay High Court recently granted relief to Buch, SEBI Whole-Time Member Ashwani Bhatia, and BSE Chairman Pramod Agarwal, staying an Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) Court order that had directed the registration of an FIR against them.

The court noted that the ACB’s order was passed “mechanically, without going into details” and failed to attribute specific roles to the individuals involved.

This case stems from a complaint filed by journalist Sapan Srivastava. He alleged that BSE listed Cals Refineries in 1994 without ensuring compliance with SEBI’s listing regulations. The complaint claimed SEBI failed to act against BSE and Cals Refineries, leading to investor losses.

Engagement with Foreign Investors

Meanwhile, Pandey also addressed the role of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in India’s financial landscape.

In his remarks, Pandey has assured that the regulator would strive for greater engagement with Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to address their concerns.

While acknowledging that FPIs can be impacted by global events, he pointed out the role of domestic institutional investors in ensuring market stability.

He noted that these investors have filled the gap left by FPIs during times of uncertainty, and emphasised the need for both domestic and foreign capital to support sustainable growth.

SEBI, he said, is committed to engaging with FPIs to ease operations and ensure that foreign investment continues to play a significant role in India’s capital markets.

He further said that reforms do not need to be “big bang.”

He stressed that bold reforms could be achieved through both large and small steps, with SEBI focusing on the right mix to meet its objectives.

Pandey also highlighted that SEBI’s efforts over the last decade have been instrumental in helping Indian companies raise significant funds through the capital markets, averaging ₹2.3 trillion annually. He pointed to the increasing participation of domestic investors, particularly through mutual funds, which have seen investments grow by 2.5 times.

He stressed that SEBI would continue to focus on the four key pillars: Trust, Transparency, Teamwork, and Technology, as it works toward creating a more efficient and inclusive market, with a long-term vision for India’s growth.

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Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday rose for the third consecutive trading session, adding over Rs 1,00,000 crore to its market capitalisation (m-cap) in the process, as investors judged the recent correction as unjustified. A host of brokerages have come out with positive views and suggested targets in the range of Rs 1,400-1,600 for the most-valued stock on Dalal Street.

The RIL stock rose 3 per cent in Friday’s trade and over 7 per cent in three sessions to Rs 1,244.85 level. In the process, its m-cap jumped Rs 1,15,431.14 crore to Rs 16,87,487 crore from Rs 15,72,056 crore on March 4. Yet, the stock is down 16 per cent in the past one year.

Despite steady December quarter results, the RIL stock was hit amid weak market conditions, accentuated by trade war threats. Though the petchem cycle, particularly, can be impacted by the trade wars, it has been muted for quite some time now, Emkay Global said.

“With refined oil and petchem import duties broadly tracking within a reasonable 0-5 per cent and 5-10 per cent range, respectively, RIL’s own petroleum exports to the US not being more than 5 per cent (with further trans-shipments) and 1.5mmtpa of ethane imports from the US by RIL, US tariff risk for the company’s O2C business is low,” Emkay Global.

Kotak Institutional Equities said the RIL stock has significantly corrected — 22 per cent in 12 months, mainly due to weak performance at Retail. It expects store-rationalization cycle to end soon.

“News flows on telecom business IPO timelines (and likely another tariff hike before that) can be a catalyst. Upgrade to BUY from ADD with an FV of Rs1,400 (Rs 1,435 earlier),” it said.

Jefferies retained its ‘Buy’ on RIL and fixed a target price of Rs 1,600. “RIL’s underperformance to Nifty is due to a slowdown in Retail and subdued earnings in O2C and pessimism seems extreme with current marketcap implying $ 48 billion EV for Retail versus $ 106 billion in the last funding round,” it said.

Emkay Global noted that FY25 has been slow (2 per cent expected Ebitda growth), impacted by O2C declining 10-15 per cent, Retail slowing to under 10 per cent from 25-30 per cent in FY24, and upstream normalizing from the sharp ramp-ups in earlier years.

“We hence take a conservative view on businesses carrying some uncertainty, namely Jio and Upstream, along with adjustments in the ‘below Ebitda’ line items, we cut RIL’s FY25-27 EPS by 6-13 per cent. Retail is however now set to retrace its double-digit growth trajectory in our view. Mar-26E target is down 8 per cent to Rs 1,450,” it said.

Emkay said despite its conservative assumptions, RIL may see still se 10 per cent APAT CAGR during FY25-27E, with upside risks in O2C as well as Jio.

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Brokerage firm JPMorgan retailed its “overweight” rating on state-run Nifty 50 constituent Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) on Friday, March 7.

