Latest news with #175
Business Recorder
24-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Weekly SPI down 0.29pc
ISLAMABAD: The SPI for the current week ended May 22, decreased by 0.29 percent. Major decrease has been observed in the prices of chicken (7.26 per cent), onions (5.43 per cent), garlic (2.71 per cent), LPG (2.44 per cent), potatoes (0.95 per cent), mustard oil (0.80 per cent), diesel (0.78 per cent), masoor (0.46 per cent), cooking oil (0.14per cent), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.09per cent), firewood (0.06 per cent), and vegetable ghee 2.5kg and sugar (0.05 per cent) each, says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 1.35per cent, ladies sandal (55.62 per cent), chicken (45.12 per cent), moong (30.79 per cent), powdered milk (24.01 per cent), bananas (22.43 per cent), sugar (22.12 per cent), eggs (21.52 per cent), pulse gram (20.70 per cent), beef (17.56 per cent), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (13.86per cent), LPG (13.05per cent), and vegetable ghee 1kg (12.76per cent). On the other hand, the items prices of which decreasedinclude; onions (54.93 per cent), potatoes (30.46 per cent), garlic (29.43 per cent), electricity charges for Q1 (29.40per cent), tea Lipton (17.93per cent), wheat flour (16.63 per cent), maash (16.03 per cent), tomatoes (14.03 per cent), chilies powder (12.30 per cent), rice IRRI-6/9 (8.50per cent), masoor (7.64 per cent) and petrol (7.43 per cent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 13 (25.49per cent) items increased, 14 (27.45per cent) items decreased and 24 (47.06per cent) items remained stable. The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs17,732, Rs17,732-Rs22,888, Rs22,889-Rs29,517, Rs29,518-Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 decreased by 0.26per cent, 0.27per cent, 0.26per cent, 0.28per cent and 0.30per cent respectively. The items prices of which decreased during the period under review include, chicken farm broiler (live) 1kg7.26 per cent, onions 1kg 5.43 per cent, garlic (lehsun) 1kg 2.71 per cent, LPG 11.67 kg cylinder each 2.44 per cent, potatoes 1kg 0.95 per cent, mustard oil (average quality) 1kg 0.80 per cent, hi-speed diesel per litre 0.78 per cent, masoor (washed) 1kg 0.46 per cent, cooking oil Dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each 0.14 per cent. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Daily Maverick
28-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Three nuggets from the mining sector
If you look beyond gold, you won't find much great news in the mining sector. Still, there are a few interesting things to learn from recent production updates. If you could pick any nugget in the mining sector right now, you would certainly choose a gold nugget. The gold price is behaving like a meme stock, having broken through the $3,000/oz (R1,978 per gram) mark in March and then wasting no time at all in getting close to $3,500/oz (R2,307 per gram) in April. Now below $3,300/oz (R2,175 per gram), we are seeing the kind of volatility in the price that is usually reserved for property funds. Such is the broader environment that we currently find ourselves in. This gold price boom has naturally driven huge returns in the share prices of local gold miners. In turn, these have boosted the JSE Top 40 Index returns. The performance of our local equity market this year has very little to do with conditions on the ground in South Africa. If you look beyond gold, you won't find much great news in the mining sector. Still, if we look for nuggets of insights instead of just nuggets of gold, there are a few interesting things to learn from the recent production updates that we've seen in the sector, starting with the obsession with copper. Copper on top If you read the announcements by the likes of BHP and Anglo American, you'll see that they have copper on the brain. The metal is seen as being key to the energy transition, with numerous industrial uses and a particularly strong use case in electrification, which ties in perfectly with the global push towards reduced emissions. This is a perfect example of how mining houses need to take a long-term view on a particular metal, as the investment required to get commodities out of the ground is immense. The difficulty of managing capital allocation decisions against a backdrop of commodity pricing cycles is a feature of the mining industry, not a bug. You may recall that BHP recently made a play for Anglo American. What they were really after was the copper, as Anglo American is sitting on some strong copper assets. The rest of Anglo's group is a mixed bag of note, which is why the deal would have required plenty of restructuring at Anglo American to panelbeat their business into what BHP was actually looking for. Although Anglo's board pushed back against the deal on that basis, the message from the market was clear: Anglo needed to sort out its group and focus on what was actually working. Ironically, the initiatives since then have been largely in line with what BHP would have required anyway. One has to wonder if BHP is simply waiting in the