Business News

Companies manufacturing cola, beverages, ice creams, and other hydrating products have witnessed a steady rise in demand in several parts of the country amid the ongoing prolonged spell of heat wave. Beverage makers such as PepsiCo India and CocaCola said demand from in-home and out-of-home consumption have skyrocketed in the east, north, and central India. Anticipating a surge, the companies kept inventory ready and are ensuring that the products are available for consumers across retail platforms, including e-commerce. "With temperatures soaring across the country, consumers are looking for refreshing and hydrating beverages to beat the heat this summer," a PepsiCo India spokesperson said. The company, which has beverage brands such as 7UP, Nimbooz, Pepsi, Slice, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, and Sting, is ensuring availability of its products during the surge. "Further, given the surge in demand, we are ensuring that our products are available across all retail and e-commerce platforms, catering to both in-home and out-of-home demand, making it easier for everyone to stay cool and refreshed during the hottest months of the year," he said. Coca-Cola India said as the summer season reaches its peak, the Indian beverage market has gained significant momentum. The maker of Coke, ThumsUP, Maaza, Sprite, and Minute Maid has been witnessing consistent growth in terms of sales. "With a steady rise in demand, we expect to remain bullish in our sparkling, hydration and juice segments, refreshing consumers with our carefully curated beverages for life portfolio," said a Coca-Cola India spokesperson. "With a surge in both, in-home and out-of-home consumption, our endeavour is to continue scaling the distribution through traditional as well as newer emerging channels. Havmor Ice Cream -- now part of South Korean confectionery company LOTTE Wellfood Co -- said it has increased production as the demand for the year has surpassed last year's. "Last year, we witnessed one of the warmest summers, and this year, it has surpassed with highest temperature recorded," said Havmor Ice Cream Managing Director Komal Anand. He expects the category momentum to continue. "To cater to the growing demand, we have increased the production capacity in the existing factories and will be ready to service more demand through our upcoming factory in Pune starting July- August 2024," said Anand. FMCG maker Dabur India, which is present in the beverage segment with Real brand juice and glucose portfolio, is witnessing growing demand. "With the heatwave conditions intensifying across the east, north, and central India, we are witnessing growing demand for our summer-centric products, particularly the glucose portfolio. We have already built inventory for the same, both at the retail and stockist end, to meet this growing demand," said Dabur India Sales Head Anshul Gupta. With rising temperatures, the need for instant energy and hydration on the go has never been greater, he said. "Recognising this need, Dabur has expanded its glucose portfolio and entered the ready-to-drink glucose category. This new instant energy drink marks our entry into the ready-to-drink glucose segment," he said.

