Listen In: Crypto exchanges strengthening portfolios with new tokens | The Economic Times

Hi there, Good Morning. Welcome to ETMarkets Morning, the show about money, business and markets. I am Nikhil Agarwal. Let’s start with the headlines first.

– Air India lenders offer ₹35,000 crore in loan to Tata-promoted Talace
– MFs can’t make crypto-related investments before law, says Sebi chief
– Domestic pharma companies gear up to launch Merck’s Covid pill

Now lemme give you a quick glance on the state of the markets.

Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday, following a mixed Wall Street session as the region’s investors positioned their portfolios for the new year and continued to grapple with increasing global numbers of Omicron coronavirus cases. Global stocks ended mixed after a record-setting session.

Elsewhere, the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 1.47%. The dollar firmed slightly in early Asian trade on Wednesday as a recent rally in shares showed signs of petering out, but holiday-thinned trading meant markets were showing little real direction. Bitcoin was around $48,000 after a tumble that hinted at diminished ardor for the most speculative assets.

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That said, here’s what is making news.

The board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approved crucial changes to initial public offerings (IPOs). These include restricting the amount that a company can use for unidentified acquisitions, increasing the lock-in period for anchor investors and approving credit rating agencies (CRAs) for monitoring issue proceeds.

Indian cryptocurrency exchanges are offering a larger portfolio of digital assets – tokens – to satiate a growing investor class seeking higher returns. WazirX launched 12 tokens in December, while CoinSwitch Kuber added five, named Mana, Sand, Gala, Req, and Coti. Unocoin onboarded five new coins recently, while CoinDCX brought in a bunch like DappRadar, Highstreet, Convex Finance and ConstitutionDao.

The share of state-run banks in credit fell for yet another year, continuing a decade-long trend of declines, while top-deck compensation in private banks appears to have surged in line with the pace of expansion in business.

LASTLY,

Fresh restrictions on operational hours at shops, markets, malls and commercial establishments and night curfews in various states are beginning to impact businesses of consumer goods companies and retail chains, company executives have said. Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat and West Bengal are among states that have announced restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 amid increasing cases of the new variant of concern, Omicron.

NOW Before I go, here is a look at some of the stocks buzzing this morning…

Reliance Jio Infocomm is planning to raise up to ₹8,000 crore by selling corporate bonds in the local market as early as next week.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have joined hands to build a 5G-based remote working technology using robotics.

Diversified business conglomerate ITC Limited has commissioned its first off-site solar plant in Tamil Nadu set up at an investment of Rs 76 crore, the company said on Tuesday.

Coupon discounts offered by food delivery platforms including Zomato and Swiggy are set to face the taxman’s scrutiny under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime beginning January 2022.

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Do also check out over two dozen stock recommendations for today’s trade from top analysts on ETMarkets.com.

That’s it for now. Stay with us for all the market news through the day. Happy investing!