Even as billions of dollars are being poured into stocks of companies that are ranked higher on environmental, social and governance (ESG) parameters, valuation guru Aswath Damodaran says it is a feel-good scam. "I believe that ESG is, at its core, a feel-good scam that is enriching consultants, measurement services and fund managers, while doing close to nothing for the businesses and investors it claims to help, and even less for society," Damodaran says.
TRADE SETUP: Cues for today's market  | Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded higher by 24 points at 8:10 hours (IST), signalling a gap-up start on Dalal Street. |
| Other Asian stocks were trading mixed. Shares weakened in China and Hong Kong following data showing contraction in Chinese manufacturing, while Japan's equities steadied, with the yen pulled back after two days of gains. Australia and South Korea advanced. |
| The yield on 10-year Treasuries was at 2.34%. The dollar held a retreat. |
| Indian gold prices on Wednesday jumped Rs 573 to Rs 51,470 per 10 grams in line with recovery in international precious metal prices. International gold was at $1,927.60 an ounce. |
| LOOK WHO'S |  |
Biz recast to help Tata Consumer....Combining Tata Coffee with Tata Consumer will effectively bring all the food, beverage, and plantation businesses under one roof. It will simplify the corporate structure by significantly reducing the number of entities and result in faster decision making and execution as well as revenue and operational efficiencies over the medium-to-long term.
Read more Subscribe to ONGC OFS....Retail investors could subscribe to the offer for sale (OFS) of ONGC for an upside of 20-30% in a year as the company's near-term outlook looks bright amid increasing crude prices, said analysts. The stock with a dividend yield of 3.6% is currently trading at two times FY23 estimated EV/EBITDA, which is at a huge discount to its global peers and its own long-term average valuations.
Read more No restriction on rupee-rouble trade....Ahead of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to India, Moscow has assured New Delhi that there is "no restriction of any kind" on settling transactions in the national currencies of the two countries.
Read more | AND WHO'S |  |
FPIs' equity sales cross Rs 2 L cr in FY22....The rolling 12-month cumulative outflow of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) through the stock exchange route crossed a record Rs 2 lakh crore or $ 28 billion, the data from NSDL show. FPI were net sellers in 10 out of the past 12 months. On average, they pulled out nearly $ 2.3 billion each month between April 2021 and March 2022.
Read more Ruchi FPO investors withdraw 97 lakh shares....About 97.4 lakh shares by nearly 14,600 investors were withdrawn from the Rs 4,300-crore Ruchi Soya follow-on public offering (FPO) as the deadline for the same closed on Wednesday evening.The data published by NSE late in the evening showed that despite the withdrawal, the FPO would be through comfortably with a subscription of 3.4 times.
Read more Emami price targets cut....Analysts at brokerages have cut their price targets on Emami by up to 17% as rural segment weakness is expected to impact growth and earnings prospects. CLSA has maintained an outperform rating and cut its target price to ₹470 from ₹570, estimating a limited upside in the stock.
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