MUMBAI: The win-loss ratio in the SME IPO space has been nearly equally distributed in 2025. Of the 254 small and medium enterprises that tapped the primary market and have been listed till Dec 19, this year, 120 stocks were still in the green, while 132 stocks were in the red. And two were at the IPO price level.Among gainers, the biggest one was up five times over its IPO price while among the losers, the worst performer had lost 82% of its value, data from BSE, NSE and Chittorgarh, a primary market analytics site, showed. Of the total 254 SME listings in 2025, BSE had the major share with 144 listings while the rest were on the NSE. Among the SME stocks that were listed on the BSE, returns on 63 stocks were positive while 81 destroyed value, giving a gain-loss percent of 44% and 56%.

Of the 110 listings on the NSE, as many as 57 created wealth for investors while the balance 53 destroyed wealth. This gave NSE a gain-loss percentage of 52% to 48%, a winning ratio that was higher than BSE’s.Among all the SMEs that were listed on the bourses during the year, Tankup Engineers was the biggest wealth creator with a more than five-fold jump in its stock price since its April 2025 IPO at Rs 140 (see graphic). This NSE-listed company’s shares were listed at Rs 184, and on Dec 19 it closed at Rs 722, a gain of 416%.According to its offer document, this five-year old company is engaged in manufacturing vehicle superstructure for complex mobility and storage solutions. Its products include self-bunded fuel tanks, mobile diesel bowsers, aircraft refuelers, fire tenders, and ground support equipment. Among the other top wealth creators of the year in the SME space were Anondita Medicare (stock up 406% since its Sept 1, 2025 listing on NSE), Fabtech Tech (up 296%, BSE), Cryogenic OGS (up 270%, BSE) and Sacheerome (up 265%, NSE), data from Chittorgarh showed.On the other side of the wealth creation spectrum were stocks that destroyed wealth during the year. Topping the list was Velencia India, which listed on BSE’s SME platform in July this year. Compared to its IPO price of Rs 110, on Dec 19 the stock closed at Rs 20, a slide of 82%. The company has presence in real estate, and export-import of food and non-food items globally, it said in the offer document.Other top value destroyers were Studio LSD (down 75%, NSE), Aten Papers (down 72%, BSE), Swasth Foodtech (down 72%, BSE), and Siddhi Cotspin (down 72%, NSE), data from Chittorgarh showed.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Sunday, December 21, announced the launch of a new franchise T20 tournament, the Afghanistan Premier League. Notably, the upcoming league will feature five city-based teams, bringing together top Afghanistan players along with overseas cricketers and emerging local talent.

The cricket board had annopinced a T20 league back in 2018, but it lasted only one season. That edition attracted several big international stars, including Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, and Shahid Afridi. Payment problems and questions over the league’s management and credibility led the board to discontinue.

Afghanistan Cricket Board Announces Launch of New Franchise T20 Tournament

The Afghanistan Cricket Board is preparing to relaunch its franchise-based T20 league with a new start. The first season is expected to take place in October 2026, with the UAE likely to host the tournament.

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The league is also planning to hold its player draft around June or July 2026. This time, the ACB aims to build the competition on a stronger base by combining Afghanistan’s top national players with overseas stars and young local talent.

“The inaugural season will feature five city-based franchises, bringing together Afghanistan’s leading national players alongside prominent overseas professionals and emerging local talent,” the ACB said in a press release.

The league was last played in October 2018, with matches played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Balkh Legends emerged as champions after beating Kabul Zwanan by four wickets in the final. Star spinner Rashid Khan finished as the Player of the Tournament.

Meaningful Step Forward in Our Cricketing Journey – ACB Chairman Mirwais Ashraf

ACB chairman Mirwais Ashraf said that the Afghanistan Premier League would strengthen the country’s cricket future. He stated that the league will give Afghan players more opportunities to grow, inspire young cricketers, and help Afghanistan showcase its talent to a global audience.

