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Indian equities ended lower for the third straight day on Friday, snapping four consecutive weeks of gains. The Nifty slipped below the crucial 11,1000-mark.
The Sensex fell 129.18 points or 0.34% to close at 37606.89, while the Nifty was down 28.70 points or 0.26% at 11073.50. About 1,221 shares advanced, 1,407 declined, and 168 were unchanged.
Eicher Motors, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints and Bajaj Auto were among major losers on the Nifty, while gainers were Cipla, Grasim Industries, Sun Pharma, SBI and UPL.
Pharma index was the best performer among all sectoral indices. FMCG, IT and metal indexes also higher, while energy, auto and infra declined.
Sun Pharma on Friday reported a net loss of ₹1,655.6 crore for the June quarter compared with net profit of 1,387.48 crore in the year-ago period. Net loss due to one-time loss of one-time loss at ₹3,633.3 crore.
Revenue was at ₹7,585.3 crore, down from ₹8,374.36 crore year ago.
The economy of the 19-country eurozone shrank a devastating 12.1% sequentially during the June quarter as coronavirus lockdowns froze business and consumer activity, AP reported. It was the largest drop on record.
Spain, which suffered a severe virus outbreak that devastated its tourism industry, shrank 18.5%, the French 14% and Italy 12.4%.
European stocks rose on Friday, with technology shares leading the way after bumper earnings from Wall Street's big tech names and Nokia eased nerves about global growth amid surging coronavirus cases, Reuters reported.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.7% after a tepid start, with technology stocks jumping 2.5% after Apple , Amazon and Facebook reported forecast-beating results overnight.
Nepal has reopened its mountains, including Everest, for the autumn trekking and climbing season to revive the struggling tourism sector, officials said Friday, despite coronavirus uncertainty.
The Himalayan country shut its borders in March just ahead of the busy spring season when hundreds of mountaineers usually flock to the country, costing jobs and millions of dollars in revenue.
A nationwide lockdown was lifted last week, and Nepal is now open "for tourism activities, including mountaineering and trekking." Mira Acharya of the tourism department told AFP.
The Indian rupee pared intraday gains but ended higher at 74.81 per dollar compared with Thursday's close of 74.85. The unit had opened at 74.74 today.
Indian Oil Corporation on Friday reported a standalone net profit of ₹1,910.8 crore while revenue was at ₹62,396.6 crore.
Gold is set for its biggest monthly gain in more than four years after a weaker dollar and low rates fueled its surge to a record high. Silver is headed for its best month since 1979.
Spot bullion has risen 11% in July as a gauge of the dollar slumped, prompting concerns that its status as the world’s reserve currency of choice is at risk, and U.S. real yields fell to a record low. While the ferocity of gold’s rally cooled as the week wore on, it’s only about $10 shy of its all-time high and most market watchers predict there may be more gains ahead.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass an interim order on a batch of pleas seeking quashing of the University Grants Commission's (UGC) guidelines that directed universities to conduct final-year examinations by 30 September. The court has adjourned the hearing till 10 August.
The apex court bench, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, asked the home ministry to clarify its stand on the UGC's 6 July guidelines and the challenges filed by petitioners.
State Bank of India on Friday reported a net profit of ₹4,189.crore for the June quarter, helped by one-time gain of ₹1,539.7 crore. The net profit is higher than ₹2,312 crore in the year-ago period and also more than the estimated ₹3,375 crore according to a Bloomberg poll of 15 analysts.
Gross NPA was at 5.44% compared with 6.15% in the previous quarter. Net NPA declined to 1.86% from 2.23% sequentially.
The bank made additional provision of ₹1,836 crore on account of Covid-19, while fresh slippages were at ₹3,637 crore.
UCO Bank on Friday reported a net profit to ₹21.45 crore for the June quarter on the back lower provisions and higher other income.
The bank had posted a net loss of ₹601.45 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Net interest income, or the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits, fell 5.1% to ₹1266.78 crore for the quarter ended 30 June from ₹1334.97 crore for the same quarter last year.
Punjab National Bank will infuse up to ₹600 crore in its subsidiary PNB Housing Finance Ltd through preferential issue/rights issue, among others, subject to regulatory approvals, the bank said in a notification to the exchanges.
As predicted by some analysts earlier, Apple, in its Q3 2020 earnings call, confirmed that the supply of upcoming iPhone 12 smartphones will be delayed by a few weeks. This means the new handsets are unlikely hit stores by the end of September as their predecessors. Unless Apple decides to start with limited units and ramp it up later, iPhone 12 models are likely to arrive in stores sometime after mid October.
New iPhone models typically hit stores in India a week after the US. For instance, the iPhone 11 models were available in stores in the US on September 20 while in India they arrived on September 27.
Experts believe the delay in the US will also result in delay in roll out in the India market.
"Delay would mean global delay. Release in India will also be delayed," said Navkendar Singh, Research Director, client devices & IPDS with IDC India.
