The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 349.05 points or 0.43% to settle at an all-time closing high of 82,134.61, extending its winning momentum to the eighth day in a row. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their all-time high levels on Thursday (August 29, 2024), driven by a rally in index majors Reliance Industries and Tata Motors.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 349.05 points or 0.43% to settle at an all-time closing high of 82,134.61, extending its winning momentum to the eighth day in a row. During the day, it soared 500.27 points or 0.61 per cent to hit a lifetime intra-day peak of 82,285.83.

Rallying for the 11th straight session, the NSE Nifty surged 99.60 points or 0.40% to settle at a new closing high of 25,151.95. During the trade, the benchmark climbed 140.55 points or 0.56% to hit a fresh record intra-day peak of 25,192.90.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, Tata Motors jumped over 4%, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, HCL Technologies, ITC, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra, Maruti and State Bank of India.

Reliance Industries climbed nearly 2% after Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of the firm, said the board of the company will meet on September 5 to consider issuing bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1.

“When Reliance grows, we reward our shareholders handsomely,” Mr. Ambani said.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, JSW Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys and Tata Steel were among the biggest laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai settled in the negative territory, while Hong Kong ended higher.

European markets were trading in the positive zone. The U.S. markets ended lower on Wednesday (August 28, 2024).

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,347.53 crore on Wednesday(August 28, 2024), according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.60% to USD 78.27 a barrel.

Rising for the tenth straight session on Wednesday (August 28, 2024), the NSE Nifty went up by 34.60 points or 0.14% to settle at a new closing high of 25,052.35. The benchmark surged 111.85 points or 0.44% to hit a fresh intra-day all-time peak of 25,129.60.

Extending its winning run to the seventh day in a row, the BSE benchmark climbed 73.80 points or 0.09 per cent to settle at 81,785.56.

The BSE Sensex recorded the best monthly gain in June by climbing 7.14%. The Sensex breached the historic 79,000 mark on June 27.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Nine of the top-10 most valued firms together added ₹2,89,699.42 crore in market valuation last week, with Reliance Industries emerging as the biggest gainer, in line with a rally in equities. Last week, the BSE benchmark jumped 1,822.83 points or 2.36%.

The BSE Sensex recorded the best monthly gain in June by climbing 7.14%. The Sensex breached the historic 79,000 mark on June 27.

While Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever and ITC were the gainers, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) emerged as the laggard.

The Market Capitalisation (mcap) of Reliance Industries jumped ₹1,52,264.63 crore to ₹21,18,951.20 crore. TCS added ₹34,733.64 crore taking its valuation to ₹14,12,845.09 crore.

The mcap of ICICI Bank soared ₹30,286.99 crore to ₹8,44,201.88 crore and that of Bharti Airtel surged ₹18,267.7 crore to ₹8,22,530.35 crore. The market valuation of Infosys climbed ₹14,656.3 crore to ₹6,50,602.10 crore and that of HDFC Bank zoomed ₹13,808.74 crore to ₹12,80,865.43 crore. State Bank of India’s valuation rallied ₹11,111.14 crore to ₹7,57,565.68 crore.

The mcap of Hindustan Unilever went up by ₹7,953.37 crore to ₹5,81,570.83 crore and that of ITC climbed ₹6,616.91 crore to ₹5,30,475.82 crore. However, the valuation of LIC tumbled ₹22,042.61 crore to ₹6,25,573.90 crore.

Reliance Industries remained the most valued firm, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Infosys, LIC, Hindustan Unilever and ITC.

File picture of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has received a threat email from an unidentified person seeking ₹400 crore, police said on Tuesday.

Ambani’s company received the email on Monday. It is the third threat email sent to Ambani in four days, an official said.

Earlier, an FIR was registered at Gamdevi police station here based on a complaint filed by the industrialist’s security in-charge after the first email, seeking ₹20 crore, was received from an unidentified person on Friday.

On Saturday, the company received another email demanding ₹200 crore.

The company received the third email on Monday, in which the sender doubled the demand, the official said.

The Mumbai police, their crime branch and cyber teams are working to trace the sender of the email, he added.

Last year, the Mumbai police arrested a man from Bihar’s Darbhanga for making death threat calls to Ambani and his family members. The accused had also threatened to blow up the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai.

Bengaluru:

Reliance Retail, India’s largest retailer, will buy UK-based Superdry’s licenses and brand assets in three Asian countries for 40 million pounds ($48 million), expanding its tie-ups with foreign brands and giving the struggling UK fashion retailer much-needed funds.