“The Afghanistan Premier League represents a meaningful step forward in our cricketing journey,” Mirwais Ashraf said at the launch in Dubai on Saturday.

“It creates new opportunities for our players, inspires the next generation, and allows Afghanistan cricket to be showcased on a global platform. We see the APL as an important contributor to the growth and unity of the game, both domestically and internationally.”

Organisers Will Move Into the Next Phase – ACB

The Afghanistan Cricket Board has teamed up with Cricket Venture to manage and develop the new Afghanistan Premier League. With the partnership in place, the focus will move to setting up franchise identities, securing sponsors, and planning the player draft or auction.

“Following the launch, organisers will move into the next phase, which includes finalising franchise identities, confirming commercial partners, and progressing the player auction or draft process,” the release said.

Alongside this new league, Afghanistan will continue to run its domestic T20 competition, the Shpageeza Cricket League, which takes place every year in the July-August window with five local teams.

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MUMBAI: The amendment to insurance laws is expected to trigger a fresh round of consolidation and deal-making in the sector, alongside new capital inflows following govt’s decision to permit 100% foreign direct investment.Apart from opening the door to higher foreign ownership, the new bill seeks to widen consolidation options by allowing insurance companies to amalgamate with non-insurance companies through a scheme approved by regulator Irdai. This change could create new listing routes for insurers and expand acquisition opportunities beyond insurer-to-insurer mergers.According to Shivangi Sharma Talwar, partner at JSA Advocates and Solicitors, the amendments could materially alter the legal framework governing mergers in the sector. “With the amendments proposed under the new insurance bill, it may become legally permissible for an insurer to amalgamate with a non-insurance entity, provided the scheme results in an insurance company as the surviving or resultant entity,” she said.

She added that the impact will depend on regulations yet to be notified, particularly on the scope of non-insurance activities insurers may be allowed to undertake. Subject to regulatory clarity, unlisted insurers could use this route as a pathway to listing, while insurers may also be able to acquire service providers and insurtech companies, broadening the scope for consolidation in the sector. The framework could also allow insurance companies to acquire other businesses, including service providers and insurtech companies, expanding consolidation beyond traditional insurance-to-insurance mergers.The proposed change flows from clause 33 of the bill, states that no insurance or non-insurance business can be transferred or amalgamated with the insurance business of another insurer except under a scheme approved by the authority, and only if the transferee continues to comply with the Act and related regulations at all times. Present rules, which do not allow merger of a non insurer with an insurer, had scuttled a two-step merger proposal between HDFC Life, holding company Max Finance and Max Life aimed at listing through merger process in 2016. This route will now be open for insurers. In practical terms, this allows a non-insurance company to merge its business with an existing insurer, provided the resultant entity remains an insurance company and the transaction is cleared by Irdai. Industry experts expect the changes to support growth and deepen the market. Shruti Ladwa, partner and insurance leader at EY India, said the amendments would “catalyse the next phase of growth by attracting global capital and advanced underwriting expertise, strengthening domestic reinsurance capacity, and insurance penetration.”

CII president Rajiv Memani, who is chairman and CEO EY India, describes 2025 a year of reforms and calls for the momentum to continue. In an interview with TOI he flags power, mining, ease of doing business and judicial reforms as focus areas. Excerpts:There have been a series of reforms this year, starting with the Budget to change in GST, labour codes and insurance laws and a rush of trade agreements. Do you see govt in overdrive?Relative to what’s happening in the world, India ending half year with 8% GDP growth is remarkable. The other parameters are also looking good, including fiscal deficit, corporate and bank balance sheets. There have been reforms and several steps on ease of doing business. This year will be remembered for the reforms and the trade deals and hopefully that momentum will continue.What is the wish list for the coming months?The CII membership has looked at it sector-by-sector and they can be broken into ease of doing business and factor reforms. On factor reforms, there is energy and mining. While energy costs have come down, corporates still have to pay at least Rs 1.50 more per unit due to cross subsidisation. Also, you have to pay for access charges. State distribution companies are incurring losses. There is a need for aggressive privatisation of discoms. Similarly, opening up of the mining sector, particularly those mines that are locked up, will help reduce manufacturing cost significantly. In logistics, we need large investments in high speed rails. We analysed India’s imports. Of the roughly $725 billion imports this year, $250-300 billion will include energy, fertiliser, rare earth. They were difficult to substitute, but you still have $300-400 billion of imports that we can look at manufacturing in India. We looked at ease of doing business. Digitisation of land records is taking place, can we look at tokenisation? Judicial reforms is a big area of focus given that cases are piling up. Unless we find a way of dealing with it, it will choke growth.

