Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 54.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market
Asian markets climbed Monday as traders look toward the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, following another hotter-than-expected US inflation reading Friday. The Hang Seng Index rose by 0.64% while the Shanghai Composite Index edged up by 0.34%.
US stocks closed higher on Friday, buoyed by a rally in megacap growth stocks following robust quarterly results from technology heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft in addition to moderate inflation data.
Stocks News:
👉 Maruti Suzuki India recorded a significant surge in net profit, marking a 48 percent rise to Rs 3,878 crore for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2024. This growth was attributed to increased sales volume and favorable commodity prices. Compared to the previous year’s profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 2,624 crore during the same period, this represents substantial progress. The company also achieved a revenue of Rs 38,235 crore during the quarter and announced its highest-ever dividend of Rs 125 per share.
👉 HCL Technologies (HCLTech) announced a net profit of Rs 3,986 crore for Q4FY24, slightly up from Rs 3,983 crore in the previous year. Despite a marginal increase in net profit, it fell short of Moneycontrol’s estimated figure of Rs 4,054.71 crore. Sequentially, the net profit declined by 8.4 percent. The IT firm declared a dividend of Rs 18. In terms of revenue, the company reported a 7.1 percent growth to Rs 28,499 crore for Q4FY24, slightly missing Moneycontrol’s estimate of Rs 28,552.64 crore. Sequentially, consolidated revenue showed a modest increase of 0.2 percent.
👉 ICICI Bank reported a net profit of Rs 10,707 crore for the January-March quarter of the financial year 2023-24, marking a 17 percent increase from the year-ago period. This figure aligns with market estimates of Rs 10,331 crore. The bank recommended a dividend of Rs 10 per share. Additionally, its net interest income (NII) rose by 8 percent to Rs 19,093 crore compared to the previous fiscal’s corresponding quarter, slightly surpassing estimates of Rs 18,958 crore.
👉 Yes Bank announced a net profit of Rs 451 crore for the January-March quarter of financial year 2023-24, marking a significant 123 percent increase from the year-ago period’s Rs 202 crore. The bank’s gross non-performing asset (NPA) decreased to 1.7 percent from 2.2 percent in the same quarter last year, while net NPA improved to 0.6 percent from 0.80 percent year-on-year. Gross slippages for Q4FY24 were reported at Rs 1,356 crore compared to Rs 1,233 crore in Q3FY24.
👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold Rs 3,408.88 crore shares, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) pumped in Rs 4,356.83 crore on April 26, provisional data from the NSE showed.
Domestic and International Events
- In April, foreign investors withdrew Rs 6,300 crore from domestic equities, driven by apprehensions regarding revisions in India’s tax treaty with Mauritius and the continuous increase in US bond yields. This follows substantial net investments of Rs 35,098 crore in March and Rs 1,539 crore in February, according to data from depositories.
- Last week, the combined market capitalization of six out of the top-10 most valued companies surged by Rs 1,30,734.57 crore, driven by gains in State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, reflecting a positive trend in the equity market. During the same period, the BSE benchmark rose by 641.83 points or 0.87 percent.
- Gold prices rose on Friday, erasing some of the earlier weekly losses, driven by mixed U.S. economic data and underlying strength from China’s gold demand, ahead of a key U.S. inflation report that investors await to gauge the economy’s health.
- Spot gold rose 0.7% at $2,349.04 per ounce by 0958 GMT. U.S. gold futures rose 0.8% at $2,361.10
- Oil prices fell in early Asian trading on Monday, reversing gains from Friday as US inflation data further dimmed the prospects of interest rate cuts anytime soon and boosted the dollar, which hurts oil demand. Brent crude futures fell 75 cents, or 0.84 percent, to $88.75 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 65 cents, or 0.78 percent, to $83.20 a barrel.
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 17,651 | 2.1 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,088 | 1.2 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 38,240 | 0.4 % |
| DAX | 18,161 | 1.4 % |
| FTSE 100 | 8,139 | 0.8 % |
| Nikkei | 37,934 | 0.8 % |
| Straits Times | 3,280 | (0.2) % |
