Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is down by 79.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets fell on Wednesday mirroring moves on Wall Street after a decline in US banks. Last week, Moody’s lowered its rating on 10 U.S. banks while putting other big institutions on a watchlist for potential downgrades. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.82% and the Topix was down 0.68%, despite business sentiment improving in July, according to the Reuters Tankan survey. South Korea’s Kospi came back from a public holiday 1.03% down, while the Kosdaq saw a larger loss of 1.18%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 1.20%, on pace for its third day of losses in four days. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 18,360, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 18,581.11. China will release its house prices for July, that investors will watch given the country’s recent real estate troubles.
Stock futures are near flat Tuesday night as investors came off a losing session that marked the latest leg down in an August slump. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2 points, trading near the flatline. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were also both little changed. Tax preparer H&R Block and Mediterranean food chain Cava advanced more than 6% and 9%, respectively, after the bell on the back of stronger-than-expected quarterly reports. The moves follow a losing session on Wall Street, with all three of the major indexes finishing more than 1% lower on Tuesday. With the losses, the Dow snapped a three-day winning streak. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 ended the session below its 50-day moving average, which could signal a downturn ahead. Financial stocks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America slid after Fitch warned it may be forced to downgrade the credit ratings of dozens of banks. It comes as the latest challenges to the sector, following Moody’s decision last week to downgrade the ratings of 10 banks while putting other institutions on a watchlist.
Stocks News:
👉ITC: The FMCG company has recorded standalone profit of Rs 4,903 crore for quarter ended June FY24, rising sharply by 18% over a year-ago period driven by healthy operating margin and higher other income. Revenue (net of excise duty) during the quarter fell by 8.5% YoY to Rs 15,828 crore impacted by lower agri, and paper & packaging businesses. On the operating front, EBITDA grew by 10.7% to Rs 6,250 crore with margin expansion of 680 bps at 39.5% compared to year-ago period. ITC has received board approval for the hotel business demerger and shareholders will get 1 share of hotel company for every 10 shares held.
👉Vodafone Idea: The telecom operator has reported loss of Rs 7,840 crore for quarter ended June FY24, widening from loss of Rs 6,419 crore in previous quarter. Revenue from operations grew by 1.2% sequentially to Rs 10,655.5 crore during the same period supported by improving subscriber mix and 4G subscriber additions. EBITDA fell by 1.3% QoQ to Rs 4,157 crore with margin declining 100 bps at 39% in Q1FY24. ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 139 in Q1FY24, rising 2.96% over Rs 135 in Q4FY23.
👉Ashok Leyland: The Indian flagship company of the Hinduja Group has received board approval for the acquisition of 100% of OHM Global Mobility (OHM India) from OHM International Mobility for Rs 1 lakh. As the company is yet to become operational the consideration was nominal. With this move, OHM becomes a 100% subsidiary of Ashok Leyland. Ashok Leyland will be investing up to Rs 300 crore as equity into OHM India to operationalize the company.
👉Senco Gold: The Kolkata-based jewellery company has registered a 22.7% on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 27.7 crore for the quarter ended June FY24, with revenue from operations rising 29.6% YoY to Rs 1,305.4 crore during the same period. On the operating front, EBITDA grew by 22.1% YoY to Rs 67.2 crore, but margin dropped 31 bps to 5.15% compared to year-ago period.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 2,324.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 1,460.90 crore worth of stocks on August 14, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.
Domestic and International Events
- India’s imports from Russia doubled to $20.45 billion during the April-July period of this fiscal due to increasing inbound shipments of crude oil and fertilizer from that country, according to the commerce ministry data. With this, Russia has become India’s second-largest import source during the first four months of this fiscal. The imports were $10.42 billion in April-July 2022. From a market share of less than 1% in India’s import basket before the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia’s share of India’s oil imports rose to over 40%.
India, the world’s third-largest crude importer after China and the United States, has been buying Russian oil that was available at a discount after some in the West shunned it as a means of punishing Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine. The ministry’s data showed that imports from China dipped to $32.7 billion during the April-July period as against $34.55 billion in the same period last year.
- India’s retail inflation surged to 7.44% in July on an annual basis as against 4.81% in June, showed data released by the ministry of statistics on Monday. It is the highest reading since May 2022 when inflation rate stood at 7.79%. The consumer food price index (CFPI) rose to 11.51% from 4.49% in June. Rural inflation stood at 7.63% while urban inflation stood at 7.20%. The consumer-price index (CPI) based inflation breached the upper limit of the (RBI) tolerance band of 2-6% after staying within for four consecutive months. The inflation rate for vegetables witnessed a sharp increase and rose to 37.34% against a contraction of 0.93% y-o-y. The inflation levels for food & beverage surged to 10.57% from 4.63%. For cereals, the inflation rate increased to 13.04% from 12.71% in June. Inflation rate for fuel and light segment stood at 3.67%.
- Oil prices fell over 1% on Tuesday on sluggish Chinese economic data coupled with fears that Beijing’s unexpected cut in key policy rates was not sufficiently substantial to rejuvenate the country’s sputtering post-pandemic recovery. Brent crude futures fell $1.31, or 1.5%, to $84.90 a barrel by 10:56am EDT (1456 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.44, or 1.8% to $81.07. Supply cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia, part of the OPEC+ group comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, have helped to galvanise a rally in prices over the past seven weeks.
- Gold prices steadied on Tuesday, buoyed by a retreat in bond yields and dollar, although expectations that the Federal Reserve would likely keep interest rates higher for longer after strong US data kept bullion near the six-week low. Spot gold was flat at $1,907.60 per ounce by 11:14am EDT (1514 GMT), having hit its lowest level since June 29 at $1,895.50 earlier in the session. US gold futures eased 0.2% to $1,940.20.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 18,581 | (1.0) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,176 | (0.1) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 34,946 | (1.0) % |
| DAX | 15,767 | (0.9) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,390 | (1.6) % |
| Nikkei | 32,239 | 0.6 % |
| Straits Times | 3,233 | (0.5) % |