How are US tariffs hurting business and what is your recommendation to govt?Our goods exports are still up but the composition has changed. The trade diversification piece is working well, especially in food products, shrimps. There are some sectors that are impacted and some are labour intensive. A lot of new contracts are signed around this time and a lot of businesses will try to sustain because winning a new contract & building new relationship again is not that easy.How is industry preparing for the new labour codes?Companies are preparing, a lot of implementation has to happen at the state level. They are also requesting govt to train. First, due to digitisation, compliances can be done digitally and a portal for all states can be helpful. Second is that getting the inspectors and others also fully trained. Third, there shouldn’t be any inconsistency between what the states recommend and what is there in the codes. Fourth, there are some questions around whether this will be retrospectively done or prospectively done. What are your recommendations on the tax side in the budget?A lot of our tax recommendations are to deal with simplification, whether you look at mergers, demergers, acquisitions, which are pain points. Second is dispute resolution with 85% cases stuck at the level of Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals). On customs, there is talk of reducing the number of slabs.Disinvestment is one area where there’s been some slowdown. How can that be activated? Over the next two years, we should be looking at over Rs 2 lakh crore of disinvestments or privatisation. You can build some cash reserves which you can use for much greater productive use from an economic standpoint, such as infrastructure creation… There is a lot of uncertainty vis a vis China and other countries. When you’re looking at manufacturing and acquiring strategic resources, rare earths, funding some of the newer areas like aerospace, defence, medical devices, look at MSMEs... What we have today is not working efficiently. So, whether we consolidate all that into one ministry or we consolidate that at a central level somewhere so that it works at a rapid pace… We can also on-board some fund management experts and see how we can create maybe a fund of funds.

NEW DELHI: India hit out at Bangladesh and suspended visa operations at its mission in Chittagong on Sunday, amid a wave of protests there with an anti-India hue sparked by the death of radical activist Sharif Osman Hadi, which has seen the lynching of a Hindu man.Describing as “horrend-ous” the killing of 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das, a garment factory worker beaten to death by a mob and set ablaze for alleged blasphemy, MEA slammed attempts in Bangladesh to draw false equivalence between protests targeting its facilities in that country and the one outside the Bangladesh mission in Delhi.India’s assistant high commission in Chittagong suspended visa operations over concern for safety of the centre’s staff and premises in view of angry protests, which saw demonstrators come close to the diplomatic facility on Thursday despite presence of Bangladesh security personnel.

Bring to justice perpetrators of Dipu’s ‘barbaric killing’, New Delhi tells Dhaka

