Month: March 2025

Railways stocks were soaring higher up to 5 per cent on Tuesday after Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) and Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd (IRFC) were lifted to the status of Navratna company. With the latest addition, as many as seven listed railway PSU companies have been elevated to ‘Navratna’ status as highlighted by the Union Railway Minister.

The central government considers CPSEs, which are Miniratna I, Schedule ‘A’ and have obtained ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ MOU rating in three of the last five years and having a composite score of 60 or above in six selected performance indicators, for the grant of Navratna status.

It has six parameters including net profit to net worth, manpower cost to total cost of production, cost of services, PBDIT to capital employed, PBIT to turnover, earning per share, inter sectoral performance. IRCTC and IRFC were the latest additions as announced on Monday. Interestingly, all seven listed companies of the Indian Railways are now upgraded to ‘navratna’ status.

Shares of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) jumped 4.85 per cent to Rs 339.25 on Tuesday, with its total market capitalization nearing Rs 71,000 mark. The stock had settled at Rs 323.55 in Monday’s trading session. IRCON International Ltd rallied 4.09 per cent to Rs 146.25 on Tuesday with its total valuations close to Rs 14,000 crore mark. The stock ended at Rs 140.50 on Monday.

IDBI Capital has a ‘sell’ rating on IRCON International with a target price of Rs 143. The brokerage believes that the company reported a muted Q3 performance, below estimates with weak operating performance. Antique Stock Broking has a ‘hold’ rating on IRCON with a target price of Rs 152. However, it has given a ‘sell’ tag for RVNL with a target price of Rs 215.

Shares of IRFC gained 3.69 per cent over its previous close at Rs 111.15 to Rs 115.25 on Tuesday. The company was valued above Rs 1.5 lakh crore. RailTel Corporation of India Ltd advanced 3.08 per cent to Rs 285.75 with a total valuation close to Rs 9,200 crore. Shares of RITES Ltd rose 2.65 per cent to Rs 203.70 with a total valuations close to Rs 9,800 crore. Shares of IRCTC and Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) inched up a per cent each in the early trade.

IDBI Capital has a ‘buy’ rating on IRCTC with a target price of Rs 870 after the company reported a strong set of performance in the December 2024 quarter, while Prabhudas Lilladher has a ‘hold’ tag on the stock with a target price of Rs 809. Antique has a ‘hold’ on RITES as well with a target price of Rs 243 apiece.

Concor is looking towards the Varnama terminal to post growth from 4QFY25F. The rise in rail freight cost/ TEUkm dented the Ebitda margin, said InCred Equities with an ‘add’ rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,133. Elara Capital downgraded the Concor to ‘accumulate’ from ‘buy’ with trimmed target price of Rs 839, given challenging macro outlook.

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Bitcoin’s price dropped by nearly 10 per cent on Monday, as growing trade tensions and uncertainty surrounding the establishment of a U.S. cryptocurrency reserve fund led investors to retreat from risk.

Initially, Bitcoin and other digital assets surged following U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks about creating a national cryptocurrency reserve. However, concerns over the feasibility of the plan soon triggered a sharp decline.

Late in the day, Bitcoin was down 9.47 percent at $85,321.69 each. The cryptocurrency market’s total valuation remains above a trillion dollars, with Bitcoin holding the largest share.

Ether, the second-largest digital asset, experienced a decline of over 15 per cent, while other major cryptocurrencies like XRP, Cardano, and Solana dropped nearly 20 per cent.

“Everything is getting sold. There’s a de-risking that’s unfolding among crypto investors,” said Forexlive manager Adam Button.

What’s the hype about Donald Trump’s crypto reserve?

Trump said that his executive order on digital assets, issued in January, would establish a reserve of various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano—names that had not been disclosed earlier.

He emphasized that Bitcoin and Ether would be central to this reserve. In a post on Sunday, his remarks led to a 20% surge in Bitcoin from its November lows. The cryptocurrency had been declining since mid-January amid concerns that Trump had not fulfilled his promises to ease regulations.

