Indian Share Markets Open Marginally Lower; Infosys & Axis Bank Top Losers

Wed, 10 Feb 09:30 am | Yash Vora, TM Team

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Asian stock markets inched higher today, as upbeat Wall Street earnings and optimism about a global recovery supported sentiment.

The Nikkei is trading higher by 0.1% and the Hang Seng is trading up by 1.8%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices closed little changed, though the tech-heavy Nasdaq eked out a record high on a gain of 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened the day on a negative note.

A total of 330 companies including Eicher Motors, Titan Company, GAIL India, Hindalco Industries, and Aurobindo Pharma are set to announce their December quarter earnings today.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 97 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 22 points.

UltraTech Cement is among the top gainers today. Infosys, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index have opened down by 0.1%.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the energy sector and metal sector witnessing buying interest.

IT stocks and telecom stocks, on the other hand, are trading in red.

Shares of Aavas Financiers and Dixon Technologies hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 72.84 against the US$.

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Gold prices are trading up by 0.3% at Rs 48,066 per 10 grams. Domestic gold prices edged higher today, reflecting positive trend in global rates.

In global markets, gold inched higher, supported by a weaker US dollar and expectations that US lawmakers will soon able to approve a massive stimulus package.

Note that gold has underperformed most other assets since testing a record high of Rs 56,191 per 10 gm on August 7 last year.

Earlier this month, it fell to 46,611 due to a global selloff and partly due to an effective budgetary cut in import duty from 12.5% to 10%, inclusive of an Agri cess.

Speaking of gold, in his latest video for Vijay Bhambwani explains why the bull market in gold has not come to an end and why he is still bullish on the yellow metal.

Vijay has put out a 2021 target of Rs 60,000/ 10 gm for gold.

Should the recent correction in gold worry you? Is the gold bull market under threat?

Vijay answers these questions in the video below. Tune in to find out more.

Moving on to stock specific news...

Burger King India is among the top buzzing stocks today.

In its first quarterly earnings announcement post a stellar listing on the bourses in December, Burger King India reported a net loss of Rs 290.2 million for the quarter ended December as against a net loss of Rs 217.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

The company's revenues in the quarter declined 28.4% YoY to Rs 1,631.9 million. However, on a sequential basis, the company's topline showed growth of 69%.

The company said that its revenues had recovered to 72% of the level they were at in the same quarter year-ago, suggesting that the quick-service restaurant operator is still reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the quarter, the company opened nine stores across the country to take its total store count to 270 as on December 31. The company expects to grow its store count to 470 by the end of 2023-24.

Burger King India share price has opened the day down by 2.3%.

Moving on to news from the automobile sector, retail sales of passenger vehicles fell 4.5% to 281,666 units in January from the year ago period after growing for two months in a row, showed data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Tuesday.

The decline in sales was primarily because of a high base in January 2020, when automakers increased discounts to liquidate stocks of BS-IV vehicles before transitioning to the new emission regime. Price hikes by automakers were another factor.

However, showroom sales increased on a month-on-month basis from 271,249 units in December, when automakers and dealers offered more discounts to reduce inventory before the end of the calendar year.

The data also indicates better-than-expected recovery in retail sales on a sequential basis because of increased demand in rural and semi-urban markets, recovery in metro cities, and a shift in customer preference towards personal transport amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wholesales of Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, decreased by 0.2% while that of Hyundai Motor India jumped by 23.8% to 52,005 units. Tata Motors reported a 94% jump in dispatches to 26,978 units.

Reports state that the anomaly could be attributed to carmakers increasing wholesales to build inventory at dealerships after seeing a sharp recovery in retail sales during the October to December period, which left dealer stocks depleted.

Showroom sales of motorcycles and scooters fell 8.8% to just over 1.1 million units, because of a softening of demand for entry-level motorcycles in rural areas and resumption of public transport everywhere. Retail sales also declined.

Two-wheeler manufacturers resorted to significant reduction in production as demand contracted after the festive season. The Covid-19 pandemic and revised freight loading norms meant retails of commercial vehicles also declined 25% to just 55,835 units January compared to last year.

In other news from the auto sector, the Delhi Transport Department has issued a show cause notice to Tata Motors as an electric vehicle (EV) produced by the company failed to provide optimal range as was promised to a customer.

The notice comes days after the Delhi government announced that 100 charging stations will be set up in the city.

The notice was issued on February 8, five days after a complaint was received by a resident of Najafgarh. Rajesh Kumar, who owns a new Tata Nexon EV XZ+, complained the vehicle lasts only 200 km per charge, as opposed to 312 km promised by the company.

The model was earlier approved under the eligibility conditions of the Delhi EV policy.

Speaking of electric vehicles, note that the power ministry has approved setting up 2,636 electric vehicle charging stations across 62 cities in 24 states.

Here's what co-head of Research at Equitymaster, Tanushree Banerjee wrote about electric vehicles in one of her editions of

• 106 public and private entities have approached the government for permissions to set up about 7,000 EV charging stations.
  
  This clearly shows the vehicle manufacturers have enough incentive to capture this latent demand.
  
  The tax benefit in terms of a lower GST rate (at 5%) is a further shot in the arm of the EV industry.

As per Tanushree, electric vehicles are very much on their way to invading Indian roads. The threat of disruption in this era is something you cannot ignore.

Tanushree believes one of the companies manufacturing lithium ion batteries for powering electric cars will be a key catalyst for the

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