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The 2017 Hyundai Xcent facelift has been launched in the Indian market. While the prices start at Rs 5.38 lakh, it goes all the way up to 8.41 lakh for the top-spec variants (all prices ex-showroom, Delhi). The new Xcent has similar updates as the Grand i10 facelift which was launched in February this year. The Xcent facelift has redesigned front and rear profiles, a new 1.2-litre diesel engine and some new features.The 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder diesel engine that powers the Xcent facelift is based on the previous 1.1-litre diesel engine. Under the Xcent’s hood, the updated diesel engine makes 75PS of maximum power and 190Nm of peak torque, which is 3PS and 10Nm more than before. The diesel engine is paired with a 5-speed manual transmission. The Xcent continues to get the 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine that makes 83PS of maximum power and 114Nm of peak torque. It comes with an option of a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic transmission. While the manual petrol variant has a claimed fuel efficiency of 20.14 kmpl, the automatic variant returns 17.36 kmpl. On the other hand, the diesel engine returns a mileage of 25.4 kmpl.As far as aesthetic changes are concerned, the updated Xcent gets Hyundai's new cascading grille, which made its debut on the Grand i10 facelift globally. In the Xcent, the grille features horizontal chrome slats, whereas the hatch comes with a mesh pattern. The Xcent gets a redesigned front bumper inspired from the upcoming Verna. It also features daytime running LEDs placed in the fog lamp housing. Instead of the diamond-cut alloy wheels of the pre-facelift model, the Xcent facelift gets silver-finished alloys. At the rear, it features split wraparound tail lamps, with a chrome strip adjoining them, and a new redesigned dual-tone rear bumper as well. The updated Xcent also gets a shark-fin antenna like the Verna and the Honda City.

In terms of features, the Xcent facelift gets a 7.0-inch infotainment system that supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with Mirror Link connectivity. It also receive Hyundai’s Alternator Management System (AMS) tech, which charges the battery only during deceleration or when the engine has power to spare, saving fuel in the process. As for safety, dual-front airbags are now standard. The pre-facelift model offered driver airbag along with ABS as standard fitment.Hyundai has also removed a lot of features in the new Xcent to make sure it remains a value for money car like earlier. The new base E variant of the new Xcent misses a lot features like full-wheel covers, blacked-out B-pillars, passenger-side vanity mirror, a digital clock, rear-seat armrest, a day/night IRVM and central locking as compared to the to the pre-facelift base variant. Also, while the height-adjustable driver seat has been removed from the S variant, the SX variant misses out on the automatic electrochromatic IRVM. Also, the SX (O) variant doesn’t get the ioniser for the climate control. While the new base variant, E is cheaper now, other variants see a marginal bump of around Rs 10000 to Rs 30000. Hyundai will also keep selling the outgoing Xcent but it will be limited only for commercial purposes.



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Mumbai: BSE Sensex edged lower on Wednesday as investors turned cautious ahead of a slew of corporate results, particularly banks, although a forecast for an average monsoon gave a leg-up to market sentiment. The focus is now on the financial sector this week—with Yes Bank and HDFC Bank due to report results—after mixed fortunes at IT blue chips that have already reported earnings.

Infosys Ltd was down for the fourth consecutive session, dropping about 5% since issuing a lower-than-expected revenue guidance for the year last week, while Tata Consultancy Services fell as much as 2.43% after earnings marginally beat expectations on Tuesday.

“Results season has started and results for some of the sectors are expected to be subdued,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research at Centrum Wealth. “Investors could be cautious given that markets are closer to their highs.”Sentiment, however, was supported after India’s weather office said on Tuesday that monsoon rains would be of an average amount in 2017, easing concerns over farm and economic growth. “Hopes of a consumption recovery in the second half of the year are holding up the markets from a long-term perspective,” Khemka said, adding a good monsoon would bode well for the economy.

Financial stocks were among the top losers on the NSE index. Axis Bank fell as much as 2.28%, while ICICI Bank dropped 1.15%. National Aluminium Co slumped as much as 7.08% to its lowest since 8 March after the miner said on Tuesday the government would sell up to a 10% stake in the company.

