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XLV 70, 24 PAGES, `12.00 P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 81,332.75 ▲ 1,292.95 NIFTY: 24,834.85 ▲ 428.75 NIKKEI 225: 37,667.41 ▼ 202.10 HANG SENG: 17,021.31 ▲ 16.34 `/$: 83.73 ▼ 0.02 `/€: 90.88 ▼ 0.04 BRENT: $81.51 ▼ $0.86 GOLD: `67,884 ▼ `100 IN THE NEWS iPhone prices cut Markets recoup losses by up to `6,000 LONGEST WINNING STREAK FOR NIFTY SINCE JAN 2018 $30-TRN ECONOMY BY 2047: PM TO SEEK Benchmark equities log FRIDAY CHEER AT DALAL STREET Sensex CENTRE-STATE TIES eighth week of gains PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI will chair NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting on Saturday to prepare a road map in consultation with state governments to make the country a developed nation with a $30-trillion economy by 2047, reports Prasanta Sahu. ■ PAGE 2 NCLT’S STRENGTH MAY BE DOUBLED TO FAST-TRACK CASES THE GOVERNMENT IS planning to “double the strength” of National Company Law Tribunal by adding more benches and members, as it aims to fast-track cases under the insolvency resolution process, official sources told FE, reports Priyansh Verma. ■ PAGE 2 SEBI BARS MALLYA FROM SECURITIES MARKET FOR 3 YRS 80,039.8 1,292.92 points Close: July 25 VIVEK KUMAR M Mumbai, July 26 Open EQUITY BENCHMARKS SHRUGGED off the capital gains tax hike in the Budget and rebounded on Friday on the back of strong inflows from domestic investors. The benchmark Nifty and Sensex added 1.24% and 0.9%, respectively, for the week, posting their eighth week of gains. This is the longest winning streak for the 50-stock Nifty since January 2018. On Friday,while the Nifty rose 1.8% to record high of 24,834.85 points, the Sensex also ended 1.6% higher at 81,332.72 points.The benchmarks had logged losses for the last five sessions,weighed down by weaker-than-expected results. The broader market, too, gave positive returns this week after seeing losses in the previous two weeks.The BSE Midcap and BSESmallcapindicesrose3.1%and3.5%, respectively,thisweek,outperforming the benchmark indices. “Basically, the fund flow is high.This is offsetting the impact of negative triggers 81,332 1.62% 80,158.5 Close: July 26 24,834 Close: July 26 428.75 points Nifty 24,423.35 1.76% BSE Midcap Intra-day, July 26 48,000 47,600 46,879.97 2.12 % 47,200 Open 46,800 24,406.1 .1 46,400 Close: July 25 ly so far. On top of this, there are also a lot of buyerswaitingfordips,”saidDeepakJasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities. The gains this week have come despite foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) selling shares worth $535 million (`4,708 crore) in the four days since the Budget. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have bought shares worth`9,762 crore, 47,706.67 Previous close 46,715.8 Open Close including the provisional data for Friday. IntheFY25Budget,bothlong-termand short-term capital gains tax were raised on equityinvestments—amovethatcameasa surprise for the market.However,investors dismissed the concerns quickly, similar to the trend seen post-election results. Continued on Page 6 ● INDIAAT PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS PHOTOS: ANI CAPITAL MARKETS REGULATOR Sebi on Friday barred fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya from trading in the securities market and from associating with any listed company for three years, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 7 SURPASSING THE ALL-TIME high level achieved the previous week, India's forex reserves jumped by another $4 billion to $670.857 billion for the seven days ended July 19, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 7 RISING CHINESE STEEL imports are impacting the margins of the domestic players, JSW Steel chairman Sajjan Jindal said on Friday, reports PTI. Jindal said several countries have already raised barriers against steel imports. ■ PAGE 10 FE S P E C I A L S Citroën Basalt and Tata Curvv: SUVs have a new shape SUV coupé is a new body style that carmakers are experimenting with. ■ MOTOBAHN, P9 Need to rejig your investment strategy Annual harvesting of gains to help build a larger corpus ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P9 `300 to `6,000 JATIN GROVER New Delhi, July 26 WITHIN DAYS OF the Budget reducing import duty on mobile phones and printed circuit board (PCBs),Apple has reduced prices of iPhones by up to 5%.While the price cut is higher – in the range of `5,000-6,000 – for fully-imported models like iPhone Pro