Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 87.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asian markets traded lower on Monday as risks of a wider conflict in the Middle East dented investor sentiment ahead of a week of inflation data across Asia-Pacific region with data on US growth and inflation. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1% to be near its lowest in almost a year. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.44% and the Topix eased 0.12%. South Korea’s Kospi was flat, while the Kosdaq gained 0.51%. Hong Kong’s markets are closed for a holiday Monday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.93%.
US stock market indices ended sharply lower on Friday, dragged by heavy selling in technology and financials, amid worries over more interest rate hikes and the escalation of the Israel-Hamas war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.86%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.26%, The Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.53%, For the week, the Dow fell 1.6%, the S&P 500 slipped 2.4% and the Nasdaq dipped 3.2%.
Stocks News:
👉 ICICI Bank: The bank reported a 35.8% YoY rise in its standalone net profit to ₹10,261 for the September quarter of FY24 against ₹7557.84 crore in the year-ago period. ICIC Bank’s net interest income (NII) increased by 23.8% YoY to ₹18,308 crore in the July-September quarter from ₹14,787 crore in the year-ago period. Bank’s net interest margin stood at 4.53% in Q2FY24. Its fees from retail, rural, business banking and SME customers constituted about 78% of total fees in Q2-2024.
👉 JSW Steel: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel Ltd on Friday reported a ₹2,773 crore net profit for the September quarter against a net loss in the same quarter last fiscal. The Mumbai-based steel manufacturer reported a 6.71% year-on-year increase in its consolidated revenue from operations to ₹44,584 crore. Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) stood at ₹7,886 crore, with an Ebitda margin of 17.7%.
👉 L&T Finance: L&T Finance released the results of the September quarter for FY 2023-24 and reported a consolidated profit of ₹595 crore, which is 46% up compared to the same period in the previous year, it said in a regulatory filing on 20 October. In Q2 FY2022-23, the firm had registered a profit of ₹406 crore, it said. The NIM of the firm was up 11 percent at ₹1,729 crore in Q2 FY23-24 against ₹1,563 crore in Q2 FY22-23.
👉 Kotak Mahindra Bank on October 21 reported a net profit of Rs 3,191 crore for the July-September FY24 quarter, which marks a 23.66 percent jump as compared to Rs 2,581 crore clocked in the year-ago period. The net profit, at Rs 3,191 crore beat the market estimates of Rs 3092 crore. The net interest income (NII) of Rs 6,297 crore, increased by 23.49 percent from Rs 5,099 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The NII also came slightly higher than the market estimate of Rs 6,226 crore.
👉 Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 456.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 8.53 crore worth of stocks on October 20, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.
Domestic and International Events
- The US has emerged as India’s biggest trading partner during the first half of the current financial year despite global economic uncertainties and declining exports and imports, according to government data. According to the provisional data of the commerce ministry, the bilateral trade between India and the US has declined by 11.3 per cent to USD 59.67 billion during April-September 2023 against USD 67.28 billion in the same period last year. Exports to the US have come down to USD 38.28 billion during April-September 2023 from USD 41.49 billion a year ago.
- India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $1.153 billion to reach $585.895 billion for the week ending October 13, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The increase comes after a decrease of $2.166 billion in the previous week. Foreign currency assets dropped by $178 million to $519.35 billion, while gold reserves increased by $1.27 billion to $43.58 billion.
- Japan’s yen took the spotlight in Asia on Monday, circling near the 150-per-dollar level in a tug of war between investors betting on a further rise in dollar yields and those expecting Japanese authorities will intervene in markets. The week kicks off with growing worries about the Middle East conflict as Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early on Monday, extending a two-week bombardment that began after an October 7 rampage by Islamist group Hamas on southern Israeli communities, and as the United States dispatched more military assets to the region.
- Oil prices eased on Monday as aid convoys started to arrive in the Gaza Strip over the weekend amid diplomatic efforts to contain a conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from spreading to the wider oil-rich region. Brent crude futures fell 60 cents to $91.56 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 61 cent to trade at $87.47 a barrel at 0038 GMT.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 17,172 | (0.7) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 2,983 | (0.7) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 33,127 | (0.9) % |
| DAX | 14,798 | (1.6) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,402 | (1.3) % |
| Nikkei | 31,259 | (0.5) % |
| Straits Times | 3,077 | (0.7) % |
