PremiumEuropean stocks fell on Monday as surging bond yields slammed technology shares and volatility gripped French blue-chip stocks on forecast of a tight race between President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in the final round of voting
India's benchmark indices ended the day in the red on Monday, largely dragged down by IT stocks ahead of TCS's fiscal fourth quarter earnings. Stocks also fell amid negative cues from global equities.
Stocks and bonds fell Monday as political and economic risks weighed on sentiment. Europe’s Stoxx 600 slipped and the euro rose after the first round of France’s presidential election gave incumbent Emmanuel Macron a narrow lead over nationalist challenger Marine Le Pen. Technology stocks were the biggest drag on the gauge, while banks outperformed on rising bond yields.
Back home, the Sensex fell 482.61 points to end the day at 58,964.57, while Nifty declined 109.30 points to close at 17,675.00. About 2,072 shares advanced, 1,393 declined, and 121 were unchanged.
HCL Technologies, Infosys, L&T, Wipro and SBI Life Insurance were the worst hit stocks on Nifty, while Grasim Industries, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, UPL and Cipla rose.
Nifty IT index fell over 1%, while midcap and smallcap indices ended marginally higher for the day.
Tata Motors is looking to ramp up production of electric vehicles as demand continues to outpace the manufacturing activity by a huge margin, according to a top company official.
The Mumbai-based automaker, which led the passenger electric vehicle space in the domestic market in last fiscal year, has been receiving an average of 5,500-6,000 bookings in the past two months for its EV range.
The company sells three electric products -- Nexon EV, Tigor EV and XPRES-T -- in the domestic market. It has also recently unveiled a coupe style SUV which it plans to launch in the next two years.
Apple Inc has started making the iPhone 13 in India, the company said on Monday, as the U.S tech giant tries to reduce reliance on its Chinese supply chain.
The phone is being produced at a local plant of Apple's Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, situated in the town of Sriperumbudur in Southern Tamil Nadu state, according to a source.
Apple has been shifting some areas of iPhone production from China to other markets including India, the world's second biggest smartphone market, and is also planning to assemble iPad tablets there.
French banking group Societe Generale said Monday it was ceasing activities in Russia and selling its majority stake in Rosbank, weeks after Ukraine's leader urged French firms to leave over Moscow's invasion of his country.
Societe Generale said in a statement that its withdrawal from Russia would cost it 3.1 billion euros ($3.4 billion).
"Societe Generale ceases its banking and insurance activities in Russia," the firm said in a statement.
European equities started the week on a negative note as investors weighed an array of risks from China’s Covid-19 flare up to an uncomfortably tight race for the French presidency, surging bond yields and the war in Ukraine.
The Stoxx 600 Europe Index fell 0.2% as of 8:52 a.m. in London, tracking Asian stocks lower. Technology stocks were the biggest drag on the gauge, while banks outperformed on rising bond yields.
Gold prices dipped in range-bound trading on Monday, as elevated Treasury yields boosted the dollar and countered support from uncertainty around the Ukraine war, while palladium rose after London's decision to block trading of the metal from Russia.
Spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,942.85 per ounce, after hitting a more than one-week high of $1,949.32 earlier in the day. U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% at $1,947.40.
Godrej Capital is the financial services arm of the Godrej Group and aims to build a balance sheet of approximately ₹30,000 crore by 2026
The business will expand its retail operations in six new cities this financial year in addition to diversifying customer segments and launching new business lines
Godrej Industries has committed to infuse ₹1,500 crore into its financial services venture and expects the business to require a total of ₹5,000 crore of equity investment by 2026
India's $8 billion Amul dairy group said on Monday it is bracing for disruptions and higher input costs for some products from July when the government's ban on plastic straws kicks in.
India last week refused to waive an impending ban on straws that are packaged with small juice and milk beverage packs, stoking fears in the $790 million industry that includes players like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, India's Dabur and Parle Agro, Reuters reported.
Amul has not worked out any practical solution to replace the tiny plastic straws and the paper variant is not feasible, said R. S. Sodhi, Amul's managing director.
