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PremiumThe investors decided to opt for a wait-and-watch approach ahead of the earnings of heavyweights like Reliance Industries and Hindustan Zinc. Prior announcements of companies for the fourth quarter failed to lift sentiments. Softening job market and a plunge in manufacturing activity in the US show signs of weakness in the economy.
Indian shares were muted and ended in the flat territory on Friday as investors remained cautious after a weak revenue outlook from HCLTech Ltd and ahead of the quarterly earnings of the country's top firm by market capitalisation, Reliance Industries Ltd.
The Nifty 50 closed perfectly flat at 17,624, while the S&P BSE Sensex climbed 22 points to close at 59,655. Nine of the 15 major Nifty sectoral indices ended in the red in today's session.
With most sectors ending in the red, Realty, Metal, Auto and PSU Bank dragged the most in today's session. Media shined with IT, Pharma and FMCG too ending in the green.
Among stocks, ITC, TCS, Britannia, Cipla and Wipro topped the stock charts. HDFC Life shed 3% followed by Tech Mahindra, Adani Enterprises and SBI Life.
Japan's Nikkei share average slipped on Friday, easing away from an eight-month peak it touched earlier in the session as investors refrained from making active bets ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy meeting next week. The index closed 0.33% lower. The index is on course for the fourth straight month of gains - the last time it went on a similar run was in 2021.
Mainland China and Hong Kong stocks slumped on Friday as Chinese stocks logged the biggest daily decline since last November's rally driven by optimism over easing of COVID restrictions, as uneven Chinese economic recovery dented investor sentiment.
China's blue-chip CSI300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both closed down 2%, while Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index finished 1.6% lower. For the week, the CSI300 Index declined 1.5%, while the Hang Seng Index lost 1.8%, both finishing the week at their lowest levels in April.
European shares were subdued on Friday, but on track for a fifth week of gains, as investors eyed more economic data from the euro zone, along with more corporate earnings.
Britain's exporter-heavy FTSE 100 index struggled for direction in early trading on Friday, with losses in industrial miners countering gains in consumer staples and healthcare stocks.
Leading two-wheeler brand Bajaj Auto is launching its first bike in London soon. Rajiv Bajaj, MD of Bajaj Auto, in an interview with CNBC-TV8 said that the company will unveil the Bajaj -Triumph bike on June 27. The company first announced its partnership with British motorcycle brand Triumph in 2017.
“The actual launch, will be towards the end of June; perhaps specifically on Tuesday, June 27 in London. It will be a global launch that is being organised by Triumph. So, what exactly is the content of that I am not aware, but that is when the launch might be", Rajiv Bajaj told CNBC-TV8.
Members of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC) have cautioned against excessive tightening of interest rates, warning that it could lead to an unexpectedly sharp slowdown in economic growth and may prompt a sudden reversal in rate action.
“In the current situation of high inflation, monetary policy does not have the luxury of responding to these growth headwinds. In fact, it is almost axiomatic that monetary action can cool inflation only by suppressing demand. However, policymakers must be vigilant against overshooting the terminal policy rate, thereby slowing the economy to a greater extent than what is needed to glide inflation to the target," said MPC member Jayant Varma. (Read More)
Akshay Tiwari of Religare Broking says ACCUMULATE for ICICI Prudential: CMP (Rs) 446 - Target Price (Rs) 496 - Potential Upside 11.2%
We remain positive on the insurance company on the back of its strong APE and VNB growth. Also, the products are gaining traction and the company is widening its network to reach the underpenetrated market. Its VNB margin has constantly improved over the years. We expect APE/NBP/VNB to grow at a CAGR of 14%/14%/15% over FY23-25E. We maintain Accumulate rating with a target price of ₹496 valuing the company at 1.8x of FY25E embedded value.
India has gained 125 million online shoppers in the past three years, with another 80 million expected to join by 2025, according to a report by marketing data and analytics company Kantar.
The nation's booming e-commerce market is driven by affordable smartphones and low-cost data plans, leading major retail and consumer goods makers to increase their investments in the online space.
With over 530 million active social media users in India, of which 52% are millennials, and the number is projected to reach 600 million by 2025. The increasing online presence is expected to boost e-commerce sales, as 77 million shoppers purchased from social platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and social-commerce sites in 2021, a trend set to accelerate. (Read More)
Indian banks may shy away from parking large sums in the central bank's 14-day variable rate reverse repo, which acted as a major reason for elevated rates through the week amid volatile liquidity, traders said.