and Pro Max, it's much lower for the made-inIndia devices at `400-500. For locally-manuINSIDE factured models, the reduction is lower iPhone drops because the relief is on from China account of a 5% duty cut on PCBs, which are top five imported and assem■ PAGE 3 bledinthephoneshere. So, iPhone 15 Pro model,whichwas earlierpriced at `134,900, will nowbe available for`129,800.Similarly, the iPhone 15 Pro Max model,whichwas earlier priced at `159,000 will now be available at`154,000.iPhoneSE'spricehascomedown to `47,600 from `49,900.The price of other made-in-India models has dropped by `300. Such a price cut byApple is rare because it usuallydiscontinues the olderPromodels following the launch of new ones.Interestingly, the price cut has been made on the existing stock, which were imported earlier at the higher duty of 20%. Reduction in pricing by Apple is in line with analysts’estimates. While the government’s move to reduce the import duty on PCBs is seen as a positive for local manufacturing of smartphones, across models models to be cheaper by `6,000; iPhone SE will now cost `2,300 less Made-in-India iPhones — 13, 14 and 15 — cheaper by `300 ■ This change follows the duty cut on mobile phones from 20% to 15% in the Budget ■ Traditionally, Apple discontinues older Pro models following the launch ofnew ones Apple would be the major beneficiary of the duty cut on finished products,industry executives said. Therefore, it was also important for Apple to pass on the benefits to end consumers,they added. On Tuesday, the basic customs duty on mobile phones, mobile PCBs and mobile chargerwas cut to 15% from 20%.Currently, 99% of the phones are made in India. Continued on Page 6 Ola Electric IPO likely to open on August 2 FOREX RESERVES JUMP TO ALL-TIME HIGH OF $671 BN RISING CHINA STEEL IMPORTS HURTING INDUSTRY: JINDAL Apple reduces Pro, Pro Max DUTY CUT IMPACT ■ Price cuts are prices for the first time ■ Pro or Pro Max in the range of NARAYANAN V Chennai, July 26 Indian contingent’s flag-bearer PV Sindhu (left) takes part in the Athletes' Parade, in Paris on Friday; Chef De Mission Gagan Narang (flanked by two athletes) at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony ■ REPORT ON PAGE 24 Untied capex loans to states may be hiked to `75,000 cr PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, July 26 THE CENTREWILL likelyenhance the untied 50-yearinterest-free capex loans forstates to `75,000 crore from `55,000 crore for FY25, partlyheedingthepleaofthestatesforhigher unconditional transfers to expedite utilisation of funds for projects,sources said. In the Budget,the capex loan outlayswere enhaced by `20,000 crore to `1.5 trillion compared with `1.3 trillion in the interim Budget even as the Centre kept its overall capex target unchanged at `11.11 trillion. IntheinterimBudget,thegovernmenthad allocated `75,000 crore for states’ initiating reforms covering all factors of production. On June 22, states including Odisha, ChhattisgarhandWestBengaldemandedthat the capex loans amount should be enhanced from `55,000 crore to `1 trillion in order to expeditebetterutilisationoffundsandtimely achievement of project milestones. Such untied capex loans were earmarked at `1 trillion in FY24 while reform/projecttied loans were pegged at `30,000 crore. Continued on Page 6 RESULTS CORNER IndiGo profit falls 12% on higher fuel costs HIGHER FUEL COSTS dragged IndiGo's profit down 11.7% y-o-y to `2,729 crore in Q1, reports fe Bureau. Fuel expenses rose 22.7% to `6,416.5 crore. ■ PAGE 4 Bandhan Bank PAT up 47%, beats estimate BANDHAN BANK REPORTED a 47% y-o-y rise in profit to `1,063 crore Q1, higher than a Bloomberg consensus estimate of `784 crore, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 7 ON THE ROAD `5,500 crore OLAELECTRIC’SMUCH-ANTICIPATEDinitial publicoffering(IPO)isexpectedtoopenforpublic subscription on August 2,with the listing likely on August 9,sources aware of the developmenttoldFE.Thesubscriptionfortheanchor investorportion is set to open onAugust 1. Thelistingwillmarkthefirstpublicissueby an electric vehicle (EV) startup in the country and is set to be one of the largest new-age public offerings in 2024. The Bengaluru-based company filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in December 2023.According to its draft prospectus, the company aims to raise up to `5,500 crore through a fresh issue of shares,while existing shareholders will sell 95.2 million shares through an offer-for-sale (OFS) route. OlaElectricpromoterBhavishAggarwalwill