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PremiumIndian indices on Thursday snapped a three-day winning streak as hopes of de-escalation in war between Russia and Ukraine fizzled out. The indices opened positively with support from weak US dollar and FPIs turning net buyers, along with dip in oil prices. However, tracking weakness from global peers and the unfavourable Chinese manufacturing numbers soured the sentiments. The shelling by the Russians in Ukraine worsen the situation further. In Asia, shares in South Korea advanced, while that in Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and Shanghai declined at close on Thursday.
Indian indices edged lower on Thursday as uncertainties around the Russia-Ukraine war continues to haunt investors. The global investor sentiments weakened after Russia's shelling around capital of Ukraine continued. The indices opened in the green, but soon turned volatile ending the session on a negative note.
The Sensex shed 115.48 points, or 0.2%, to close at 58,568.51, while Nifty50 slipped 33.50 points to end at 17,464.75. On the sectoral front, FMCG, telecom, and power led the indices, while pharma, IT, and metals dragged.
On the 30-stock index, the most gains were made by Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, and M&M among others, while DRL, Reliance, and Wipro were among the top losers.
On Nifty50, Britannia, JSW Steel, and M&M made the most gains, while Hindalco, Divi's Lab, and Apollo Hospital were among the top laggards.
As oil prices dived on news that the US was considering record release from the reserves, India on Thursday said it supports the initiative to let out from the strategic stockpile to cool rising oil prices.
In our view, risk-reward of the deal is quite favourable for Axis Bank as this gives it an opportunity to expand in the high-yielding card business, along with top-end customer base on the liability side
The rupee advanced 23 paise to 75.67 against the US dollar in the opening trade on Thursday, supported by positive domestic equities and a fall in crude oil prices.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.67 against the US dollar, registering a rise of 23 paise from the previous close.
On Wednesday, the rupee dropped by 17 paise to close at 75.90 against the US dollar.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.14 per cent to 97.92.
Asian stock markets sank Thursday after Chinese manufacturing weakened and Russian shelling around Ukraine's capital shook hopes of progress in peace talks.
Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo declined while Seoul gained. Oil fell more than $7 per barrel in New York but stayed above $100.
Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index fell 0.6% on Wednesday after U.S. economic growth was weaker than expected.
Russian forces shelled areas near Kyiv and another city Wednesday after Moscow said it would scale back operations there to promote trust. Negotiators were meeting in Turkey to try to end the five-week-old war.
Shares of Saregama India hit upper circuit level of 5% to ₹4,828 apiece on the BSE in Thursday's trading session after the company announced that it is demerging its entire distribution business of the company. The demerge is relating to sale of all its physical products including Carvaan on digital marketplaces along with identified non-core asset.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked low-cost domestic carrier Spicejet and Kalanithi Maran to amicably settle the share transfer dispute between the two.
India's top retailer, Reliance, has privately defended an abrupt takeover of the stores of debt-laden rival Future Retail, saying mounting dues of $634 million compelled it to act beyond expectations, a company letter shows.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) on Thursday announced that its board has approved issuing equity and raising funds from promoters and promoter group at an issue price of ₹13.30 per equity share (including a premium of ₹3.30 per equity share), aggregating to around ₹4,500 crore.
Bharti Airtel and Tech Mahindra will co-develop and market 5G use cases in India besides setting up a joint 5G innovation lab for developing ‘Make in India’ use cases for the Indian and global markets, the companies said in a joint statement Thursday.
ICICI Securities: Hindalco highlighted potential spend of US$4.58bn in Novelis and US$3.43bn in India operations over FY23-27E. Management expects ~US$2bn of FCF post sustaining capex and has created a roadmap to allocate 75% of the same toward growth projects. 15% will be allocated toward deleveraging and 8-10% toward shareholder returns. In Novelis, incremental capex of US$3.5-3.8bn will take capacity up by 1.3mtpa. We would have ideally liked to see an upping of the EBITDA/te guidance as well. In the absence of the same, the return potential for incremental investment appears to be a notch below what has been achieved in the previous Novelis expansions (FY11 + FY19). Management followed through on its previous prompt of looking at brownfield smelter expansion (0.185mtpa) in India at a capital cost of US$3,750/te – the project is still at the appraisal stage; with renewable power sourcing. Management continues to stay focussed on improving the downstream mix as domestic aluminium capacity reaches 1.5mtpa. We maintain BUY.
Shares of DB Realty Ltd hit upper circuit level by rising about 5% to ₹104 apiece on the BSE in Thursday's trading session. The scrip was locked in upper circuit level for the third straight session. The multibagger stock has rallied more than 115% in 2022 (year-to-date or YTD) so far, whereas it has skyrocketed about 334% in a year's period.
The board of state gas utility GAIL India Ltd on Thursday said it intends to buyback ₹1,082.72 crore worth of shares of the company under a share buyback plan.
Russia is offering India steep discounts on the direct sale of oil as mounting international pressure lowers the appetite for its barrels elsewhere following the invasion of Ukraine, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Cryptocurrency prices today were mixed with Bitcoin trading almost flat at $47,071, down about 0.4%. The world's largest and most popular cryptocurrency is up about 2% in 2022 (year-to-date or YTD) so far. It is about 30% far away from its record high of near $69,000 it had hit in November last year.
