The domestic equity benchmarks ended with minor gains on Monday. The Nifty closed a tad above 18,300 mark. Autos, oil & gas, FMCG and realty shares advanced while banks and financials stocks corrected.
As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 85.88 points or 0.14% to 61,308.91. The Nifty 50 index gained 52.35 points or 0.29% to 18,308.10.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.22% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.66%.
The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2303 shares rose and 1298 shares fell. A total of 138 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
In last 24 hours, India reported 2,58,089 fresh COVID cases, as per the health ministry's data. The country reported 385 new deaths taking the death toll to 4,86,451. The country recorded 1,51,740 recoveries, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,52,37,461. The active cases comprise 4.43% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.27%, the ministry said.
Economy:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a Pre-Budget stakeholder's consultations with BJP's State party representatives, on 16 January 2022.
BJP National Spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, representatives from 25 states participated in this discussion.
The representations were from industries, professionals, business communities, academicians, economists, tribal communities, and backward classes and women.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index rose 2.04% to 11,880.80. The index had declined 0.37% to end at 11,643.05 on Friday.
Tata Motors (up 3.12%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.35%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.45%), Ashok Leyland (up 1.16%) and Eicher Motors (up 0.81%) advanced while Bharat Forge (down 0.72%) and TVS Motor Company (down 0.28%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Ultratech Cement added 3.01% to Rs 7886.05. On a consolidated basis, the cement major's net profit rose 7.83% to Rs 1,708 crore on 4.66% increase in net sales to Rs 12,710 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020. There is a one-time gain of Rs 535 crore in tax for earlier years. During the quarter, profit before tax (PBT) tumbled 29.93% year-on-year to Rs 1,634 crore. Profit Before Interest, Depreciation & Taxes (PBIDT) fell 25.94% to Rs 2,490 crore during the period under review.
HDFC Bank fell 1.61% to Rs 1520.30. The private sector bank's net profit rose 18.08% to Rs 10,342.20 crore on 8.33% increase in total income to Rs 40,651.60 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020.
HCL Technologies slumped 5.75% to Rs 1260.70. The IT major reported 5.4% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,442 crore and revenue increased by 8.1% to Rs 22,331 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q2 FY22. HCL Tech expects revenue to grow in double digits in constant currency, while EBIT margin is projected to be between 19% and 21% for FY22.
HCL reported flattish earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins of 19% at the company level while margins for services (IT services+ ER&D) were down 190 bps QoQ due to 80 bps impact of salary hike, -65 bps due to loss of days due to furlough, -85 bps on retention and bonus related, -40bps new customer investment, which was mitigated by +60 bps operating efficiencies and +20 bps currency tailwind, a domestic brokerage said in a result update.
margins are expected to be under pressure for a few more quarters. We expect approximately 140 bps EBIT margin decline over FY21-24E, the brokerage firm reportedly added.
Hero MotoCorp jumped 5.15% to Rs 2703. The two-wheeler maker said that its board has approved an investment of up to Rs 420 crore in one or more tranches, in Ather Energy.
Maruti Suzuki India gained 2.31% to Rs 8269.10. The car major announced price change across models owing to increase in various input costs. The weighted average price increase in ex-showroom prices (Delhi) across models is 1.7%. The new prices are effective from Saturday, 15 January 2022.
Bhansali Engineering Polymers (BEPL) slumped 8.82% to Rs 162.80. The company posted a 44.4% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 75.71 crore on a 17% fall in revenue from operations to Rs 341.52 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.
Metro Brands surged 19.73% to Rs 608.10 after the company posted a 54.6% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 100.85 crore on a 59% jump in net sales to Rs 483.77 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.
Gujarat Ambuja Exports jumped 7.31% to Rs 182.80. The company announced its decision to setup a greenfield corn wet milling plant at Sitarganj, Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand).
Ajmera Realty & Infra India hit an upper circuit limit of 5% at Rs 429.30 after the company said it will develop residential project at Wadala (Mumbai) with an estimated sales value of Rs 1500 crore.
Global markets:
European stocks advanced while Asian stocks ended mixed on Monday as investors digested a string of corporate news and the latest growth data out of China.
China's economy grew by 8.1% in 2021, and industrial production rose steadily through the end of the year and offset a drop off in retail sales, according to official data from China's National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday. China's gross domestic product grew by 2.2% in 2020 from the prior year.
China's central bank on Monday cut the borrowing costs of its medium-term loans for the first time since April 2020. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was lowering the interest rate on 700 billion yuan ($110.19 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions by 10 basis points to 2.85% from 2.95% in previous operations.
Investors kept an eye on the latest Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers in Brussels. Data releases in Europe on Monday include Italy consumer price data for December and final inflation data for the euro zone in December.
U.S. markets will remain closed today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
New York Fed President John Williams, a key ally of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, said Friday that he expects economic growth to slow in 2022 to a 3.5% annual rate, from an estimated 5.5% rate last year, on the spread of omicron.
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