Opening Bell:
SGX Nifty is up by 10.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a flat opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Friday as Japan’s core inflation for March came in at 3.1 percent, unchanged from February, data from the Statistics Bureau showed. This is the second straight month of slowing inflation after Japan’s headline inflation hit a 41-year high of 4.3 percent in January. Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.07% in early trade, while South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.59% and the Hang Seng is down by 0.25% respectively. Tesla shares weighed on the Nasdaq, tumbling nearly 10 percent the day after the company posted first-quarter net income that declined sharply from the year-ago quarter. The Dow fell about 110 points, or 0.33 percent, during regular trading Thursday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.6 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.8 percent.
Stocks News:
?RIL may record 17% growth in Q4 operating profit, single-digit rise in topline, bottomline. Analysts will watch out for more clarity on the Rs 75,000-crore investment in the new energy business, growth in retail store additions and pricing in the telecom business as the most valuable company in India will declare its Q4 results today.
?ICICI Bank, India’s second-largest private sector bank by market capitalization, is all set to report its corporate earnings for the January-March 2023 quarter on April 22. Brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher expects ICICI Bank to report net profit of Rs 9,240.9 crore, up 31.7 percent year-on-year (up 11.2 percent quarter-on-quarter).
?HCL Technologies has reported lower-than-expected earnings for Q4FY23 with profit falling 2.8% QoQ to Rs 3,983 crore and revenue declining 0.4% to Rs 26,606 crore. On the operating front, EBIT fell 7.5% sequentially to Rs 4,836 crore with margin down by 140 bps to 18.2% for the quarter.
?Siemens as part of a consortium along with Rail Vikas Nigam, has received two separate orders from Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRCL). Siemens’ share in orders is Rs 678 crore. The orders are for Surat Metro Phase 1 and Ahmedabad Metro Phase 2.
?Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,169.32 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 832.72 crore on April 20, National Stock Exchange’s provisional data showed.
Domestic and International Events
- Oil prices slid by about $2 a barrel to their lowest level since late March on Thursday, dragged lower by fears a possible recession could dent fuel demand and after a rise in US gasoline inventories.
- Gold prices firmed above the $2,000 level again on Thursday as the dollar and Treasury yields pulled back after soft U.S. data pointed to the economic toll of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate-hike cycle, strengthening the case for an imminent pause.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank’s fight against inflation is far from over and the efforts will continue to bring inflation closer to the medium-term target. Further, he said that the projected inflation in Q4 2023-24 at 5.2 percent would still be well above the target.
- The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased moderately last week, suggesting the labour market was gradually slowing as the Federal Reserve’s year-long interest rate hiking campaign dampens demand.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 20,397 | 0.1 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,367 | (0.1) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 33,787 | (0.3) % |
| DAX | 15,796 | (0.6) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,903 | 0.1 % |
| Nikkei | 28,658 | 0.2 % |
| Straits Times | 3,313 | (0.3) % |