Due to the recent security incident, Indian visa oper-ations at IVAC Chittagong will remain suspended from Dec 21, 2025, until further notice, the Indian Visa Appli-cation Centre (IVAC) said in a statement.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in Delhi urged the interim govt in Dhaka to bring to justice the perpetrators of the “barbaric killing” of Dipu, leading Bangladesh to protest.“The incident should not be conflated with the security of minorities,” foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain said in Dhaka, adding, “He was a Bangladeshi citizen who was killed, and Bangladesh took immediate action. Several arrests have already been made.”He also claimed that the protests in New Delhi left the “Bangladesh high commissioner and his family feeling threatened”.The assistant Indian high Commissioner’s residence in Chittagong was pelted with stones by a mob on Thursday, the day Hadi died days after being shot in head by masked gunmen. Thursday also saw massive “anti-India” protests outside the assistant Indian high commissions in Khulna and Rajshahi, and on Wednesday, around the high commission in Dhaka.In an apparent attempt to suggest that the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi faced a security threat of similar severity, media reports Bangladesh said a demonstration by “Hindu extremists” outside the facility over Dipu’s death in Mymensingh threatened its security, drawing a sharp rejoinder from the MEA.India trashed such claims as “misleading propaganda”. There was “no attempt to breach the fence or create a security situation at any time,” the MEA said, adding police dispersed the group after a few minutes and visual evidence of these events is publicly available. “We have noted misleading propaganda in sections of the Bangladesh media on the incident,” Jaiswal said.The MEA said about 20-25 youths had gathered outside the Bangladesh high commission on Saturday and raised slogans in protest against the “horrendous killing” of Dipu.“India continues to keep a close watch on the evolving situation in Bangladesh. Our officials remain in touch with Bangladesh authorities and have conveyed to them our strong concerns at the attacks on minorities,” Jaiswal said.Pictures of the two protests pointed out the contrast as angry protesters came in close proximity to the Indian facility in Chittagong, while a much smaller crowd stood in protest at a safe distance from the Bangladesh high commission.Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen had on Saturday introduced another dimension to the horrific killing of Dipu, claiming on X that police had initially rescued him from the mob and asked if police with sympathies for extremists handed him back to the violent crowd determined to kill or they were overpowered. “They held a full-blown celebration — beating Dipu, hanging him, burning him — a jihadist festival,” she said.On Sunday, two more persons were held in the Mymensingh lynching case, taking the total arrests to 12.Internal situation has deteriorated in Bangladesh after the death of Haidi, a prominent face in 2024 anti-govt protests that led to then PM Sheikh Hasina abdicating & fleeing to India. Known for his anti-India utterances, he was a leader of radical group Inquilab Mancho & had shared a map of greater Bangladesh that showed India’s north east as part of his country.

India’s stock market has become one of the calmest in the world – so calm that it’s prompting a rethink of strategies among players in the country’s vast derivatives space.Despite geopolitical flare ups and a recent global selloff in risk assets, Nifty has barely budged for months as domestic money overwhelms foreign flows and derivatives trading curbs choke off volatility. The India NSE Volatility Index, a gauge tracking expectations for future swings, ended Friday at an all-time low.

For the traders powering the world’s largest options market by volume, that’s making it harder to profit from the well-known strategies. Volatility is the engine of derivatives trading: when markets swing, investors pay up to hedge, and the cost of contracts rise. When stocks are calm, premiums shrink, eroding returns for option sellers and leaving traditional strategies less profitable.“The market has become more efficient and competitive – that’s meant lower returns for standard vol-selling strategies,” said Nitesh Gupta, partner and derivatives trader at Karna Stock Broking. “In this environment, trading desks will have to increase risk to make better returns.”A turning point came last year, when Sebi launched a sweeping crackdown aimed at curbing speculative retail activity and addressing losses among individual traders. The markets regulator scrapped several popular weekly options, cutting out the very products that had amplified intraday swings and drying out volume.The impact is clear: While activity has bounced off from a low in Feb, notional turnover has averaged almost Rs 240 lakh crore ($2.7 trillion) a day this year, down 35% from 2024. It’s the first annual decline since data going back to 2017.That drop in derivatives activity has fed back into the underlying market: Nifty has moved less than 1.5% for 151 consecutive sessions, a run that’s nearing a record set in 2023, and its three-month realised volatility has slipped toward 8 points – lower than in any major global market. (This is a Bloomberg story)