Up, Up and Away

Tale of the Tape

Happy Tuesday everyone. Markets scale new highs again. 😊

Nifty and Sensex closed up 1%. Key indices jumped +8% in August, their highest monthly return since Nov 2020. 🤗 Midcaps and Smallcaps rose half a percent. The advance-decline ratio was evenly split.

All sectoral indices ended in the green. Metals (+1.5%) and NBFCs (+1.4%) topped the list of gainers. 📈

Reliance Industries (-0.5%) is in talks to acquire solar panel maker REC for $1.2 billion from ChemChina. 🌤

Kotak Mahindra Bank (+1%) will sell 20 cr shares of Airtel Payments Bank for Rs 294 cr. 💸

Bharti Airtel (+7%) declined to comment on reports of Google picking up a stake in the company. But hey, at least they didn’t deny it. No smoke without a fire. 🔥

SRF (+4%) approved a 4:1 bonus issue. ✅

AU Small Finance Bank dove ~13%. Reports of the internal auditor resigning spooked investors. 😥

Cryptos were mostly down. Bitcoin fell 1%. XRP, ADA, and Doge fell ~2%. Ethereum jumped +4%. Solana jumped +18% 👍

Here are the closing prints:

Nifty	17,132	+1.2%
Sensex	57,552	+1.2%
Nifty Bank	36,425	+0.2%

There’s No Stopping Us

Stonks only go up!

The Nifty crossed the 17,000-mark today. 💓 It is also the fastest 1,000 points rally in its history. The benchmark took less than a month to achieve this feat. Our reaction: Keep ‘em coming. 🤑

Most factors behind the rally remain the same. However, there are interesting developments. 😊 Inflation, which has been a cause of worry, cooled off to a 3-month low in July. Low inflation means interest rates can stay low. Hiring activity is back to pre-pandemic levels. Lastly, rural growth which took a big knock is also seeing a speedier recovery. Add in the sustained drop in Covid-19 cases plus record daily vaccinations and you have the perfect recipe for success. 🏆

With the economy on track and pandemic under control, for now, investors are hopeful. Going forward, experts predict sectors like banks, metal, and autos to outperform. ✅

Though we are in a strong bull market, there are risks to monitor. The biggest risk is the US Federal Reserve. For now, they will continue with low-interest rates. But, any change here will have global implications and be negative for equities. Stay sharp retail bros. 😎

The New Kid In Town

Shopee is gearing up to launch in India. It has launched a recruitment campaign for sellers and is ramping up hiring in the country. 💪

Shopee is a part of Singapore-based Sea Ltd., which is backed by Tencent. Sea Ltd. has a market cap of $130B and reported revenue growth of 157% last quarter!

Shopee is a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Latin America. They obviously view India as a large market and are keen to enter. Worth noting that Sea Ltd. already has a presence in India thanks to its Free Fire game, which it claims is the highest-grossing mobile game in the country. 📱

Shopee’s plan to enter India comes hot on the heels of its recent success in Latin America. In less than two years, it became Brazil’s most downloaded shopping app. Its formula of success: combining online shopping with gaming and heavy discounts to winning users. ✅

We’re not exactly sure what the company’s India strategy will be. But, given its size and track record, it is sure to create waves in the Indian e-commerce market. Currently, Amazon and Flipkart dominate the $50 billion market. In the past, small players have either shut down or got acquired offering little to no competition for these two. This would be the first-ever hint of real competition for both Amazon and Flipkart. 🤼‍♂️

Sea Ltd. is one of the hottest tech stocks in the world. The stock is up 120% in the last year and 315% since its IPO in 2017. Here’s its chart. 📈

Big Money Deal

PayU, a Netherlands-based fintech & internet giant backed by Prosus, will acquire BillDesk for $4.6 billion! 💰

BillDesk is one of the oldest payment gateways in India and powers close to 60% of the country’s online bill payments. The proposed acquisition will make PayU one of the largest online payment providers globally, handling total payment volume (TPV) of $147 billion.🥇

Bob van Dijk, group CEO of Prosus

We have a long and deep relationship with India, having supported and partnered with some of its most dynamic entrepreneurs and new tech businesses since 2005. We’ve invested close to $6 billion in Indian tech to date, and this deal will see that increase to more than $10 billion.

India represents a huge market for financial services. The latest deal builds on Prosus’s string of acquisitions including CitrusPay, Paysense, and IndiaGold.