Shares of Persistent Systems declined over 3% to their day’s low of Rs 5,500 on the BSE on Thursday after the company announced its board of directors have approved plans to raise up to $1.25 billion through long-term debt financing and other eligible instruments.

The board approved borrowing up to $1,250 million through external commercial borrowings (ECB), non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and other similar instruments. The fundraise can occur in one or more tranches, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

The board may also consider raising up to $450 million through securities or eligible instruments that can be converted into equity shares. The proposed routes include foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs), a preferential issue, qualified institutional placement (QIP) or any other permitted mode. This fundraise would also be carried out in one or more tranches, subject to the required shareholder and regulatory approvals.

At the end of the June quarter, promoter entities held a 30.29% stake in Persistent Systems, while public shareholding stood at 69.04%, according to data available on the stock exchanges.

Persistent Systems Q1 snapshot

For the June quarter, dollar revenue rose 3.8% sequentially to $452.4 million, while revenue in rupee terms increased 6.1% to Rs 4,303.2 crore.

EBITDA climbed 4.5% sequentially to Rs 802.2 crore, and EBIT rose 4.2% to Rs 686.9 crore. However, the EBIT margin contracted 30 basis points to 16%. Net profit fell 8.7% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 483 crore, mainly due to the forex loss.
The company posted its highest-ever quarterly bookings during the period, with total contract value (TCV) almost doubling to $1.15 billion. This was supported by a deal worth more than $650 million with a global technology company. Annual contract value (ACV) also increased 20.6% sequentially to $536.8 million.On the operational front, total headcount rose 4.1% to 28,640, while the technical headcount increased by the same 4.1% to 26,905. Utilisation declined to 86.5% from 88% in the previous quarter, while trailing 12-month attrition improved to 12.3% from 13%.

Shares of Persistent Systems have risen 21% in the last six months but remain lower by 9% on a year-to-date basis. In the last 5 years, Persistent Systems stock is up over 200%.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) this week announced the seizure of more than $550,000 in cryptocurrency donations and the disruption of recruitment websites connected to terrorist organization Hamas.

Through court-authorized seizures, the FBI seized approximately $560,000 in cryptocurrency and took control of domains and servers Hamas was allegedly using to raise money and recruit supporters, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

“A message to Hamas: We will stop your fundraising for terror,” Pirro said in a statement. “Your networks are not secure, your crypto is vulnerable, and we will not stop until your ability to wage war is defeated.”

In a video posted on X, Pirro described the operation as a “massive blow against foreign terrorism” that would disrupt Hamas’ online recruitment efforts.

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“By seizing their servers and their domains, we were able to directly intercept money that was going to be used by the military wing of Hamas, the Al Qassam Brigade,” she said.

“And to add a little more interest to this, we also now have the names and identities of thousands of individuals who tried to give money to Hamas that we were able to intercept,” she continued.

According to federal court documents, investigators became aware of a group chat claiming ties to Hamas on an encrypted communications platform that was directing supporters of the terrorist organization to a fundraising website and a rotating set of cryptocurrency donation addresses.

Prosecutors said investigators used information from multiple human sources on three separate occasions — March 25, June 25 and Oct. 10, 2025 — to identify, trace and seize approximately $560,000 in cryptocurrency intended to support Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades.

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The Justice Department said the FBI also used human sources to identify and seize domains and servers used by the group. After taking control of the online infrastructure, the FBI was able to intercept cryptocurrency donations allegedly intended for Hamas, according to the DOJ.

Throughout the investigation, the FBI also obtained information on thousands of individuals who allegedly contacted Hamas online to donate or attempt to donate to the terrorist organization.

The DOJ said that information will be used in the FBI’s ongoing counterterrorism efforts.

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“These seizures deprive Hamas of resources it relies on to recruit and radicalize individuals online and finance barbaric attacks like the one on October 7, 2023,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.

“We will continue to tighten the vise on Hamas’s capacity for terror by infiltrating its online networks, confiscating its cryptocurrency, and shutting down its websites,” he added.

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According to the Washington Post, US authorities urged Switzerland to drop its extradition request against the businessman before the British courts.

The request was granted by the Swiss authorities, and last May a London court lifted the travel ban placed upon him.

