19th July 2024 – 26th July 2024 | Another week in the markets
| S&P 500 | Nasdaq | VIX | DJIA | Russell 1000 | NYSE |
| 5,459.10 | 17,357.88 | 16.39 | 40,589.34 | 2,982.14 | 18,564.48 |
| -0.83% | -2.08% | -0.79% | 0.75% | -0.68% | 0.54% |
| Nifty 50 | Gold | Silver | Brent crude | USD-INR | EUR-INR |
| 24,834.85 | $2,385.70 | $28.07 | $79.85 | 83.72 | 91.13 |
| 1.24% | -0.71% | -4.54% | -3.28% | -0.01% | 0.03% |
Source: MarketWatch
Hello Saturday,
This week, Crowdstrike says a little over 97% of its Microsoft Windows sensors are online, Facebook parent Meta eyes a 5% stake in EssilorLuxottica and AUM of index funds goes past the ₹2 lakh crore threshold.
- After a tech glitch that snarled millions of PCs worldwide, Crowdstrike says that 97% of its systems are back online.
- Meta eyes a 5% stake in EssilorLuxottica which could be valued at 4.5 billion euros or a tad shy of $5 billion.
- Indigo’s Q1FY25 net profit sinks by 11% to ₹2,728.8 crore.
- It is raining IPOs as 8 new issues are set to open this week.
Taking stock | CrowdStrike recovers its gait | Meta moves | Losing altitude? | IPOs galore | Invest wisely | Another week in the markets
Taking stock
The overhang of the tech selloff dominated market sentiment as the three major benchmarks struggled to slough off the meltdown even as investors eye new bets in companies other than the big tech firms. Dow Jones rose 1.6% on Friday to close the week up 0.7%. The S&P 500 jumped up 1.1% on Friday and the Nasdaq ended the week down 2%.
CrowdStrike recovers its gait!
The firm behind the recent tech glitch that resulted in operations of thousands of businesses and organisations screeching to a halt said that a little over 97% of its Microsoft Windows sensors were back online.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said his firm was still addressing the fallouts from the Friday glitch, which led to the cancellation or delay in innumerable flights. US air carrier Delta Air Lines, in particular, was heavily affected. The aviation firm cancelled over 5,000 flights last weekend and was forced to repair over 1,500 systems that were knocked offline.
Apologising for the outage, Kurtz in a LinkedIn post said that while he can’t promise perfection, he can promise a response that is “focused, effective and with a sense of urgency,”
Close to 8.5 million systems were affected by the global outage. The brunt of the outage was experienced in broad swathes of the worldwide corporate IT ecosystem, nearly paralysing operations across Asian and European countries. Meanwhile, CrowdStrike’s stock has plummeted by close to 10% in the last week, and Kurtz has been summoned by Congress to testify about the glitch.
“CrowdStrike is committed to building on our mission to stop breaches, with a renewed focus on customer controls and resilience,” Kurtz commented in his LinkedIn post, adding that “customer obsession has always been our guiding principle, and this experience has only strengthened our resolve.”
Meta moves
Facebook parent Meta is in talks with EssilorLuxottica to acquire a 5% stake in the latter, which, as per market analysts could be valued at around 4.5 billion euros or $5 billion. The deal, if it does concretise, would represent a relatively small investment for Meta, whose current market valuation is pegged at around $1.2 trillion.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that the talks are underway right now, and may not assuredly result in a deal.
By acquiring a stake in Paris-headquartered EssilorLuxottica, Meta is hoping to build on the runaway sales success of RayBan Meta smart glasses. The smart glasses, touted as the next frontier in wearable technology innovation, deliver a host of enterprising features like taking photos, playing music, running real-time searches and much more.
Maintaining ties with EssillorLuxottica is critical for the success of the Metaverse initiative, which, among other things, allows users to interact with each other in a simulated 3D altered reality.
The third generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses will likely be unveiled by the 2025 holiday shopping season.
The first generation of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that went on sale in 2021 received a cold reception in the markets. However, the second generation put on sale last September, performed significantly well compared to its predecessor.
The second-generation smart glasses come loaded with a preliminary Gen AI model that is capable of helping the wearer identify things and objects that fall within its purview. These glasses have been gaining popularity with users keen on shooting hands-free videos or taking first-person videos of themselves, say, while being on roller-coasters or a bike ride.
Losing altitude?
The consolidated net profit of India’s largest air carrier, Indigo, slumped 11.7% to ₹2,728.8 crore in Q1FY25, as against ₹3,090.6 crore, the aviation company reported in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year.
The fall in net profit levels is being attributed to elevated fuel costs, higher-than-usual forex rates and increased maintenance costs on account of grounded aeroplanes.
The quarter ending in June marks the first time that the company has reported a decline in net profit in the last six quarters. However, going beyond the optics, the fall in net profit seems all the more stark given the base effect stemming from the very high net profit reported in Q1FY24. The ₹3,090.6 crores net profit posted in Q1FY24 was the second-highest quarterly net profit posted by the aviation firm.
Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers in a post-results investor conference call remarked that despite the issues faced by the company the net profit margin at 14% of the total income earned is a “solid one”. Meanwhile, Indigo’s CFO Gaurav Negi said that 70 Indigo planes were currently grounded due to issues with Pratt and Whitney engines.
As of June 30, the airline has 382 planes in its fleet.
Source: Google Finance
IPOs galore!
A total of 8 new IPOs are set to hit the market this week.
Till now, 40 mainboard and 143 SME IPOs have tapped the capital markets looking to raise funds. Robust liquidity, buoyant valuations and a positive macroeconomic outlook undergird a cordial and conducive market setup encouraging businesses across India to enlist themselves.
Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Ashapura Logistics Limited, Rajputana Industries Dhariwalcorp, Utssav Cz gold jewels, Kizi Apparel, Bulkcorp International and Sathlokar Synergies IPOs will be opening this week.
The IPO of Akums Drugs will open on July 30 and close on August 1. The public issue will be available in the price band of ₹646-679 with a lot size of 22 shares.
Invest wisely
Markets — be they domestic or foreign — go through alternating phases of over and under-valuation. Accompanying these phases is a larger bullish or bearish public sentiment. One can capture the choicest of blue-chip stocks, provided one has the patience to sit on the fence and wait for the downturn. It is only during pronounced downturns that investors can cherrypick stellar businesses at heavy discounts. It is hurtful to one’s portfolio to get carried away during waves of irrational exuberance and react with fear and panic during market meltdowns. Holding back some cash for spells of market falls is always advisable. It is here that the Appreciate app can be of great help to diligent investors keen on investing their funds in fundamentally strong companies and other securities. Our macroeconomic indicators help investors assess whether markets are over or undervalued, and create wealth in the long-term.
Warm regards,
Another week
in the markets
