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New Delhi: Gold exchange traded fund (ETF) witnessed a net outflow of ₹396 crore last month, making it the first withdrawal after March 2023, owing to profit booking.Despite the decline, the asset under management (AUM) of gold funds rose 5% to ₹32,789 crore at April-end from ₹31,224 crore in the preceding month, according to the data with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).As per the data, Gold ETFs saw a net withdrawal of ₹396 crore in April as compared to an inflow of ₹373 crore in the preceding month.The last time this asset class witnessed net outflow was in March 2023, withdrawing ₹266 crore."In rupee terms, gold has done fairly well over the last year but dwarfs in comparison to how equities have fared. Flows in the gold ETF category have been patchy relative to the equity asset class. That said, investors could have opted to book some profits in this segment which has resulted in the asset class witnessing net outflows," Melvyn Santarita, analyst, Morningstar Investment Research India, said.

Nifty is facing downward pressure, and a drop below 21,950 is expected to initiate a sell-off towards 21,770, said technical analysts. However, the FII long-short ratio in the index futures stood at around 32%, suggesting that the markets might be nearing oversold territory. Analysts said if the Nifty closes above 22,150, it could present a buying opportunity. Some short-term trading recommendations include SBI, HUL, TCS, Emami, GMR Airports, Fiem Industries, Vinati Organics, and Astral.KAPIL SHAH TECHNICAL ANALYST, EMKAY GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICESWhere is the Nifty headed? The current market trend has been showing signs of losing momentum, as evidenced by the sloppy ascent of the rise and the shrinkage of the size of candles. The index has been trading within a range of 21,800 to 22,800 for the past 11 weeks, and it is currently located at the lower band of the rising channel. However, a bullish confirmation will occur if the index crosses the 22,150 level while moving below 21,950 could lead to further selling pressure, likely up to 21,770. Bank Nifty has continued to underperform, with potential support lying around 47,000. It will remain under pressure if it sustains below 48,300. What should investors do? The auto sector has maintained a bull run, and fresh, bullish participation has been observed from the FMCG and MNC spaces. Conversely, PSU banks and the Oil & Gas sector have experienced strong selling pressure. The Nifty FMCG appears to be a safer investment, with the FMCG index technically retesting a strong base followed by moving average support. Furthermore, stocks such as HUL and Emami could extend their upward movement, and others like Sun TV and ICICI Prudential have recently experienced a fresh bullish breakout.ARPAN SHAH SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, MONARCH NETWORTH CAPITALWhere is the Nifty headed? Nifty corrected sharply from its recent high and reached the 22,000 level. It has strong support near the 22,700-22,800 zone, and a further sell-off towards it will be a buying opportunity on the index front. Bank Nifty also has trendline support at the 46,600 level, and a dip towards this level will attract buying opportunities. Nifty is likely to cross 22,800, and Bank Nifty will cross 50,000 by the end of the May series. Both indices are likely to witness a pullback in the coming days. However, India’s VIX has bounced sharply from a recent low of 10 and reached a near 19 level, which indicates heightened volatility in the coming days. What should investors do? Nifty FMCG index has outperformed the benchmark index, and stocks like Britannia and HUL are buying opportunities at the current level. Among pharma stocks, Syngene has reached near to its support level and can be accumulated in the Rs 650-680 zone. Large-cap stocks like SBI and TCS can be added at the current level. Midcaps like Fiem Industries, Vinati Organics and GMR Airports can be added at the current level. Adani Energy, Swan Energy and Vodafone Idea are high beta positional bets at the current level, which can provide strong returns from the current level.MEHUL KOTHARI TECHNICAL ANALYST, ANAND RATHI INVESTMENT SERVICESWhere is the Nifty headed? Technically, the index has approached the lower band of the rising channel. A breach of the same can be a sign of some seriousness in the markets. Going ahead, below 21,900, the previous swing low of 21,777 would be under threat, which ultimately might result in panic in the market. On the other hand, the FII long-short ratio in the index futures was around 32% till Thursday’s session. This indicates that we are approaching oversold terrain. The upside resistance is placed at 22,300, and a close above the same might confirm the bottom till the election results. The Nifty Bank index is approaching the 47,000 mark, which is the support of a rising trend line as well as a curved trend line, and hence would be a decisive support for the coming week. A breach might dampen the sentiments, whereas if this support is held, then the index would again start its upside journey. What should investors do? On the stock front, there was a major breakout in Astral from the triangle pattern, and the stock confirmed a breakout from the bullish flag pattern. Thus, we advise traders to go long in the stock near Rs 2,140 with a stop loss of Rs 1,999 for the upside target of Rs 2,420 in the coming months.