Liquidity in the banking system, which was in deficit till March-end, swung to a surplus of around 2.7 trillion rupees ($32.87 billion) at the beginning of this month, but a rise in cash in circulation as well as credit pickup led to a rapid decline in liquidity to a surplus of 1.35 trillion rupees.
Traders say that even this liquidity is concentrated with a few large banks.
"When banks had parked large amounts on April 6, the liquidity picture was completely different, but then there were credit outflows and currency leakages, resulting in pressure on banks to borrow at higher rates," a senior treasury official from a state-run bank said.
"Apart from the top two to three large state-run and private banks, most were either neutral or caught short in their liquidity management process," the trader said. (Reuters)
The board of directors of the Bank of Baroda has considered and approved fund raise up to $4 billion through issuance of bonds and certificate deposits. In its latest exchange communication, Bank of Baroda informed Indian bourses that the bank board has approved $1 billion foreign currency fund raise through issuance of bonds while an additional up to $3 billion fund raise via issuance of certificates of deposits.
Bank of Baroda informed Indian stock market bourses about the fund raise programme citing, "Board of Directors of Bank have inter alia considered and approved raising of foreign currency fund through issuance of Bonds up to USD 1.00 Billion under Bank's MTN programme and through issuance of Certificate of Deposits up to USD 3.00 Billion under CD programme in single or multiple tranches at appropriate time."
However, Bank of Baroda share price has been trading in tight range since early morning deals though market was well informed about today's board meeting to consider and approve fund raise. Bank of Baroda share price today had a par opening and it soon went on to hit intraday low of ₹174.60 on NSE, logging around 1.75 per cent slump during Friday deals. However, the PSU stock pared some early morning losses after the fund raise programmed became public.
India's market regulator is planning to permit a new category of mutual fund schemes where asset managers' charges will partly be linked to performance, according to an official document reviewed by Reuters and a source directly familiar with the matter.
As part of the proposal, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) wants to allow additional charges if a fund consistently outperforms a relevant benchmark index and gives higher annualised returns, according to an internal SEBI document.
The proposal to introduce performance-linked charges on select mutual fund schemes has not been previously reported. According to the plan, the base fees currently charged for mutual funds would be reduced and additional charges would be based on performance.
If introduced, India would be one of a handful of major markets to introduce performance-linked fees for mutual funds.
"The regulator is considering this proposal since it has observed that many actively managed funds fail to beat their benchmark index," said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, declining to be named since he was not authorised to speak to the media. (Reuters)
Gold prices slid on Friday as the dollar rose, on course to a weekly loss, while investors remained focussed on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would pause its tightening cycle after delivering one more rate hike next month.
Spot gold was down 1% at $1,984.89 per ounce, as of 0725 GMT, after rising 1% on Thursday. Bullion has lost about 0.9% so far this week, its biggest weekly decline since late February.
U.S. gold futures shed 1.2% to $1,995.60.
Gold prices have been moderating in the absence of real incoming news flow and "we really need to see some bigger pieces of information to give it that directional conviction", said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.
Data on Thursday showed more Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits. Separate data showed factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region plunging to a nearly three-year low in April. (Reuters)
Tata Motors Ltd has seen a 21% increase in share value so far this year, as investors react positively to the better-than-expected performance of its UK-based subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc (JLR).
The automaker's ambitious electric vehicle (EV) plans, which include a GBP15 billion investment in electrification over the next five years, have bolstered investor confidence.
JLR's Halewood plant will transform into an all-electric production facility, with the launch of the Range Rover EV and Jaguar EV set for 2025. (Read More)
India's major ports handled the highest ever cargo at 795 million tonne in 2022-23, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Secretary Sudhansh Pant said on Friday.
Pant further said that with transactions worth about ₹5,000 crore, the shipping ministry has surpassed its FY23 asset monetisation target of about ₹3,700 crore.
He also said that next week, Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will launch 'Green Port' guidelines to make India's ports green.
"Our major ports have handled the highest ever cargo in the history of the ports at 795 million metric tonne. This is 10 per cent higher than the previous year's cargo handled," he told PTI.
India has 12 major ports -- Deendayal (Kandla), Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore (Kamarajar), Tuticorin (V O Chidambaranar), Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port. (PTI)
Alphabet Inc is combining Google Brain and DeepMind, as it doubles down on artificial intelligence research in its race to compete with rival systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.
The new division will be led by DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and its setting up will ensure "bold and responsible development of general AI", Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post on Thursday.