Superdry’s shares jumped 18% to a near two-month high on Wednesday after the company said it would use the expected 28.3 million pounds net proceeds to boost its liquidity and fund its capital needs as part of a turnaround plan.

The deal will be via a joint venture — in which Superdry will invest 9.6 million pounds for a 24% stake — and cover Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India, where the UK company has been present since 2012 when it first partnered with Reliance Retail.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail has more than 18,000 stores selling everything from groceries to electronics. It also has partnerships with foreign brands such as Jimmy Choo, Marks & Spencer and Pret A Manger.

The company, which competes with Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart, is in talks with investors including the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia for investments of around $1.5 billion, Reuters reported last month.

On the other hand, Superdry, which mostly sells sweatshirts, hoodies and jackets, has been grappling with weak orders from wholesale partners as consumers deal with a cost-of-living crisis and fall in real wages.

Last month, it warned of stunned revenue growth this year after posting a bigger-than-expected annual loss. It has been raising funds to bolster its finances and said cutting costs was a priority.

The deal with Reliance Retail, said Superdry, will help it “focus on growing its brand and increasing sales in its more established territories, where it has strongest expertise.”

The assets in the deal generated about 1.8% of total group sales in the financial year through April 30, said Superdry.

Shares of Reliance Industries, the parent of Reliance Retail, were down 0.8% in afternoon trading.

Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

The price of natural gas produced from difficult areas like KG-D6 of Reliance Industries is likely to be cut by about 14% from next month in line with softening energy prices, sources said.

For the six-month period starting October 1, the price of gas from deep sea and high-pressure, high-temperature (HPTP) areas is likely to be cut to around USD 10.4 per million British thermal unit from the current $12.12, they said.

The government bi-annually fixes prices of the locally-produced natural gas — which is converted into CNG for use in automobiles, piped to household kitchens for cooking and used to generate electricity and make fertilisers.

Two different formulas govern rates paid for gas produced from legacy or old fields of national oil companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), and for newer fields lying in difficult-to-tap areas, such as deepsea.

Rates are fixed on April 1 and October 1 each year.

In April this year, the formula governing legacy fields was changed and indexed to 10 per cent of the prevailing Brent crude oil price. The rate was however capped at $6.5 per mmBtu.

Rates for legacy fields are now decided on a monthly basis. For September, the price came to $8.60 per mmBtu but because of the cap, the producers would get only $6.5.

Brent crude oil has averaged around USD 94 per barrel this month but rates will continue to be capped at $6.5.

Sources said the price for difficult area gas continues to be governed by the old formula that takes one-year average of international LNG prices and rates at some global gas hubs with a lag of one quarter.

International prices had fallen in the reference period of July 2022 to June 2023 and so it will translate into lower prices for difficult fields, they said.

The price for gas from difficult fields was cut to USD 12.12 per mmBtu for a month period, beginning April 1 from a record $12.46 earlier.

The global spurt in energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to rates of locally-produced gas climbing to record levels — $8.57 per million British thermal unit for gas from legacy or old fields and $12.46 per mmBtu for gas from difficult fields between October 2022 and March 2023.

On April 1, prices of gas from legacy fields were slated to climb to $10.7 per mmBtu using the old formula. But the government changed the formula and put a cap to keep inflation under check.

Rates of CNG and piped gas for kitchens had risen by 70% because of the previous gas price hike.

The ceiling price covers the cost of production of producers while protecting consumers, particularly CNG users, kitchens using piped cooking gas and fertiliser plants which had grappled with soaring input costs.

India is aiming to become a gas-based economy with the share of natural gas in its primary energy mix targeted to rise to 15% by 2030 from the existing level of around 6.3%.

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani took another step on Monday to lay out a succession plan at Reliance Industries Ltd.

The 66-year-old elevated his three children as non-executive directors to Reliance’s board and said he will spend the next five years of his chairmanship preparing them to take charge of the conglomerate’s transformation into a digital, consumer and green energy behemoth.

It’s all part of an effort to avoid repeating the tumultuous split that roiled the first family of corporate India. More than a decade ago Reliance’s founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died without a will or a clear leadership transition, stirring a bitter feud between Mukesh and his younger brother, Anil. Reliance was eventually divided up following the intervention of their mother.

Three years ago, Ambani began including his children in major family businesses decisions, involving them in talks with Meta Platforms Inc. to secure a $5.7 billion investment. Formal roles have also been carved out for Isha, Akash and Anant in Reliance’s energy, retail, telecom and digital services arms.

