Indices end flat ahead of RIL's earning report; Metal, Auto lag; IT, FMCG gain

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.