2.58pm: BSE Sensex trades lower by 16 points, or 0.05%, to 29,303, while the Nifty 50 falls 15 points, or 0.17%, to 9,090.

2.04pm: BSE Sensex trades higher by 15 points, or 0.05%, to 29,334, while the Nifty 50 falls 4 points, or 0.04%, to 9,102.

12.30pm: BSE Sensex trades lower by 27 points, or 0.09%, to 29,292, while the Nifty 50 falls 11 points, or 0.12%, to 9,094.

11.40am: BSE Sensex trades lower by 22 points, or 0.08%, to 29,297, while the Nifty 50 falls 16 points, or 0.17%, to 9,089.

10.40am: BSE Sensex trades higher by 20 points, or 0.07%, to 29,340, while the Nifty 50 rises 3 points, or 0.04%, to 9,108.

10.00am: Banking stocks trade lower. IDBI Bank fell 1.5%, Corporation Bank 1.5%, Union Bank 1.1%, Axis Bank fell 1%, Bank of Baroda 0.5%, HDFC Bank 0.5%, ICICI Bank 0.3%, IndusInd Bank 0.3%, State Bank of India 0.3%.

9.55am: Tata Motors shares fell for six consecutive sessions and down 7.1% in this period. The scrip was trading at Rs441.50 on BSE, down 0.6% from previous close.

9.45am: Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd shares fall 2.6% to Rs 131.35 after news report said that the National Stock Exchange is probing the trades in equity derivatives of Indiabulls Real Estate following the huge swings in price in the last couple of trading sessions

9.38am: BSE Sensex trades higher by 3 points, or 0.01%, to 29,322, while the Nifty 50 rises 5 points, or 0.06%, to 9,110.

9.30am: National Aluminium Co. Ltd (Nalco) shares fall 6.3% to Rs68.80 as its offer for sale starts. The government said it will sell 10% stake in the company and raise around Rs600 crore.

9.25am: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd shares fall 1.6% to Rs2,272 after weaker then expected earnings. The company missed analysts’ estimates for both revenue and profit in the fourth fiscal quarter, even as India’s largest software services firm’s full-year sales rose 6.2% to $17.58 billion. The company reported revenue of $4.45 billion in the three months ended 31 March, a 1.5% increase from the preceding quarter and 5.8% from the year-ago period. Net profit totalled $992 million, a 0.8% decline on a sequential basis and an increase of 5.8% from the year-ago period.

9.20am: Hindustan Oil Exploration Co. Ltd shares rise 1.5% to Rs85.40 after the company said it reported a net profit of Rs98.24 crore in March quarter against net loss of Rs18.26 crore a year ago. Net sales rose 37.5% to Rs79.72 crore.

9.15am: The rupee opened at 64.61 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 64.57, up 0.09% from its Tuesday’s close of 64.63. Year-to-date, it gained 5.3%.

9.10am: The 10-year bond yield was trading at 6.862% compared to its previous close of 6.864%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions

9.00am: Asian currencies were trading lower. Singapore dollar was down 0.11%, Singapore dollar 0.09%, China offshore spot 0.09%, Philippines peso 0.07%, Taiwan dollar 0.07% and South Korean won 0.06%. However, Thai baht was up 0.09% and Malaysian ringgit 0.08%.
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A day after news broke out regarding Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel's disinterest in expanding the business to "poor countries" like India, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store.

According to the app info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning. The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).

The bashing started when US-based news website Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat's ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that company CEO Evan Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".

Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.

"First of all, I didn't even want to give any freakin' star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn't want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn't he put any charges on it?" a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO. Some users wrote, "Poor India and Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You'll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".

The app was also trolled on Twitter, as #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight. "I haven't seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted.

"I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let's see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter. Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".

According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of the Stories feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013. Instagram's Stories feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January. On the other hand, Snapchat who launched the Stories format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February. The Stories feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.


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The BSE Sensex crossed the 29,000 mark on Monday, March 6, 2017 on the back of rise in liquidity. The rise is on the expectation that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be coming into power in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state. Today's rise in the equity market was also supported on the news that on the weekend, the GST council approved the draft CGST bill and the draft IGST bill.