Alphabet said the teams that are being combined have delivered a number of high-profile projects including the transformer, technology that formed the bedrock of some of OpenAI's own work. (Read More)
Vaishali Parekh, Vice President - Technical Research, Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd: TECHNICAL PICK - BUY BLS INTL
CMP: 175 TRGT: 205 SL: 163
The stock has taken support near the significant 200DMA level of 150 zone and indicated a decent pullback to move past the important 50EMA level with improvement in the bias and is anticipated for further rise in the coming days. The RSI indicator has indicated a trend reversal and with much upside potential visible is currently well placed with further rise anticipated. We recommend to buy this stock for an upside target 205 keeping the stop loss of 163.
India is looking to procure more natural gas from abroad as a heat wave pushes the nation’s power demand to record levels.
Companies including GAIL India Ltd. and Petronet LNG Ltd. released several tenders this week to buy liquefied natural gas shipments for delivery from early May to June, according to traders with knowledge of the matter. Some of that gas will go to power generation, they said.
The move is abnormal, since gas makes up a small portion of India’s coal-dominated power mix, and indicates the nation is working to ensure electricity keeps flowing to customers. Peak demand hit an all-time high earlier this week as blazing summer temperatures forced citizens to crank up their air conditioning.
Heat wave warnings are in place for parts of the nation’s east including Odisha, according to a bulletin from the India Meteorological Department. Maximum temperatures were in a range of 40C-44C (104F-111F) over many parts of the eastern region on Thursday, the bureau said. (Bloomberg)
Shares of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) edged higher in Friday's trade at ₹2353.90 versus the previous day close of ₹2345, but could not sustain the gains and soon turned in the red.
The scrip was trading at ₹2,338.20 a piece, down 0.33 per cent at the time of writing the report. The stock has gained 3.16 per cent in the last one month, while on a year-to-date basis RIL shares fell 9.09 per cent.
The oil-to-telecom major will announce its March quarter (Q4FY23) earnings post market hours today where the conglomerate is expected to log a flattish profit. (Read More)
Vodafone Idea share price opened higher today at ₹6.15 on BSE after the telecom company announced Kumar Mangalam Birla is returning to the board of Vodafone Idea as an additional director. Birla had left the company less than two years ago. The company also said in an exchange filing that the former top executive at Aditya Birla Group-owned Ultratech Cement, Krishna Kishore Maheshwari, has quit as a non-executive director.
Yes Bank shares have been giving strong upside movement after the news break of private lender hitting record number of shareholders during Q4FY23. In last five sessions, Yes Bank share price has ascended to the tune of 7.50 per cent and Yes Bank shareholders are eagerly waiting for its Q4FY23 results, which is coming on 22nd April 2023 i.e. on tomorrow. While Yes Bank shareholders are expecting some upside move post-Yes Bank results fresh investors are looking for the bottom fishing opportunity in case there is any big dip in the Yes Bank share price on the penultimate day of Yes Bank results announcement.
In early morning deals on Friday, Yes Bank share price today trade tepid as the stock opened higher but remained in a tight small range. (Read More)
After reporting 14 per cent YoY hike in its net profit in Q4FY23, Cyient Limited stock zoomed by 6.06 per cent to ₹1157.60 in intraday trade on Friday. The company shares also rose to their 52-week high of ₹1,194.10 per share on BSE.
The company reported a net profit of ₹176 crore, which was up 8.1 per cent QoQ and 14.1 per cent YoY. It reported a consolidated net revenue of ₹1448.9 crores for the quarter under review. Its net revenue rose by 8.2 per cent QoQ and 48.3 per cent YoY. Its normalised Group EBIT stood at ₹249.4 crores, with a margin of 14.2%. The firm registered group CC revenue growth of 6.6% QoQ and 39.1% YoY. (Read More)
Oil headed for the first weekly loss since last month’s banking crisis, weighed down by concerns over demand and the US economy.
West Texas Intermediate was steady near $77 a barrel and more than 6% lower this week. Fuel markets from gasoline to diesel are flashing signs of weakness, while the Federal Reserve said the US economy had stalled in recent weeks. The prospect of further monetary tightening has added to headwinds.
“The acute fall in refining margins in Asia raises some valid concerns about how Asian oil demand will fare," said Vivek Dhar, director of mining and energy commodities research at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. There’s “credible concerns that demand for petrol and diesel may already be eroding." (Bloomberg)
The Indian rupee is expected to open little changed or marginally higher on Friday, after weak U.S. data prompted a pullback on U.S. yields and dampened risk appetite.
