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Benchmark indices ended the week with deep cuts following broad-based sell-off. Sensex ended near the day's low at 48,878.54, down 746 points dragged by Reliance, ICICI and HDFC twins. Bajaj Auto remained the best performer through the day. Nifty ended 1.5% lower 14,371
Nifty Bank and Metal fell 3% each.
Market breadth was negative with midcap and smallcaps ending weak.
State-owned Indian Bank's profit more than doubled to ₹514.28 crore for the third quarter ended December. The bank's profit in the year-ago period stood at ₹247.16 crore.
Total income during the quarter under review was ₹11,421.34 crore, up from ₹6,505.62 crore in the same period a year ago
Industrial and specialty intermediates manufacturer SRF Ltd has reported 6% fall in its profit to ₹324 crore in Q3 FY21.
However, net of one-time tax adjustments, the profit increased 46%. The company's earnings before interest and tax increased by 42%. Revenue grew by 16% to ₹2,146 crore in the same period.
India’s power demand recorded a new high of 187.3 gigawatts (GW) on Friday morning.
This surpassed the previous all-time high electricity demand of 185.82 GW for the country that was recorded on 20 January. This comes in the backdrop of Reserve Bank of India’s January bulletin stating a strengthening economic recovery and comparing the revival to a “phoenix-like" rise.
European stocks fell on Friday, hit by tighter travel restrictions in the euro zone and weak UK retail sales numbers.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.4%. London's FTSE 100 declined 0.3%, Germany's DAX slipped 0.8%, and France's CAC was 0.9% lower
Asian markets fell Friday as investors took a breather following a strong week for global equities.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.6%, while
Shanghai Composite dipped 0.4%.
S&P Global Ratings has said Bajaj Finance Ltd has sufficient financial headroom to withstand moderate downside risks over the next 12 months amid tough operating conditions.
"Our ratings on BFL reflect the company's comfortable capital levels, strong market position in consumer durables and two- and three-wheeler financing, and adequate liquidity," it said.
Oil prices fell on Friday, retreating further from 11-month highs hit last week, weighed down by worries that new pandemic restrictions in China will curb fuel demand in the world's biggest oil importer.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dropped 65 cents, or 1.2%, to $52.48 a barrel, after slipping 18 cents on Thursday. Brent crude futures fell 58 cents, or 1.03%, to $55.52 a barrel.
Adani Total Gas and Torrent Gas have become the first strategic investors in IGX or Indian Gas Exchange by acquiring five per cent stake each.
The IGX is an arm of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and first authorised gas exchange in the country.
Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (AMC) has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for a new multi-cap fund. This, when its existing Kotak Standard Multicap Fund is set to become a flexicap fund.
Nifty is down more than 100 points. Auto and tyre stocks are trading higher after extraordinary results from JK Tyre and better than expected result from Bajaj Auto. We expect the market to be volatile till the budget. On upside 14700 will be a hurdle for Nifty and 14300 on downside till F&O expiry on 28 January. We suggest long investors should be cautious on the market and can have some cash in their portfolio to buy on dips and Intraday traders to trade with strict stop loss.
The aviation industry, which will play a key role in transporting billions of doses of covid-19 vaccine aboard hundreds of flights in the months ahead, expects vaccine cargo load to pick up earliest by March-April, when new vaccines hit the market and after enough vaccines are available for mass inoculation, industry officials told Mint.
The street sentiments on Biocon Ltd took a sharp beating as the company reported a 17% decline in net profits during the quarter ending December. The investors’ expectations from Biocon have remained very high ever since the company started commercialization of its biosimilar range in the developed markets. Biocon and its partner Mylan N.V have launched multiple products in the regulated markets as European and the US, and more in the pipeline are awaiting approvals for launches. (Full report)
Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) will launch its infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) soon, wherein it will convert the outstanding debt owed to banks in 10 road projects into units of the trust. The InvIT has received all necessary approvals for the launch, a source close to the development told Mint.
“IL&FS has got the approval from its committee of creditors for its InvIT," the person said. “It has also completed the green channel filing with the Competition Commission of India and obtained the final registration from SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). They will make the formal announcement soon." (Full report)
Bitcoin wavered on Friday and was heading toward its sharpest weekly drop since September, as worries over regulation and its frothy rally drove a pullback from recent record highs.
The world's most popular cryptocurrency fell more than 5% to an almost three-week low of $28,800 early in the Asia session, before steadying near $32,000. It has lost 11% so far this week, the biggest drop since a 12% fall in September.
The oil-to-telecom behemoth with report its December quarter earnings on Friday. The company had posted a profit of ₹9,567 crore for the quarter ended September, down 15% from a year earlier because of lower revenues from its oil and gas business, but it was still higher than estimated.
Analysts expect that the telecom business's Arpu in the third quarter will rise on the back of annual recharges by residual subscribers at higher tariffs for the first time since the hike in December 2019.
Shares of Bajaj Auto Ltd hit the 10% upper circuit on Friday as many brokerages increased their target price after the company reported its highest-ever quarterly profit and revenue.
Shares of Ceat Ltd and JK Tyres & Industries Ltd advanced for the fourth consecutive session after both companies reported better-than-expected earnings.
Rivals Apollo Tyres, Goodyear India and MRF Ltd rallied between 6% and 8%. So far this year, JK Tyres surged 75%, Ceat advanced 40%, Apollo Tyres 30%, GoodYear India 5%, MRF Ltd 22%.
