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SAN FRANCISCO: Tesla's reveal of a robotaxi designed as a low-slung, two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.CEO Elon Musk served up the cool design for the prototype of the Tesla robotaxi, dubbed Cybercab, at a much-hyped event near Los Angeles late on Thursday. These will go into production some time in 2026 and cost less than $30,000 a pop, he said.But in true Musk style, he skipped over expectations of how a two-seater robotaxi would serve the needs of families headed to a restaurant or to the airport, or if he expected these to appeal only to a niche clientele. Investors jeered the design and the lack of financial detail, with Tesla stocks tumbling 9% on Wall Street on Friday."When you think of a cab, you think of something that's going to carry more than two people," said Jonathan Elfalan, vehicle testing director for the automotive website Edmunds.com. "Making this a two-seat-only car is very perplexing."Tesla did not respond to an email seeking comment.Experts said robotaxis would best emulate regular taxis with plenty of room, a tall design and sliding doors. Musk did showcase a futuristic robovan that could seat up to 20 people but did not say when that would be available.The market for two-door robotaxis would be very limited, said Sandeep Rao, a senior researcher at Leverage Shares, an investment management company with assets of about $1 billion, including in Tesla.Two-door vehicles account for just 2% of car sales in the US, excluding SUVs and pickups, according to data from analytics firm J.D. Power.Musk said he wanted to make robotaxis cheaper than mass transit to operate and predicted an operating cost of 20 cents per mile over time for the Cybercab.But he did not say how quickly Tesla could mass-produce Cybercabs and secure regulatory approvals, or how it could beat Alphabet's Waymo, which already operates robotaxis in some US cities.

The primary market will see its biggest offering till date from Hyundai Motor India next week as the automaker is planning to raise over Rs 27,000 crore through its IPO.Apart from this, two other SME IPOs from Lakshya Powertech and Freshara Agro will also open for subscription next week. Further, the Street will also see three listings including Garuda Construction, which opened in the week gone by.The issue of Garuda received decent response from investors with an overall subscription of 7.55 times at close.The IPO pipeline for the second half looks promising with 26 companies proposing to raise Rs 72,000 crore are sitting on Sebi approval.Another 55 companies looking to raise about Rs 89,000 crore are awaiting the regulator's nod. According to Haldea of PRIME Database Group, unless there is a black swan event, it is likely to be a record breaking year for IPOs.Here's what to look forward to next week:Hyundai India IPOThe widely anticipated IPO from Hyundai India will open for subscription on October 15 and investors can bid till October 17. The listing of shares will take place on October 22.The company has fixed a price band of Rs 1865-1960 per share, where investors can bid for 7 shares in one lot.About 50% of the offer in the IPO is reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35% for retail investors and the rest 15% for non-institutional investors.This IPO will make Hyundai Motor India the first automaker to go public in two decades, following Maruti Suzuki's listing in 2003.Even though the entire proceeds from the IPO will go to the parent company, the management said funds will be used for research and development and new innovative offerings.Hyundai is the second largest carmaker in India with a portfolio of 13 passenger vehicle models across sedans, hatchbacks and SUVs. The company aims to leverage its strong local manufacturing capabilities to position itself as Hyundai Motor's largest production base in Asia.For the quarter ending June 2024, Hyundai Motor India reported a revenue of Rs 17,344 crore, marking a growth from Rs 16,624 crore in the same period last year. Of the total revenue, 76% was derived from the domestic market, while exports accounted for 24%.Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup Global, HSBC Securities, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are the book running lead managers to the issue, while KFin Technologies is the registrar to the offer.SME IPOsThe SME IPO of Lakshya Powetech will open for subscription on October 16 and close on October 18. The company plans to raise Rs 50 crore through the issue, which is priced in the range of Rs 171-180 per share.Investors can bid for 800 shares in one lot and in multiples thereafter.Lakshya Powertech started as an engineering consultancy firm specializing in mechanical and electrical services. The company expanded from freelance power generation consultancy into operations and maintenance (O&M) for gas-fired power plants and large power generation projects.Meanwhile, the Rs 75 crore IPO of Freshara Agro Exports will kick-off from October 17 and close on October 21. The company has fixed a price band of Rs 110-116 per share.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have been net sellers of Indian equities at Rs 58,711 crore in October so far, wiping out a substantial portion of the overall inflows in 2024 in just 8 sessions. The total investments by them now stand at Rs 41,899 crore versus Rs 1,00,245 crore at the end of September.In September, FPIs bought domestic equities worth Rs 57,724 crore while in August, they had purchased shares worth Rs 7,322 crore which was down month-on-month from July when the total buying figures stood at Rs 32,359 crore. In June, they were net buyers at Rs 26,565 crore after remaining net sellers in April and May when they sold equities worth Rs 8,671 crore and Rs 25,586 crore respectively. In February and March they were net buyers at Rs 1,539 crore and Rs 35,098 crore after starting the year on a negative note in January when they offloaded shares worth Rs 25,744 crore. On Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers at Rs 4,162.66 crore while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers at Rs 3,730.87 crore."The major trend in foreign portfolio flows in October, so far, has been the sustained selling by FPIs. FPIs have been following a strategy of ‘Sell India, Buy China’ after the Chinese authorities announced monetary and fiscal measures to stimulate the slowing Chinese economy. FPI money has been moving to Chinese stocks, which are cheap even now," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said. Hang Seng index (Chinese H stocks are listed in Hong Kong) is now trading at a PE of about 12 while Nifty is trading at a PE of 23 times estimated FY25 earnings, Vijayakumar said, hinting at the valuation difference in the two major Asian indices. He expects more money to move to Chinese stocks given the valuation differential being too big now and this may sustain the FPI selling for some more time, he opined.However he is of the view that India has much better growth prospects now compared to China and therefore, India deserved premium valuations.Chinese markets have been rising on the government stimulus and market experts have called it a temporary phenomenon arguing that structural problems in the Chinese economy were far deeper.While FPIs have been bearish on India in October, domestic institutional investors have held their ground. Vijayakumar sees this trend of FII selling and DII buying to likely continue in the near-term.Also Read: Hyundai IPO: Be mindful of these 7 risks ahead of issue opening on Tuesday(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Five labourers were killed after soil caved in on them at a construction site in Gujarat's Mehsana district on Saturday, police said. The incident occurred near Kadi town, around 37 km from the district headquarters. Several labourers were digging a pit for an underground tank for a factory at Jasalpur village when loose soil caved in and buried them alive, inspector Prahaladsinh Vaghela of Kadi police station said. "Five bodies have been recovered, and three to four other labourers are feared buried. A rescue operation is going on," he said.