(Reuters) – Indian initial public offerings tumbled to a 4-year low by value in 2019 as the economy slowed, but some analysts are hoping for better in 2020 on the back of potential government reforms likely to boost stock markets.
Funds raised by Indian IPOs fell to just $2.8 billion this year, the lowest in four years, according to data from Refinitiv. In 2017, the proceeds hit a record $11.7 billion before falling to $5.5 billion in 2018.
Graphic: India sector IPOs https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/254/254/Sector%20IPOs.jpg
“2019 has been the worst year from an IPO market perspective,” said Sandip Khetan, a partner at consultancy EY.
“Because of different types of disruptions, such as corporate failures and bankruptcies, things have slowed down considerably,” he said.
Financials and industrial sectors led the declines in IPO issues, with proceeds more than halving.
Graphic: India IPO proceeds https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/255/255/India%20IPO%20proceeds.jpg
India’s NSE Nifty 50 index .NSEI> was down about 1.4% for the year on Sept. 19, a day before the announcement of a cut in the corporate tax rate boosted markets and raised hopes of more reforms to help the economy.
The NSE index was up 12.4% in 2019 as of Tuesday’s close.
“The government has addressed a lot of economic reform requirements in the last three months,” said EY’s Khetan.
At the same time, many of this year’s IPOs have performed well, boosting the outlook for more issues next year.
Shares of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp Ltd , marketing and advertising firm Affle (India) , and e-commerce company Indiamart Intermesh have doubled in value from their issues prices.
The S&P BSE IPO index .BSEIPO>, which measures the performance of companies listed at the Bombay Stock Exchange after the completion of their IPOs, has surged 34% this year, outperforming broader indexes such as NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex .BSESN>.
(Reporting By Patturaja Murugaboopathy; Additional Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Richard Pullin)
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