By- George Smith Alexander, Reghu BalakrishnanMumbai: Apax Partners, the London-based private equity major that has invested nearly $3.5 billion in India in about two decades, plans to quicken the pace of its local investments after having harnessed the right talent and built a focused team that will scout buyout opportunities in the world's fastest-expanding major economy. The firm is spending time on multiple deals at different stages across sectors."All the live deals that are out there, and several of those that we are chasing are across pharma, consumer and consumer derivative spaces. And there are multiple deals in tech services that are expected to get launched, which we are spending time on," Rohan Haldea, partner in the tech team at Apax, told ET. Haldea also oversees India investments from a global standpoint at the firm.The Apax strategy is more pivoted toward control deals, given its focus on being able to have a seat on the table to drive changes. It is, however, open to partnering with quality founders and management teams in minority settings "where there's a meeting of minds," Haldea said. 110061222Unlike other large global firms active in India in the past year, Apax had gone slow. The firm made its last investment in India in May 2023 when it committed about $450 million to acquire a significant minority stake in IBS Software.Apax has seen management change in the past year with Shashank Singh, partner & head of India office from 2013, quitting the firm in July last year. Anurag Sud, who joined the firm in 2022 from Baring Private Equity Asia (part of EQT), now leads and manages day-to-day operations in India. The firm also appointed Leo Puri as an advisor to Apax and chairman of Apax India in March. "I think we've now got the infrastructure and the team that we believe can deploy capital. And we can start doing deals again pretty quickly and we've got a pretty big pipeline," Haldea said. "I would say actually the office is busier than it's ever been, and I expect that to continue."In India, Apax investments include Azentio Software, Infogain, Global Logic, Zensar, IBS Software, and Fractal Analytics, Healthium, and Apollo Hospitals.Earlier this month, Apax sold 99.8% in the largest domestic sutures maker Healthium Medtech to KKR in one of the largest transactions in the healthcare sector in India. KKR acquired Healthium at a valuation of '7,000 crore, about 20 times of FY25 EBITDA."Obviously, KKR was a prevailing bidder but there were lots of other PEs that looked at it as well and saw the attraction of it. I think the reason people were attracted to it was because over the last 5 years, one has actually done quite a big transformation journey," said Anurag Sud, MD, head of India, Apax.Even as Apax refuses to speak about the returns it has made from the Healthium investment, Haldea said it has made very good returns from its Indian commitments."Starting with Apollo Hospital and then iGate and Global Logic and Healthium now, it has been a string of investments that have done really well for us. So, I do think that from a market perspective it remains super attractive to us," he added.Apax does not have country-wise allocation, but deploys about 7-10% of the global fund in India. In March, it closed its 11th global buyout fund (Apax XI) with commitments of over $12 billion. It also raised a digital fund of $1.95 billion and a global impact fund of $877 million last year, which will invest in India along with the buyout fund.Broad Investment Themes"On the digital side, we are looking to back businesses - both minority and control - with a very flexible mandate on backing businesses growth, hypergrowth and helping companies on the digitization journey. Thematics like software, classifieds, online marketplaces, digital brands are areas that are interesting. We do see the valuation environment is more attractive now with the digital fund spending a lot of time on the ground in India," said Sud.

