Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 1.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets all rose on Wednesday as investors digest better-than-expected results from Wall Street. Overall, the earnings season was off to a strong start. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported, 84% exceeded profit estimates, according to FactSet. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 popped 1%, while the Topix was up 0.94%. Business sentiment among manufacturers in Japan declined for the first time in six months in July, according to the Reuters Tankan survey, which measures confidence among large Japanese companies. South Korea’s Kospi climbed marginally, and the Kosdaq was up 0.31% after reaching its highest level in over 15 months on Tuesday.
US stocks advanced on Tuesday, partly boosted by a round of solid bank earnings which helped put the Dow on track for its longest streak of daily gains in more than two years. Morgan Stanley shares jumped 6.45%, their biggest one-day%age climb since Nov. 9, 2020. Bank of America gained 4.42% after its profit beat expectations by earning more from customers’ loan payments, while investment banking and trading fared better than expected. Shares of other banks also rose on Tuesday, with Bank of New York Mellon up 4.11%, and PNC Financial up 2.51%, after they reported quarterly results. The S&P 500 banks index ended 1.90% firmer at 317.02, its highest closing level since March 8, when the start of a mini-bank crisis created a sharp sell-off in the sector. The KBW regional banking index also climbed 4.10% to 96.25 , its highest close since March 21.
Stocks News:
👉IndusInd Bank: The private sector lender has registered a 32.5% year-on-year rise in standalone profit at Rs 2,123.6 crore for the quarter ended June FY24 as provisions and contingencies dropped 20.7% YoY to Rs 991.6 crore. Net interest income grew by 18% YoY to Rs 4,867.1 crore for the quarter, with net interest margin expanding to 4.29% from 4.21% in the same period. Asset quality improved a bit with the gross non-performing assets falling 4 bps sequentially to 1.94%, and net NPA declining 1 bp to 0.58% for the quarter.
👉L&T Technology Services: The engineering services company has recorded a 13% year-on-year growth in profit at Rs 311 crore for the quarter ended June FY24 and revenue from operations grew by 15% YoY to Rs 2,301.4 crore for the quarter, but sequentially dropped 8.5% and 2.9% respectively.
👉ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company posted its fiscal first quarter profit at Rs 390.36 crore, up 11.8% in comparison to Rs 349.03 crore during the same quarter last year. The Gross Direct Premium Income (GDPI) of the company stood at Rs 6387 crore in Q1FY24, up 18.9% as against Rs 5370 crore in Q1FY23. The GDPI growth was higher than the industry growth of 17.9%. Excluding crop, GDPI growth of the company was at 19.2%.
👉Himadri Speciality Chemical: The speciality chemical company has registered a massive 123.2% year-on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 86.15 crore for the quarter ended June FY24 on lower input cost and other expenses. Revenue dropped 9.1% to Rs 950.91 crore compared to the year-ago period. Operating numbers were strong as EBITDA surged 87.2% year-on-year to Rs 134 crore with a margin expansion of 730 bps.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) have bought shares worth Rs 2,115.84 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares worth Rs 1,317.56 crore on July 18, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shows.
Domestic and International Events
- Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes by Reserve Bank on May 19 and the subsequent near total return of the currency to the system has buoyed deposit accretion to a six-year high of Rs 191.6 lakh crore in June, according to a report. Earlier this month, the RBI said more than three-fourths of the total 3.62 lakh crore of Rs 2,000 bank notes have come back to the system by way of deposits (over 85 per cent) and the rest as note exchanges.
- US retail sales rose less than expected in June amid declines in receipts at service stations and building material stores, but consumers boosted or maintained spending elsewhere, which likely kept the economy afloat in the second quarter. Retail sales increased 0.2% last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Data for May was revised higher to show sales gaining 0.5% instead of 0.3% as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales gaining 0.5%. Retail sales are mostly goods and are not adjusted for inflation.
- Global oil prices rose on Wednesday, boosted by China’s pledge to support economic growth, tighter supply from Russia and on lower weekly U.S. crude oil inventories. Brent futures rose 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $79.72 a barrel at 0010 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was steady at $75.75 per barrel.
- Gold scaled more than a one-month high on Tuesday, bolstered by a softer dollar and lower Treasury yields, while investors focused on the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path beyond its July 25-26 meeting. Spot gold was up 1% to $1,974.99 per ounce by 10:03 a.m. EDT (1403 GMT), the highest level since June 2. U.S. gold futures advanced 0.9% to $1,973.40.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 19,016 | (2.1) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,198 | (0.4) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 34,952 | 1.1 % |
| DAX | 16,125 | 0.4 % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,454 | 0.6 % |
| Nikkei | 32,494 | 0.3 % |
| Straits Times | 3,254 | (0.0) % |
