PremiumIndian shares ended down for the third straight session on Thursday, as global sentiment soured after minutes of the US Fed's last policy meeting pointed to aggressive rate hikes. Indian investors await the RBI's policy decision on Friday amid expectations that the central bank might retain status quo on interest rates.
The Indian benchmark indices ended deep in the red for the third consecutive session on Thursday. Sensex ended at 59,034, down 575 points dragged by HDFC twins, Reliance Industries and Titan. Nifty ended 0.94% lower at 17,639.55.
Globally markets were largely weak after minutes of the US Fed's last policy meeting pointed to aggressive rate hikes. Indian investors await the RBI's policy decision on Friday amid expectations that the central bank might retain status quo on interest rates.
All sectoral indices, barring pharma and realty, ended in the red. Broader indices, including smallcap and midcap, closed lower.
Axis Bank, HUL and ICICI Bank were the top gainers on the 30-share index.
Jet Airways India Ltd., which is undergoing a court-monitored restructuring, plans to return with a hybrid of premium and no-frills services that would allow the former top local airline to claw back market share while managing costs in the fiercely competitive Indian aviation market.
"On Wednesday, gold ended with marginal gains, up 0.09 percent, and closed the trading day at 1925.5$/oz. The yellow metal remained steady post the announcement of the minutes of the Fed's March meeting.
As inflation remains high, gold is considered to be the best hedge against it. However, the anticipation of one or two rate hikes of 50 basis points each in the upcoming meetings, given the fact, if inflation continues to remain elevated. A rising interest rate increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold.
Further, gold prices were supported by a falling treasury yield, as it witnessed a pullback after surging near to their highest levels in over a year. Though the gains were limited as the dollar surged to 2-week highs.
Outlook: We expect gold to trade higher towards 52090 levels, a break of which could prompt the price to move higher at 52530 levels."
Asian equity markets fell Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting indicated it is preparing to aggressively wind back its monetary policy.
Japan's Nikkei 225 ended 1.7% lower; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.2% at close, while Shanghai Composite dropped 1.4%
“We expect subscriber addition momentum to be impacted amid SIM consolidation due to tariff hike. Reliance Jio (Jio), with lowest percentage of VLR (active subscriber) on network is likely to see major impact of SIM consolidation with ~5 mn net loss during Q4. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea (VIL) is likely to stabilise somewhat with subscriber loss of ~2 mn. Bharti Airtel (Airtel) is likely to add ~2 mn subscribers and lead the industry. ARPU growth will be seen for all telcos, led by residual benefit of tariff hike. We expect Jio, Airtel, VIL to report ARPU to be up 8%, 12%, 12% QoQ at ~| 164, |129, | 182, respectively. The lower ARPU growth for Jio is owing to larger share of long duration renewals. For Jio, revenues are expected at | 20,581 crore, up 6.4% QoQ. Airtel’s India wireless revenue is expected at | 17,903 crore, up 11.3% QoQ. For Vodafone Idea, we expect overall revenues to grow 9.1% QoQ at | 10,602 crore."
Overall Macrotech Developers Limited reported a good set of numbers this was the highest pre-sales number that the company has achieved in any quarter, along with the best annual sales of ₹9024 crores. This growth in pre-sales in quarter Q4FY22 was attributable to the benefit of the stamp duty cut in Maharashtra. The next couple of quarters will be very important for the company. We have a neutral view of Macrotech Developers Limited.
Walmart's Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60-70 billion, and now plans a U.S. listing in 2023 instead of this year, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
With Indian IT services companies set to announce their fiscal fourth quarter earnings (Q4FY22) beginning next week, investors will keep an eye on both the numbers and trends. As per sector analysts, demand outlook for Indian IT services companies remains robust on the back of strong tailwinds for the industry following digital and cloud transformation initiatives with enterprise clients. (Full story)
The growth of Indian IT companies is expected to moderate in Q4FY22 as witnessed in Q4 quarters historically. Margins are expected to take a hit due to continued higher employee expenses. The demand environment continued to be strong led by continued deal momentum led by sectors like BFSI, insurance etc. There would be some cross currency headwinds during the quarter, which will dampen dollar revenues, to some extent, for the quarter. The companies continue to see a demand tailwind (recent Accenture commentary and outlook suggests that) in terms of investment in newer technologies like cloud transformation (as per Accenture commentary, only 30% of applications has been migrated to cloud, suggests long tail of cloud transformation ahead), AI/ML, block chain (as per CB insights, US$25 billion (bn) have been already invested by blockchain companies in CY21), which is expected to further propel demand in coming quarters. In terms of margins, we expect them to decline (barring Coforge that is expected to post QoQ margin expansion due to better performance of advantage GO, high margin business) since supply side headwinds would put pressure on margins.