“Switzerland did not present the evidence requested by the English judges to support its extradition request, and therefore the travel ban was lifted,” Betancourt’s lawyer told BBC News Mundo, while acknowledging this does not necessarily mean the end of the Swiss investigations.

According to Axios, in the first minutes after the military operation on 3 January that concluded with US forces seizing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Betancourt spoke with then-Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez and convinced her to speak with Rubio.

This version was corroborated by his lawyer.

“He acted as an intermediary,” said Sale. “He had nothing to do with Maduro’s departure, but since he had everyone’s trust, he became an intermediary.”

On Wednesday, Delcy Rodríguez, now interim president of Venezuela, defended Betancourt, saying he has no pending cases in that country or the US.

“Often a person is judged in the media before in the courts,” she said in the oil baron’s defence.

For those who have followed Betancourt’s career for years, one thing is clear.

“He’s very skillful,” Boyd concluded.

“He always manages to be where he needs to be to avoid problems and make money.”

SYDNEY — Australian shares climbed Thursday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index on track to snap a three-day losing streak as banks and mining stocks led a broad-based rebound following a stronger session on Wall Street overnight and signs of stabilization in global bond markets.

The ASX 200 traded at 9,013.4 points, up 35 points, or 0.39%, as of 2:23 p.m. AEST, recovering some of the ground lost earlier this week when the index tumbled amid a global selloff tied to escalating Middle East tensions and surging bond yields.

The rebound followed a positive lead from U.S. markets, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%, the S&P 500 gained 0.5% and the Nasdaq finished 0.5% higher. The rally on Wall Street came as U.S. Treasury yields eased slightly, with the 10-year Treasury yield slipping to 4.79%, taking some pressure off equity markets that had been rattled in recent sessions by concerns over inflation and rising borrowing costs.

Expectations for further U.S. Federal Reserve tightening also moderated. Markets were pricing in a roughly 62% to 63% probability of a 25-basis-point interest rate increase at the Fed’s meeting later this month, down from about 67% a day earlier, according to interest rate futures data.

Locally, the improved sentiment came even as several ASX 200 companies traded ex-dividend Thursday morning, a factor that typically weighs mechanically on share prices. Packaging group Amcor, mining giant BHP Group, supermarket operator Coles Group, private hospital operator Ramsay Health Care and energy producer Woodside Energy Group were among the major names trading without entitlement to their most recent dividend payouts. BHP is set to pay shareholders a fully franked dividend of 139.2 cents per share on Sept. 23.

Despite the ex-dividend drag on some large-cap names, banks and miners provided the bulk of the market’s upward momentum Thursday, with the long-resources, short-financials trade that has characterized much of the market’s recent volatility continuing to play out in both directions depending on commodity price movements.

Energy stocks were among the session’s stronger performers after oil prices extended their recent climb overnight. According to Bloomberg data, West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.45% to $90.63 a barrel, while Brent crude gained 0.6% to $95.22 a barrel, as traders continued buying oil in response to an escalation in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The elevated crude prices offered support to ASX-listed energy producers Beach Energy and Santos, both of which were positioned for stronger sessions as a result.

Gold miners also found support after the precious metal’s price climbed overnight. Gold futures rose 0.9% to $4,435.80 an ounce, according to CNBC data, as traders bought the metal following a pullback in both the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields. The move higher in gold prices offered a tailwind for major producers including Newmont Corporation and Northern Star Resources, both of which were tipped for a stronger session on the back of the rally.

Thursday’s gains came as Australia’s corporate reporting season drew to a close, with the latest earnings results painting a broadly positive picture for the market despite the recent bout of volatility. Just under half of ASX 200 companies reported better-than-expected profits during the August reporting period, with earnings beats outnumbering misses by a ratio of roughly 1.5 to 1, the strongest such result in four years, according to data compiled from the reporting season.

The benchmark index touched a record high in early August before paring some of those gains to finish the month up 1.1%, with previously beaten-down sectors including residential property developers and discretionary retailers among the standout performers. Super Retail Group was among the companies posting notable earnings growth during the period, benefiting from a rebound in consumer-facing sectors that had lagged earlier in the year.

