Retail vehicle sale gathers pace

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Automobile retail sales rose 10 per cent in May on the back of robust demand across segments including passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and tractors. The total automobile retail sales jumped to 20.19lakh units last month, from 18.33 lakh in May 2022. Passenger vehicle sales rose by 4 per cent to 2,98,873 units in May, as compared to 2,86,523 units in the year-ago period. Two-wheeler retail sales last month rose 9 per cent to 14,93,234 units, as compared to 13,65,924 units in May 2022.

Saudi Arabia to cut crude output

If you have been expecting a price cut in fuels, then you will be disappointed. Saudi Arabia has decided to cut production of crude oil which is expected to push up prices in the international markets. This will delay any move by oil marketing companies to cut retail prices. Petrol and diesel prices have been on a freeze for a record 14 months now. Petrol costs Rs 96.72 per litre in the national capital and diesel comes for Rs 89.62 a litre.

RBI meet on policy rate from June 6

There could be some pleasant news for home and vehicle buyers.The Reserve Bank of India will maintain the policy repo rate at 6.5 per cent during its upcoming June 8 announcement. Which means the EMI rates won’t go up for now. The inflation has been reoorted at 4.7% which is under the RBI’s tolerance band. The meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled for June 6-8. The decision of the 43rd meeting of the MPC would be announced on Thursday, June 8.

Telcos asked to seek digital nod for pesky calls

If you are also troubled by pesky phone calls, then help is at hand. The telecom regulator Trai has directed service providers to develop a unified digital platform in two months to seek, maintain and revoke customers’ consent for promotional calls and messages. In the first phase, only subscribers will be able to initiate the process to register their consent for receiving promotional calls and SMS and later, business entities will be able to reach out to customers to seek their consent to receive promotional messages. At present, there is no unified system to show consent of customers for getting promotional messages. This is expected to reduce the huge number of pesky calls one gets everyday.

RBL launches ACE fixed deposits

RBL Bank has announced a new fixed deposit scheme – ACE Fixed Deposit. The Bank is offering a 20 bps higher rate of interest over and above the regular callable deposits, with senior citizens and super senior citizens receiving 50 bps and 75 bps higher interest rates. The a minimum deposit value would be Rs 50 Lakh and a maximum deposit value of less than Rs 2 Crore. Customers can choose a tenure ranging from1-20 years and enjoy the benefits on maturity. Both resident and non-resident Indians can opt for this FD.

Foreigners bullish on India

Foreign Portfolio Investors pumped in Rs 43,838 crore in Indian equities in May, the highest level in nine months. FPIs continued the buying stance in June too, and invested Rs 6,490 crore in just two trading sessions of the month. According to the data, FPIs invested a net sum of Rs 43,838 crore in the Indian equities in the entire month of May. This is the highest level of investment by FPIs in the last nine months. Before this, they put in a net sum of Rs 51,204 crore in equities in August 2022, data showed. This came following a net infusion of Rs 11,630 crore in equities in April and Rs 7,936 crore in March.

Byju’s to list Aakash next year

Edtech major BYJU’S will launch the Initial Public Offering of its test preparatory arm Aakash Education Services Limited by middle of next year. The upcoming IPO will provide a capital infusion to bolster Aakash’s infrastructure, broaden its reach, and extend high-quality test-prep education to a larger number of students across the nation. BYJU’S acquired Aakash for about $950 million in April 2021. Aakash has reported 3-fold increase in revenue in last two years. Aakash has over 325 centres currently serving more than 4,00,000 students across the country.

Small cap shares under watch

To curb volatility in small-cap counters, leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE have put in place an enhanced surveillance mechanism for companies that have a market cap of less than Rs 500 crore. The Enhanced Surveillance Measure will be effective from June 5. The parameters for shortlisting the securities under the ESM framework include high-low price variation and close-to-close price variation.The security shall be part of the framework for a minimum period of three months. However, in case a security is under Stage II of the framework, it shall be retained under Stage 2 for a minimum period of one month.

Hero hikes e-scooter price

Hero MotoCorp, has hiked the price of its flagship electric scooter Vida V1 Pro by ₹6,000. The development comes days after the government reduced the incentives for electric two-wheelers under FAME-II to ₹10,000 per kWh from the earlier ₹15,000 per kWh.  The cap on incentives for electric two-wheelers has also been slashed by 15% of the ex-factory prices of vehicles against 40% earlier. With the price increase, the electric scooter will now be available at ₹1,45,900 (ex-showroom price) from its earlier price of ₹1.39 lakh.