Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 30.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
The Asia-Pacific markets were mixed as investors braced for the US Federal Reserve’s rate decision due tomorrow. The Fed is expected to approve what would be the 11th interest rate increase since March 2022. In Australia, futures for the S&P/ASX 200 opened 0.1% up, ahead of its inflation figures for June. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.46%, extending its losses from Tuesday, while the Topix also sunk 0.42%. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.52% in early trade, but the Kosdaq rose 0.62%, on pace to record a 11th day of gains in 12 days. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is set to retreat after recording gains of over 4% on Tuesday, with futures at 19,390 compared to the HSI’s close of 19,434.4.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 traded near flat on Tuesday night as investors parsed a batch of corporate earnings from major technology names and geared up for Wednesday’s interest rate policy decision. S&P 500 futures were little changed, while Nasdaq 100 futures slid 0.2%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%. Investors are counting down to the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate policy decision and subsequent press conference with Chair Jerome Powell scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The market is pricing in around a 98% chance the central bank raises the interest rates, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. That would mark a return to hikes after not increasing interest rates at the June meeting.
Stocks News:
👉Tata Motors: The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,203 crore for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 (Q1 FY14), boosted by the improved margin of its passenger vehicle (PV) business and robust sales at its luxury car unit, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Revenue from operations increased 42 percent to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the quarter under review.
👉Larsen and Toubro: L&T reported a consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 2023 at Rs 2,493 crore, up 46.5 percent compared to Rs 1,702.07 crore in the same quarter last year. Its revenue from operations for the quarter stood at Rs 47,882 crore, registering a growth of 33.6 percent from Rs 35,853 crore a year ago, the company said in an exchange filing. It will buy back as much as Rs 10,000 crore worth of shares, its first-ever return of capital to shareholders.
👉Union Bank of India: The bank has embarked on Project Sambhav, a Digital Transformation project powered by state-of-art Digital Business Platform which aims at creating a Digital Bank within the Bank. The said project also envisages to Leverage Data & Analytics to foster revenue growth through new value propositions and end-to-end banking & lifestyle services. The Bank has entered into a strategic partnership with IBM India Pvt. Ltd. which will act as System Integrator for accelerating growth via Digital Transformation.
👉CEAT: Revenue for Q1 rose 4.1 percent YoY to Rs 2935 crore. PAT of teh company grew multifold to Rs 144 crore. It saw a “healthy” QoQ volume growth in replacement driven by seasonal uptick in passenger segments. OEM volumes saw minor sequential drop due to portfolio rejig in PC/UV and high base effect while there was a moderate decline in blended realizations led by OEM price adjustments.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 1,088.76 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares worth Rs 333.70 crore on July 25, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shows.
Domestic and International Events
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its GDP growth forecast for India for 2023-24 to 6.1% from 5.9% due to the blowout growth number for January-March. “Growth in India is projected at 6.1% in 2023, a 0.2% age point upward revision compared with the April projection, reflecting momentum from stronger-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter of 2022 (financial year 2022-23) as a result of stronger domestic investment,” the multilateral agency said on July 25 in an update to its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.
- The Centre has transferred over Rs 3.09 lakh crore to states out of the Rs 10.21 lakh crore that are budgeted for the current fiscal year, according to Pankaj Chaudhary, the Minister of State for Finance. As a response to a question in the Lok Sabha, he explained that there is no pending payment in terms of the amount that needs to be devolved to states from the Centre. The 15th Finance Commission has recommended that states be given 41 per cent of the pool of Centre’s divisible tax during the period of 2021-22 to 2025-26.
- Oil prices rose to fresh three-month highs on Tuesday, as signs of tighter supplies and pledges by Chinese authorities to shore up the world’s second-biggest economy lifted sentiment. Brent futures gained $1.41 at $83.78 a barrel by 2:07 p.m. EDT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.04 at $79.78.
- Gold prices rose on Tuesday on a weaker dollar and expectations that the US Federal Reserve will likely end its monetary tightening cycle after a widely expected rate hike this week. Spot gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,962.8307 per ounce. US gold futures inched up 0.1% to $1,964.60.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 19,434 | 4.1 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,232 | 2.1 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 35,438 | 0.1 % |
| DAX | 16,212 | 0.1 % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,692 | 0.2 % |
| Nikkei | 32,683 | (0.1) % |
| Straits Times | 3,286 | 0.6 % |
