logo
India's Paytm posts first-quarter profit

India's Paytm posts first-quarter profit

Reuters20 hours ago
July 22 (Reuters) - India's Paytm (PAYT.NS), opens new tab reported a quarterly profit on Tuesday aided by strong lending business and as it kept a tight lid on expenses.
The company posted a profit of 1.23 billion rupees ($14.24 million) for the first quarter ended June 30, compared to a loss of 8.39 billion rupee in the year-ago quarter.
The fintech firm's earnings in the same period last year was hurt by weakness in its payments business after the central bank's directive to shut down its banking unit in January, 2024.
($1 = 86.3470 Indian rupees)
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Iberdrola launches $5.9 bln capital increase to fund grid investments
Iberdrola launches $5.9 bln capital increase to fund grid investments

Reuters

time26 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Iberdrola launches $5.9 bln capital increase to fund grid investments

MADRID, July 23 (Reuters) - Europe's largest utility Iberdrola ( opens new tab on Wednesday launched a 5 billion euro ($5.87 billion) capital increase to help fund investments in power grids in Britain and in the United States. The company plans to increase its annual investments to around 15 billion euros from a current level of around 12 billion euros, building on its shift towards upgrading and expanding power grids in countries where returns are steady and healthy, such as the U.S. and Britain. The cash raised, along with debt, operating cash flow, asset sales and partnerships will help fund the new strategy the company will present in September. The shares offered through a process of accelerated book-building were set to be priced at 15.10 euros, one of the bookrunners said. Iberdrola's share price closed at 15.895 euros on Tuesday. Spain's stock market regulator suspended trading of Iberdrola's shares on Wednesday morning. Separately, the utility said first-half net profit declined 14% from a year earlier, when results included the sale of gas assets in Mexico. Net profit for the period was 3.56 billion euros ($4.18 billion) compared to 4.1 billion euros a year earlier. Excluding one-offs, profit was up 20%, it said. ($1 = 0.8523 euros)

Key US electricity price and output trends so far in 2025
Key US electricity price and output trends so far in 2025

Reuters

time29 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Key US electricity price and output trends so far in 2025

LITTLETON, Colorado, July 23 (Reuters) - The first half of 2025 featured a slew of U.S. electricity and power milestones, with generation, demand and retail prices all scaling records during January to June. Below are key data points that track ongoing changes to the U.S. power and electricity sectors, which are being buffeted by historic swings in federal energy policies, rapid clean power deployment and surging consumer and business electricity demand. U.S. electricity production during January to June hit a record in 2025 as output from solar and wind farms scaled all-time highs. Total utility-supplied electricity production during January to June was 2,188 terawatt hours (TWh), which was the highest total on record for the January to June period and up 4% from the same months in 2024, data from Ember shows. A 32% year-over-year surge in solar output, along with record wind farm generation, helped drive clean-energy electricity supplies up 6% from a year ago to 989 TWh. Clean power sources secured a record 45.2% share of total electricity supplies during January to June, compared to a 44.2% share during the same months a year ago. Fossil fuels generated 1,199 TWh of electricity during January to June, or 54.8% of the total. Output from natural gas power plants, which are the largest single power source in the U.S., declined by 4% from the year before following a climb in gas prices early in 2025. To compensate for that drop in gas power, utilities bumped coal-fired power output up 17% during January to June from the same months in 2024. Coal accounted for 16% of power generation, the highest levels for the opening half of the year since 2022. U.S. retail electricity prices also scaled new highs this year, with the price across major U.S. cities averaging 18.2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) during the opening half of the year, data from the U.S. Federal Reserve system shows. A combination of factors has been driving U.S. electricity costs steadily higher in recent years, including sustained electricity demand growth from data centers, AI applications, electric vehicles and air conditioners. The average electricity price in June 2025 was 6.7% above the rate in June 2024, which means that household electricity costs have climbed at more than twice the pace of overall U.S. consumer price inflation over that period. In addition to reflecting rising power demand, electricity costs have also climbed due to soaring spending by utilities to upgrade aging power grids which are struggling to accommodate the higher loads as well as growing volumes of renewable power. U.S. President Donald Trump has blamed the policies of previous president Joe Biden for fuelling much of the growth in electricity prices, arguing that the subsidized deployment of renewable power supplies has raised costs for utilities. Republican lawmakers have cited the high electricity prices in California - which has the country's most aggressive clean energy targets - as proof that clean energy goals raise consumer energy bills, and as justification for gutting clean energy support in the latest government budget. Yet electricity price trends so far in 2025 indicate that several states with above-average clean energy supply shares have seen prices fall from a year ago, while states with stout opposition to clean energy have seen prices rise. In California, which has the highest electricity prices of all states, electricity costs have averaged around 31.5 cents/kWh this year compared to just over 32 cents/kWh in 2024, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows. Electricity prices have also declined from a year ago in Iowa, Kansas and Nevada, which have all sharply lifted the supplies of clean power in electricity generation so far this decade. In contrast, states with energy systems that have stifled the growth of clean energy supplies have seen electricity costs rise by far more than the national average so far in 2025. Average prices in Florida - which has banned wind power generation and restricts state support for solar power - have risen by 5% so far this year, to around 14.94 cents/kWh from 14.25 cents/kWh in 2024. Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and Wisconsin have also seen electricity costs rise by more than the U.S. average so far this year, and have also posted much slower clean energy supply growth than California so far this decade. On average, electricity prices in those states continue to hold below the national average, which was around 16.75 cents/kWh so far this year. But with power demand rising in all states, all utilities will be on the hook to deliver much-needed grid upgrades over the coming years. Some states with large supplies of power from solar and wind farms may be able to avoid further steep electricity price increases over the near term, as generation costs from renewables can be far lower than from fossil fuel plants. But in areas with little to no clean power supplies, utilities may have no choice but to raise consumer electricity costs in order to fund the continued operations of their fossil power plants and make necessary system upgrades. Those utilities will also likely increase their exposure to fossil fuel prices going forward as federal support for clean energy supplies are scrapped and remaining policy measures funnel power expansion options towards fossil fuels. That means that any further increases in gas and coal costs due to rising power demand may also be passed on to consumers, and could further accelerate the rise in customer energy bills in areas that lack significant clean energy supplies. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, opens new tab and X, opens new tab.

