Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 43.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market
Asian stock markets saw an uptick after Wall Street experienced gains overnight, buoyed by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s reaffirmation of potential rate cuts this year. The Nikkei 225 in Japan surged 1.34%, approaching the 40,000 mark, and the Topix index was up by 1.05%. South Korea’s Kospi increased by 1.22%. Markets in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan were closed due to a public holiday.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq saw gains after it was reported that growth in the US services sector had decelerated further in March. However, these gains were tempered when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested that a reduction in interest rates was not yet foreseeable. The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a slight decline, dropping 43.1 points or 0.11%, closing at 39,127.14. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 edged up by 5.68 points or 0.11%, reaching 5,211.49, and the Nasdaq Composite increased by 37.01 points or 0.23%, to close at 16,277.46.
Stocks News:
👉 Vedanta: Vedanta Aluminium, an aluminium producer, has increased its alumina refining capabilities to 3.5 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). The company has inaugurated a 1.5 MTPA capacity section of its alumina refinery in Lanjigarh, Odisha, as part of a larger 3 MTPA expansion project. This boosts the Lanjigarh refinery’s total operational capacity from 2 MTPA to 5 MTPA.
👉 Avenue Supermarts: Operating under the D-Mart brand, Avenue Supermarts reported a standalone revenue of Rs 12,393.46 crore for the quarter ending March FY24. This represents a 19.9% increase from Rs 10,337.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The company’s store count reached 365 by March 2024.
👉 Poonawalla Fincorp: This non-banking financial company (NBFC) announced record disbursements of Rs 9,680 crore during Q4 FY24, marking a 52% year-over-year (YoY) and an 11% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase. Disbursements in Q4 FY23 were Rs 6,371 crore, with Q3 FY24 seeing Rs 8,731 crore. Assets under management (AUM) surged by 54% YoY and 13% QoQ, reaching Rs 24,800 crore by March 2024. The company also reported maintaining a strong liquidity position of Rs 3,600 crore as of March 2024.
👉 L&T Finance Holdings: By the conclusion of Q4 FY24, the retail loan book is projected to stand at approximately Rs 80,010 crore, indicating a 31% growth from the previous year. Retail disbursements for the quarter amounted to Rs 15,030 crore, up by 33% YoY. The proportion of retail loans in the portfolio is estimated to be around 94% at the end of Q4 FY24, a significant increase from 75% in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.
👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 2,213.56 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 1,102.41 crore worth of stocks on April 3, provisional data from the NSE showed.
Domestic and International Events
- Total expenditure for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), inclusive of states’ contributions for materials used in the work, reached Rs 1.05 lakh crore in the fiscal year 2023-24, compared to Rs 1.01 lakh crore in the preceding year, according to preliminary data compiled by the rural development ministry. Experts noted that erratic monsoon patterns mitigated the usual large-scale migration of workers to agricultural activities in the second quarter of the financial year.
- Growth in the US services industry decelerated further in March, with the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reporting a decrease in its non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) to 51.4 last month from 52.6 in February, marking the second consecutive monthly decline. Economists surveyed by Reuters had anticipated a slight increase to 52.7 in March.
- Gold prices reached a new record high for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, driven by a combination of factors including escalating tensions in the Middle East, expectations of US interest rate cuts, and persistent inflationary pressures, all of which have heightened the appeal of bullion.
- Crude oil prices climbed amid concerns about diminished supply stemming from output cuts by major producers. Brent futures for June inched up by 0.16% to $89.49 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for May rose by 0.18% to $85.58 a barrel.
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 16,725 | (1.2) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,069 | (0.2) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 39,127 | (0.1) % |
| DAX | 18,368 | 0.5 % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,937 | 0.0 % |
| Nikkei | 39,452 | (1.0) % |
| Straits Times | 3,223 | (0.8) % |