wings for Anglo to finish up its restructuring, before returning with another offer. Time will tell. Anglo's greatest love may be copper, but they are also hanging on to their iron ore and manganese ore assets, as well as their future plans around the crop nutrients side of the business. Beyond that, it's all about asset disposals and demergers. Anglo American Platinum will be demerged at the end of May and will change its name to Valterra Platinum. Deals are in process to dispose of the steelmaking coal and nickel businesses as well, although a recent fire at one of the steelmaking coal assets has cast some doubt on that transaction. As for De Beers, that brings us neatly to our third nugget… Diamonds on the bottom There's just no sign of improvement whatsoever for De Beers. This has become Anglo American's biggest headache, with diamond production down 11% year-on-year in the latest quarter. With prices down 38%, it's not like the lower supply is doing any wonders for demand. At this stage, lab-grown diamonds are looking less like a disruptive force and more like an extinction event for mined diamonds. If this is indeed an asteroid for the sector, then it's terrible news for the economy in Botswana. Anglo American wants to sell De Beers, and they have a new long-term deal in place with the Botswana government to try to support such a transaction. I just can't see how they are going to find a buyer at a decent price, as there is no good news coming through in this business to support a thesis around growth, or even a recovery, for that matter. Has Transnet finally bottomed? Although Afrimat's full-year numbers paint a sobering picture in the iron ore industry, the Kumba Iron Ore announcement (which only deals with the latest quarter) shows that there are signs of improvement. Kumba noted a 5% improvement in Transnet's performance, which in turn led to a 6% increase in sales volumes. The sad truth is that the infrastructure has been the bottleneck for the sector, as the iron ore miners have had to curtail their production to respond to what Transnet is actually capable of transporting. Although there are some green shoots here, Kumba is taking a cautious approach. Instead of ramping up production this quarter, they instead used the opportunity to reduce their finished stock. Perhaps if Transnet can continue with this positive momentum, we will see a meaningful uptick in production. The other good news for Kumba came in the form of the FOB (free on board) export price for iron ore. In the case of Kumba and its FOB export price for iron ore, it means: Kumba's pricing is based on the cost of iron ore up to the point it is loaded on to the ship at the port. The buyer (say, a steel mill in China) then covers shipping, insurance and any further transport. Not only are they still running above the benchmark price, but they enjoyed a price that was 10% higher year-on-year. For now, there's been no upgrade to guidance for the year. It's still early days, and we know how volatile the market is, not just in terms of iron ore pricing, but also in relation to Transnet's performance. Nonetheless, it's great to see some positive momentum here. As one of the key iron ore businesses in the broader Anglo American stable, Kumba helped to offset some of the pressures seen elsewhere in the Anglo group in this quarter. DM
India.com
26-04-2025
- Business
- India.com
IDFC FIRST Bank Posts Nearly 60 Per Cent Net Profit Loss At Rs 295.6 Crore in Q4 FY25
Mumbai: Private lender IDFC FIRST Bank on Saturday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 295.6 crore for the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY25, nearly 60 per cent decline compared to Rs 731.9 crore reported in the same period in FY24. For the full financial year FY25, net profit stood at Rs 1,490 crore, down almost 50 per cent from Rs 2,942 crore (year-on-year), as per its stock exchange filing. Net Interest Income (NII) grew 9.8 per cent YOY from Rs. 4,469 crore in Q4 FY24 to Rs. 4,907 crore in Q4 FY25. For FY25, the growth of NII was 17.3 per cent on YoY basis. According to the bank, core operating income grew 8.7 per cent from Rs 6,079 crore in Q4 FY24 to Rs. 6,609 crore in Q4 FY25. For FY25, the growth of operating income was 16.7 per cent on YoY basis. Customer deposits increased 25.2 per cent from Rs 1,93,753 crore as of March 31, 2024 to Rs 2,42,543 crore as of March 31, 2025. Retail deposits grew by 26.4 per cent from Rs. 1,51,343 crore as of March 31, 2024 to Rs. 1,91,268 crore as of March 31, 2025. The bank said that CASA deposits grew by 24.8 per cent from Rs. 94,768 crore to Rs. 1,18,237 crore in the same period. Gross NPA of the bank improved by 7 bps QoQ from 1.94 per cent as of December 31, 2024 to 1.87 per cent as of March 31, 2025. Net NPA of the Bank marginally increased by 1 bps QoQ from 0.52 per cent as of December 31, 2024 to 0.53 per cent as of March 31, 2025. According to its filing, loans and advances increased by 20.4 per cent from Rs 2,00,965 crore to Rs 2,41,926 crore. The gross slippage for Q4 FY25 was Rs.2,175 crore as compared to Rs 2,192 crores in Q3 FY25, reduced by Rs 17 crore.
