Business News 2016

Property market was the economy's underbelly this year and demonetisation towards the fag end only made it more isolated. But things might change in 2017 as builders are pinning their hopes on lower interest rate and transparency for the sector to come back to life.  

The local unit touched a low of 68.90 (intra-day) in November before recovering to end at 67.74 on December 26, 2016, as against its close of 66.15 last year-end, a net loss of 2.40 percent.

Gold and silver have yielded returns of 26 percent and 45 percent, respectively, since the start of this calendar year before backing down.

Good rains and a growth-oriented budget laid the perfect pitch for a dream run for stocks, but that was not to be as the market got a scare after heavy capital pullout by FIIs in the concluding two months of 2016.

The agriculture sector is all set to bounce back leaving two years of drought behind and may well pull off record foodgrain output of 270 million tonnes in 2016-17 on good rains, but farmers' woes may continue due to adverse impact of notes ban and low sales realisation.  

Helped by growing interest from retail investors and aggressive buying of stocks, mutual fund industry grew at a rapid pace in 2016 with addition of almost Rs 4 lakh crore, or 28 percent, to its asset base and is looking to cross Rs 20-trillion mark in the new year.

The hopes of FMCG companies on the back of a good monsoon and the Seventh Pay Panel award came partially unstuck after the government's sudden move to pull back currency notes upset the applecart towards the end of 2016.

The government had in January 2016 had set up the high-powered panel to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission which will have bearing on the remuneration of nearly 50 lakh central government employees and 58 lakh pensioners.

The Indian auto industry is yet again looking forward to a new year with renewed optimism amid challenges of new regulations after a bumpy ride in 2016.

In early March, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, facing probe amid continuing efforts by banks to recover dues totalling over Rs 9,000 crore of unpaid loans and interest from him, managed to leave the country in spite of a look-out notice against him by CBI.

With the UK's fate in the EU on a knife-edge, millions of Britons voted in the historic referendum in June that was to decide on whether the country will stay in or leave the 28-nation bloc after an acrimonious campaign

Urjit Patel was appointed as the new Governor of the Central Bank. He succeeded Raghuram Rajan. Patel, the 24th RBI Governor, will serve a three-year term with effect from September 4.

Touted as a major reform measure to regulate the vast real estate sector and bring order in it, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 10 March 2016 and by the Lok Sabha on 15 March 2016.

Pinning hopes on a slew of FDI reforms unveiled by the government in 2016, the government expects that the momentum of high FDI inflows will continue in the new year.

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to extend the use of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in government utility centres like hospitals, railway tickets etc. 

In 2016 more than twelve companies have raised over Rs 26,000 crore through IPOs in 2016. The mop-up is more than previous year and makes it the best one for public offers since 2010.

Income declaration scheme (IDS), 2016 was a scheme introduced by Narendra Modi led government to unearth black money and bring it back into the system.

In a sudden and dramatic turn of events, Cyrus Mistry was on October 24 sacked as Chairman of India's largest conglomerate Tata Group and replaced by his predecessor Ratan Tata in the interim, a move that Mistry-camp slammed as unprecedented erosion of core values.

The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes was a policy enacted by the Government on 8 November 2016. All Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series ceased to be legal tender in India from 9 November 2016.