Gold prices hit near two-week highs on Wednesday on stimulus plans anticipated from the Joe Biden 46th U.S. president. The hope on stimulus package in US economic by the US Govt. Weakness in dollar also supportive the gold and silver. As of today, traders can go for buy in gold at 49300 levels with the stop loss of 49000 levels for the target of 49700 levels. They can also for buy in silver at 66500 levels with the stop loss of 65900 levels for the target of 68500 levels. We are expecting that gold may test $1900 levels and silver may test $27 levels again soon.
The Company has reported exceptional results and complete recovery seen in Q3FY21 after the hit in H1FY21 due to Covid. These results are above consensus estimates. We also need to keep in mind that the base quarter performance was not good for the company and some effect of pent up demand also. We have a positive outlook for the company.
SBI Card and Payments Services Ltd showed a remarkable recovery in asset quality for the December quarter. The company saw defaults reduce from the previous quarter even without forbearance and it did not end up restructuring a large pile of loans.
SBI Card reported a gross bad loan ratio of 4.51% excluding the impact of judicial standstill on recognition by the Supreme Court. This was a sharp drop from 7.46% reported in the previous quarter. To be sure, stress has increased from a year ago period but that is to be expected given the pandemic. What’s more is that SBI Card managed to keep its restructured pile to just ₹2344 crore which is 9% of its receivables. The lender made more provisions to guard against stress in the December quarter. It is clear that the lender chose to focus on collections, just like peers such as Bajaj Finance and even banks. Collections for SBI Card have reached pre-pandemic levels.
The biopharmaceuticals major reported 17% decline in its net profit to ₹169 crore during the quarter ended December. The company's revenue grew 7% to ₹1,879 crore.
The private sector lender will announce its December quarter earnings today. It had reported a net profit of ₹129.4 crore for the September compared with a net loss of ₹600 crore in the year-ago period. The board will also meet today to consider a proposal for further fundraising through various instruments.
Leader in the decorative paints segment Asian Paints Ltd surprised the Street with a strong rebound in sales. It's volumes grew 33% on a year-on-year basis (y-o-y) in the December quarter, much higher than 18-20% growth expected by analysts. The company's management outlined a combination of factors which contributed to this stellar recovery in volumes. These include pent-up demand from smaller cities and towns and strong festive demand and rebound in Tier-1 demand.
But analysts say, such kind of growth is unsustainable given the rising competition in the paints sector. "While the outlook on demand remains healthy, the extraordinary confluence of positives mentioned above, especially festive season and pent-up demand, may not sustain going forward," analysts at Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd said in a report on 21 January.
So, investors should not get carried away by the Q3FY21 robust performance. (Full report)
The company reported a multi-fold jump in consolidated net profit at ₹230.5 crore in the quarter ended December on robust sales and aided by favourable foreign exchange fluctuations. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of ₹10.27 crore a year ago. Consolidated revenue from operations during the period under review stood at ₹2,769.28 crore as against ₹2,199.80 crore.
The Indian rupee fell 4 paise to 73.03 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday.
India’s largest two-wheeler maker expects the current momentum in demand in the rural market to continue in FY22, riding on hopes of further measures to boost rural income in the upcoming Budget. These measures are expected to boost the sales of Hero’s entry-level motorcycles in the coming fiscal, said chairman Pawan Munjal.
"The Nifty has become slightly nervous after facing resistance at 14750. While the trend still remains positive, we need to approach the index strategically. On the upside we can go up to 14800-14900. On the downside, we have a good support at 14300. Hence traders can initiate long positions with a target of 14800 and a stop below 14300."
Bandhan Bank on Thursday reported 14 per cent decline in December quarter net profit at ₹632.59 crore as provisions more than trebled.
The bank also flagged concerns over the impact of a recent law on MFI loans in poll-bound Assam, which constitutes 8 per cent of its overall book, saying the loan collections have suffered in the last fortnight and it will be cautious while extending new loans.
Two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto on Thursday reported 23% rise in standalone net profit at ₹1,556 crore for the quarter ending 31 December, 2020. It was ₹1,262 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenue from operations increased 17% to ₹8,910 crore as compared to ₹7,640 crore in December 2019.
The company said demand conditions continued to exhibit a strong recovery across business segments, The paints major reported a 62.3% jump in its consolidated profit to ₹1,265.35 crore for the quarter ended December.
Benchmark indices were in the negative zone tracking Asian markets. At 0922 am, Sensex was down 63 points at 49,561.28, while Nifty was down 0.1% at 14,580.
At 0905 am, Sensex was at 49,526.94, down 97 points, while Nifty Open 14,607.40 17.05 0.12%was in green at pre-opening
Crude prices slipped after an unexpected build-up in US crude stockpiles.
Brent was off 23 cents at $55.86 a barrel, while US crude inched 26 cents lower to $52.86.
Top ten stocks that may be in news on Friday include Reliance, HDFC Bank, Vedanta, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp.
Reliance Industries, Yes Bank, JSW Steel, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Apollo Hospitals, Gland Pharma, Crompton Greaves, Oberoi Realty and Indian Bank are few top companies which will announce their December quarter results today.
The BSE Sensex vaulted past the 50,000 mark for the first time on Thursday, capping a phenomenal run that lifted the stock markets to a record high.
The benchmark index climbed as much as 0.7% to 50,184 in intra-day trading, almost doubling from its March nadir. The index broke through 50,000 with a gap-up opening in the morning, and stayed above the mark for most of the day, before giving up the gain and closing 167 points lower at 49,625. The Nifty ended 0.4% lower at 14,590.35.
Asian shares eased from record highs on Friday as investors took some money off the table after a recent rally.
Japan's Nikkei was down 0.4%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 0.1%. Shanghai SE Composite Index fell 0.4%, while Australia's ASX was down 0.2%.
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