Battle for 5G spectrum auction heats up

In what could be straight out of a ‘Stranger Things’ episode, an unusual red glow over the Atlantic Ocean set cyberspace abuzz. Thankfully, Indian markets did not play ‘matchy-matchy’ and closed in the green. Markets reversed early losses to close higher, snapping a two-day losing streak. In all, 46 of the Nifty50 stocks closed in the green. Investors await the outcome of the US Fed meeting scheduled later in the day. All of the Nifty sectoral indices closed in the green with Pharma (+2.3%) and Media (+2.1%) seeing maximum gains.

NIFTY50

16,641 ▲ 157 (+0.9%)

SENSEX

55,268 ▲ 547 (+0.9%)

What's up ▲

STOCK TODAY'S CHANGE Sun Pharma 895 ▲ 27 (+3.1%) SBI 528 ▲ 14 (+2.7%) Divi's Lab 3,784 ▲ 97 (+2.6%)

What's down ▼

STOCK TODAY'S CHANGE Bharti Airtel 675 ▼ 9.1 (-1.3%) Bajaj Auto 3,882 ▼ 42 (-1.0%) HDFC Life 520 ▼ 1.7 (-0.3%)

What’s trending?

Piramal’s NBFC plan on track  PEL (NSE): 1,804 ▲ 41 (+2.3%)   The diversified conglomerate said it has received a nod from the Reserve Bank of India to launch a non-banking finance company (NBFC). It added that the NBFC won’t be accepting deposits. This comes after the company acquired the bankrupt Dewan Housing Finance Corporation in September last year.

Inflation bites Colgate-Palmolive’s profits  COLPAL (NSE): 1,571 ▲ 37 (+2.4%)   The consumer products company’s net profit dropped 7% year-on-year to ₹216 crore (excluding the impact of exceptional items) in the June quarter. The management said that the current quarter results were impacted by an overall rural slowdown and inflationary pressures. However, the company’s net sales grew 2.5% YoY to ₹1,186 crore.

Cash registers ringin’ at Shoppers Stop  SHOPERSTOP (NSE): 584 ▲ 42 (+7.8%)   Shares of Shoppers Stop surged on Wednesday, as the company reported healthy Q1 numbers. The retail firm posted a net profit of ₹23 crore in Q1 FY23, against a loss of ₹137 crore in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, revenues rose 383% year-on-year to ₹1,190 crore in Q1 on the back of easing Covid-related restrictions.

IMF lowers India’s growth forecast    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut India’s growth outlook for FY23 to 7.4%. In April, the IMF had pegged India’s growth at 8.2%, down from its earlier projection of 9%. This comes even as the Indian central bank has been hiking interest rates to combat inflation.

Microsoft, Google fail to impress    Tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet (Google) failed to impress investors after both missed street estimates. Microsoft reported a profit of $16.7 billion, up a meagre 2%. Production shutdowns in China and a slow PC market in June led to a negative impact. Meanwhile, Google’s parent Alphabet’s net income fell 13% YoY to $16 billion. Google blamed the slow growth in online ads for the poor show. The growth in online advertising had been hit by inflation, geo-political tensions and macroeconomic factors.

In focus

Game of (5G) Thrones   The 5G spectrum auctions have begun and bids have been pouring in. Although bids have already come in for a bulk of the critical airwaves, the tussle for spectrum continues. Dial in for more. But first, what is spectrum? Spectrum refers to the invisible radio frequencies that wireless signals travel over. These signals are what enable us to make calls and transmit data. The spectrum auction is a process used by the government to sell the rights to use the frequency to transmit signals. The government has put up 72Ghz of spectrum for auction at a base price of ₹4.3 lakh crore. Telcos have bid a record ₹1.45 lakh crore for this spectrum on Day 1 itself! Reliance Industries’ (+0.02%) telecom arm Jio is reportedly the front runner, and is expected to spend over ₹70,000 crore during the auction. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel (-1.33%) is expected to spend ₹45,000-50,000 crore. Reports suggest that bids were placed at the base price, due to the abundance of spectrum.  But when would you, the aam aadmi, be able to use 5G on your device? According to the telecom minister, the allocation of spectrum will be completed in August, and 5G is likely to be available in major cities by the year-end.  ICYDK, the 5G technology is up to 10x faster than 4G and is also expected to be 10-15% costlier.