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Even amid general elections, the primary market continues to remain vibrant with the public offer of Awfis Space Solutions set to open next week. Apart from the sole mainboard IPO, one other SME issue of GSM Foils will be launched on May 24.Apart from the new issues, D-Street will see as many as 8 listings including that of the Go Digit General Insurance, which opened for subscription in the week gone by and generated significant enthusiasm among investors, reflecting the broader positive market sentiment."Looking ahead, the market is set to welcome several more IPOs, with expectations running high for their success," said Mahavir Lunawat, MD, Pantomath Capital.Here's what's on the IPO table next weekThe IPO of office sharing startup Awfis Space Solutions is set to open for subscription on May 22. The company has fixed a price band of Rs 364-383 per share.The issue will close on May 27, with the anchor book opening on May 21. The firm is anticipated to list on stock exchanges on May 30.The total size of the offering will be Rs 576 to Rs 599 crore. At the upper end of the price band, the company is valued at Rs 2,659 crore.The IPO of Awfis Space Solutions includes a fresh share sale of Rs 128 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 1,22,95,699 equity shares amounting to Rs 490.72 crore.Peak XV Partners will now sell up to 6.6 million shares, while Bisque, a unit of ChrysCapital, will sell 5.6 million shares. Real estate investment trust, Link Investment Trust, will sell 85,201 shares.About 75% of the offering is reserved for qualified institutional bidders (QIBs), while 15% is reserved for non-institutional investors and the remaining 10% for retail investors.The company said it plans to utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue of shares for expansion and establishing new centres, working capital requirements and general corporate purposes.SME SegmentIn the SME segment, the sole IPO of GSM Foils will open for subscription on May 24. The issue, which closes on May 28, will fetch the company about Rs 11 crore.The company is offering its shares at Rs 32 apiece, wherein investors can bid for 4,000 shares in one lot.In the IPO, about 50% of the offer is reserved for retail investors and the rest 50% for non-retail investors.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Continuing the positive momentum for the third straight day in sync with global markets, the Indian stock market on Saturday opened on a positive note with Sensex reclaiming the 74,000 level and Nifty crossing the 22,500 mark.Volumes are expected to be low in the market on Saturday as it is a special trading day as part of a disaster recovery exercise. The session is divided into two parts — from 09:15 am to 10 am and 11:45 am-12:40 pm.Among Nifty stocks, ONGC, Power Grid and Nestle were trading higher by around 1% each while JSW Steel, which announced Q4 results on Friday, was trading around 2% lower.Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, which reported a profit of Rs 13 crore vs loss YoY in the March quarter, rallied 5%. The highest positive momentum was seen in Nifty media and realty index, which went up over 1% each."Dow Jones closing in record territory above 40,000 will continue to provide global support for equity markets. However, in India, the election-related jitters might continue to cause high volatility. A significant trend now is the FIIs turning buyers on Friday, and this takes away the pressure on the markets," said Dr. V K Vijayakumar of Geojit Financial Services.At the technical level, 22,450-22,430 will act as an important support for Nifty."Till 22,430 holds, we can see the index move towards 22,530-22,550. A surge above 22,550 can take the index towards 22,590-22,610 zone. On breakdown & sustenance below 22,430, a further correction up to 22,390-22,370 will be on the cards," said SBI Securities.Global MarketsThe Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 134.21 points, or 0.34%, to 40,003.59 — a close above the 40,000 mark for the first time. For the week, the Dow gained 1.2%, the S&P 500 rose 1.5% and the Nasdaq climbed 2.1%.Data from earlier this week showing softening consumer prices in April, boosted expectations that the US central bank will be able to cut rates twice this year, beginning in September.Currency WatchThe rupee appreciated 13 paise to close at 83.37 against the US dollar on Friday, tracking positive sentiment in domestic equity markets and fresh foreign fund inflows.FII FlowForeign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned net buyers in the capital markets on Friday, as they bought shares worth Rs 1,616.79 crore, according to exchange data.(With input fron agencies)

"If you just go over the last six months, one year, two years, three, five, it is very consistent that India and the US, these are the only two parts of the world which actually have growth and you have momentum in the markets," says Ashi Anand, Founder & CEO, IME Capital .Up till now we have seen that India was underperforming, the rest of the world was outperforming. But then now we have seen a decent set of gains on Nifty and the broader market both. But what lies ahead now. Going further again we have a fifth phase of voting on Monday. Can we say that the pre-election jitters have been put to rest or are they put on to hold? What do you make of this?In terms of pre-election jitters, I think over the next couple of weeks, you probably have optimism, pessimism coming in and out and early in June we will actually know the result and that will kind of drive market direction. But just I think if we are looking at India vis-a-vis global markets, while over the shorter term and I think again driven by jitters around election, etc, there may have been a short period of underperformance.If you just go over the last six months, one year, two years, three, five, it is very consistent that India and the US, these are the only two parts of the world which actually have growth and you have momentum in the markets. This is something that we very clearly expect to continue kind of going forward. From a global context, you have issues in Europe, you have issues in China, most other major economies are really kind of struggling. India really stands out very-very strongly in terms of our economic growth outlook. The overall outperformance of India to global markets, we think is a very clear trend. We believe that as we kind of go past elections, as consumer demand kind of comes back in and as we move towards a phase where interest rates globally finally start to move back down, you could start to again see very strong FII flows coming back into India and really very positive from a longer-term perspective.