The downturn in crypto prices was influenced by Trump’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada, both of which have vowed to retaliate.

Cryptocurrency prices surged early Monday after Trump mentioned five digital assets the previous day as potential candidates for a national strategic reserve fund.

Button believes that fears surrounding the trade war are intensified by concerns over US economic growth, which many expect to slow in the first quarter.

Despite this, Trump’s pledge to establish a strategic reserve has sparked enthusiasm within the crypto industry, which has been struggling in recent weeks.

In February, Bitcoin dropped over 17 per cent, marking its steepest monthly decline since June 2022. Since reaching a peak of $105,000 in early January, it has lost more than a third of its value.

Bitcoin’s surge following Trump’s November election victory was driven by optimism that he would support a strategic Bitcoin fund and put an end to former President Joe Biden’s regulatory crackdown.

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The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has issued a demand of $2.81 billion to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and its consortium partners — BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited and NIKO (NECO) Limited — over a long-standing dispute concerning gas migration from ONGC’s blocks to the KG-D6 block, RIL said in an exchange filing on Tuesday. 

“…The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has raised a demand of $2.81 billion on the PSC Contractors namely Reliance Industries Limited, BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited and NIKO (NECO) Limited,” the filing stated. 

The claim is linked to a case dating back to 2018, when the government of India (GOI) accused the KG-D6 Consortium, which includes RIL, of being responsible for gas migration from ONGC’s adjacent blocks.  

Initially, the ministry sought approximately $1.55 billion in compensation for the alleged migration. The matter became more complex due to multiple legal proceedings, eventually reaching the Delhi High Court.   

In May 2023, a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed the Centre’s challenge against an arbitral award that had ruled in favour of Reliance Industries. However, after the government appealed to a division bench, the court overturned the previous decision in a judgment issued on March 3, 2025.   

Following this ruling, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has now increased its demand to $2.81 billion, citing the latest legal developments and a reassessment of the gas migration issue.

“The company is legally advised that the Division Bench judgment and this provisional demand are unsustainable. The company is taking steps to challenge the judgment of the Division Bench of Hon’ble Delhi High Court. The company does not expect any liability on this account,” RIL said in the exchange filing.

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US President Donald Trump on social media announced the names of five digital assets he expects to include in a new US strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies on Sunday, spiking the market value of each.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano . The names had not previously been announced.

More than an hour later, Trump added: “And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve.”

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, was up more than 11% at USD 94,164 Sunday afternoon. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up about 13% at $2,516.

The total cryptocurrency market has risen about 10%, or more than USD 300 billion, in the hours since Trump’s announcement, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and analysis company.

XRP is cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs’ token. Ripple backed a so-called super PAC to influence congressional elections in November in favor of the crypto industry, Reuters reported.

“This move signals a shift toward active participation in the crypto economy by the US government,” said Federico Brokate, head of US business at 21Shares, a digital assets investment management firm. “It has the potential to accelerate institutional adoption, provide greater regulatory clarity, and strengthen the US’s leadership in digital asset innovation.”

James Butterfill, head of research at asset manager CoinShares, said he was surprised to see digital assets other than bitcoin included in the reserve.

“Unlike bitcoin…these assets are more akin to tech investments,” Butterfill said. “The announcement suggests a more patriotic stance toward the broader crypto technology space, with little regard for the fundamental qualities of these assets.”

Trump won support from the crypto industry in his 2024 election bid, and he has quickly moved to back their policy priorities. He is hosting the first White House Crypto Summit on Friday, and his family has also launched its own coins.

Under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, regulators cracked down on the industry in a bid to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering.

Under Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn investigations into several crypto companies and dropped a lawsuit against Coinbase (COIN.O), opens new tab, the largest crypto exchange in the US.

But in recent weeks cryptocurrency prices are down sharply, with some of the biggest digital currencies erasing nearly all of the gains made after Trump’s election win triggered a wave of excitement across the industry.

