LIC reports 466 percent growth in profits, FSN Ventures profit declines 70% y-o-y

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is down by 44.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.

Asia-Pacific markets are mixed as the Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate steady at 3.5 percent, in line with expectations. South Korea, which was one of the first Asian banks to pause its rate hikes, has held rates for three straight meetings since January. The Nikkei 225 is higher by 0.21%, whereas the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite are down 0.97% and 0.23% respectively. Wall Street’s main indexes ended lower on Wednesday as talks between the White House and Republican representatives on raising the U.S. debt ceiling dragged on without a deal. The S&P 500 down by 0.73%. while the Nasdaq Composite is down by 0.61%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down by 0.77%.

Stocks News:

👉Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corp (LIC) has reported standalone net profit of Rs 13,428 crore for the quarter ended March. The profit grew 466% from Rs 2,371 crore in the same quarter of last year. LIC earned net commission of Rs 8,428.5 crore for the last quarter of FY23, growing 5.4 percent over the year-ago period, and showing a massive 33.4 percent increase compared to previous quarter.

👉FSN E-Commerce Ventures, the operator of beauty and personal care startup Nykaa, saw its profits decline by over 70 percent year-on-year (YoY) in Q4FY23 to Rs 2.3 crore on the back of higher raw materials prices. In the same quarter last year, the company had reported a profit of Rs 7.6 crore, regulatory filings showed. Nykaa’s consolidated revenue rose 33.75% to Rs 1,301 crore in Q4.

👉Hindalco Industries posted a 48% fall in its standalone net profit at Rs 832 crore for the quarter ended March. Revenue from operations during the quarter increased 5% to Rs 19,995 crore. Its US-based subsidiary Novelis’ net Income was at $175 million, down 7 percent YoY.

👉The Board of JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals has recommended a final dividend of Rs 9.25 (462.50 %) per equity share of face value of Rs 2 for the year 2022-23. Further, the Board has also approved to split its existing equity shares in the proportion of 1:2.

👉Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have net purchase shares worth Rs 1,185 crore on Wednesday. DIIs, on the other hand, stock purchase worth Rs 301 crore.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s free trade agreements (FTA) will help generate surpluses and the country is “comfortable” for the next five-six years in its foreign exchange position, commerce and industry, overall exports had been at $500 billion for almost a decade but reached $776 billion in FY23 with $450 billion of merchandise exports and $326 billion of services exports. so we will be an economy which will be reporting surpluses in the years to come.
• India’s gross domestic product growth could be above 7% for 2022-23, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said. There is also a possibility that GDP growth for the last financial year could be higher, he said. Financial markets remain volatile owing to uncertainty over future monetary policy path is keeping market sentiments on the edge, said Das.
• Oil prices fell in early Asian trading on Thursday after uncertainty that the United States will avoid a debt default weighed against the prospect of further OPEC+ production cuts.
• Gold prices moved in a narrow range on Wednesday, May 24. On the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), gold futures were trading at Rs 60,307 per 10 grams, after recording a rise of Rs 37 or 0.06 percent.

Key Equity Indices

EMERGING	LATEST	% 1D
Hang Seng	19,116	(1.6) %
Shanghai Composite	3,205	(1.3) %

DEVELOPED	LATEST	% 1D
Dow Jones	32,800	(0.8) %
DAX	15,842	(1.9) %
FTSE 100	7,627	(1.8) %
Nikkei	30,683	(0.9) %
Straits Times	3,214	(0.1) %