Business News

The stock of Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services, which offers SaaS based employee spend management services to corporates, has gained 28% over the past month and51% over the past three months. The company has undertaken acquisitions and partnerships over the past few months, which are likely to boost future growth potential. Analysts have raised the EPS target by 5-8% over the next two years. The stock gained 2.3% on Thursday notwithstanding the weakness in the broader market, which pulled the benchmark indices down by 2%.Incorporated in 2011, Zaggle offers solutions related to the management of business spends, rewards and incentives management for employees and channel partners, and customer engagement including gift card management. Its client base is spread across various sectors including banking, finance, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, consumer, and automobiles. Zaggle offers customisable platform depending on the client needs, which has kept the client retention rate high.113911811In September 2023, Zaggle had launched an IPO to raise Rs 563crore as a combination of Rs 392 crore in fresh issue and Rs 171 crore in offer for sale at a price of Rs 164 per share. The stock has given stellar return since then, trading above Rs 440 at present.A surge in Zaggle’s stock price over the past few months can be attributed to the improved growth potential owing to deal wins, partnerships, and stake purchases in other companies. It recently became a majority stake holder in Span Across IT Solutions, which provides tax filing solutions under the brand TaxSpanner. This would enable Zaggle to extend TDS/GST tax processing and payment services to corporates.Apart from this, a strategic alliance with Founderlink Technologies will help Zaggle to facilitate business loans to corporates, their vendors and channel partners through an online debt market place called Recur Club. It has also picked up a 26% stake in Mobileware Technologies, which offers UPI based services to banks.“We believe these associations will help Zaggle enhance product offerings and thus provide more comprehensive solutions while generating fee income streams,” noted Equirus Securities in a report.Zaggle reported a robust performance in the June 2024 quarter led by an increase in transaction volume and customer addition. Revenue grew by 113% year-on-year to Rs 252.2 crore while net profit jumped to Rs 16.7 crore from Rs 2 crore in the year-ago quarter. The operating margin before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA margin) expanded by 220 basis points to 8.9%.Given the recent developments, Equirus has raised EBITDA margin estimates for FY26 and FY27 by 40-70 basis points and net profit estimates by 4.5-8.5%. It has set a target price of Rs 595 valuing the stock at 46 times FY27 expected earnings.

The markets experienced their steepest single-day drop in months, as the bears took full command from the opening bell and drove the indices sharply lower throughout the session. This marked the most significant sell-off since mid-July 2024, with bearish momentum showing no signs of relenting and dominating the trading landscape all day long.A bearish candle was formed, signalling continued weakness. The current trend indicates a "sell on rise" strategy, with fresh buying suggested only if the index moves above the 26,000 zone. Immediate support is seen at 25,000, followed by 24,750, while 25,500 is expected to act as the immediate resistance. Traders should closely monitor these key levels, as a break below support could trigger further downside, while resistance at 25,500 may cap any short-term recovery attempts, said Hardik Matalia of Choice Broking.In the open interest (OI) data, the highest OI on the call side was observed at 25,250 and 25,300 strike prices, while on the put side, the highest OI was at 25,250 strike price followed by 25,200.What should traders do? Here’s what analysts said:Jatin Gedia, SharekhanOn the daily charts we can observe that the Nifty has closed below the key 20-day moving average (25,508) which is a sign of weakness. The daily momentum indicator has a negative crossover, which is a sell signal. Thus, both price and momentum indicators suggest that the weakness is likely to continue. The initial target of 25,500 has been achieved on Thursday and hence we revise it downwards to 24,800. On the upside 25,600 – 25,550 is the immediate hurdle from short-term perspective.Rupak De, LKP SecuritiesThe Nifty has experienced a sharp correction, breaking below the support of a rising trendline on the daily timeframe, signalling a potential bearish trend reversal. Additionally, the index has slipped below the 20-day moving average (20DMA), intensifying concerns. The daily RSI has also broken below its rising trendline, further suggesting the possibility of continued downside. Immediate support is located at 25,070, and a breach of this level could see the index decline towards 24,800. On the upside, resistance is positioned in the 25,500–25,550 zone.Tejas Shah, JM Financial & BlinkXTechnically, the evidence continues to suggest that the markets are likely to remain under pressure in the near term. However, with a large waterfall decline in the last few days some studies have turned slightly oversold on short- term charts and hence it could trigger a minor pullback rally from the support levels. Supports for Nifty are now seen at 25,200-225 and 25,000-050. On the higher side, the immediate resistance zone is at 25,475-500 levels and the next resistance zone is at 25,650-700 levels.Praveen Dwarakanath, Hedged.inNifty is closing below its support of 25,300, indicating a downside in the index from the present levels. A dead cat bounce can be expected from either at the present levels or at 25,000 levels, which is likely to be short-lived. The closing at the present levels or even below 25,500 levels on Friday can trigger further room on the downside till 24,800 levels. All momentum indicators are pointing towards the downside, indicating weakness in the index. Options writer's data showed increased call writing in the present month's expiry above 25,500 levels, indicating a weakness in the index to continue below the 25,500 levels.