HUL released its December quarter (Q3FY23) results

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is up by 24.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific traded mostly higher on Friday as investors digested Japan’s inflation data. The nationwide core consumer price index rose 4% in December on an annualized basis, the fastest pace since 1981. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up by 0.67 percent and South Korea’s Kospi is down by 0.29 percent. The Japanese Nikkei is almost flat with minor gains of 0.05 percent in early morning deals.

US stock indexes closed lower on Thursday after data pointing to a tight labor market renewed concerns the Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive path of rate hikes that could lead the economy into a recession. S&P 500 lost 0.76 percent Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.96 percent.

Stocks News:

?Diversified conglomerate and the biggest Nifty heavyweight Reliance Industries is expected to report double-digit growth in consolidated revenue and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) for the October-December quarter.

?Hindustan Unilever (HUL) released its December quarter (Q3FY23) results wherein its standalone net profit increased by 12 percent to Rs 2,505 crore. The company had reported a profit of Rs 2,243 crore in the year-ago period.

?PVR has reported consolidated profit at Rs 16.1 crore for quarter ended December FY23, against loss of Rs 10.2 crore in same period last year. Consolidated revenue for the quarter at Rs 941 crore increased by 53%, with movie exhibition business growing 37% and others (including movie production & distribution) 23.5% YoY.

?Hindustan Zinc has reported a 20.2% year-on-year decline in consolidated profit at Rs 2,156 crore for quarter ended December FY23, impacted by lower revenue, operating income and higher power & fuel cost. Revenue fell 1.6% YoY to Rs 7,866 crore for the quarter.

?Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 399.98 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) net sold shares worth Rs 128.96 crore on January 19, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Domestic and International Events

• The US Federal Reserve will end its tightening cycle after a 25-basis-point hike at each of its next two policy meetings and then likely hold interest rates steady for at least the rest of the year, according to most economists in a Reuters poll.
• Oil prices settled 1% higher on Thursday, extending a recent rally built around rising Chinese demand, while the market wrote off a second straight week of large builds in US crude inventories.
• A report from the Labor Department of US showed weekly jobless claims were lower than expected, indicating the labor market remains solid despite the Fed’s efforts to stifle demand for workers.
• With retail inflation falling below the 6 percent upper band in recent months, the first milestone of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is passed, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monthly bulletin released on January 19 said.

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