India's benchmark 10-year bond yield surged to its highest level in nearly three years on Monday as investor sentiment turned bearish following a hawkish tilt from the country's monetary policy committee, adding to pressure from a rise in U.S. yields.
The Reserve Bank of India said on Friday it is starting to move away from its ultra-loose monetary policy even as it kept its key lending rate at a record low, as its priorities shifted to fighting surging inflation in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.16% by 0625 GMT, up 4 basis points from its close on Friday. It touched 7.19% in intraday trade, its highest since May 27, 2019.
India's fuel demand rose 4.2% to a three-year peak in March, compared with the year-ago period, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell of the oil ministry showed on Monday.
Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 19.41 million tonnes, its highest since March 2019.
Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 6.2% higher at 2.91 million tonnes from a year earlier.
New housing supply in the Delhi-NCR region rose 38% year-on-year to nearly 9,300 units in the March quarter, according to a report by ANAROCK Research.
Gurugram saw the steepest rise among NCR cities. The city saw maximum launches at 7,890 new units in the March quarter, comprising 85% share of the total new launches in the region. On a yearly basis, Gurgaon saw jump of over 158% in new supply, from 3,060 units last year to 7,890 units this year.
Noida saw new supply of 270 units while Greater Noida saw no new launches during January-March. Ghaziabad saw new supply of 220 units. In corresponding quarter of 2021, the city saw no new supply.
After ending nearly unchanged last week, gold managed to end the following week on a positive note, up 0.7%.
Gains in the yellow metal came amid rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine after killings were reported near the city of Kyiv, days after Russia's promised to scale down its military operations after their first face-to-face meeting held in over three weeks.
The gains were supported by a pullback in the US treasury yields after they surged to their highest level in over a year. But a strengthening dollar index which makes the dollar-backed metals more expensive to buyers using other currencies prevented further rise.
Another factor is the anticipation of a 50-basis point interest rate hike by the US Fed which is likely to happen in its upcoming meeting. A rising interest rate increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while boosting the dollar.
Outlook: We expect gold to trade higher towards 52560 levels, a break of which could prompt the price to move higher at 53000 levels.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Monday said its subsidiary Glenmark Specialty S.A. has received approval from Drug Controller General of India to conduct a Phase 1 clinical trial of its novel small- molecule, GRC 54276, a hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) inhibitor. GRC 54276 is one of the many novel molecules from Glenmark’s resident, Innovative Medicines Group,
The National Company Law Tribunal has approved the resolution plan submitted by Tata Steel Mining, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel, for the acquisition of Rohit Ferro-Tech.
Portea Medical Pvt. Ltd, India’s largest home healthcare provider, plans to raise ₹900-1,000 crore through an initial public offering, two people aware of the matter said.
Existing shareholders will sell shares worth ₹700 crore and the company will sell new shares of ₹200 crore, the people said on condition of anonymity.
Portea is likely to file the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in May, one of the people cited above said. (Read here)
The initial public offering of Veranda Learning Solutions Limited was subscribed 3.53 times on the last day of the offer.
The ₹200-crore public offer received bids for over 4.15 crore shares against 1.17 crore shares on offer.
The category meant for retail individual Investors received 10.76 times subscription, while non-institutional investors portion got subscribed 3.87 times and qualified institutional buyers 2.02 times.
The IPO had a price range of ₹130-137 a share.
India’s largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) will be the first among peers to announce its fiscal fourth quarter earnings on Monday. Analysts believe IT companies will continue to post strong growth numbers on account of digital and cloud transformation initiatives with enterprise clients. Tier I companies should deliver revenue growth in a narrow range of 2.8-5.1% sequentially in constant currency, according to Motilal Oswal. While TCS does not provide a formal revenue growth guidance, management commentary on business outlook will be closely monitored.
As per consensus estimates by Bloomberg, TCS is expected to post revenues of ₹50,249 crore and net profit of ₹10,077 crore for the March quarter. (Read here)
This week's trading will be truncated and hence, do not expect any big bang moves in key indices. The upside as of now looks limited for the week towards 18000 – 18100. But the way the broader market kept buzzing in the challenging phase this week as well, one must continue to focus outside the index.
