Week 3: Solar tariffs at all time low, virtual gaming goods, Dr. Copper, Palantir IPO, Naspers' top priority, FII inflows at all time high
India Solar tariffs hit a record low of INR 2 per unit in bidding held by Solar Energy Corp of India (SECI).
The writing is on the wall for coal fired power plants. Solar is cleaner and incrementally cheaper already. The last piece of the jigsaw is storage and battery technology, and I don’t think that is too far away.
What happens to the huge investments that have gone into fossil fuel based power plants the world over? This is a conversation we will soon be having.
Virtual “goods” within the online gaming world has had total cumulative sales of ~$130bn thus far! What a great business- almost zero incremental production costs and can generate billions of dollars of sales (and thus profits) by keeping consumers engaged.
Dr. Copper is on a tear. Copper, called “doctor” due to its apparent ability to forecast the health of the economy, has been soaring. It’s used in everything from AC units to cars to power networks. The price has gone above $7500 a tonne, breaking above its 2018 level for the first time. What is the prognosis, Dr. Copper?
Palantir listed on the US stock markets a few weeks ago. Reading the IPO documents is almost like reading a spy novel. It’s a cutting edge software/consulting firm that has: (1) had seed funding by the CIA, (2) helped catch Osama Bin Laden and (3) the stated aim of making “the West, especially America, the strongest in the world, the strongest it's ever been”. Heady stuff.
Palantir is a reference from the Lord of the Rings movies (the founder, Peter Thiel of Paypal and ‘Zero to One’ fame, is clearly a fan). It refers to “an indestructible ball of crystal, used for communication and to see events in other parts of [the world], whether past or future”. Sci-fi stuff. Oh, and the stock has tripled since it listed barely a month ago.
Naspers called India it’s top priority market for new investments. That is saying something because Naspers is one of the largest tech investors globally. The CEO, Bob Van Dijk, said the market is really attractive and the entrepreneurs are some of the best in the world. In a week where India got ugly op-eds from The Economist and Bloomberg, it’s nice to know that perhaps things are not as bleak as some would have us believe. Full interview:
India has more than recovered the FII investments it lost in March.
In fact, at INR 65k crore November 2020 has been the highest ever monthly net FII investments in India .
In perfect symmetry, FIIs had sold stock worth INR 65k crore in March- classic case of sell low, buy high!
The chart below shows net monthly FII investments into Indian equities (Source: NSE data from StockEdge)