Sensex slumps

After seeing an impressive surge during the past one month, India’s benchmark indices took a heavy beating after Fitch downgraded the US’s sovereign credit rating on 2 August. The Sensex fell over 1% on 2 August, followed by another 0.8% decline on 3 August. The turmoil was global, with markets in Japan, China, and Germany, among other nations, also tanking. Experts, however, believe the sell-off was a knee-jerk reaction to the downgrade.

Impressive capex

The Centre delivered an impressive pace of capex to support growth in the June quarter. Capex is often slow at the beginning of the year, but the government achieved 27.8% of the budgeted estimates in April-June, higher than past few years. It has also transferred an additional instalment of taxes to state governments, which should help them increase their capex. If the pace continues through the year, the government will be able to achieve the ambitious ₹10 trillion capex announced in the budget.

Penalty report

₹2,000 crore:That’s the amount of late submission fee the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has slapped on ONGC Videsh Ltd, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd, GAIL (India) Ltd, and Oil India Ltd for delayed reporting of their overseas investments, Mintreported. The fine may have a bearing on the state-run energy majors’ overseas work commitments, which has prompted them to seek an extension from RBI. The overall investment by state-owned firms in oil and gas assets abroad stands at around $36.55 billion.

Travelling abroad

With rising income and economic growth, more and more Indians are travelling abroad, with Dubai, London, Bangkok, and Bali among the most-searched destinations, a Mint analysis based on data from Kayak, an American metasearch engine, showed. In the top 10, both Asian and western destinations have an equal share. Still, travel figures of a number of popular tourist nations are yet to touch the pre-Covid levels. Indian tourist visas are also seeing high rejection rates in key developed countries, Mintreported.

Silver Lining

Two years after internet businesses saw a trend of firms listing at rich valuations, the companies from Paytm to Nykaa are under pressure due to their lower-than-listing stock prices, raising concerns over their fundamentals, and business models. However, some of them are showing signs of improvement, with Paytm’s operations generating ₹415 crore of surplus cash in FY23 as opposed to needing cash infusion of ₹1,236 crore in FY22, an analysis byhowindialives.comshowed.

Tax timing

16.1%:That’s the year-on-year growth in income tax returns (ITRs) filed in the assessment year 2023-24, taking the number to 67.7 million, of which 5.37 million were first-time filers. While 6.43 million returns were filed on the last day, the filings were relatively earlier than previous years due to the awareness campaigns, said the income tax department. More than 46% of the returns were filed online and over 80% have already been e-verified.

Services soars

While India’s manufacturing activity remained strong in July, services displayed an astonishing performance, according to the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). Manufacturing PMI came in at 57.7, slightly down from 57.8 the previous month. Services, on the other hand, jumped to 62.3 in July, the fastest seen since June 2010, supported by both domestic demand and rise in export orders, despite a likely impact of heavy rainfall in northern India on mobility and transportation.

Chart of the week: Publicity spending

The government spent over ₹400 crore on publicity and awareness of its schemes and programmes last fiscal year, a lion’s share of which went to the print medium. However, this is less than half of what the government had spent in 2018-19, the year of general elections

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