Scientists with the National Institute of Virology, Pune, will analyse the samples found to have the more transmissible XE variant of the coronavirus in Mumbai for confirmation.
The central government will take action based on the reports from NIV, according to government officials.
Shares of real estate firm Macrotech Developers Ltd., formerly known as Lodha, rose around 1.5% on the National Stock Exchange in opening deals on Thursday, in response to the company's Q4FY22 business update. (Read here)
The tail end profit booking in the previous session got extended at the opening itself as we witnessed a nervous start owing to sluggish global cues. Barring one attempt at the midsession, the index remained under pressure and lingered around the lowest point for the major part of the day. As a result, the Nifty ended the session tad above 17800 by shedding another eight-tenths of a percent.
Although key indices traded in a negative terrain throughout the day, the damage was not big. In fact post the opening, Nifty vacillated in a slender range of 100 points, which is as good as being stationary. As mentioned in the previous commentary, the Nifty is back to its key support zone i.e. 17800 – 17700 and we reiterate till the time we do not see it closing convincingly below it, there is no reason to worry for. In fact, we will not be surprised to see some recovery from current levels on the weekly expiry. On the higher side, it would be a challenging task to surpass the sturdy wall of 17950 – 18100, which should be considered an upper range for the coming session.
Yesterday once again the banking space kept sulking and due to the last two days’ decline, it has almost erased 80% of its Monday’s gains. We remain hopeful for it to make a comeback and lift the benchmark index higher. Despite all this, traders are literally ignoring what’s key indices are up to. We could see individual stocks giving spectacular moves in abundance, especially stocks from the broader end of the spectrum. One should keep focusing on such potential movers, as we expect this run to continue.
Financial and software services companies are expected to report strong earnings in the March quarter and a robust outlook for the current fiscal, analysts said. Naveen Kulkarni, chief investment officer of Axis Securities, said the next leg of the stocks rally would be led by financial services stocks, as banks are likely to post strong earnings growth in the March quarter, driven by improvement in credit demand.
Banks have missed the 31 March deadline to transfer the first tranche of toxic assets to the newly formed bad bank because of procedural delays, Union Bank of India chief executive Rajkiran Rai G. said.
Lenders now hope to transfer ₹50,000 crore of bad loans to the National Asset Reconstruction Co. Ltd (NARCL) by the end of April, said Rai, also a former chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). He expects the first transaction to happen in another week. ( Read more)
At least two Indian refiners plan to buy less Saudi oil than usual in May, after the kingdom raised the official selling price (OSP) to record highs for Asia, two sources said on Wednesday, as India increases purchases of cheap Russian crude. (Reuters)
The government may ask electric scooter makers, including Ola and Okinawa, to recall their two-wheelers after a spate of recent fire incidents, three government officials aware of the matter told Mint.
Four incidents of fire involving electric scooters made by Ola Electric, Okinawa Autotech and Pure EV have been reported in the past couple of weeks, triggering fear among EV users. (Full report)
Gold prices inched lower on Thursday as the US dollar firmed after minutes of the Federal Reserve's March meeting indicated an aggressive stance to combat inflation, denting the safe-haven metal's appeal. Spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,922.08 per ounce. US gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,926.10.
Indraprastha Gas Limited on Thursday increased the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Delhi by ₹2.5 per kilogram, taking the total increase to ₹9.10 in six days.
Here is the list of the top 10 stocks that are likely to be in focus on Thursday
Oil prices clawed back some losses on Thursday after tumbling more than 5% to a three-week low in the previous session after consuming nations announced a huge release of oil from emergency reserves to offset supply lost from Russia.
Brent crude futures climbed $1.32, or 1.3%, to $102.39 a barre, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.18, or 1.2%, to $97.41 a barrel.
Most Asian stocks declined Thursday as investors evaluated the Federal Reserve’s plan to pare its balance sheet by more than $1 trillion a year while hiking interest rates in a campaign to curb inflation.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.2%; Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index lost 0.3%; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.4%; China’s Shanghai Composite index was little changed
US stock indexes fell on Wednesday and the dollar surged to a nearly two-year peak after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its last meeting that reinforced views the central bank may tighten aggressively to curb inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144.67 points, or 0.42%, to 34,496.51, the S&P 500 lost 43.97 points, or 0.97%, to 4,481.15 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 315.35 points, or 2.22%, to 13,888.82.
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