JPMorgan has a price target of ₹343 on Bharat Electronics, which implies a potential upside of 26% from current levels. The price target also implies that BEL has the potential to retest its recent peak of ₹340 from where it has corrected.

The brokerage wrote in its note that a 20% correction from the peak, presents a good entry opportunity in the Navratna PSU due to the structural growth in defence capex in India. BEL is the most diversified and consistent play on this theme, according to JPMorgan.

BEL’s revenue, Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) and Profit After Tax (PAT), is likely to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15%, 17% and 16% respectively along with an average Return on Equity (RoE) of over 25% over financial year 2024-2027, according to JPMorgan, who called these estimates “compelling.”

The stock is also now trading at a financial year 2026 and 2027 price-to-earnings multiple of 36 times and 31 times respectively, which is down from the peak one-year forward price-to-earnings multiple of 52 times.

Bharat Electronics on Thursday announced new orders worth ₹577 crore, taking the total order inflow for financial year 2025 to over ₹13,000 crore. However, the figure is still well below the company’s guidance for financial year 2025 of ₹25,000 crore.

JPMorgan though believes that there is a high possibility of the company announcing order wins worth over ₹12,000 crore by March 31, which is just three weeks from now, and that, according to the brokerage, will act as a near-term catalyst for the stock price.

Out of the 26 analysts that have coverage on Bharat Electronics, 23 of them have a “buy” rating on the stock, one has a “hold” rating, while two others have a “sell” recommendation.

Shares of Bharat Electronics ended 0.9% lower on Thursday at ₹272.5. The stock has declined 8% so far in 2025.

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Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) surged as much as 1.9% to ₹1,198 apiece on the NSE in the opening deals on Thursday, March 6, after Jefferies, the global investment bank and financial services company, released its report on the oil-to-telecom conglomerate.

Jefferies said that RIL’s underperformance compared to the benchmark NIFTY50 index is due to a slowdown in retail and subdued earnings in the O2C business.

In the past 12 months, RIL’s stock price has fallen 21% while the NSE’s NIFTY50 index has slipped less than 1%. Moreover, shares of the company (as of Wednesday’s close) are trading 37% lower from its all-time high level of ₹1,608.80, touched on July 8, 2024.

According to a report by The Economic Times that was published in August 2024, as many as 12 listed lifestyle, grocery retailers, and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) cut their workforce by around 26,000, reversing the hiring surge of the previous two financial years as they slowed down store expansion in response to declining demand.

According to their annual reports, this reduction was primarily driven by five major retailers—Reliance Industries’ retail division, Titan, Raymond, Page, and Spencers—which collectively saw their workforce shrink by 17% or 52,000 employees. This figure includes both permanent and contractual staff and accounts for attrition in the retail sector, the second largest employer after agriculture. The total workforce for these retailers dropped to 429,000 in FY24 from 455,000 the previous year.

Jefferies added that pessimism around RIL seems extreme, with the current market capitalisation implying a $48 billion enterprise value for retail vs. $106 billion in the last funding round, as per news reports.

Jefferies further said that the combination of same-store sales growth (SSG) and area addition should restore 15% growth in retail in FY26.

It further said that a tariff hike, listing of Jio, and improvement in O2C profitability are other potential triggers for the stock.

RIL Q3 FY25 Results

RIL reported a 7.4% rise in its December quarter (Q3 FY25) net profit as the retail business rebounded, telecom earnings surged on higher tariffs, and the mainstay oil and petrochemicals business delivered consistent performance.

Its consolidated net profit came in at ₹18,540 crore, or ₹13.70 per share, in October-December—the third quarter of the April 2024 to March 2025 fiscal (FY25)—compared to ₹17,265 crore, or ₹12.76 a share, logged in the same period a year back, according to a company statement.

Profit was also up sequentially from ₹16,563 crore in the July-September quarter.

The profit before tax (EBITDA) rose 7.8% to ₹48,003 crore. This was despite an almost 7% rise in finance cost due to higher debt (₹3.5 lakh crore as of December 31, 2024, compared to ₹3.36 lakh crore in September and ₹3.11 lakh crore in December 2023).

The oil-to-chemical business, which houses the company’s twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat and petrochemical plants, saw EBITDA rise 2.4% to ₹14,402 crore.

The refineries processed more crude, and petchem margins improved.

In the fuel retail business, Jio-bp—its joint venture with BP of the UK—posted “the highest ever quarterly sales across both petrol and diesel,” the statement said.

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