Small cap mutual fund schemes are in focus these days. These schemes that invest in the stocks of very small companies have given over 40.44% in 2023. In April 2024, the small cap funds again gained investors interest and received an inflow of Rs 2,208.70 crore.The talk about the higher valuations in the small cap space and the recent volatility in the market are forcing many investors to accept that a correction may be around the corner. Mutual fund managers and advisors say the valuations are rich but investors can continue to invest in small cap schemes to create wealth over a long period. According to many mutual fund advisors, even though the small cap segment has run up a lot in the last six months, investors can still invest in these schemes in a staggered manner to create wealth over a long period.Small cap schemes invest in very small companies or their stocks. According to the Sebi mandate, small cap schemes must invest in companies that are ranked below 250 in terms of market capitalisation. These schemes also will have to invest at least 65% in small cap stocks. Small companies go through many ups and downs - more than the established companies in the large and mid cap segments. That is why investing in small cap stocks is considered extremely risky; the small cap segment can also be extremely volatile, especially in the short term. That is why small cap schemes are recommended only to aggressive investors with a very high risk appetite and very long investment horizon.Should invest in small cap funds?Are you wondering why anyone would take so much risk investing in small cap schemes? These schemes also have the potential to offer very high returns over a long period. For example, the small cap category offered an average return of 19% over 10 years. However, to pocket such fabulous returns you must be prepared to take so much risk and volatility.It is not very easy to identify winners in the small cap segment. Many of these companies are unknown. They are also under-researched. Their management can be unscrupulous and they can make big claims that can be bogus. Sometimes the management along with market operators can drive up prices. These are some of the reasons why the market rewards and punishes these companies disproportionately.If these companies succeed, the market will be after these stocks and investors will suddenly have multi-baggers in their portfolio. However, if they falter, the stocks would be severely punished. Overnight the stocks can become absolute dud.In short, investing in small caps is not a child’s play. You will have to find successful fund managers who specialise in small cap stocks. You should also pay attention to how the schemes fared during the market downturn.Here are some small cap schemes you can invest to create wealth over a long period. Follow our monthly updates to keep track of the performance of these schemes. Axis Small Cap Fund has been in the third quartile for 13 months now. The scheme had been in the fourth quartile for two months before that. SBI Small Cap Fund has been in the third quartile for the last two months. Best small cap funds to invest in June 2024:Axis Small Cap FundSBI Small Cap FundKotak Small Cap FundNippon India Small Cap FundOur methodology:ETMutualFunds has employed the following parameters for shortlisting the Equity mutual fund schemes.1. Mean rolling returns: Rolled daily for the last three years.2. Consistency in the last three years: Hurst Exponent, H is used for computing the consistency of a fund. The H exponent is a measure of randomness of NAV series of a fund. Funds with high H tend to exhibit low volatility compared to funds with low H.i) When H = 0.5, the series of returns is said to be a geometric Brownian time series. This type of time series is difficult to forecast.ii) When H <0.5, the series is said to mean reverting.iii) When H>0.5, the series is said to be persistent. The larger the value of H, the stronger is the trend of the series3. Downside risk: We have considered only the negative returns given by the mutual fund scheme for this measure.X =Returns below zeroY = Sum of all squares of XZ = Y/number of days taken for computing the ratioDownside risk = Square root of Z4. Outperformance: It is measured by Jensen's Alpha for the last three years. Jensen's Alpha shows the risk-adjusted return generated by a mutual fund scheme relative to the expected market return predicted by the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Higher Alpha indicates that the portfolio performance has outstripped the returns predicted by the market.Average returns generated by the MF Scheme =[Risk Free Rate + Beta of the MF Scheme * {(Average return of the index - Risk Free Rate}5. Asset size: For Equity funds, the threshold asset size is Rs 50 crore(Disclaimer: past performance is no guarantee for future performance.)

Rebounding from their worst single-day slide in four years, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty soared over 3% each on heavy value buying by investors after NDA alliance partners started talks on government formation.The stocks that were in focus included names like HUL, which rose 4.29%; IRCTC, which gained 0.6%; and RVNL, whose shares rose 0.68% on Tuesday.Here's what Riyank Arora, Technical Analyst at Mehta Equities, recommends investors should do with these stocks when the market resumes trading today.HULThe stock has touched its swing high resistance mark of 2670 on its daily time frame charts and faced a wick rejection from the same. With the recent resistance now being near 2725 mark it is expected that the stock should witness some profit booking coming in place.It is advisable to book profits at current levels and wait for a technical pullback towards 2450-2500 zone for any fresh longs.IRCTCThe stock touched its swing low resistance mark of 860 on its daily time frame charts, faced a long wick rejection and managed to close above the same.With the recent swing low support now being placed at the 858.00 mark, the overall risk reward ratio looks in favour of buyers with a strict SL of 850.00 for targets of 975 and 1000.RVNLThe stock has touched its resistance turned support zone of 332.00 - 345.00 on its daily charts. The stock now has a recent swing low support at 310.00 as of current technical structure.A pullback resistance is near 370 levels which should serve as a minor resistance for the stock. Overall as of current situation, the stock is looking to be in a no trade zone.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)