Associated Press
07-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Regional airlines Republic Airways, Mesa Air Group are combining in an all-stock deal
Republic Airways and Mesa Air Group Inc. are combining in an all-stock deal that will create a regional airline with access to more planes to service routes. Specific financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed in a statement Monday. Republic, started in 1974, has a fleet of more than 240 Embraer 170/175 aircraft and carried about 17.5 million passengers on more than 300,000 flights last year. It mostly serves Northeast and Mid-Atlantic hubs and operates exclusively under long-term capacity purchase agreements with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Mesa Air Group, founded in 1982, is the holding company of Mesa Airlines, a regional air carrier that offers service to 89 cities in 40 states, the District of Columbia, the Bahamas, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico. It runs a fleet of 60 Embraer 175 aircraft with more than 250 daily scheduled departures and has approximately 1,700 employees. Mesa operates all of its flights as United Express under the terms of a capacity purchase agreement with United Airlines. The combined airline will have a single fleet of approximately 310 Embraer 170/175 aircraft, with more than 1,250 daily departures. It will continue to serve American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines and anticipates keeping all flight crews, technicians, and other operational staff. 'Republic and Mesa share a common mission to connect communities across America, and we believe that we can better achieve that mission together,' Republic President and CEO Bryan Bedford said in a statement on Monday. 'With this combination, we are establishing a single, well-capitalized, public company that will benefit from the deep expertise of Republic and Mesa associates, creating value for all stakeholders well into the future.' The combined company will be called Republic Airways Holdings Inc. and will be listed on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol 'RJET.' Its board will include six existing directors from Republic's board and one independent director from the Mesa's board. Once the transaction closes, Republic shareholders will own 88% of the combined company's stock. Mesa shareholders will own at least 6% and up to 12% of the combined company, dependent on achieving certain pre-closing criteria. All outstanding Mesa debt obligations will be extinguished as a result of the transaction. Both companies' boards have approved the deal, which is targeted to close in either the late third or early fourth quarter. It still needs approval from the shareholders of both companies.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Measles case confirmed in DC, individual may have exposed others on Amtrak train
A measles case was confirmed in a person who traveled to Washington, D.C., on an Amtrak train, according to the D.C. Department of Health (DC Health). The person visited multiple locations while contagious, including the southbound Amtrak Northeast Regional 175 Train and Union Station on March 19 as well as a MedStar Urgent Care in Adams Morgan on March 22, DC Health said in a press release on Tuesday. DC Health said it is currently working to inform people who were at these locations that they may have been exposed. MORE: Measles vaccinations are increasing in some areas hit hard by cases: Officials Health officials are specifying that people who are "not immune" are most at-risk of infection. This includes those who are unvaccinated or who have never contracted measles before. DC Health did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. "DC Public Health has notified Amtrak of a confirmed case of measles in a customer traveling on Amtrak Train 175 from New York to Washington Union Station on Wednesday, March 19," Amtrak said in a statement on Wednesday. "Amtrak is reaching out directly to customers who were on this train to notify them of possible exposure." The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also released a statement on Wednesday, saying it is "aware" of the confirmed case and the patient's travel. "Public Health agencies routinely exchange information when exposures occur in other localities, and we are in communication with the DC Department of Health on this matter," the statement read in part. MORE: RFK Jr. claims measles can be treated with vitamin A, linked to poor diet. Here's what science says The CDC has confirmed 378 measles cases so far this year in at least 17 states: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington. This is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency. Health officials are encouraging those who have never been vaccinated before to receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don't need a booster. ABC News' Matt Foster and Othon Leyva contributed to this report. Measles case confirmed in DC, individual may have exposed others on Amtrak train originally appeared on