Thursday’s session also brought a steady flow of company-specific news across the resources sector. West African-focused gold explorer Many Peaks Minerals reported a high-grade intercept of 36 meters at 2.64 grams per tonne of gold from 600 meters depth at its Ouarigue project in Côte d’Ivoire, with assay results still pending from a further 27 diamond holes and 65 reverse-circulation holes ahead of an updated mineral resource estimate expected around the end of the third quarter.

Separately, Middle Island Resources reported new copper-in-soil anomalies at its Serbian exploration ground, identifying zones measuring 900 by 400 meters at its Jelaca prospect and 600 by 400 meters at Oglavak, with rock chip samples grading as high as 3.21% copper and 26 grams per tonne silver as the company continues testing the broader Priboj area for volcanogenic massive sulphide-style copper mineralization.

This week’s volatility has underscored just how sensitive Australian equities remain to swings in global bond markets and geopolitical developments, particularly the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has driven a marked increase in average daily volatility across the ASX 200 over the past several months compared with the prior year. Analysts tracking the index’s short-term correlations have noted that recent price action has been reactive and headline-driven rather than reflecting a stable underlying trend, with the market’s relationship to bond yields, the Australian dollar and gold prices all shifting noticeably in recent sessions.

Despite Thursday’s rebound, market watchers cautioned that downside risks remain for Australian shares in the near term, given the continued uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve’s policy path, the trajectory of the Middle East conflict and its impact on energy markets, and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s own deliberations over interest rates following recent domestic growth and inflation data. With the ASX 200 still trading below the record high it touched earlier in August, investors are likely to remain focused on how global bond yields and geopolitical developments evolve in the sessions ahead for further direction.

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Shares of Power Grid gained around 1.5% on Thursday after the company received a letter of intent (LoI) to build an inter-state transmission system for evacuation of power from Barmer in Rajasthan to South Kalamb in Maharashtra.

State-owned Power Grid, in an exchange filing, said it was declared as a successful bidder under the tariff-based competitive bidding process to establish the transmission system at quoted annual transmission charges of Rs 3,244 crore. The shares of the company rose to Rs 270.75 apiece on NSE on Thursday morning.

The project comprises establishment of 6,000 MW, ±800 kV HVDC terminals at Barmer in Rajasthan and South Kalamb in Maharashtra, along with augmentation of South Kalamb. The project also involves construction of a ±800 kV HVDC bipole line between Barmer-II and South Kalamb (1,000 km) traversing through the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, and construction of 400 kV transmission lines traversing through the state of Rajasthan along with the associated bays. Additionally, Power Grid will also install two SynCon units at Barmer-II PS along with the associated bays.

In late August, Power Grid announced that it acquired Fatehgarh II Transmission, the project SPV to establish an inter-state transmission system for installation of two synchronous condensers (SynCon) units at 765/400/220kV Fatehgarh-II PS, on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.

Power Grid share price

Power Grid shares have gained nearly 1% over the past week but dropped more than 7% over the past month. The stock has fallen 7% over the past year.
In the longer term, the shares of the state-owned company have jumped more than 41% over three years and 103% over five years. The company has a market capitalisation of over Rs 2.48 lakh crore.
Also read | Which auto stocks should you buy after August sales? Here are Nomura, other brokerages’ top picks

Should you buy, sell or hold Power Grid shares?

Geojit Institutional Equities recently upgraded its rating on the shares of Power Grid to ‘Buy’ with a target price of Rs 303 apiece, implying more than 14.5% upside potential from the stock’s previous closing price of Rs 264.55 apiece. The brokerage, in a post-earnings note, said Power Grid remains the premier proxy on India’s structural transmission capex upcycle, with a multi-year runway underpinned by rising renewable integration, HVDC expansion, and emerging demand from data centres and green hydrogen.

The company’s dominant ISTS positioning, presence across both regulated and competitively-bid frameworks, and steady diversification into telecom, consultancy and grid-support solutions (BESS, synchronous condensers) reinforce long-term strategic relevance, it added.

Also read | Bigger market crash ahead? Analysts weigh how Sensex, Nifty may react if US 10-year bond yield touches 5%

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)