Google Pixel 2 smartphone now available in India for Rs 61,00

Taking Apple head on as it readied to release iPhone X in India on November 3, Google's flagship Pixel 2 smartphone went on sale in India on Wednesday at a starting price of Rs 61,000 for the 64GB variant.

The device comes with 4GB RAM coupled with 64GB and 128GB internal memory. The 128GB version is available at Rs 70,000.

Pixel 2 sports an aluminium unibody design with a hybrid coating and comes with IP67 water and dust resistance.

The smartphone is available on e-commerce sites such as Flipkart, Reliance Digital, Croma, Poorvika and Vijay Sales and retail stores and comes with a two-year warranty.

Pixel 2 runs the latest Android 8 Oreo operating system (OS) and sports 5-inch full HD (1920x1080) AMOLED display.

The smartphone is powered by top-notch Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor and 2,700mAh battery.

In terms of camera specs, there is 12MP f/1.8 primary camera with optical and electronic stabilisation and an 8MP f/2.4 selfie camera.

Pixel 2 comes pre-loaded with Google Assistant and a new feature called "Active Edge" that works when the phone is squeezed.

Other features include front-firing stereo speakers, Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz 802.11 a/b/c/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. The phone uses an aluminium unibody with a hybrid coating, and is IP67 water and dust resistant.

Both the variants are available in "Just Black", "Clearly White" and "Kinda Blue" coloured variants.

It's out: WhatsApp officially rolls out 'Delete for Everyone' feature

WhatsApp on Tuesday announced it has officially rolled out its most anticipated feature 'Delete for Everyone' that allows its over one billion users revoke their messages in case they sent those to a wrong person or a group.

"Starting today you can now delete messages you sent by mistake a" whether to one person or an entire group," WhatsApp said in a statement.

Here's how it works.
Tap and hold on the message, choose "Delete," and then "Delete for everyone."
You have seven minutes to delete the message after it's sent.
This feature is rolling out for users around the world on the latest versions of iPhone, Android, Windows Phone as well as desktop.
"Both you and the message recipient must be using the latest version of WhatsApp for the message to be successfully deleted," WhatsApp said.
WhatsApp was working on this feature for almost a year.
You can now delete messages for everyone or just for yourself.
"Deleting messages for everyone allows you to delete specific messages you have sent to either a group or an individual chat. This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake," WhatsApp said in its FAQ.
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Realty index hits 6-year high; Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty at new high

STOCK MARKET - Shares of real estate companies were on a roll with the Nifty Realty index hitting an over six-year high after a strong rally in Godrej Properties, Indiabulls Real Estate and DLF on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 01:25 PM; Nifty Realty index was up 3.8% at 316, its highest level since April 25, 2011, the largest gainer among sectoral indices. On comparison, Nifty 50 index was up 1% at 10,440. The S&P BSE Realty index too up 4% at 2,398, against 1.2% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Godrej Properties, Indiabulls Real Estate and DLF from the Nifty Realty index were up in the range of 4% to 8% on the NSE. The non-index stocks such as Hubtown, Dilip Buildcon, Ansal Buildwell, Emami Infrastructure and Simplex Realty were up 5% to 9% on the BSE.

Oberoi Realty hit a new high of Rs 509 on the NSE in intra-day trade. In past three month the stock rallied 27% against 3% rise in the benchmark index. The company had posted 25% year on year growth in its consolidated net profit of Rs 104 crore in Q2FY18.

“With the onset of Real Estate (Regulatory and Development) Act or RERA and Goods and Service Tax (GST), we are already witnessing an increase in customer confidence and an improved market sentiment. We believe that credible players are likely to gain ground and unorganised players will be pushed out and we will witness consolidation in the sector,” Vikas Oberoi, chairman & managing director of Oberoi Realty said while announcing Q2FY18 results.

According to analyst at Edelweiss Securities, the key uncertainties (RERA & GST) appear to have largely settled. Despite near‐term sluggishness, analyst expect uptick in residential new sales in ensuing quarters across key markets.

ICICI Bank hits 33-month high; market-cap crosses Rs 2-lakh crore

ICICI Bank surged 6% to Rs 317, hitting 33-month high on the BSE in intra-day trade, set to join the elite league of corporate entities with a market value of over Rs 2 lakh crore on closing levels. The stock of private sector lender is trading at its highest level since March 3, 2015.

ICICI Bank with the market capitalisation (market-cap) of Rs 201,178 crore is at number 13th position in overall market-cap ranking, the BSE data shows.  At 10:47 AM; the stock was trading 5% higher at Rs 314, as compared to 1% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Earlier, on March 3, 2015, ICICI Bank had market-cap of Rs 201,542 crore on closing levels. It had record high market-cap of Rs 222,359 crore on January 28, 2015 with a market price of Rs 348.95, the CapitalinePlus data shows.

Analyst at Jefferies upgraded the recommendation on ICICI Bank to buy from hold post September 2017 quarter (Q2FY18) results. It raised the target price to Rs 350 from Rs 295, the media report suggests.

“There were some asset quality positives – slippages continued to soften (albeit with a large share from outside the watch list) and provision coverage improved. Some key operating metrics were also robust – net interest margins (NIMs) at 3.27%, well above guidance; core loan growth strong in the mid-teens and continued cost-income momentum,” analysts at JP Morgan said in result update.

“We see steady progress toward asset quality resolution and improvement in operating metrics – the key overhang in 2H18 (October-March) is a potential negative slippage impact from the RBI inspection report. We continue to see value in the stock over the longer term and will watch asset quality resolution in 2H18 as the key stock price driver,” the brokerage firm said with netural rating on the stock.

“We believe that ICICI Bank would witness a significant improvement in profitability over FY18-20 supported by easing of the credit cycle and acceleration in balance sheet growth. Being strongly capitalized with Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 13.7%, the bank  is well positioned to take provisioning knocks in the near term and pursue attractive growth opportunities in the longer run, “analyst at IIFL Wealth Management said in result update with ‘buy’ rating on the stock with target price of Rs 360.

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Bharti Airtel hits over 10-year high as Q2 operating profit beats estimates

Bharti Airtel hits an over 10-year high of Rs 534, up 7% on the BSE after the company reported a better-than-expected consolidated operating profit and margin for the quarter ending September 2017 (Q2FY18).

The stock was trading at its highest level since October 18, 2007. It is just 8% away from its all-time high of Rs 575 touched on October 10, 2007 in intra-day trade.

The company said it has reported consolidated Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) at Rs 8,004 crore declined 15.4% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) with EBITDA margin dropping by 1.6% to 36.8%, led by India SA margin drop of 5.0% Y-o-Y on an underlying basis.

The brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities had expected Ebitda of Rs 7,613 crore and Ebitda margin of 34.94%, while Emkay Global Financial Services expected Ebitda of Rs 7,568 crore and margin of 34.09% for the quarter.

Bharti Airtel has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 343 crore in Q2FY18 against profit of Rs 1,461 crore in the same quarter previous year.

The consolidated revenues for Q2FY18 however declined by 10.4% at Rs 21,777 crore on Y-o-Y basis. Consolidated mobile data traffic at 853 Mn MBs in the quarter has registered a robust Y-o-Y growth of 293.8% on an underlying basis.

According to media reports, the foreign brokerage firm CLSA upgraded the recommendation on Bharti Airtel to buy from underperform. CLSA raised the target price to Rs 637 from Rs 430.