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Economic growth has been markedly stronger during Joe Biden’s presidency than it was during Donald Trump’s, with real gross domestic product increasing at a 3.1% annualized pace since Biden’s first quarter in office compared with 2.1% under Trump. This is a simple, indisputable fact, albeit one subject to change as the US Bureau of Economic Analysis revises (and revises and revises again) the numbers in its National Income and Product Accounts.As I noted a few days ago, this growth comparison is of course skewed by the arrival of Covid-19 in the final year of Trump’s presidency. The pandemic was a very big, bad exogenous event that weighed on Trump’s GDP numbers, and the recovery from it boosted GDP growth early in Biden’s term. One way to adjust for this is simply to measure economic growth over periods that exclude all or some of the impact of the pandemic, as in the chart below (which also includes the alternative measure gross domestic income, which some economists argue captures the timing of economic changes better than GDP).113906429After publishing this, I heard from several readers who thought I should also adjust for the amount of stimulus the economy got from fiscal or monetary policy or both under the two presidents. The clear implication of all these suggestions was that growth under Biden has been a stimulus-driven mirage, but it seemed like a worthwhile exercise to undertake in any case. I was able to calculate one set of GDP growth numbers adjusted for fiscal policy that should be taken with many grains of salt, but have opted mainly just to show the data on recent US fiscal and monetary policy so readers can make their own judgments.My own conclusion after a flurry of chart-making is that during Trump’s presidency, the US economy received much more of a boost from fiscal and monetary policy than it has so far under Biden. Again, much of that was to counteract the fierce headwind of the pandemic. Compare the pre-pandemic Trump years with recent trends under Biden and the picture is more mixed, but no matter how you look at it, Biden hasn’t received a substantially greater boost from fiscal and monetary policy than Trump did.Let’s start with fiscal policy. These are quarterly federal deficits, measured by the BEA as net federal government saving (there’s a deficit if it’s negative and a surplus if it’s positive). This metric does not track perfectly with the deficit/surplus numbers published by the White House Office of Management and Budget and Congressional Budget Office, but it usually comes pretty close and is available on a more frequent and timely basis.113906452Such statistics are available back to 1947, but I’ve started the chart in 2000 to make it easier to see what’s happened to fiscal policy under Biden and Trump while still providing some context for comparison. The average deficit was higher under Trump than it has been so far under Biden (7.7% of GDP compared with 6.3%), but the deficits just before the pandemic under Trump were smaller than those under Biden now (4.6% compared with 6.1%).Still, it is not so much size of deficit as the change in it that boosts or slows growth. It’s apparent from the above chart that the deficit was much bigger when Trump left office than when he entered, while the opposite has been true for Biden. This dynamic is captured quarterly, along with changes in the fiscal position of state and local governments, in the fiscal impact measure maintained by the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the center-left Brookings Institution. According to it, the US economy has been contending with fiscal drag for most of Biden’s presidency while under Trump it was mostly, even before the pandemic, getting a fiscal boost.113906471Because the Hutchins Center numbers are presented as contributions to GDP growth, it is possible to use them to calculate a hypothetical GDP trajectory in the absence of fiscal support or drag. Whether that’s advisable is another matter, as the relationship between fiscal policy and growth is clearly far more complex than the quarterly fiscal impact numbers reflect. But just for the sake of argument, here are the numbers: With the adjustments, real GDP shrank at a 4.6% annualized pace under Trump and has grown at a 9.2% annualized pace under Biden. Cut things short at the end of 2019 and annualized growth was 1.8% under Trump; start counting with the first quarter of 2022 and it’s been 6.1% under Biden. Again, I don’t think anyone should take these numbers very seriously — which is why I’m not putting them in a chart — but they certainly do give the sense that Biden’s GDP growth edge isn’t all about fiscal profligacy.What about monetary policy? One way to measure its accommodativeness is to look at real interest rates, which for this chart I calculated by subtracting the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy, from the effective federal funds rate.113906504Starting in 2008, the real federal funds rate was negative for a decade as the Fed tried to stimulate an economy that was pummeled by the Great Recession and remained quite weak for years afterward. That finally changed right after Trump took office, with monetary policy slowly tightening until the pandemic brought a new wave of rate cuts. Real interest rates continued to fall after Biden moved into the White House — not because the Fed was cutting rates but because inflation was picking up — followed by a sharp increase starting early in 2022. The average real interest rate was a bit higher (that is, less