Each child owns a $236 million direct ownership stake in Reliance, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But it remains to be seen whether Ambani’s children can emulate their father’s success turning the oil-to-consumer titan into India’s biggest company by market value as the conglomerate increasingly attempts to reposition itself for the future.

Here’s what we know about the next generation trio:

Isha Ambani

With an MBA from Stanford University and experience working at McKinsey & Co., Ambani’s 31-year-old daughter Isha leads the conglomerate’s retail business, driving its expansion and the acquisition of brands, including the once largely defunct and nostalgia-tinged Campa Cola soda brand that was the market leader in India’s socialist era.

In 2019, Ambani credited the idea of launching Reliance Jio Infocomm to Isha, who complained about slow Internet speeds at the family’s Mumbai residence when she was home from her earlier studies at Yale University. Earlier this year, Isha was also involved in opening a swanky Mumbai theater and arts center named after her mother.

Isha is married to Anand Piramal, the son of Indian billionaire Ajay Piramal, whose interests range from pharmaceuticals to real estate. Their 2018 wedding was a spectacular tour-de-force, with performances and guests including Beyoncé, Shah Rukh Khan and Hillary Clinton. They welcomed twins to their family in November last year.

Akash Ambani

The twin-brother of Isha was elevated as chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm in June last year, taking the helm after his father stepped down. Soft spoken Akash holds an economics bachelor degree from Brown University and has served as a director on the board of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. since October 2014.

Along with his mother Nita, Akash helps manage the family’s Indian Premier League cricket team, featuring in the 2019 Netflix Inc. documentary series Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians. He married Shloka Mehta — the daughter of a wealthy diamond businessman — in another no-expenses spared A-list celebration in 2019. They have two children.

Anant Ambani

Anant, 28, like his brother has a bachelor degree from Brown University, and is closely associated with the conglomerate’s renewable energy transition. Anant has been a director on the boards of Jio Platforms since March 2020, Reliance Retail Ventures since May 2022 and Reliance New Energy Ltd and Reliance New Solar Energy Ltd since June 2021. He also serves on the board of Reliance Foundation charity.

Last year, his father said Anant had joined Reliance’s new energy business “with great zeal,” adding that “he is spending most of his time in Jamnagar,” referring to the company’s petrochemicals complex in western India. In January, Anant celebrated his engagement to Radhika Merchant at a grand event at the Ambani’s towering residential complex in one of Mumbai’s poshest districts.

–With assistance from Alexander Sazonov.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Reliance ushered in a untouched occasion of management with Nita Ambani stepping i’m sick from the board of administrators and making approach for her kids Isha, Akash, and Anant.

Isha Ambani, Akash Ambani and Anant Ambani are all set to be appointed non-executive administrators of the oil-to-retail conglomerate, pending an goodwill by way of its shareholders.

Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Industries Restricted (RIL).

The 3 Ambani scions were intently concerned with and are important and managing key companies of Reliance over the closing few years together with retail, virtual services and products and effort and fabrics companies, the corporate stated in a press loose.

Additionally they handover at the forums of the important thing subsidiaries of Reliance.

Despite the fact that Nita Ambani has resigned from the board of administrators, she is going to proceed to wait all board conferences as an enduring invitee in order that the corporate can proceed to have the benefit of her recommendation, stated the loose.

“The Board of Directors also accepted the resignation of Nita Ambani from the Board respecting her decision to devote her energies and time to guide and enable Reliance Foundation to make even greater impact for India,” it stated.

Mukesh Ambani had first spoken of his succession plan in 2021. He had even known 3 sovereign verticals for his 3 kids, with the untouched power industry committing to his youngest son Anant. His elder son Akash was once all set to get the telecom and virtual industry and retail for his dual sister Isha.

Representational file image
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Qatar Investment Authority will invest ₹82.78 billion ($1 billion) in Reliance Retail Ventures, the retail arm of India’s Reliance Industries , at a pre-money equity value of ₹8.28 trillion, the companies said on August 23.

Reliance Retail Ventures has previously raised about ₹472.65 billion from various global investors, it said.

Reliance Retail, a unit of Reliance Retail Ventures, was recently valued at $92 billion to $96 billion by two global consultants, a move that could signal an eventual initial public offering of the company.

Reliance Retail is India’s largest retailer and has been partnering with a slew of global brands to launch and expand their presence in India.