IndiGo’s Chief Commercial Officer Willy Boulter said he will leave the company in four months, just a day after the biggest budget airline in Asia said its finance chief resigned with immediate effect.
Oil prices dove on Thursday as the United States weighed its largest-ever drawdown from its oil reserves, while Asian stocks fell as China reported weak manufacturing data and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine dragged on.
The United States is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from strategic reserves, four U.S. sources said, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices that have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine late last month.
Brent crude futures were down 4.9% at $107.89 a barrel and U.S. crude futures fell more than 5% to $101.37 a barrel by midday.
Lower oil prices looked set boost European and U.S. markets at the open with European futures rising 0.49%, Germany's DAX futures gaining 0.61%, Nasdaq futures up 0.4% and S&P500 futures 0.15% higher.
But shares in Asia were hurt by data showing that activity in China's the factory and services sectors swung into negative territory in March, contracting simultaneously for the first time since the peak of the country's COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.56%, led by a 1% drop for Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, and a 0.77% decline for Chinese blue chips.
Gold fell in range-bound trade on Thursday, but the safe-haven metal was set for its biggest quarterly gain since September 2020, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict lifted bullion's appeal.
Spot gold was down 0.6% at $1,921.55 per ounce by 0507 GMT. U.S. gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,925.00.
The metal has gained about 5% so far in the quarter and 0.7% in the month.
The cost to Axis Bank for integrating its target would be ₹15bn. One part of the cost is the payout to Citi for providing services during the transition period, which would amount to ₹12bn. The integration cost would be borne for 2 years post the closing of the deal and would be transitory in nature. There is protection built into the deal for Axis Bank if parameters deteriorate compared with pro forma date of June 2021 and Axis would pay a lower price. Axis Bank would make this comparison as the assets get transferred to it on the LD1 (Legal Date 1), 9 to 12 months later. The intention is not to pay a lower price and both parties are aligned and incentivized to retain customers.
Axis Bank (AXSB) announced a deal on Wednesday to acquire Citibank India’s (Citi) retail assets, which is net positive for AXSB from a business standpoint. Our view regarding the deal includes the following key aspects (1) The rationale for the deal makes sense for AXSB due to a variety of reasons (2) Integration of Citi’s business will be a key monitorable but importantly, there is some downside protection built into the deal for AXSB (3) We think that the deal will be RoE accretive in FY24E and raise our FY24E PAT estimate by 3.5%. We reiterate BUY rating on AXSB with a revised price target of ₹1060.
A significant increase in Russian oil imports by India could expose New Delhi to a "great risk" as the United States prepares to step up enforcement of sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. administration official said.
Oil marketing companies raised petrol prices by another 80 paise on Thursday, taking the the cumulative price hike, since 22 March, in the national capital to ₹6.4 a litre.
The NSE Nifty opened on a positive note today around 17,520 levels. It quickly erased the marginal gains and turned volatile to trade flat.
Axis Bank will acquire US-based Citi's consumer business in India for ₹12,325 crore in one of the largest deals in the Indian financial services space, in a bid to bulk up its credit card and retail businesses, and help close the gap with larger peers like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. Shares of Axis Bank have outperformed by rising about 10% in 2022 (YTD) so far as compared to a 2% rise in Nifty Bank index.
A splendid move has been witnessed in our domestic market from three consecutive sessions amid the positive global cues. The benchmark index Nifty50 started the session with a gap up, showing optimism among the market participants. The index finally showed a breakout from its long haul of a consolidation period and concluded the day by adding a percent, a tad below the 17500 mark.
The strong bullish sentiment across various sectors has contributed to the rally, primarily because of some relief from the geopolitical concerns between Russia and Ukraine. However, the situation is yet not entirely out of the woods, inferring to keep caution simultaneously. On the domestic front, some volatility is likely to be seen amid the monthly and last expiry of FY22. As far as levels are concerned, the Nifty is placed near the crucial zone of 17500, and looking at the recent stellar run this week, some breather at current levels should not be ruled out, though the support is nearby around the 17350-17300 zone. While on the higher end, 17650 could be seen as immediate resistance for the index.
The undertone for the market remains in favor of the bulls, where any correction towards the mentioned support zone could be seen as an opportunity. Meanwhile, the high beta index Nifty Bank has gauged some traction in the last couple of sessions and should be kept on the close radar for the traders and even for setting up momentum in the market.
Visit a mid-sized store in an Indian city, and you’d wonder if it exists to make any money. It might just as well be there to process transactions for half-a-dozen payment apps: PhonePe, Paytm, Google Pay, BharatPe, Amazon Pay and MobiKwik. Add up the merchants who have downloaded the digital services and the figure quickly reaches 80 million. A third of India’s 60 million-plus small businesses are using an average of four different platforms, according to Raman Khanduja, the chief executive officer of Mintoak, a Mumbai-based fintech.
Hariom Pipe Industries, Iron and steel products manufacturer, launched its three-day initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday and received a subscription of about 67% against its total issue size. The company has fixed price band at ₹144 to ₹153 per equity share. The public issue comprises sale of 85 lakh equity shares of the company.
Inversion of a key part of the yield curve has caught the attention of some at the Federal Reserve, but officials show no sign of ditching plans to keep raising interest rates to get inflation under control.
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