offload47.4millionsharesandpromotergroup IndusTrustwill sell 4.18 million sharesvia the OFS.Thefirm’sinvestors,includingAlphaWave, Alpine, DIG Investment and Matrix Partners, will also be selling 41.53 million shares via the OFS as perthe draft filingwith the regulator. The company has kept the option to raise `1,100 crore via a pre-IPO placement,and the fresh issuesizewill reduce correspondingly. The SoftBank-backed entity Ola Electric is targeting avaluation of around $4.5 billion for its IPO.This is approximately 16-20% lower than its valuation in the last funding round, Reuters had reported earlierthisweek. Likelyvaluation for the IPO, 16%-20% lower than last funding round $4.5 billion target amount to be raisedvia a fresh issue ofshares ■ The likely Aug 9 listing to mark the first public issue by an EV startup in India ■ The IPO is set to be one ofthe largest new-age public offerings in 2024 Promoter Bhavish Aggarwal to offload ■ 47.4 million shares via OFS Ola Electric stated it will use over `1,200 crore of the net offer proceeds for its gigafactory's capacityexpansion,`800 crore fordebt repayment, `1,600 crore for research and development, and `350 crore for organic growth initiatives. KotakMahindraCapital,AxisCapital,GoldmanSachs,ICICISecurities,Citi,BofASecurities, SBICapsandBoBCapsaretheinvestmentbanks workingonthedeal.LawfirmCyrilAmarchand Mangaldas is the companycounsel. Ola Electric did not respond to FE’s email queryat the time of going to the press. SEARCHGPT TO ALSO TAKE ON MICROSOFT'S BING, EMERGING SERVICES LIKE PERPLEXITY OpenAI enters Google-dominated search market YUVRAJ MALIK July 26 OPENAI IS VENTURING into a territory long dominated by Google with the selective launch of SearchGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered search engine with real-time access to information from the internet. The move,announced on Thursday, also places the AI giant in competition with its largest backer Microsoft's Bing search and emerging services such as Perplexity — a search-focused AI chatbot firm backedbyAmazonfounderJeffBezos and semiconductorgiant Nvidia. Shares of Google’s parent Alphabet ended 3% lower on Thursday afterOpenAI’s announcement. CLASH OF THE TECH TITANS ■ Perplexity, a search-focused AI chatbot firm, is backed by Jeff Bezos and semiconductor giant Nvidia ■ OpenAI has opened sign-ups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototype stage With 91.1% share as of June, Google dominates the search engine market OpenAI said it has opened signups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototype stage and is being tested with a small group of users and publishers.The company plans to integrate the best features from the search tool into ChatGPT in the future. “AI-powered search tools from OpenAI and Perplexity re-affirm ■ The new tool is being tested with a small group of users and publishers ■ Plans to integrate the best features from the search tool into ChatGPT in the future ■ Publishers to get access to tools for managing how their content appears in SearchGPT results search as a content engagement modelbutpressureGoogletobebetter at its own game,” Canaccord GenuityanalystKingsleyCranesaid. Google dominates the search engine market with a 91.1% share as of June,according to web analytics firm Statcounter. SearchGPTwill provide summarizedsearchresultswithsourcelinks in response to user queries,OpenAI said in a blog post.Users will also be able to ask follow-up questions and receive contextual responses. The company will give publishers access to tools for managing how their content appears in SearchGPT results. News Corp and TheAtlanticarepublishingpartners for SearchGPT. SearchGPT signals a closer collaboration between publishers and OpenAI, following content licensing agreements with major organisations like Associated Press, News Corp and Axel Springer. “Newer AI-powered search providers could face challenges of their own, with Perplexity already facing pending legal action from publishers like Wired and Forbes, and Condé Nast,”said Crane. Major search engines have been trying to integrate AI into search since ChatGPT first launched in November2022.Microsoft,through itsearlyinvestment,adoptedOpenAI technologyforitsBingsearchengine, while Google rolled out AI-powered summaries forthewiderpublic at its developerconference in May. Google did not respond to a Reuters query on the potential impactofSearchGPTonitsbusiness. Reuters had earlier reported on OpenAI's plans around AI search in May. — REUTERS CHENNAI