Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Friday said it has received a payment of Rs 1,252 crore from Vodafone Idea, which will be distributed among investors of the segregated portfolios.
The six schemes are, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, Franklin India Low Duration, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund, and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund that have made investments in Vodafone Idea.
Franklin Templeton MF side-pocketed its exposure in the telecom player and from January 24, various securities issued by Vodafone Idea in the schemes were segregated from the total portfolio. Creation of segregated portfolios is a mechanism to separate distressed, illiquid and hard-to-value assets from other more liquid assets in a portfolio.
The country's economy, which witnessed a disruption due to the coronavirus outbreak, has started recovering from June, State Bank of India's Chairman Rajnish Kumar said on Friday. Speaking at the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave, Kumar said there is a need to wait for three to four months to see the trend of the recovery. "COVID-19 has caused gigantic disruption of the Indian economy along with dislocation of the supply chain. April was the worst month and things had slightly improved in May, while the recovery started from June," Kumar said at the webinar.
The industrially advanced states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu were the worst affected due to the pandemic, he informed.
He said the banks had been able to absorb the shock due to the moratorium offered to the borrowers in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday erased all its early losses and closed nearly 1 per cent higher. Earlier in the day, TCS had dropped over 1 per cent after the company reported a 13.8 per cent decline in its June quarter consolidated net profit.
The stock, which fell 1.22 per cent to Rs 2,177.25 during the day on the BSE, later bounced back and settled at Rs 2,221.65, up 0.78 per cent over previous close. On the NSE, it recovered the lost ground and closed higher by a similar margin at Rs 2,221.70. Intra-day, it fell 1.28 per cent to Rs 2,176. In terms of volume, 2.60 lakh shares were traded on the BSE and over 96 lakh on the NSE.
TCS had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 8,131 crore in the year-ago period. The company's Q1 revenue was almost flat in rupee terms at Rs 38,322 crore but was down 6.3 per cent on a constant currency basis. Revenues were lower by 4.06 per cent when compared with the previous quarter's figure of Rs 39,946 crore.
Weak demand across domestic original equipment manufacturers, replacement market and exports could lead to a decline of 14-18 per cent in revenues of the auto component sector in FY21, according to ratings agency ICRA.
It noted that while the auto components industry has been hit due to COVID-19 and lockdown, mission critical replacement parts like batteries and tyres would be less impacted. "Automobile volumes are expected to decline by 15-16 per cent in FY21; within this, passenger vehicle demand will decline by 22-25 per cent," ICRA said in a statement.
India's fuel demand in June continued its recovery from a 13-year low hit in April as more commuters preferred private vehicles over public transport for fear of contracting COVID-19 and economic activity gradually picked up on easing of lockdown restrictions. Petroleum product consumption rose 11 per cent to 16.28 million tonnes in June over demand witnessed in the previous month, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Fuel demand had plunged to 9.93 million tonnes in April, its lowest level since 2007. Overall, fuel demand had reached over 92 per cent of pre-COVID levels.
Demand for diesel, the most consumed fuel in the country, reached 84.5 per cent of normal levels, while petrol consumption was at 86.4 per cent of normal levels. Its demand in June was almost double of 3.25 million tonnes consumed in April. Diesel consumption stood at 6.3 million tonnes in June, 14.5 per cent higher than May, but 15.4 per cent lower than the demand witnessed in June 2019.