Flip-flopping

Nifty50: 17,604 ▲ 27 (+0.1%)
Sensex: 59,085 ▲ 54 (+0.09%)

Greetings, people!

What do you think about sharks? If you’re like most people, you’d be terrified of them. But now, social media is abuzz with a viral video of a French chef creating a 7.5-foot long shark out of—wait for it—chocolate! Even if you’re a chocoholic, you would rather admire this masterpiece than eat it!

• After a choppy trade, benchmark indices closed nearly flat, following weak global cues.
• In all, 26 of the Nifty50 stocks closed in the green.
• Investors were indecisive ahead of the monthly F&O expiry on Thursday.

Among the Nifty sectoral indices, Realty (+1.8%) and Media (+1.7%) were the top gainers, while IT (-0.3%) and Pharma (-0.3%) were the top losers.

What’s trending

⭐ Maruti to recall cars for faulty airbags

MARUTI (NSE): 8,683 ▼ 37 (-0.4%)

Country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki plans to recall 166 units of the Dzire Tour S variant for faulty airbags. These specific vehicles were manufactured during 6-16 August 2022. The company said it will replace the faulty airbags free of cost. Affected vehicle owners will get a communication from the company for replacement of the defective airbag control unit.

⭐ Oil stocks on the rise

ONGC (NSE): 136 ▲ 2.2 (+1.6%), OIL (NSE): 190 ▲ 5.9 (+3.1%)

Shares of oil producers ONGC and Oil India were upbeat on Wednesday as oil prices continue to rise. Oil prices surged 4% on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia said it would cut oil production to shore up prices. Earlier this month, oil prices had fallen to a six-month low amid a slowdown in the Chinese economy. 

⭐ NDTV shares hit upper circuit

NDTV (NSE): 388 ▲ 18 (+4.9%)

Shares of New Delhi Television (NDTV) were locked in the 5% upper circuit on Wednesday. The stock touched a 14-year high of ₹388 after Adani Group said on Tuesday it is set to indirectly acquire a 29.18% stake in NDTV. Further, Adani Group entities have launched a ₹493-crore open offer for a 26% stake in NDTV at ₹294 per share.

⭐ Dreamfolks Services IPO flies on Day 1

The IPO of the airport services aggregator was oversubscribed by almost 2 times on the first day of subscription. Retail investors showed strong interest, as the retail portion was oversubscribed by almost 8 times. Click here to apply for the IPO on Upstox.

In Focus

Storm brewing in the tea cup?

Chances are that your daily cup (or five) of tea will get costlier this year. Is it because of inflation, you ask? Well, not quite. The real reasons will surprise you. Keep reading, while you sip your cup of umm… tea.

For starters, tea production has fallen in the past couple of months. Heavy rainfall in Assam, which accounts for more than half of the country’s total tea output, made plucking difficult for tea workers. This led to a 17.4% year-on-year production decline in June. To make matters worse, high temperatures and pest attacks in July resulted in an overall 25-30% crop loss in this season. 

The period from June to October is usually the tea-plucking season in India, which is the second-biggest tea producer globally. Due to lower tea production in June, average tea prices in July rose by 10.5% year on year. 

Over the past one year, tea prices have jumped by a whopping 40-50%. This, along with a strong rupee, led to a decline in India’s tea exports to traditional markets like Europe and Japan. In the first five months of 2022, tea exports to Japan and Germany fell over 10% year-on-year. 

However, there is a silver lining. Demand for orthodox tea, which accounts for a third of India’s total tea output, is at an all-time high. Countries like Iran and the UAE are driving the demand for orthodox tea from India.

Market experts believe that the consistent decline in production along with steady-to-high demand leads to higher prices for tea products and improved profitability for companies. This has lifted the shares of tea producers like Tata Consumer Products, Tata Coffee and Rossell India by 8 to 71% so far this year, against a 1.4% rise in the Nifty50%.

So is it time to cut back on your tea fix? The answer depends on how much you love your daily cuppa.

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Good to know

What is an open offer?

When company A acquires a majority stake in company B, it is required by the market regulator to provide an opportunity to the existing shareholders of company B to sell their shares. This is referred to as an open offer. In India, an open offer is carried out when a company buys a controlling or 25% stake in a listed company. The acquiring company has to make an open offer to buy at least an additional 26% stake in the company.

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