Shah Rukh Khan and other celebrities add star power to WPL opener

The 2024 Women's Premier League got off to a flying start in Bengaluru on Friday night with Bollywood stars and a last-ball finish enthralling fans.

Actor and IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was among the stars who performed during a glitzy opening ceremony.

The league opener between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals turned out to be just as entertaining.

All-rounder Sajeevan Sajana hit a six to give defending champions Mumbai Indians a thrilling last-ball win.

Sajana took the crease at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium with Mumbai needing five for victory in a rerun of the inaugural season's final last year. Sajana then danced down the track, hitting a maximum and sealing a four-wicket win.

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur had been caught at long on for 55 after attempting a boundary on the penultimate ball, adding to the nerves.

It was an unforgettable moment for Sanjana - the 29-year-old captain for state side Kerala, who had been scooped up by Kaur's team in December at the bottom end of the player auction price band.

Earlier, England all-rounder Alice Capsey top-scored with 75 as Delhi made 171-5. She received good support from Jemimah Rodrigues, who made 42.

It was the perfect start for the WPL which hosted its first edition in 2023 and has already proved popular with fans and a lucrative earner for India's cricket board.

Franchise rights were auctioned off last January for $572.5 million, while media rights for the first five seasons were sold to Viacom18 for $116.7 million.

The WPL is now the second-most valuable women's sports league after the WNBA women's basketball in the US.

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The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
not be younger than 25 years old
not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
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undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially

Profile of Udrive

Date started: March 2016

Founder: Hasib Khan

Based: Dubai

Employees: 40

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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers

Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.

It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.

The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.

Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.

Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.

He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.

AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”

A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.

Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.

Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.

Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.

By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.

Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.

In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”

Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.

She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.

Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.

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Dos

Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
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Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts

Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying

Shah Rukh Khan and other celebrities add star power to WPL opener

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Main report

The rules on fostering in the UAE

Other workplace saving schemes

How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers

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