The Supreme Court on Friday barred registration of BS-IV vehicles with the authorities till it decides on the issue of sale of such vehicles during the period of the lockdown.
The top court was irked over the violation of its order and had pulled up the automobile dealers association by saying that the BS-IV vehicles were sold during the lockdown in last week of March and after March 31 also.
Chinese tech giant ByteDance is considering listing its domestic business in Hong Kong or Shanghai, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, against a backdrop of rising Sino-U.S. tensions over its hit non-China video app TikTok.
Of the two venues, the company prefers Hong Kong, according to two of the people. One of the two also said ByteDance is simultaneously studying the option to list its smaller, non-China business - which includes TikTok that is not available in China - in Europe or the United States.
Facebook chief, Mark Zuckerberg, has said the Jio partnership in India will help the company bring “millions of small businesses" onto WhatsApp. “A big part of the partnership that we have with Jio will be to wire up and get thousands of small businesses across India on-boarded onto WhatsApp, to do commerce there," Zuckerberg told analysts on the companies June quarter earnings call this morning.
The chief executive of the world’s largest social media platform said he is "excited about the opportunity" here and the company plans to expand to other others once the platform is proved in India. "Once we prove that out with Jio in India, we’re planning on expanding it to more folds in India and to other countries as well."
In an attempt to consolidate its presence overseas, TVS Motor Company Ltd plans to focus on boosting export volumes over the next 3-5 years, said Sudarshan Venu, joint managing director, at the company’s annual general meeting.
In February, the company had signed a deal with Honduras-based Motomundo SA, a local distributor appointed for sales and service of TVS vehicles while expanding business in Central America.
TVS Motor has also signed up distributors in the United Arab Emirates, in Guatemala and El Salvador.
Reliance Power Ltd and JERA Co., through their project company, are developing a new gas-fired power generation project in Bangladesh. The project company has now signed a loan agreement for full financing totaling $642 million with a group of banks that includes the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
The project is to build, own, and operate a 745 MW natural gas combined-cycle power project in Meghnaghat, Naranganj, located approximately 40 km southeast of Dhaka. The electricity generated will be sold under a long-term power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board for a period of 22 years from the start of commercial operation.
Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer Gopal Vittal on Thursday hinted at another tariff hike, stressing that the telecom company’s average revenue per user (Arpu) needs to move to ₹200, and eventually to ₹300 per month, for a sustainable business model. Vittal, however, did not specify the timeline for hike in calls and data tariffs.
Airtel reported a massive loss of ₹15,933 crore for the June quarter due to ₹11,746 crore worth of provisions for statutory dues
India’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), is expected to post a net profit of ₹3,375 crore for the June ended quarter, higher than ₹2,312 crore in the same period last year, according to a Bloomberg average of estimates of 15 analysts.
Analysts at Motilal Oswal said SBI appears well-positioned to report strong uptick in earnings.
Drug firm Torrent Pharmaceuticals has reported a 48.6% year-on-year rise in its June quarter consolidated net profit to ₹321, primarily led by robust sales in the domestic market.
The company had posted a net profit of ₹216 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Consolidated revenue from operations stood at ₹2,056 crore for the quarter, up from ₹2,022 crore for the same period a year ago.
India on Thursday called out China’s claims that the disengagement of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was complete in many areas, saying the process was yet to be completed. This comes as the two sides are looking at holding senior military commander level talks to work out details of a pullback of troops from along the border.
“There has been some progress made towards this objective but the disengagement process has as yet not been completed. The senior commanders of the two sides will meet in the near future to work out steps in this regard," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said during a weekly briefing.
India's strict rules to prevent money-laundering could impede its ambitious plan to bring Nifty derivatives volumes from the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) to the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar, Mint reported citing two people aware of the challenges.
The success of GIFT is critical for the fledgling International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat.
While Indian exchanges follow a ‘segregated nominee account structure’ for client accounts, which helps depositories and exchanges identify the ultimate beneficiary of these accounts, SGX allows an ‘omnibus account structure’, where regulators get no such information.
Commercial vehicle sales in India is expected to decline 25-28% and touch a decade's low in FY21 due to the pandemic-induced disruption, ratings agency Icra has said.
Manufacturers of trucks and buses, already reeling under a sharp drop in volumes due to the economic slowdown and revision in load carrying norms, have seen their businesses take a further hit because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"We’re not surprised by the recent profit-taking phase and expect further correction ahead. Markets will first react to the index heavyweight, Reliance results in the early trade on Friday i.e. July 31 and that may set the tone for the rest of the session. Traders should keep a close eye on 11,050 in Nifty as its breakdown would trigger a fresh decline towards 10,950 levels else consolidation will continue. Traders should prefer hedged bets and maintain positions on both sides."
Gilead Sciences Inc. has said it expects to make more than 2 million doses of covid-19 treatment remdesivir by the end of the year.
In May, the antiviral therapy received an emergency-use authorization to treat Covid-19 after a major trial found it sped recovery by about four days in hospitalized patients. It is already being used in clinical practice.
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