Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 18.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets mixed on Friday as investors digested Japan’s consumer price index figures for June. The country’s core inflation rate – which strips out costs of fresh food – came in at 3.3%. The Hang Seng is up 0.66% while the Shanghai Composite gains 0.20%. The Nikkei 225 is off 0.43%.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell on Thursday, weighed down by drops in Tesla and Netflix following their quarterly results, but the Dow advanced for a ninth straight day thanks to gains in Johnson & Johnson following a strong annual forecast. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.47%, the S&P 500 lost 0.68%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.05%.
Stocks News:
👉Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on July 20 reported a standalone net profit of Rs 2,472 crore for the June quarter of FY24, registering a growth of 8% from Rs 2,289 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year. However, the company reported a 10% fall in profit sequentially from Rs 2,552 crore in the previous quarter. The total revenue of the company is Rs 15,333 crore, rising 6.4% from Rs 14,016 crore in the year-ago quarter, the FMCG major said in a regulatory filing.
👉India’s second-largest IT company Infosys slashed its revenue guidance for the fiscal to 1-3.5% from 4-7%, amid an increasingly challenging demand environment. It reported an 11% increase YoY in its net profit to Rs 5,945 crore in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal. Infosys, which posted its results on July 20, saw its profit miss market expectations. Its consolidated revenue increased 10% YoY to Rs 37,933 crore, while its operating margin came in at 20.8%, down from last quarter’s 21%.
👉Persistent Systems has announced its earnings today with the consolidated net profit coming in at ₹228.8 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 as compared to ₹211.6 crore in the year-ago period. The revenue from operations was at ₹2,321.2 crore in Q1 versus ₹1,878.1 crore in quarter ending June 30, 2022, it said in a stock regulatory filing on 20 July.
👉Union Bank of India Q1 Results: Union Bank of India announced its April-June quarter results for fiscal 2023-24 (Q1FY24) on July 20, reporting a surge of 107% in net profit to ₹3,236 crore on a standalone basis, compared to ₹1,558.5 crore in the corresponding period last year. The profit after tax has almost doubled in the June quarter driven by a higher core income and significantly lower provisions reported by the state-owned lender.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) have bought shares worth Rs 3,370.90 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares worth Rs 193.02 crore on July 20, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shows.
Domestic and International Events
- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that different multilateral development banks (MDBs) are useful as they each have different perspectives and approaches that can complement each other, during the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting. EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said deeper engagement with the Indian private sector is being sought and that the Indian government has recognised MDB reforms as a key area of focus.
- Japan is planning to invest approximately 5 trillion yen in India across multiple sectors, including steel, according to Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. He made the announcement after meeting with a Japanese delegation led by NISHIMURA Yasutoshi, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan.
- Brent oil prices were little changed on Friday and were set to close flat for the week after three straight weeks of gains, as markets weigh lower U.S. crude inventories and tapering interest rate hikes against weak Chinese economic data that could cap demand. Brent futures rose 3 cents to $79.67 a barrel by 0016 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 9 cents to $75.74 a barrel. Prices closed marginally higher on Thursday.
- Gold prices slipped from a two-month high on Thursday as the dollar and bond yields ticked higher, although hopes for a pause in rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve after the July meeting limited the decline. Spot gold was down 0.4% at $1,969.53 per ounce by 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT) after hitting its highest since May 17 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures settled 0.5% lower at $1,970.90.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 18,928 | (0.1) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,170 | (0.9) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 35,225 | 0.5 % |
| DAX | 16,204 | 0.6 % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,646 | 0.8 % |
| Nikkei | 32,491 | (1.2) % |
| Straits Times | 3,274 | (0.0) % |