The non-deliverable forwards indicate the rupee will open at around 82.10 to 82.15 to the dollar compared with 82.1475 in the previous session.
The local currency on Thursday managed to nudge higher, halting its recent losing run and avoiding slipping below the 82.20-82.30 level.
The rupee at open "will be dealing with conflicting cues", a trader at private sector bank said.
"On one hand, the dollar index is down alongside U.S. yields, and on the other, U.S. growth worries is impacting risk," he said.
The 82.20 to 82.30 level should hold up "for now" and there should be "decent" dollar demand ahead of 82. (Reuters)
Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services: The Q4 results season, so far, has been a mixed bag with IT disappointing and banking giving early indications of continuing strength. Broadly, this trend is likely to sustain. But there can be occasional pullbacks in IT from the sharp correction after the Infosys results. HCL Tech results have not disappointed; some IT midcaps may beat market expectations. Even then, a strong and sustainable rebound in IT is difficult, given the weak global cues. The results of RIL today and ICICI Bank tomorrow can have mild impact on the market. RIL is likely to post good numbers in their Oil and chemicals segment and retail segment. But a sharp spurt in aggregate profitability is unlikely. On the other hand, ICICI Bank is likely to post numbers ahead of market expectations, thereby giving further resilience to Bank Nifty. The Nifty range of 17600-17800 is likely to hold in the near term.
STOCK IN FOCUS
Tata Motors (CMP 477): In view of expected recovery of JLR’s global business with likely ease on semiconductor supply in subsequent quarters and strong order book, turnaround of PV business post-restructuring of domestic business and strong domestic CV up-cycle, we have a BUY rating on TTMT with the SOTP based the Target Price of Rs600, valuing the business at Rs712 and excluding the net debt of Rs112/share.
Intraday Picks
APOLLOHOSP (PREVIOUS CLOSE: RS4348) BUY
For today’s trade, long position can be initiated in the range of Rs4280-4320 for the target of Rs4440 with a strict stop loss of Rs4250.
TECHM (PREVIOUS CLOSE: RS1022) BUY
For today’s trade, long position can be initiated in the range of Rs1008-1015 for the target of Rs1035 with a strict stop loss of Rs1003.
GRASIM (PREVIOUS CLOSE: RS1687) SELL
For today’s trade, short position can be initiated in the range of Rs1690-1700 for the target of Rs1662 with a strict stop loss of Rs1716.
ICICI Prudential Life on Thursday reported a 27.2 per cent jump in net income at ₹235 crore for the March quarter as it earned near record margin from the new policies sold.
For the full year, the company booked a net income of ₹811 crore, which was 7.6 per cent more than what it had earned in the previous fiscal at ₹754 crore.
The bottom line was also boosted by the company achieving its stated target of doubling the value of its new business delivering ₹2,765 crore from its FY19 level by a wide margin, which on an annualised basis grew by 27.8 per cent over FY22.
The margin from its new business jumped to a robust 32 per cent in the reporting quarter, up a full 400 bps from the year-ago period.
"We have more than doubled the value of the new business (VNB) to ₹2,765 crore in FY23, representing an on-year growth of 27.8 per cent. The VNB margin also expanded from 28 per cent in FY2022 to 32 per cent in FY2023. (PTI)
SpaceX attempted to send its Starship system into space on Thursday, with the massive rocket exploding shortly after liftoff.
The mishap potentially complicates Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s goal to send humans back to the moon and to deep-space destinations including Mars. Thursday’s test was a crucial one for Starship, the largest rocket ever built, and meant to show that the vehicle could reach space and complete a partial orbit of Earth.
The explosion occurred just under four minutes after Starship lifted off from the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, early morning on Thursday. The rocket failed to separate from its Super Heavy booster, causing a “rapid unscheduled disassembly," according to SpaceX.
The company hasn’t released more information about what caused the mishap. Shortly after the explosion, Musk tweeted that the next test launch would take place “in a few months." (Bloomberg)
Reliance Industries, Hindustan Zinc, Aditya Birla Money, and Tejas Networks will be among the stocks in focus as they will be declaring their March quarter earnings today. (Read More)
Billionaire businessman Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Ltd, the promoter of Hindustan Zinc Ltd, has pledged 2.44% more shares of the latter as collateral to avail a term loan of ₹1,500 crore. With this, the portion of HZL stake pledged by Vedanta has risen to 91.35% or about 59.3% of the company’s overall shares.