negative) during Trump’s time in office than Biden’s, but the direction has been much different, with real rates ending up about where they started under Trump and rising sharply under Biden.During the financial crisis in 2008, the Fed also embarked on an asset-buying spree under the name of quantitative easing that it continued for most of Barack Obama’s presidency, then returned to with a vengeance as Covid-19 arrived. Trump’s term featured a modest effort at quantitative tightening followed by that massive easing at the start of the pandemic. Quantitative easing continued at a slower pace during Biden’s first year in office, but it’s been all tightening since, with the Fed holding 17% less in inflation-adjusted total assets than when he took office (without the inflation adjustment, total assets are 4% lower).113906532Monetary policy famously operates with long and variable lags, so much of the stimulus from the 2020 rate cuts and quantitative easing was probably felt in 2021 and later. For that and other reasons, you can certainly interpret these charts differently from the way I have. What I don’t think anyone can credibly argue, though, is that the economy has benefited from vastly more fiscal and monetary stimulus under Biden than under Trump.The US government is running deficits that are much larger, as a share of GDP, than ever before except at times of war or other great crises, and that seems unsustainable. But for now at least, the US economy has begun to extricate itself from a long period of exceptionally and probably unsustainably loose monetary policy, which is something.Does all this mean Biden has been better for the economy than Trump? Not necessarily! For one thing, if you choose the method of correcting for the pandemic shown in the first chart above, GDP growth under Biden since the beginning of 2022 has been slightly slower than GDP growth under Trump through the end of 2019. For another, ascribing GDP growth to presidents is fraught, given that their policies have only a limited effect on GDP during their terms but can continue to exert influence after they’ve left office. Finally, GDP growth is itself a limited and flawed metric, with real incomes, job growth, employment rates and other metrics often better at reflecting lived experience. I started measuring presidential GDP performance several years ago simply because President Trump made such a big deal of it during his term. And by that Trump-chosen metric, his successor has had a pretty successful presidency.

India's headline index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell over 1,800 points on Thursday, marking its third-biggest decline this year. However, this is not an isolated incident, as the index has fallen by 1,000 points or more on seven other occasions in 2024.Today's decline is the third largest of 2024, with the 30-stock index hitting a low of 82,449.01. The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies eroded by nearly Rs 10 lakh crore.The largest fall, a staggering 4,390 points, occurred on June 4, when the General Election results were announced, diverging significantly from what the exit polls had predicted. On August 5, the Sensex plunged by 2,223 points, recording its second-biggest decline.On January 17, the Sensex had fallen by 1,628 points, marking the fourth biggest drop this year. Other instances where it declined by over 1,000 points were on January 23, May 9, September 6, and September 30.113906643This analysis considers the correction in terms of points, not the percentage of the fall.Among the Sensex constituents, only two stocks were trading in the green: JSW Steel and Tata Steel, up by 1.62% and 0.24%, respectively.Indian stocks declined due to rising concerns over escalating hostilities between Iran and Israel. Reports indicate that the Israeli military has confirmed the deaths of eight soldiers, including a team commander, during ground operations in southern Lebanon. This escalation followed Iranian missile attacks on Tel Aviv, with Israel's military chief warning of an imminent response.The war triggered oil prices, which shot up on supply concerns from major producers. Brent crude briefly surpassed $75 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate topped $72, with both benchmarks rising nearly 5% over the past three days.A rise in oil prices is a negative for importers of the commodity like India, as crude contributes significantly to the country's import bill."The situation will change if Israel attacks any oil installations in Iran which will trigger a huge spike in crude. If it happens, it can turn out to be more damaging for oil importers like India. Therefore, investors should watch the emerging situation very closely," said Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, at Geojit Financial Services.Moreover, the China factor also played on investors' minds as they are worried about the resurgence of Chinese stocks, which have underperformed in recent years. Following the announcement of economic stimulus measures by the Chinese government last week, analysts predict sustained growth in Chinese stocks, prompting a potential outflow of funds from India.The SSE Composite index rose 8% on Tuesday and has gained over 15% in the past week. As a result, foreign institutional investors have withdrawn Rs 15,370 crore from Indian equities in the last two trading sessions.Dr Ravi Singh, Senior Vice President, Retail Research at Religare Broking also attributed the sell-off to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who are selling in the domestic markets. On Tuesday, they sold equities worth Rs 5,579 crore. He also pointed out Jefferies' Chris Wood reducing his weightage on India by 1% and increasing his weightage on China by 2%.Also Read: BSE to retain weekly options linked to Sensex after new rules for derivatives: Report(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)