Sensex sheds 500 points, Nifty ends below 16,500; Infosys, Unilever tank

Indian benchmark indices ended on a negative note for the second day in a row shedding around 0.9%. Sensex ended at 55,268 points which was around 500 points lower than Monday. Meanwhile, the Nifty sank 150 points to end at 16,483 points.

All broad indices except Media ended in red with IT, Auto, and health sector stocks sinking the most. Infosys, Axis Bank and Hindustan Unilever lost around 3% in today's session, whereas Bajaj Finserv gained 5% following the news of a proposed stock split.

Asian markets had a mixed day. Chinese stocks jumped following the boost in sentiment around tech stocks earnings and the report the country would set up a fund to help property developers. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 1.48% higher and Shanghai Composite Index also widened gains to a rise of 0.8% and closed at 3,277.

Japan's Nikkei registered a small decline on Tuesday, while the broader Topix was flat, as investors kept to the sidelines ahead of Wednesday's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. The Nikkei closed 0.16% lower, its second straight daily drop.

European stocks were flat on Tuesday as a slide in retailers and Swiss bank UBS offset a rally in oil stocks and Unilever, which rose after an upbeat sales forecast.

Bitcoin sank to a one-week low, buffeted by investor skittishness ahead of a looming Federal Reserve interest-rate hike and amid harsher regulatory scrutiny of the cryptocurrency sector.

The largest token dropped as much as 5.9% on Tuesday and was trading at around $21,100 as of 10:26 a.m. in London. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 gauge shed more than 4%. Equity markets were mixed, with Chinese stocks gaining while most European benchmarks slipped.

Although, the employees' salary hikes and net hiring may lead to a further spike in cost which is likely to impact the company's margin in the near term, however, it believes the move will bring down its attrition rate which rose by 70 basis points sequentially in the quarter ending June 30, 2022 (Q1FY23). Infosys has already made the highest hiring in Q1 compared to its peers like TCS, Wipro, and HCL Tech. (Full Report)

Gold in the national capital on Tuesday fell by ₹28 to ₹51,192 per 10 grams, according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, the yellow metal finished at ₹51,220 per 10 grams. Silver also declined by ₹203 to ₹55,297 per kg from ₹55,500 per kg in the previous trade.

Amnish Aggarwal, Director - Research at Prabhudas Lilladher said, “ APNT has given strong beat on numbers led by high double digit volume growth. We expect margins to recover from 2HFY23, however APNT might settle for margins lower than historicals given expected entry of Grasim in Paints. We remain positive on APNT, however re-rating looks unlikely given premium valuations and likely disruption due to entry of a large player.”

Union Bank of India on Tuesday reported a 32 per cent rise in standalone net profit to ₹1,558.46 crore for the quarter ended June 2022, helped by a fall in bad loans. Its core interest income also rose at a healthy rate.

The bank had posted a standalone net profit of ₹1,180.98 crore in the year-ago quarter. Its total income during the April-June period rose to ₹20,991.09 crore against ₹19,913.64 in the same quarter of 2021-22, Union Bank of India said in a regulatory filing.

Two-wheeler and three-wheeler giant, Bajaj Auto registered a net profit of ₹1,173 crore in the quarter ending June 30, 2022 (Q1FY23) compared to ₹1,061 crore of the same quarter last year - recording a growth of 11%. However, Q1 PAT declined by 20% from ₹1,469 crore in the preceding quarter. Meanwhile, standalone revenue stood at ₹8,005 crore in the quarter under review jumping by 8% from ₹7,386 crore in Q1FY22 and was marginally up from ₹7,975 crore in Q4FY22.

Asian Paints on Tuesday reported consolidated net profit at ₹1,036 crore, up over 80% as compared to ₹574 crore in the same quarter last year. Its revenue surged more than 54% to ₹8,607 crore as against ₹5,585 crore year-on-year (YoY). The company said that its volume growth registered during the quarter is one of the highest in the last six quarters. (Full Report)

Tanla Platforms Limited, India's largest CPaaS provider, today announced its financial results for the first quarter of FY'22-23. Revenue increased by 28% year-over-year to ₹8,001 million. Gross profit increased by 7% year-over-year to ₹1,850 million. Gross margin at 23.1%. EBITDA at ₹1,307 million. EBITDA margin at 16.3%.

Naveen Kulkarni, chief investment officer, Axis Securities says, "Currently, the markets expect a 75bps hike from the US Fed this week and post that a 50 bps hike in Sept followed by a 25bps hike in November and December to take the Feds Fund rate to 3.25-2.5% by the year-end. These rate hikes are already priced in by the market and any incremental increase this year, apart from the ones mentioned, might be taken negatively by the markets. If the US economy slows down significantly or if commodity prices fall further, there is a possibility that these planned interest rate hikes might not materialize, especially the ones in November and December."

Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claiming that the state is undergoing a financial crisis as it had not received GST compensation to the tune of ₹12,000 crore.

"The financial health of the state has been seriously affected by a reduction in the revenue deficit grant to the tune of around ₹7,000 crore this year and loss due to stoppage of GST compensation of around ₹12,000 crore. In addition, the Ministry of Finance has arbitrarily, in the name of off-budget borrowing made a reduction of approximately Rs,4000 crores in the net borrowing limits of the State. In all the State Government will have to contend with a reduction of ₹23,000 crore in the financial resources available to it for financing the budget in the current financial year," Balagopa' said in his letter written on July 22.

Domestic brokerage and research firm Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities is bullish on two chemical stocks after their respective Q1FY23 results - which are Navin Fluorine International (NFL) and Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem and has Buy and Accumulate ratings on the stocks respectively. (Full Report)

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday assured that a discussion on price rise will take in Parliament once Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was down with Covid19, returned in a day or two.

"Then, we'll have a discussion," Joshi said.

The minister said that inflation in India is contained as compared to many other countries.

Mergers and acquisitions have become an important solution for investors facing a slowdown in India’s equity capital markets, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“India is a super important market for sovereign funds, private equity and global pension funds, who are taking an increasingly important role in the number of M&A transactions that are currently happening,” Kaustubh Kulkarni, vice chairman for APAC, investment banking India head and Southeast Asia co-head, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday.

This program, a joint initiative of NASSCOM Foundation's corporate volunteering program - My Kartavya and Tietoevry, aims at strengthening the NGO ecosystem by mentoring select non-profits to overcome tech challenges for a lasting impact.

Adolescents in India face several nutrition-related challenges and due to a lack of data, their health and nutrition are often overlooked. Through the Social Innovation Catalyst program, NASSCOM Foundation will support Nourishing Schools Foundation in building a Data Hub on adolescent health and nutrition.

Shares of Vedanta rose more than 2% to ₹243 apiece on the BSE in Tuesday's deals as the stock started trading ex-dividend, a day ahead of its record date for the second interim dividend for the current fiscal year. (Full Report)

IIFL said on Anupam Rasayan, "Overall, ARIL remains focussed on growth. Our estimates assume PAT CAGR of ~35% from FY22 to FY25. However, elevated working capital levels are keeping the RoE subdued. Maintain ‘BUY’ with a revised target price of INR 990/share"