TMS Ep595: Alcohol in GIFT City, FMCG stocks, Amrit Bharat Express & more

Glasses will finally clink in Gujarat’s GIFT City at the end of a hard week. The dry state has given the special economic zone freedom to serve alcohol to employees and authorized visitors. So will it lift the spirit of GIFT City, which some believe turns into a ghost town after working hours? 

Some news reports, meanwhile, suggested that Tesla’s plan to set up a factory in India is likely to be announced during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit. This brings us to the Tesla boss, Elon Musk. Musk hogged the limelight after his 2022 takeover of twitter, which was renamed as X this year. Apart from Musk, there are four other personalities which have kept newspersons busy, and people hooked in 2023. 

Let us now turn our gaze to financial markets. Weaker-than-expected festive demand, rainfall deficit, unseasonal rains, and higher commodity prices cooked a difficult-to-digest market recipe this year for the FMCG sector. In fact, it posted less than 5% year-on-year growth in net sales in the September quarter of FY24, which was the slowest growth reported by them in the post-pandemic period. But, will the sector be able to turn the corner in 2024? 

Experts anticipate that the last week of 2023 could be sluggish as many FIIs will be in a holiday mode. Meanwhile, the government is all set to handover a New Year’s gift to the country’s common man. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Amrit Bharat Express on December 3o. Most likely from Ayodhya. But how is it a gift for the common man? And how different is this train from others? Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.