Where Do We Go From Here?

Moves Like Powell

Indian markets had a mixed reaction to the Fed policy outcome. Sooner than expected interest rate hikes and withdrawal of the pandemic-era stimulus by March next year were the key takeaways. Confused over how it affects us? Let us explain. 🤓

The US Central Bank cut interest rates and printed trillions of dollars to support its economy from the Covid-19 disruption. With GDP growth and employment numbers improving, investors fear a shift in The Federal Reserve’s stance. 😓

This is a negative for India and other emerging markets as a strong economy and dollar make US stocks more attractive. Foreign investors or FIIs have been on a selling spree. Since November, they’ve sold Rs 50,000 cr of Indian equities. Both Nifty and Sensex are down 8% from their all-time highs. Meanwhile, US stocks continue to scale new highs. 📈

Back home, the RBI governor is facing a similar problem. Soaring inflation and pickup in growth may pressure Shaktikanta Das to follow his American counterpart. With less money chasing riskier assets like equities and crypto, will returns dry up? Time will tell. 👀

We just dropped the latest episode of Stocktwits & Friends. In this episode, we have our first female guest on the show, Sonali Palande. She talks to us about quitting her job, steps on how to be an options trader, gender diversity in the trading world & much more.

Watch the episode here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JLyqHQvBAaU

The Ultimate Baller

Reliance Industries has been India’s biggest wealth creator over the past five years. Mota Bhai rocks! The oil-to-telecom giant added a record Rs 9.6 lakh crore to investor wealth in that period. 🤑

Raamdeo Agrawal, Chairman, at Motilal Oswal Financial Services said: 

RIL has strong management of cash flow, has been reinvesting judiciously and has been able to create world-beating businesses.

Reliance’s shift in strategy from oil & gas to telecom and retail was the biggest catalyst. The digital layer on top of its new businesses has added a whole new dimension. TCS and HDFC Bank rounded up the list of the top three biggest wealth creators. 💰

Meanwhile, two of the top three fastest wealth creators were Adani Group stocks. The rapid rise in Adani Transmission’s shares, +93% CAGR saw it take the top spot. Adani Enterprises came in third. But, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Reports of SEBI and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) investigating multiple Adani group companies triggered a sharp sell-off.  Investors have moved on and their patience has been duly rewarded. ✌️

Healthtech Unicorn

Healthcare startup Pristyn Care became the latest entrant to the Unicorn club. Congratulations guys! 🍾

The company raised $96 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Hummingbird Ventures. The Series E funding round valued the startup at $1.4 billion. Pristyn Care will use the funds to scale its operations and strengthen its product and technology. 🏥

Founded in 2018, Pristyn Care aims to make it easy for a patient to get treatment. From finding the right doctor to booking an appointment at a clinic, Pristyn Care has it sorted for patients. The company has partnered with 400 hospitals, and 90 clinics across 40 Indian cities. PS. It claims to have performed 45,000 surgeries. 👍

The startup also takes care of insurance paperwork and even the commute between hospital and home. Besides surgeries, its portfolio includes pharmacy and online consultation. FWIW: Pristyn Care plans to scale up its presence to over 50 cities, and +1000 surgical centers by March. 👊

As we know, the healthcare sector has received tremendous spotlight post-pandemic. Pristyn Care claims to have grown 5x this year. It now hopes to be profitable in the next 12 to 18 months period. 🤞

Swipe Away

The Government doesn’t want you to splurge cash. Instead, it wants you to pay using its RuPay debit cards and BHIM UPI payment systems. 

The government approved a massive Rs 1,300 cr plan to promote the homegrown RuPay debit cards. Under the scheme, the government will pay banks a certain percentage of the value of transactions done using RuPay cards. Best part? The government is backdating the scheme to begin in April. Woo-hoo!! 🥳

Also, the government plans to pay back processing fees on digital transactions up to Rs 2,000. FYI, India witnessed +420 cr digital transactions in November. The total transaction value is close to $100 billion. 🤯

Payments Council of India gave a thumbs up to the government’s plans. They believe it has the potential to increase the penetration of digital transactions. However, the plan will not please everyone, especially Visa and Mastercard. 😟

Visa, and Mastercard have a love-hate relationship with GOI. 🙄 The two companies see India as a key growth market. But, a 2018 policy change required global companies to store payments data in India. The government found Mastercard to be napping. 👀 And, it stopped Mastercard from issuing cards to new users. Welp! 

Regulatory hurdles and a constant push from the government meant RuPay now holds 60% share in India (vs 17% in 2019). Keep watching this space for more RuPay dominance! 😉