At least nine people were burned alive and 15 injured when a moving bus caught fire near Tauru in Haryana's Nuh district early Saturday morning, according to police.The incident occurred around 2 am on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway. The bus was carrying around 60 people, all residents of Punjab's Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana, who were returning from pilgrim towns of Mathura and Vrindavan. All of them are relatives, police said."Nine people -- six women and three men -- were killed in the accident. Fifteen people were injured and have been hospitalised. All the injured are stable," Inspector Jitendra Kumar, Station House Officer, Sadar Tauru, told PTI.Survivors recounted noticing flames at the rear of the bus around 1:30 am on Saturday and attempted to alert the driver. Observing the escalating situation, a passing motorcycle rider trailed the bus and alerted the driver, prompting a halt. Local residents rushed to douse the flames and rescue those seated at the front of the bus.The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation.— ANI (@ANI)

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 40,000 mark for the first time on Friday, with other major indexes also scoring weekly gains, as data supported expectations for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. The benchmark S&P 500 edged higher after paring losses while the Nasdaq fell, but both chalked up a fourth straight week of gains. The Dow rose to end the fifth week of advances in a row. Strong corporate results and inflation and other economic data have bolstered investor hopes for Fed rate cuts this year. Eight out of the 11 S&P 500 sectors advanced, with energy leading gains while technology was the biggest loser. For the week, Dow gained 1.24%, S&P 500 rose 1.54%, and Nasdaq climbed 2.11%. "Today is a bit of a digestion day: we just broke out through record highs and now we're on a fourth straight week of gains, and the market appears to take a breaker," said Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services in Atlanta. Traders see a 68% chance of the Fed's first rate cut in September, the CME FedWatch Tool showed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 134.21 points, or 0.34%, to 40,003.59, the S&P 500 gained 6.17 points, or 0.12%, to 5,303.27 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 12.35 points, or 0.07%, to 16,685.97. "For all the times that I've seen the market hit milestones and new highs, there's almost always consolidation around it even though it seems it's all psychological," said Tom Plumb, chief executive and portfolio manager at Plumb Funds in Madison, Wisconsin. "People have got mixed signals on inflation this week and the next big catalyst is next week when Nvidia reports. So it's one of those days when you seem to be biding your time." Advanced Micro Devices gained 1.1% after Microsoft said it plans to offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD artificial intelligence chips that will compete with components made by Nvidia. Reddit rose 10% following a partnership with OpenAI to bring its content to ChatGPT. GameStop dropped nearly 20% after filing for a mixed-shelf offering and saying it expects first-quarter net sales to drop from a year ago. About 15.6 billion shares changed hands across U.S. exchanges, compared with an average of about 11.7 billion shares over the last 20 sessions. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,039 stocks rose and 2,221 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.09-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 45 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq recorded 157 new highs and 68 new lows.

MUMBAI: Indian equity markets will remain open on Saturday, May 18, for a special trading session, while both BSE and NSE will be remain closed on Monday, May 20, due to parliamentary polls in Mumbai. The special trading session will be held to check the preparedness of market intermediaries in case of a major disruption or failure of the primary site. Trading will occur in two sessions—first, from 9:15 am to 10:00 am, and second from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. Traders will be allowed to place only delivery trades, with no intraday trading permitted. Additionally, new positions cannot be placed through the margin trading facility (MTF), according to the bourses.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have taken a significant step forward in their effort to court Paramount, three people familiar with the matter said Friday. The two companies have signed nondisclosure agreements with Paramount, allowing them to look at Paramount's nonpublic financial information, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss active negotiations. Paramount previously shared materials with another suitor, Hollywood studio Skydance. Early this month, Sony and Apollo sent Paramount a nonbinding expression of interest in acquiring the company for $26 billion. The two had been seeking to buy Paramount for its studio and then sell off other parts of its empire, which includes CBS, cable channels like MTV and the Paramount+ streaming service. But Sony's shareholders have fretted over the possible acquisition, given the potential cost of a bid for Paramount and the headwinds facing the subscription streaming business. Sony and Apollo are now contemplating a variety of approaches to acquire the company's assets but are backing away from their plan to make an all-cash, $26 billion offer for Paramount, two of the people said. Sony's new vision for a deal could alter the dynamics of Paramount's effort to sell itself or merge with another company. Paramount previously rebuffed Sony's offer to buy just its studio, and Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has long sought a deal for the entire company. A person familiar with Redstone's thinking has said that a breakup of the company is not a deal breaker, depending on the terms, but that she prefers to keep Paramount intact. Redstone has blessed a deal to sell her stake in National Amusements, Paramount's parent company, to Skydance, but Skydance's bid for the entire company has faced significant pushback from Paramount's common shareholders. Paramount let an exclusive negotiation window with Skydance lapse in recent weeks, but the two are still talking, and Skydance remains interested in a deal. The talks are happening at a tumultuous time for Paramount. CEO Bob Bakish stepped down last month after more than a quarter-century at the company. He was replaced in the interim by three executives running an "office of the CEO": George Cheeks, the CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, the chair of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios; and Brian Robbins, the CEO of Paramount Pictures. (This article originally appeared in The New York Times.)