Vodafone Idea Ltd is in advanced talks with US private equity investor Apollo Global to raise as much as $1 billion by selling a mix of debt and equity, two people aware of the matter said.
The discussions are at an advanced stage, with the long-awaited announcement likely later this month, the people said requesting anonymity.
Debt-laden Vodafone Idea has been seeking to raise funds from external investors for more than a year but found it difficult to convince investors to write large cheques, given its mammoth government dues. (Read here)
Shares of TCS, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Vodafone Idea, among others, will be in focus on Monday.
Midcap and Small caps outshined with 3% gain last week, while Nifty gained 0.6% to settle at 17784
We maintain structurally bullish stance on Nifty with an eventual target of 18350 in coming weeks as index underwent shallow retracement after 1100 points in just 6 sessions. Buy dips as we do not expect strong support of 17400 to be breached
Key observation has been rallies are now getting stronger while corrections are lesser in magnitude, with multi sector participation indicating secular nature of up move
Broader markets are expected to maintain momentum backed by strong improvement in breadth over past few weeks
Sectorally, IT will be in focus amid earnings while positive stance maintained in BFSI, PSU, Auto, Metals and Telecom
Our preferred large cap picks are Reliance Industries, TCS, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ITC while Voltas, HAL, Bank of Baroda , Birla Soft, SRF, Graphite, Timken, Lemon tree, TCI Express are preferred in mid-cap category.
China’s factory gate prices rose more than expected in March as oil prices climbed, putting pressure on manufacturers that are already struggling to operate amid repeated Covid outbreaks.
The producer price index gained 8.3% from a year earlier, official data showed Monday, down from 8.8% in February and above the median estimate of an 8.1% increase in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Consumer-price growth accelerated to 1.5% after staying unchanged at 0.9% for two months. The reading beat economists projection of a 1.4% increase.
Oil prices slipped in Asian deals on Monday, following the second straight weekly decline after world consumers announced plans to release crude from strategic stocks and as Chinese lockdowns continued.
Brent crude fell 38 cents to $102.40 a barrel while U.S. crude lost 16 cents to $98.18. Last week, Brent dropped 1.5% while U.S. West Texas Intermediate slid 1%. For several weeks, the benchmarks have been at their most volatile since June 2020.
The market has been watching developments in China, where authorities have kept Shanghai, a city of 26 million people, locked down under its "zero tolerance" for COVID-19. China is the world's biggest oil importer
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 79 points, or 0.4%, lower at 17,817.50, indicating a weak start for Indian benchmarks.
Domestic equity benchmarks ended higher on Friday, after three days of losses, as the Reserve Bank of India kept policy rates unchanged at a record low and maintained its accommodative stance.
The Sensex rose 412.23 points to settle at 59,447.18, while Nifty gained 144.80 points to close at 17,784.35.
Asian shares slipped on Monday ahead of a week thronging with central bank meetings and U.S. inflation data, while the euro eked out a gain on relief the far right did not win the first round of the French presidential elections.
French leader Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen qualified on Sunday for what promises to be a tightly fought presidential election runoff on April 24.
The mood in equity markets was cautious, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan easing 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.6%, having shed 2.6% last week.
Japan’s Topix index shed 0.5%, South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 0.3%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.1%, Hang Seng Index fell 2%, and Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.1%.
S&P 500 stock futures and Nasdaq futures both fell in early trade. Earnings season kicks off this week with JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all due to report.
On Friday, Wall Street had a mixed ending, as investors brace for the Federal Reserve to tighten the brakes on the economy more aggressively to beat down inflation. Big tech stocks once led the market lower, with S&P 500 down 11.93 points, or 0.3%, at 4,488.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 137.55, or 0.4%, to 34,721.12. The weakness for tech stocks, meanwhile, dragged the Nasdaq composite down 186.30, or 1.3%, to 13,711.00.
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