The price hikes during Covid were more because of supply chain and logistics disruptions caused by the pandemic and the Ukraine war rather than firms increasing prices because of higher pricing power, a report by State Bank of India (SBI) said. “It is thus incorrect to infer that concentration power dictated pricing capacity of firms, thus resulting in unyielding core inflation,” the report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, SBI, said. A recent research article by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Viral Acharya had observed that persistence of core inflation in India is due to purchasing power of top-five corporate houses.

The retail industry witnessed robust top-line growth for the greater part of the previous financial year, but demand has started to show signs of fatigue seen in the January-March quarter (fourth quarter, or Q4) of 2022-23 (FY23), especially in the apparel and innerwear segments. Jewellery, however, has managed to hold on to demand in the quarter. “In the discretionary space, demand moderation in urban markets is expected to impact the quick-service restaurant and apparel categories the most, while paint, luggage, and jewellery should see resilient growth,” Systematic Institutional Equities observed in its preview of the sector.

HDFC Bank Q4 review: HDFC Bank’s January-March quarter (Q4) results, for financial year 2022-23 (FY23), brought no cheer to investors as elevated costs, and merger-related uncertainties continue to dent the sentiment. Moreover, analysts fear that merger-related costs may put pressure on margins and cost to income ratio in the near-term, while the return on equity could moderate owing to low leverage of the parent. Analysts, therefore, opine that the stock’s re-rating may be some time away. “While the risk of a de-rating on a standalone basis appears to be quite low given that the business performance is holding up well, we believe a re-rating in the stock would happen as and when more clarity emerges on the smooth transition (merger),” said a report by Sharekhan.

Workers’ expectations around the pay rises this year have skyrocketed in India, with 90 per cent of people interviewed are looking for a hike in salary, a report said on Monday. In India, 90 per cent of workers interviewed expect a pay rise this year and on average, close to 20 per cent of the employees surveyed are anticipating an increase of 4-6 per cent, followed by 19 per cent anticipating a 10-12 per cent hike, ADP Research Institute’s – People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View – report revealed. The report revealed that in India, 78 per cent of workers received a pay rise last year, and the hikes averaged 4-6 per cent.

As many as 48 companies, including Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd and Adani group, are in the final list of eligible prospective resolution applicants for acquiring debt-ridden Future Retail Ltd. The Resolution Professional of Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which is currently going through an insolvency resolution process, on Monday came out with the final list of ‘Eligible Prospective Resolution Applicants’. On April 10, FRL’s RP updated a list of 49 companies, which had submitted Expressions of Interest (EoIs) after the company’s lenders decided to invite fresh bids after dividing its assets into clusters.