Sensex Falls 471 Points, Nifty Ends Below 14,700; Tata Steel & JSW Steel Top Losers

Wed, 12 May Closing | Nandini Mehta, TM Team

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Indian share markets witnessed selling pressure throughout the day today and ended lower.

Benchmark indices extended losses for the second straight session and ended deep in the red, tracking a sell-off in global shares amid surging commodity prices and growing inflationary pressure in the US.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 471 points (down 1%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 154 points (down 1%).

Tata Motors and Titan Company were among the top gainers today.

Tata Steel and JSW Steel, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 14,712, down by 139 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 0.9% and 0.6%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the metal sector and banking sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

Auto stocks, on the other hand, witnessed buying interest.

Shares of Godrej Consumer and Venkys hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Siemens and Vodafone Idea were among the top buzzing stocks today.

Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note today. Japan's Nikkei reversed early gains to shed 1.9%, while Taiwan's benchmark index plunged 6% from all-time high levels seen in February.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended the day up by 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively.

US stock futures are trading on a negative note today with the Dow Futures trading down by 54 points.

The rupee is trading at 73.42 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading on a flat note today at Rs 47,597 per 10 grams.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin was trading around US$ 56,550.

Meanwhile, ether hovered near record highs at US$ 4,282. The value of the second-biggest digital token has surged over 5.5 times so far this year.

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In news from the FMCG sector, Godrej Consumer Products was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Shares of Godrej Consumer Products surged over 20% and hits upper circuit in intra-day trade today after the company reported a strong set of numbers for the quarter ended March 2021.

FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) reported a 59.1% increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3.7 billion for the fourth quarter ended March 2021.

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The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2.3 billion in the January-March quarter a year ago.

Godrej Consumer reports 14% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 1.7 billion for the fiscal year ended March 2021.

It had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1.5 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The company has reported total income of Rs 27.5 billion during the period ended 31 March 2021 as compared to Rs 22 billion during the period ended 31 March 2020.

For the full financial year 2021, the company has reported total income of Rs 110.9 billion, up 10.7% as compared to Rs 100.2 billion during the 12 months' period ended 31 March 2020.

Godrej Consumer delivered a third consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth.

Its total expenses were at Rs 22.6 billion, up 26.1% in the March 2021 quarter as against Rs 17.9 billion a year ago.

Commenting on the performance of the company, Nisaba Godrej, Chairperson of Godrej Consumers, said, "we delivered a third consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth. Consolidated sales grew 27% and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) grew by 21%.

From a category perspective, we saw continued strong growth momentum in the 'household insecticides' and 'hygiene' categories. Hygiene grew 38%, 'household insecticides' rose 28%, and 'value for money' products grew by 27%".

The company remains confident of leveraging growth opportunities to drive sustainable and profitable sales growth across its portfolio in FY22, she added.

Godrej Consumer Products share price ended the day up by 22.2% on the BSE.

Speaking of the FMCG sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE Sensex and BSE FMCG index since 2009:

While the Sensex has offered 393% returns since 2009, the BSE FMCG index has gone up a staggering 532% returns over the same period.

Richa Agarwal, Senior Research Analyst at Equitymaster, and Editor of the smallcap service, believes this outperformance could continue for many years.

As per Richa, with a rising population and standards of living, Indian's consumption demand for FMCG products will skyrocket over the coming years.

We are keeping a close eye on FMCG stocks and will keep you updated on all the news from this space. Stay tuned!

Moving on to news from the telecom sector...

TRAI Data: Mobile Subscriber Base Increased in the Month of February

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio widened its mobile subscriber base to 414.9 million in February, with healthy addition of 4.2 million users, as it managed a comfortable lead in the market.

In fact, all three private operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea added subscribers during the month.

Industry watchers attributed the strong market momentum to positive business sentiments prevailing in February, weeks before the deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the nation.

As per sector regulator's data, Bharti Airtel logged 3.7 million net adds, taking its wireless user base in February to 348.3 million.

Notably, Vodafone Idea added 6.5 lakh users (after many months), as it expanded its user base to 282.6 million in February.

Overall, Jio topped net additions in February, the Mukesh Ambani-led company saw a healthy rebound in subscriber net adds at 4.2 million in February, higher than 1.9 million additions in January, while Bharti Airtel's net adds in January had been 5.8 million.

As per subscriber data released by TRAI on Tuesday, the total wireless subscribers increased to 1.7 billion at the end of February 2021, logging monthly growth rate of 0.7%.

Wireless subscription in urban areas rose to 639.2 million at the end of February (633.3 million in January), while in rural areas wireless subscription increased to 528.5 million during the same period (from 526.2 million).

Monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were 0.9% and 0.4%, respectively, TRAI said.

As on February 2021, the private companies held as much as 89.6% market share of the wireless subscribers, whereas state-owned telecom corporations BSNL and MTNL, had a market share of only 10.4%.

Bharti Airtel share price ended the day down by 1.1% on the BSE, while Vodafone Idea share price ended the day up by 8.6% on the BSE.

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