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Indian equities bucked the global trend and closed higher for the third straight day on Tuesday.
At close, the Sensex was up 112.77 points or 0.28% at 40544.37, while the Nifty climbed 23.80 points to settle at 11896.80. About 1344 shares advanced, 1,299 shares, and 157 shares were unchanged.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended 0.5% higher while the SmallCap index gained 0.3%.
HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, and Bharti Airtel were among major gainers on the Nifty, while Britannia Industries, ONGC, GAIL, IOC and UPL lagged.
IT index gained 1% followed by pharma and auto, while energy, FMCG, metal and PSU Bank indices closed in the red.
Nifty Realty was the best-performing index, up over 4% led by gains in Oberoi Realty.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever on Tuesday reported a 9% increase in its net profit for the September quarter at ₹2,009 crore. It had reported net profit of ₹1,848 crore in the year-ago period.
Total income rises 16% to ₹11,593 crore from ₹10,032 crore a year ago.
Gold futures on Tuesday fell as traders liquidated their holdings on low spot demand.
On the Multi Commodity Exchange, December gold futures declined ₹117 to ₹50,570 per 10 gram.
In global markets, gold traded 0.4% lower at $ 1,903.20 per ounce.
Modern trade has suffered and sales are very, very tepid because consumers are wary of going back to stores, said Varun Berry of Britannia to Mint in an interview. E-commerce has been growing very aggressively.
The company reported a 23% jump in consolidated net profit for the September quarter while volumes rose 9%. But the stock treaded lower on Tuesday as results missed analysts' estimates.
L&T Technology Services reported a 4.6% qoq growth in revenues to $ 178 million which was slightly below our expectations of $ 178.9 million. In rupee terms, revenues rose 1.5% qoq to ₹1,313.8 crore while gross profit increased by 14.0% qoq to ₹395.2 crore.
Net profit for the quarter was up by 41.1% qoq to ₹165.5 crore.
Gross margins expanded by ~329bps qoq to 30.1% due to sharp increase in utilization to 75.4% from 70.9% in Q1. EBIDTA for the quarter was up by 13.1% qoq to ₹ 232.8 crore while margins expanded by ~182bps qoq to 17.7%. Management has upgraded their revenue growth guidance for FY2021 and now expects revenue to contract 7-8% for the full year as compared to earlier expectations of a 9-10% degrowth. Growth was led by plant engineering and medical devices verticals which grew by 8.1% and 7.4% qoq respectively while the Telecom & Hi tech vertical reported marginal degrowth of 0.6% qoq due to client specific issues. Transportation & Industrial products verticals reported growth of 4.1% and 4.6% qoq.
Overall the company posted a decent set of numbers for the quarter and highlighted that demand outlook is reasonably strong led by automotive, medical devices, telecom & hi-tech while aerospace and oil & gas verticals remain weak.
For Q2FY21, HDFC Life reported a good set of numbers, APE growth of 21% YoY is one of the big positive. Par business was the key for healthy growth, it grew by 254% YoY while non-par declined 19% YoY, and ULIP fell 6% YoY. VNB margin expanded by 30bps to 25.6% for Q2FY21 owing to better product mix and operating efficiency. Persistency trends in the 13th/25th month improved by 200bp/400bp, led by improvement in the PAR/Protection segment. HDFC life currently; trading at 4.96x of Q2FY21 Embedded value. If we compare with listed life insurance players, it is trading at a premium valuation.
The cement major's consolidated net profit rose 20.3% year-on-year to ₹363.85 crore, while net sales increased 0.26% to ₹3,537.31 crore in the September quarter.
The life insurer reported an impressive 25.6% new business margin for the September quarter, the most important gauge of profitability for insurance companies. Value of new business also grew by a healthy 22% after a 43% plunge in the June quarter. This is likely to help the life insurer maintain its superiority versus its peers in the market.
Support is growing within India’s government to formally start talks on a trade deal with Taiwan as both democracies see relations with China deteriorate.
Taiwan has sought trade talks with India for several years, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been reluctant to move ahead because it would involve a messy fight with China once any pact is registered at the World Trade Organization, according to a senior Indian government official who asked not be named, citing rules for speaking with the media.
Strides Pharma gets US FDA approval for Ethacrynic Acid Tablets, used to treat high blood pressure and the swelling caused by diseases like congestive heart failure, liver failure, and kidney failure.
The board of Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), in its meeting held on 19 October, approved acquisition of 1,24,66,53,746 equity shares of ₹10 each of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL), a subsidiary of (MRPL) from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) (an existing shareholder of OMPL). Such acquisition is subject to customary consents and approvals.
MRPL was holding 51.0017% of the paid up equity of OMPL, which has been increased to 99.9998% pursuant to the acquisition of equity shares from ONGC.
Oil prices slipped for a fourth straight day on Tuesday due to concerns that a resurgence in coronavirus cases globally is stifling a promising recovery in fuel demand, while growing output from Libya adds to glut.
Brent crude futures fell 32 cents, or 0.8%, to $42.30 a barrel after falling 31 cents on Monday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid 26 cents, or 0.6%, to $40.57 a barrel, after losing 5 cents on Monday.
The trading in equity shares of Hexaware Tech on the NSE will be discontinued, effective 2 November, and will be delisted from BSE, effective 9 November.
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