ICICI Bank recorded 34.2% year-on-year increase in standalone profit

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SGX Nifty is up by 88.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.

Stocks in Asia were up on Monday. Australian shares inched higher on Monday to their highest in nearly nine months, as technology stocks tracked Wall Street’s strong finish last week and firm crude oil prices lifted energy stocks. The Japanese Nikkei is up by 1.14 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is closed for holiday and South Korea’s Kospi is up by 0.63 percent in early morning deals.

US stocks rallied to close higher on Friday, as the S&P 500 and Dow snapped a three-session losing streak and the Nasdaq rose more than 2%, as quarterly earnings helped lift Netflix, while Google parent Alphabet climbed after announcing job cuts.

Stocks News:

?RIL delivered strong operating performance for the quarter ended December FY23 with contribution from all segments, with consolidated profit (excluding the impact of exceptional item) rising marginally by 0.6% YoY to Rs 17,806 crore for Q3FY23; and EBITDA growing 13.5% YoY to Rs 38,460 crore for the quarter backed by strong growth in subscriber base and 17.5% increase in ARPU (average revenue per user) in digital services segment.

?ICICI Bank recorded 34.2% year-on-year increase in standalone profit at Rs 8,312 crore for quarter ended December FY23 on healthy growth in NII and operating profit, with improvement in asset quality. Net interest income surged 34.6% to Rs 16,465 crore compared to year-ago period with net interest margin expanding 69 bps YoY to 4.65% for the quarter.

?Kotak Mahindra Bank has clocked 31% year-on-year growth in standalone profit at Rs 2,792 crore for quarter ended December FY23 despite higher provisions, backed by healthy operating profit, other income and NII growth, with improvement in asset quality performance.

?Ultratech Cement has reported a 38% year-on-year decline in consolidated profit at Rs 1,058.2 crore for quarter ended December FY23, impacted by weak operating margin. It has seen an increase in raw material cost, power & fuel cost and freight & forwarding expenses YoY

?Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold shares worth Rs 2,002.25 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) net bought shares worth Rs 1,509.95 crore on January 20, as per the provisional data available on the NSE.

Domestic and International Events

• The US government hit its $31.4 trillion borrowing limit on Thursday, amid a standoff between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and President Joe Biden’s Democrats on lifting the ceiling, which could lead to a fiscal crisis in a few months.
• Oil prices drifted lower in early trade on Monday, thinned by the Lunar New Year holiday in east Asia, but held on to most of last week’s gains on the prospect of an economic recovery in top oil importer China this year.
• Foreign investors pulled out a net amount of Rs 15,236 crore this month so far on attractive Chinese markets and concerns about the US economy entering a recession. However, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have turned buyers in the last four trading sessions.
• Overall, FPIs pulled out Rs 1.21 lakh crore from the Indian equity markets in 2022 on aggressive rate hikes by the central banks globally, particularly the US Federal Reserve, volatile crude, rising commodity prices along with Russia and Ukraine conflict.

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