While the rise is on back of liquidity, it's time to be wary about the gains in the market and probably sit on sidelines as the market has run too quickly in a shorter span. Any bad news will see a sharp correction in the market.


Next week being a truncated week, with Monday, March 13, 2017 being a national holiday due to Holi, it would be better to sit on sidelines as by then the UP election results would be out. The UP election result comes out on Saturday, March 11 2017. If the BJP government does not come to power in UP, the market will see a correction. Though it's not going to have a major impact on the Indian economy, but it will certainly spoil the sentiment.

The market could even fall on pure profit booking following a sharp rise in the recent past. The BSE Sensex since the beginning of 2017 has jumped 10 per cent from a low of 26,406.53 on 30 December 2016 to 29,145.62 on 2 March 2017.

Next week with the US Fed expected to hike interest rates, it could be better to wait on sidelines. While the market has discounted the news, it could pull the equity market lower on the US rate hike. The two-day US Fed meeting starts on March 14, 2017.

So far it may not be alarming but worries over brewing tension in Asia rose after North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into seas near Japan. In such cases it would be better to sit on sidelines and wait for a clear trend to emerge starting from the UP election results followed by the US Fed meeting.
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Former chairman of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata expressed his gratitude to the Tata Steel employees and workers’ union for their support during the recent management crisis. He got emotional while participating in the 178th birth anniversary of the founder, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata.

Ratan Tata while speaking to the officials of Tata Workers’ Union (TWU) on Friday said that it was because of the support of union leaders and workers, that the company could overcome the crisis within the management.

TWU, one of the oldest and most prestigious workers union in the country served by titans like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi, had extended full support to the management during the emergency general meeting (EGM) called by the company in Mumbai, around two months back, union leaders said.

Ratan Tata, his two sisters, chairman of Tata Sons Natarajan Chandrasekaran, managing director of Tata Steel, and TV Narendran had visited TWU after paying homage to JN Tata on the company premises.

Union leaders including TWU president R Ravi Prasad, BK Dinda, Sanjiv Kumar Choudhary, Kamlesh Singh and others talked about various industrial issues, including starting more companies in Jharkhand, revival of sick companies in the town and developing Jamshedpur as an IT hub.


Rata Tata informed the union leaders that his dream project, ‘Nano’ was meant to fulfil family car dream for the low income group but the economic approach towards such low budget cars was not as per his expectation.

Top company officials said the best possible measure will be taken in future to start various other production in Jamshedpur.

Chandrasekaran appreciated the healthy relationship between the company management and union and said that Tata Steel is the pioneer in setting a bench mark with respect to workers’ rights in India.

MD, TV Narendran said that the company had taken step towards maximum digitalization in various departmental works within the company. With the help of workers’ support, the company will continue to be leader in steel industry in the country, he added.

Assistant secretary of TWU, Kamlesh Singh said the Jharkhand government has brought about a positive environment for more industries in the state. The Tata Sons should take benefit of it and build more ‘Jamshedpur’s’ in the state, he added.
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Bengaluru: India's dominant services industry returned to growth in February for the first time in four months as demand slowly recovers after the government's cash crackdown late last year, a private business survey showed on Friday.

The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 50.3 in February from 48.7 in January, marginally above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction.

The index slumped to a near-three year low in November after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise decision to outlaw old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes to crack down on "black money" and tax evasion.

The decision sucked 86 per cent of cash out of circulation, and everyone from street hawkers to big consumer goods firms suffered a slump in sales.

A sister survey on Wednesday showed manufacturing activity also expanded further in February, though at a lackluster pace.

Service providers reported new business grew for the first time since October. Though the expansion was modest, they were able to raise their prices to partly offset rising costs.

The turnaround in business activity came as businesses recovered from the demonetization-related disruptions seen in the previous three months, wrote Pollyanna De Lima, economist at IHS Markit, in a note.

"Nevertheless, growth rates were mild at best and far from their historical averages."

