Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 69.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets started the week lower ahead of a week of key economic data from around the region. Monetary policy decisions from Japan and Malaysia, inflation data from South Korea, and gross domestic growth figures from Taiwan and Hong Kong are the regional highlights of the week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.96% as the Bank of Japan starts its two-day monetary policy meeting, while the Topix lost 0.91% in early trading. South Korea’s Kospi dropped marginally, but the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.54%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.83%, ahead of September retail sales readings on Monday. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,175, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 17,398.73.
On Friday in the US, all three major indexes ended the day mixed, with the S&P 500 entering correction territory as renewed selling occurred on Wall Street on fears of a recession. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.12%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.48%. The Nasdaq Composite held 0.38% higher to 12,643.01, thanks to Amazon beating analysts’ expectations for revenue and earnings in the third quarter.
Stocks News:
👉 Reliance Industries: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited reported a 27% rise in its net consolidated profit to ₹17,394 crore in the July-September quarter of the financial year 2023-24. The Indian conglomerate earned a net profit of ₹16,011 crore in the September quarter of the previous financial year. The company shares closed 1.75% higher at ₹2265.25 per share on BSE on Friday.
👉 NTPC: NTPC announced its July-September quarter results for fiscal 2023-23 (Q2FY24) on October 28, reporting a rise of 16.6 per cent in consolidated net profit at ₹3,885 crore, compared to ₹3,331 crore in the corresponding period last year. The state-owned power generator’s revenue from operations in the second quarter of the current fiscal stood at ₹40,875 crore, marginally lower compared to ₹41,015 crore in the year-ago period.
👉 Cipla: Cipla Ltd posted a 43.4% rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September to ₹1,130.91 crore, against ₹788.90 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. The drug major’s Q2FY24 revenue increased 14.6% from a year ago from ₹5,828.54 crore to ₹6,678.15 crore, driven by performance in India, the US, and South Africa, it said in an exchange filing on Friday. Ebitda during the quarter grew 33.1% y-o-y to ₹1,734 crore with an Ebitda margin of 26%.
👉 IDFC First Bank: IDFC First Bank recorded a net profit of ₹751.3 crore in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 (Q2FY24), which is up by 35% from ₹556 crore in the year-ago period, as per the standalone results declared by the lender on October 28. The private sector bank’s net interest income (NII) during the quarter under review came in at ₹3,950.2 crore, rising by 31.6% from ₹3,002.2 crore reported in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
👉 Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,500.13 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought Rs 313.69 crore worth of stocks on October 27, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed.
Domestic and International Events
- India’s foreign exchange reserves saw a dip of $2.36 billion to $583.5 billion for the week ending on October 20, latest data by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday. Previously, forex reserves were up by $1.153 billion, dragging the reserves to $585.895 billion, for the week ended on October 13. According to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI, Foreign currency assets dropped by $4.14 billion to $515.2 billion.
- Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out over Rs 20,300 crore from Indian equities this month so far, primarily due to a sharp surge in the US treasury yield, and the uncertain environment resulting from the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, the story takes an intriguing turn on observing FPI activity in Indian debt as they have infused Rs 6,080 crore into the debt market during the period under review, data with the depositories showed.
- Gold prices rose for the third consecutive week, supported by Middle East tensions and safe-haven demand. Spot gold increased by 0.5% to $1,993.69 per ounce, with a weekly gain of 0.7%. US gold futures settled 0.1% higher at $1,998.50. According to Tai Wong, a New York-based independent metals trader, gold is maintaining its recent gains due to ongoing concerns about the Middle East situation.
- Oil prices slipped $1 a barrel on Monday as investors adopted caution ahead of the Fed policy meeting and China’s manufacturing data later this week, offsetting support from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Brent crude futures dropped 98 cents, or 1.1%, to $89.50 a barrel by 0001 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $84.54 a barrel, down $1, or 1.2%.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 17,399 | 2.1 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,018 | 1.0 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 32,418 | (1.1) % |
| DAX | 14,687 | (0.3) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,291 | (0.9) % |
| Nikkei | 30,992 | 1.3 % |
| Straits Times | 3,062 | (0.3) % |