Analysts say the market needs a reason to move higher, such as signs that the US Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates or a clear pro-crypto regulatory framework from the Trump administration.

Reuters has reported that Geoff Kendrick, an analyst at Standard Chartered, is targeting bitcoin to hit USD 500,000, against a record high of USD 109,071, before Trump leaves office.

Regulatory filings in the US showed that while hedge funds remain the dominant crypto buyers, banks and sovereign wealth funds are buying too.

Quarterly filings showed that asset managers boosted allocations to US ETFs tied to the price of spot bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Analysts and legal experts are divided on whether an act of Congress will be necessary to set up the reserve. Some have argued the reserve could be created via the US Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, which can be used to purchase or sell foreign currencies.

Trump’s crypto group had planned to look at potentially creating the stockpile with cryptocurrencies seized in law enforcement actions.

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A unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. risks being penalised after failing to set up a battery cell plant that formed part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to cut import dependence, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Reliance New Energy Ltd., among companies that won a bid for battery cell manufacturing in 2022 under an Indian government plan to reward local production, is liable to pay fines of as much as Rs 125 crore ($14.3 million) for missing a deadline, said the people who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Rajesh Exports Ltd., which also applied under this government initiative to make battery cells, is also on the hook for stalling the advanced-chemistry cell program and could be levied similar sized penalties, they said. 

The small monetary fines are a mere rap on the knuckle, especially for Asia’s richest person and his Reliance conglomerate. But the failure to reach state-directed manufacturing goals reflects the technological challenges and shifting market dynamics that can stymie Modi’s ‘Make in India’ vision to rival China as the world’s factory. 

Modi has sought to boost manufacturing to 25 per cent of gross domestic product but the share has slipped to 13 per cent in 2023 from 15 per cent in 2014.

Representatives for Reliance Industries, Rajesh Exports and India’s Heavy Industries Ministry, which overseas this initiative, didn’t respond to emails seeking comments. 

Patchy Success 

While subsidies to manufacturers under the so-called Production-Linked Incentives, or PLI, have worked well to boost local assembly of smartphones, the success hasn’t been uniform across sectors.  

Reliance New Energy, Rajesh Exports and the unit of Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. had won bids in 2022 to build the battery cell plants — part of the country’s push to reduce dependence on imports for electric vehicles — under the PLI program. 

Manufacturers were eligible for Rs 18,100 crore worth of subsidies on meeting milestones for the project that sought to create a cumulative 30 gigawatt-hour capacity of advanced chemistry cell battery storage.

The firms were required to achieve a minimum ‘committed capacity,’ along with local value addition of 25 per cent within two years of the agreement, and 50 per cent within five years, the people said. 

The third player in the mix, however, billionaire Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola Cell Technologies Pvt. has made progress on its commitments under this PLI program.  

The Ola unit started trial production in March last year and plans to start commercial production of lithium-ion cells in the April to June quarter, a spokesperson for Ola Electric said in an emailed response. “We are well on track to meet the set timelines,” he said.

‘Risky to Invest’ 

The Reliance unit, meanwhile, has turned its focus to green hydrogen, a fuel seen as key to a carbon-free future, as part of a shift in the company’s priorities, the people said. The companies are also yet to firm up the technology needed to manufacture lithium-ion cells locally. 

“It was quite risky to invest in cell manufacturing last year – too much uncertainty with a lot of global overcapacity and uncertain trade environment,” Jiayan Shi, a BloombergNEF analyst, said. 

Also, the capital investment needed for building lithium-ion battery plants is very high, ranging from $60 to $80 million per gigawatt-hour, she added.  

Moreover, global lithium-ion phosphate, or LFP, battery prices have been on the decline. This has made imports of cells cheaper than ever, creating uncertainty around domestic demand and slowing the pace of investments in India. 

Although Reliance New Energy did acquire sodium-ion cell maker Faradion in 2021 and Netherlands-based Lithium Werks, including its manufacturing facilities in China, in 2022, they represented small investments.

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