The capital of Bihar stood in thrall to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday when the charismatic leader held a spectacular roadshow in Patna in the thick of Lok Sabha elections. A distance of about a kilometre and a half was covered by the prime minister, who stood atop a vehicle painted in the hue of saffron and bedecked with flowers and images of the leader and cutouts of the lotus, the BJP's poll symbol. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is an NDA partner, Deputy CM and state BJP president Samrat Choudhary and local MP Ravi Shankar Prasad were perched beside Modi as he waved at the euphoric crowds shrieking with joy from beyond iron barricades put up by security personnel. The BJP, which depends heavily on the prime minister's persona in elections, had demonstrably worked hard to make "The Modi Show", the name given to the Patna event, a grand success. The vehicle, on which the leader stood, followed a swarm of women supporters, dressed in saffron saris with turbans of the same shade on their heads, besides badges inscribed with the lotus pinned on their dresses. Known for his ability to strike a rapport with the common people, Modi waved at the citizens, many of them standing on balconies or beside windows of their houses, which were decorated with mini bulbs and flowers to welcome the leader. On the streets, many bystanders furiously clicked on their mobile phones to capture the momentous occasion, while others stood waving placards and banners with slogans in praise of the PM. Modi, who became the first prime minister to have held a roadshow anywhere in Bihar, charmed the citizens with his humility when he bowed down with folded hands to greet groups of priests who stood on either side of the road, performing an "aarati" in the honour of the devout leader. The PM arrived here in the evening, after a day of gruelling poll campaign in the adjoining state of West Bengal, and was greeted at the airport by leaders like Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha, assembly Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav and the BJP's state general secretary in charge Bhikhu Bhai Dalsania. The PM drove straight to Bhattacharjee Road, the point of commencement of the roadshow which concluded at Udyog Bhavan, a stone's throw from the historic Gandhi Maidan where Modi delivered his famous maiden speech in Bihar more than eight years ago, unfazed by bombs going off at the venue. Chants of mantras and blowing of conch shells reverberated through the landscape as the PM climbed atop the vehicle, which party supporters called a "rath", a veritable chariot that would propel the BJP-led NDA towards electoral victory. People from various faiths seemed to have come out on the streets to welcome the PM, with many burqa-clad women spotted among the citizens, joining the chorus of "Jai Shri Ram". Many onlookers also flashed their phone lights, obviously drawing inspiration from rallies of Modi where he has been known to make people do the same by way of showing solidarity. The roadshow, just a day ahead of third phase of voting, marks yet another episode in the PM's intensive campaign in the state, where he has so far addressed seven election rallies. After retiring for the night at the Raj Bhavan, Modi is scheduled to pay a visit to the famous Sikh shrine Takht Harmandir Patna Sahib before addressing rallies in Hajipur, Muzaffarpur and Saran, which go to polls in the subsequent phase.

Bomb threat sent Delhi police into a tizzy on May 12, the second time in a matter of weeks after the school bomb hoax. The Indira Gandhi International Airport and two hospitals in the capital city got bomb threats via email on Sunday, which led to frenzied searches at the locations.The two hospitals are Burari Government Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Mangolpuri. Responding to the incidents, the Delhi Police quickly launched an investigation.Delhi fire service said that Indira Gandhi International Airport also received a bomb threat email.Officials received the first call at 3:15 pm from Burari Hospital, followed by another from Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital at around 4:26 pm, media reports said. "Bomb threat email were received at Burari Government Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Mangolpuri, search operation underway," Delhi fire service issued a statement."An email was received at Burari Hospital regarding a bomb threat. The local police and Bomb Disposal Teams (BDT) are at the hospital, checking for any suspicious activity. Nothing has been found yet," news agencies reported quoting Delhi Police.A few days ago, a large number of schools (as many as 131, according to some reports) in Delhi and Noida received bomb threat mails, which caused huge panic among students, parents and the authorities.Following the school scare episode, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an official statement calling the email a "hoax." An official MHA statement said, "There is no need to panic. The mail appears to be a hoax. Delhi Police and security agencies are taking necessary steps as per protocol."

Eighty-five per cent of about 12,000 freshers set to join the country's largest lender SBI in FY25 are engineering graduates, its chairman Dinesh Khara has said. The bank is in the process of onboarding up to 12,000 freshers in the roles of probationary officers and associates in FY25, and there is no bias towards onboarding engineers in the ranks, Khara said, stressing that this is not by design. After training the over 3,000 POs and over 8,000 associates with some banking knowledge, they will be channelised into various business roles. It can be noted that this comes at a time when the banking sector is increasing its dependency on technology as it looks for newer ways of enthralling the customer, while some players are also grappling with challenges on this front. "We expose them into banking and thereafter, channelise them into various roles in business and IT, depending on their aptitude and temperament, and that is something which is helping us ensure that there is a continuous supply of tech manpower to the bank," Khara told PTI. The development also comes at a time when the attrition in the IT sector - a favourite job avenue for engineering grads - is going down, leading to lower hiring by such firms even as the supply of engineering grads is high. Khara said SBI invests a lot in terms of training the manpower and also has a dedicated in-house institute focused on instilling technology skills. Every staff has to be ahead of the curve on technology, Khara said, pointing out that the bank handles a huge volume of transactions, and the same has to go through. "Technology is very important, and none of us can ignore it," he said, adding that the bank also gets guidance from the regulator on such aspects on a regular basis. Lately, the sector regulator RBI has increased its focus on technology and penalised banks for shortcomings. Khara declined to share the overall tech spending by the bank but stressed that it is the highest in the industry, while an official said it is much higher than the industry average of 7-8 per cent of the operational expenses.