Breakingviews - Beijing grabs old dam playbook to energise growth
Breakingviews - Beijing grabs old dam playbook to energise growth

Reuters

time29 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Breakingviews - Beijing grabs old dam playbook to energise growth

HONG KONG, July 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Beijing is digging into the past to unleash a 1.2 trillion yuan ($170 billion) stimulus. Construction started in Tibet over the weekend on one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams. It can help the country meet its energy demands and emissions-reduction targets. It also signals that Chinese President Xi Jinping is reviving the tried-and-tested tactic of using mega infrastructure spending to reboot economic growth. Huge dams have been central to planners' thinking in previous economic cycles. Perhaps the most well-known, the Three Gorges, contributed to a quick rebound after the Asian financial crisis in 1998. A big dam boom, which catapulted the People's Republic into being the world's biggest, opens new tab hydropower producer, also supported Xi's last major campaign to fight overcapacity in 2015. Those are the same pressures China's economy is facing now. Granted, the new super dam won't have the same stimulative impact on an economy which has grown 19-fold to $19 trillion since construction on the Three Gorges began in earnest. But it's still notable. The first year of construction could add almost a tenth of a percentage point to GDP in its first year of construction, per Citi analysts, thanks to demand for cement, steel and other products. Stock and commodity players cheered the news, with iron ore futures, for example, hitting a more than four-month high. That optimism, though, is rooted in investors' assumptions that the dam is not a one-off, but part of a broader push to underpin China's economy with major infrastructure projects. There are risks to the Tibetan dam. Further downstream the river flows into India, which will be concerned about water security. While more hydropower will eventually help reduce China's greenhouse gas pollution, building it will add to them. It'll require around 30 million tons of cement, per Morgan Stanley, equivalent to two years of China's current production. It'll need plenty of steel, too. Those two industries combined account for almost a fifth of global carbon emissions. Moreover, dams are not immune to climate change. Drought in Sichuan in 2022, for instance, prompted all manner of electricity-use restrictions. For Beijing the benefits outweigh the negatives. If electricity consumption is a better economic indicator, opens new tab than official GDP figures, as former Premier Li Keqiang once said, the renewed urgency in adding more hydropower speaks volumes about Beijing's economic plan.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store