HZL intends to use the loan for capital expenditure, debt repayment, and operational expenses, according to a regulatory filing.
The latest pledge of 103.24 million promoter shares, executed on 17 April, has increased the total amount of HZL’s shares pledged to 59.3% from 55.87% in March 2022, according to the filing. (Read More)
Group of Seven (G7) countries are considering near-total ban of exports to Russia, Kyodo news agency reported on Friday, citing Japanese government sources.
India’s economic activity stayed resilient in March though the weakening pace of exports and an increase in unemployment dimmed the outlook for the country that’s surpassing China as the most populous nation.
While the needle on a dial measuring the so-called Animal Spirits was unchanged at 5 for a third straight month, a jump in collections from taxes levied on consumption showed Asia’s third-largest economy was ticking along. That’s the reading from the overall activity tracker comprising of eight high-frequency indicators compiled by Bloomberg.
The readings come in the backdrop of the Reserve Bank of India pausing rates for the first time since May to evaluate the impact of 250 basis points in rate increases so far and to support growth. Retail and wholesale price-gains have eased on still-elevated rates, spurring calls for a longer pause. (Bloomberg)
The National Company Law Tribunal in its order on Wednesday approved the resolution plan for Unimark Remedies, which was submitted by a consortium of Asset Reconstruction Company (India), Intas Pharmaceutical and Shamrock Pharmachemi.
The court had reserved its order for approving the resolution plan on 9 February.
A bench led by Justices Kishore Velumpalli and Prabhat Kumar held that the resolution plan has been approved. The resolution plan is not in contravention of any provisions of the section 29A of the Code and is in accordance with the law. (Read More)
Vaishali Parekh has recommended three day trading stocks for today, here we list out full details in regard to those intraday stocks:
1] Tata Motors: Buy at ₹476, target ₹492, stop loss ₹470;
2] Cummins India: Buy at ₹1559, target ₹1605, stop loss ₹1535; and
3] EIHOTEL or EIH: Buy at ₹171, target ₹176, stop loss ₹169. (Read More)
HCL Technologies beats estimates in terms of profitability for the fourth quarter of FY23. The company garnered a consolidated net profit of ₹3,983 crore in Q4FY23 compared to a profit of ₹3,593 crore a year ago same period, registering a growth of 10.85%. However, sequentially, the PAT dropped by 2.8% from ₹4,096 crore in Q3 of FY23.
The company's EBIT came in at ₹4,836 crore, accounting for 18.1% of revenue in Q4FY23. The operating profit was down by 7.5% QoQ, however, it saw a growth of 18.8% YoY.
Moreover, HCL Tech's consolidated revenue from operations stood at ₹26,606 crore in Q4FY23, rising by 17.74% from ₹22,597 crore in Q4 of the previous fiscal. Compared to December 2022 quarter where revenue stood at ₹26,700 crore, the latest figure is down by marginally 0.4%. (Read More)
Hinting for another repo rate hikes in the coming time, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, said that the fight against inflation is far from over. In the minutes of the meeting of the April 2023 policy which was released on Thursday, the RBI governor also talked about global uncertainty and the risk of runway faced by central banks across the world.
Notably, amid expectations of another rate hike of around 25 basis points, the Reserve Bank of India chose to keep the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged art 6.50 per cent. Other than this, RBI also kept the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent, whereas, the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate also remain unchanged at 6.75 per cent.
Following are the key highlights of RBI minutes (Read More)
Stocks on Wall Street dipped Thursday following mixed earnings reports from big companies and more signals the U.S. economy may be slowing.
The S&P 500 fell 24.73, or 0.6%, to 4,129.79 after drifting listlessly earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 110.39, or 0.3%, to 33,786.62, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 97.67, or 0.8%, to 12,059.56.
Tesla weighed heavily on the market for a second straight day on worries about how much profit it’s making on each of its electric vehicles. It dropped 9.7% after reporting revenue for the first three months of the year that fell short of analysts’ expectations as it repeatedly cut prices on its models.
Tesla's cutting prices “is good for inflation," said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “But for the market, the question has to be: You’re cutting prices again, it seems like we’re not seeing enough demand on the auto side."
“It's still working its way through the system, higher rates for everyone. It’s more costly to buy a car, more costly to buy a house from a financing perspective."
Several banks also dropped after reporting weaker profits and revenue than expected, including KeyCorp and Zions Bancorp. The spotlight has been particularly harsh on smaller and mid-sized banks amid worries their customers may pull out deposits following the second- and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history last month. (AP)
