More Stories

Informist, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024

By Alina Geogy

MUMBAI – The benchmark indices closed flat Monday, ending a rather choppy session that was spent mostly in the green. While the Nifty 50 fell for the third consecutive day, the Sensex snapped two days of declines, albeit with minor gains. Gains in some banking and information technology stocks had offset a sharp fall in shares of Asian Paints following disappointing Jul-Sept earnings and weakness in Reliance Industries, which was down for the third day in a row.

The Nifty 50 closed at 24141.30 points, down 6.90 points. The BSE Sensex settled at 79496.15 points, up 9.83 points. The broader market was in the red. Of all stocks traded on the NSE, nearly 70% ended down. The Nifty small-cap indices ended down over 1% each. The India VIX, the fear gauge of the market, fell for the second consecutive session and closed at 14.27, down from the intraday high of 15.47.

The market has been volatile lately because of major global events and disappointments on the earnings front, Abhilasha Satale, associate fund manager of equity at Quantum Asset Management Co., said. There have been more downgrades than upgrades following the September quarter earnings, she said. The weaker-than-expected earnings were mainly because of pressure on margins owing to an increase in prices of key commodities and weak demand, especially for consumer durable and automobile companies, she said.

Investors continued to take cues from September quarter numbers and views by brokerage firms. Shares of Asian Paints ended down 8%. Earlier in the day it had fallen nearly 10% to an over three-year low. This marks the stock's steepest one-day fall in nearly five years, or since Mar. 23, 2020, when it closed down 14%. On Saturday, the company reported an over 42% fall in consolidated net profit for Jul-Sept, missing the estimates of 12 brokerage firms by a wide margin.

The company has lost market share and is under pressure compared to competitors such as Kansai Nerolac, Amnish Aggarwal, head of institutional research at Prabhudas Lilladher, said. However, demand owing to the festival season might help the company report some improvement on a sequential basis in the ongoing quarter, he said. The company's post-earnings conference call later in the day may give more clarity on the fall in volumes and market share during the quarter, he said.

Power Grid Corp. of India was the top gainer among the Nifty 50 stocks, followed by Trent and some information technology companies. Power Grid rose over 4% after ICICI Securities and Elara Securities upgraded their rating on the stock to 'buy'.

Shares of Trent snapped a five-day losing streak and closed 3% higher. Intraday, the stock had risen over 5%. Brokerage firm Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on the stock with a 'buy' rating and a target price of INR 8,000, implying an upside of over 27% to the stock's previous close, according to ET Now. The brokerage is positive on the company owing to its rising market share, expectation of strong sales of its brand Zudio, and expectation of a recovery in urban consumption, which recently moderated.

Shares of Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, and Tata Consultancy Services gained 1-2%. "The outlook remains positive for tech stocks, especially with the prospect of higher US tech spending under a potential Donald Trump presidency," Vikas Jain, head of research at Reliance Securities, said in a note. These gains took the Nifty IT up 1.3%, making it the best performer among sectoral indices.

Shares of Biocon and Power Finance Corp. were the top gainers in the Nifty 200 index, while those of Tube Investments of India and UPL were the worst hit. Shares of Biocon closed 8.5% higher a day after the company said its subsidiary Biocon Biologics' facility in Bengaluru was classified as 'voluntary action indicated' by the US Food and Drug Administration. The classification indicates the inspection found objectionable conditions or practices, but the agency has determined the facility can voluntarily correct its deficiencies and will not recommend any action, as per the US drug regulator's site.

Shares of Power Finance Corp. rose 7% after the company, post market hours Friday, reported a record-high net profit for the September quarter on account of a provision reversal of INR 1.24 billion.

Meanwhile, investors seemed to be punishing shares of Tube Investments for the sixth consecutive session after the company, on Nov. 4, posted an on-year decline of over 22% in its consolidated net profit for the September quarter. The stock closed down 7% at a five-month low. It has fallen more than 19% since the company announced its quarterly earnings last week.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 20 rose and 30 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 12 rose and 18 fell

* On the NSE, 895 stocks rose, 1,949 fell, and 67 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,530 stocks rose, 2,568 fell, and 115 were unchanged

* Nifty IT: up 1.28%; Nifty Media: down 1.3%; Nifty Healthcare: down 1.5%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 79496.15, up 9.83 points or 0.01%         Nifty 50: 24141.30, down 6.90 points or 0.03%

End

Edited by Ashish Shirke

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.