Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 8.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asian markets are broadly higher today with shares in Hong Kong leading the region. The Hang Seng is up 1.02% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 is up 0.52% and China’s Shanghai Composite is up 0.24%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.93% to end at 2,632.58 and recorded a third straight day of gains. The Kosdaq climbed 2.25% to close at 935.97, near its 16-month high. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed marginally and closed at 7,410.4, as investors prepare for the Reserve Bank of Australia’s rate decision on Tuesday.
US stock futures traded near the flatline on Monday as investors awaited a flood of corporate earnings reports All major indices ended Monday’s main trading session modestly higher. The Dow edged up 0.28%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.15% and 0.21%, respectively. In July, the S&P 500 and the Dow each gained more than 3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced about 4.1%.
Stocks News:
👉Maruti Suzuki India: The country’s largest passenger vehicles maker has recorded a 145.4% year-on-year growth in standalone profit at Rs 2,485.1 crore for the quarter ended June FY24, largely driven by larger sales volume, improved realization, cost reduction efforts and higher non-operating income. Revenue grew by 22% to Rs 32,327 crore compared to year-ago period, with sales volume increasing by 6.4% YoY to 4.98 lakh units, while the pending customer orders stood at about 3.55 lakh vehicles.
👉Power Grid Corporation of India: The state-owned electric services company has registered nearly 6% year-on-year decline in standalone profit at Rs 3,542.65 crore for the quarter ended June FY24 despite health operating margin, dented by lower topline. Revenue from operations during the quarter fell 0.1% to Rs 10,436.1 crore compared to year-ago period. EBITDA grew by 3.4% YoY to Rs 9,099.5 crore with margin expansion of 290 bps at 87.2% in Q1FY24. The company announced issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:3, and raising funds up to Rs 12,000 crore from domestic market through issue of debts in financial year 2024-25.
👉Agrochemical company UPL Ltd posted a net profit of Rs 166 crore for the April-June quarter, sharply down 81.1% from Rs 877 crore at the same period in the previous fiscal. The net profit also lagged the Street’s expectation of Rs 262 crore. Revenue also recorded a 17.2% year-on-year decline to Rs 8,963 crore as against Rs 10,821 crore clocked in the base quarter. A poll of brokerages has estimated revenue for UPL at Rs 9,790 crore. The company attributed an industry-wide slow down as the reason behind the weak quarterly earnings.
👉IRB Infrastructure Developers: Mumbai-based Road developer has reported a massive 66% year-on-year decline in consolidated profit at Rs 133.8 crore for June FY24 quarter, dented by lower topline and operating numbers. Revenue plunged 15.1% YoY to Rs 1,634.2 crore during the period.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 701.17 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) bought Rs 2,488.07 crore worth of stocks on July 31, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shows.
Domestic and International Events
- The government’s fiscal deficit increased to ₹4.51 lakh crore in the April-June quarter of fiscal 2023-24, which comes in at 25.3% of the annual target of ₹17.87 lakh crore, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts on July 31. The June quarter fiscal deficit widened 21.2% from the corresponding period last year.
- The combined Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) jumped by 8.2% during June 2023 which was the highest in five months. The growth in the core sector however declined from 13.1% during June 2022. This is the highest level of growth; the core sector has registered since January 2023 when the key sectors expanded at 9.7%. During Q1, the output by the eight core sector industries declined to 5.8% from 13.9% during the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
- Oil prices rallied to a fresh three-month high on Monday and recorded their steepest monthly gains since January 2022, supported by signs of tightening global supply and rising demand through the rest of this year. More actively traded October Brent crude futures rose $1.02, or 1.2 %, to settle at $85.43 a barrel. The September Brent contract, which expired at settlement on Monday, rose 0.7 % to close at $85.56 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rallied $1.22, or 1.5 %, to $81.80 a barrel.
- Gold prices rose on Monday, putting them on track for their best month in four as an overall weaker dollar and expectations that major global central banks are nearing a peak with interest rate hikes boosted investor sentiment. Spot gold gained 0.6 % to $1,971.27 per ounce. Bullion is up 2.5 % so far this month. US gold futures climbed 0.5 % to $1,971.10.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 20,079 | 0.8 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,291 | 0.5 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 35,560 | 0.3 % |
| DAX | 16,447 | (0.1) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,699 | 0.1 % |
| Nikkei | 33,172 | 1.3 % |
| Straits Times | 3,374 | 0.1 % |
