Asian shares rallied on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 hitting a record high after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady and said it was still considering at least three rate cuts in 2024.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eked out a gain of 0.2%.

US stocks rallied to records Wednesday after the Federal Reserve indicated it's likely to deliver the cuts to interest rates this year that Wall Street craves, despite some discouragingly high inflation reports.

Here's a table showing how US stocks performed on Wednesday:

Source: Equitymaster

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading 600 points higher and NSE Nifty is trading 176 points higher.

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, and BPCL are among the top gainers today.

Nestle, Apollo Hospital, and Maruti Suzuki on the other hand are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on a positive note. The BSE Midcap index and the BSE Small Cap index is trading 1.4% higher.

Sectoral indices are trading positive, with socks in the metal sector, power sector, and capital goods witnessing buying.

The rupee is trading at Rs 83.1 against the US dollar.

In commodity markets, gold prices are trading 1.5% higher at Rs 66,720 per 10 grams today.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading 1.5% higher at Rs 76,460 per 1 kg.
 

RVNL's Electric Traction System Project Win

Rail Vikas Nigam has emerged as the lowest bidder for an electric traction system project worth Rs 1.7 bn of SER HQ-Electrical/South Eastern Railway.

As per the project, the company will do the design, supply, erection, testing, and commissioning for the upgrade of the electric traction system for the Rajkharsawan-Nayagarh-Bolani section of the Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway to meet the 3,000 MT loading target.

Rail Vikas Nigam Limited is an Indian public sector undertaking that works as the construction arm of the Ministry of Railways for project implementation and transportation infrastructure development.

After rallying 75% in January, RVNL Plunges 17% In a month. 
 

NHPC to Mull Debt Raising

NHPC said that its board will meet on 27 March 2024 to consider raising debt during the financial year 2024 and 2025.

A meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, 27 March 2024, to inter alia consider the proposal for raising debt during financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25.

NHPC is the largest organization for hydropower development in India. It has also diversified in the field of solar & wind power. As of 31 December 2023, the Government of India held a 70.9% stake in the company.

The power generation company reported a 26.8% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 4.9 billion (bn) in Q3 FY24 from Rs 6.7 bn recorded in Q3 FY23. Revenue from operations decreased 20.4% year on year (YoY) to Rs 20.6 bn in the December 2023 quarter.
 

PB Fintech to Form Payment Aggregator Subsidiary

PolicyBazaar's promoter, PB Fintech, on Wednesday, said its board has approved the incorporation of a wholly-owned subsidiary for payment aggregator business.

The new subsidiary called PB Pay Private Limited would carry on the business of payment aggregator - domestic and/or cross border or both, as may be permitted by the Reserve Bank of India, by facilitating merchants with offline and/or digital payment acceptance infrastructure or both.

The paid-up share capital of the proposed company would be Rs 270 m.

The proposed company on incorporation will apply to RBI for a Payment Aggregator License and conduct the PA business once the RBI licence is received.

On 1 February 2024, Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings sold its entire 5.4% stake in PolicyBazaar's parent firm PB Fintech for Rs 24.3 bn through open market transactions.

Temasek Holdings' wholly-owned subsidiary Claymore Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd sold the shares of PB Fintech in three tranches on the BSE.

Claymore Investments (Mauritius) Pte offloaded a total of 244,30,015 shares, representing a 5.4% stake in PB Fintech.

The shares were disposed of at an average price of Rs 992.8 apiece, taking the combined deal value to Rs 24.3 bn.

Meanwhile, US-based financial services company Capital Group, through its various affiliates, acquired the shares of PB Fintech in seven tranches.

In January, Japanese conglomerate Softbank's arm Svf Python II (Cayman) divested a 2.5% stake in PB Fintech for Rs 9.1 bn.

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