Despite expectations that the cash crunch would exact a heavy toll on the economy, government data earlier this week showed economy still grew 7.0 percent in the December quarter from a year earlier, slowing from the previous quarter but not as sharply as some had expected.

That has raised questions about the quality of government data, and prompted economists to look to other measures to gauge the strength of activity.

"So far, firms are doubtful about the sustainability of the economic recovery," De Lima said. "It is still too early to state that expansion rates will climb to their trend levels in the near term."

Doubts over the strength of the economic recovery and rising prices are also likely to further reinforce the Reserve Bank of India's latest move to hold interest rates steady and change its policy stance to neutral from accommodative.
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Finance industry experts believe the brunt of the negative impact of the move would be faced by self-employed and small businesses, while the salaried class might not face much inconvenience.

Leading private sector banks – HDFC Bank , ICICI Bank and Axis Bank – have over the week announced new charges on cash transactions beyond certain limits. While the move may appear to be against the interest of customers, should you be the one to worry about its impact? Finance industry experts believe the brunt of the negative impact of the move would be faced by self-employed professionals and small businesses, while the salaried class might not face much inconvenience. “Self-employed customers of banks are used to more transactions and thus would feel inconvenienced or would have to pay the charges. The salaried class generally do not withdraw or deposit cash more than 3-4 times a month, either from the branch or ATMs. However, with these new levies, those who have a tendency of making frequent cash transactions might be forced to plan out their finances better so that they restrict the number of cash withdrawals or taking out more cash in
one withdrawal,” Rishi Mehra, CEO of Wishfin.com said. Parth Pande, Co-founder and CEO, Finance Buddha, feels small businesses would be most hurt by the new move by banks. “The main impact will be felt by small businesses who make daily payments to vendors and others in cash and those bank customers who have yet not adopted the newer technology-led payment mechanisms, mainly poor people and old people,” Pande said. According to the new schedule of charges, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank would allow four free cash transactions a month, and would levy a minimum charge of Rs 150 per transaction thereafter. HDFC Bank will permit cash withdrawals and deposits of up to Rs 2 lakh a month from the home branch (where the account was opened). Axis Bank has allowed its customers to transact cash up to Rs 1 lakh in a month in the home branch beyond which charges will be levied. Axis has said it does not differentiate between home and non-home branch.

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Pande feels bank customers should make an extra effort to adopt digital transactions to avoid new charges. “There is a clear mandate from the government to move towards digital transactions. Customers have to develop the habit of making digital transactions even for small amounts, and move away from dependence on cash. Banks have chosen a push approach for the same by creating a structure where consumers will now have to look at these channels more actively,” he said.
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The market on Friday extended fall for the second straight session as investors booked profits after a sharp rally that lifted the benchmark indices to near two-year highs in the previous session.

The negative trade in Asian markets, which slipped on expectations of a US interest rate hike in March, also weighed on sentiment.

At 12:45 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at xxxx, up xx points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at xxxx, up xx points. 

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. BSE Midcap was down 0.1%, while BSE Smallcap was little changed. 

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,370 shares fell and 1,098 shares rose. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.

Among individual stocks, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise fell as much as 5.3% to Rs 1246 after a unit of Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah launched a block deal to sell $160 million worth of shares in the company.

Shares of BSE dipped 3% to Rs 888 to trade at its lowest level since its listing on February 3, 2017 and correcting 26% from its intra-day high of Rs 1,200, touched on the debut day.

Among gainers, Reliance Industries (RIL) rose over 4% to Rs 1,288 after the company informed that entities forming part of the promoter group of the company intend to acquire from other promoter group entities by way of ‘inter-se’ transfer aggregating up to 1,190 million shares of RIL.


Meanwhile, the Nikkei Services Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, in India came in at 50.3 in February of 2017, up from 48.7 in January. It was the first expansion after three months contraction but the weakest since October 2016 as output increased while employment has shown only one noteworthy monthly increase in the past one-and-a-half years.

Overseas, Asian markets were mostly lower, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.9% in the biggest daily drop so far this year.

Australia fell 0.8% and Shanghai 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.7% as a weaker yen only helped limit some of the losses.
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