Market LIVE: Sensex gains 300 points led by HDFC twins, RIL; Nifty near 18,250 – Mint

World will now see India as more safe from Covid, its acceptance as pharma hub will grow further: PM Modi

Nifty Financial Services up 1.2%

BSE MidCap up 0.6%; TVS Motor jumps over 7%

View Full Image

CG Power up 4% as Q2 net profit jumps nearly 72%

View Full Image

Mphasis down 1%

The IT firm reported a 14% increase in consolidated net profit at ₹341.4 crore for the September quarter. The company’s net profit stood at ₹299.2 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations grew 17.8% to ₹2,869.2 crore in the reported quarter.

Asian Paints’ strategy to go slow on price hikes is upsetting investors

Commodity cost inflation has hit market leader in decorative paints Asian Paints Ltd hard. Very hard. In the September quarter, its gross margins slumped 970 basis points (bps) on a year-on-year basis to 34.7%. One basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point. The company’s management said that raw material cost inflation was highest in four decades and it expects this trend to persist over the near-term.

Elevated marketing spends and increase in freight costs offset the benefit of operating leverage, pushing operating margins to a 50-quarter low of 12.7%. Ebitda margin contracted by 1090 basis points y-o-y, significantly missing analysts’ estimates of 18-20%. Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

TVS Motor up 7.4% on robust earnings

The company posted a 29.19% increase in consolidated net profit at ₹234.37 crore for the quarter ended September. Revenue from operations rose to ₹6,483.42 for the second quarter as compared to ₹5,254.36 in the year-ago period.

View Full Image

Broad market indices positive

View Full Image

Nifty above 18,250; HDFC, Titan lead

View Full Image

Sensex up 250 points; HDFC top gainer

View Full Image

Sensex, Nifty open in the green

Sensex players at pre-open

View Full Image

Sensex swings between losses and gains at pre-open

View Full Image

Indices in the red at pre-open

Petrol, diesel prices hiked

Petrol and diesel prices on Friday were hiked by 35 paise per litre each, the third consecutive day of increase that took pump rates across the country to record high levels.

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of ₹106.89 a litre and ₹112.78 per litre in Mumbai. 

In Mumbai, diesel now comes for ₹103.63 a litre; while in Delhi, it costs ₹95.62 per litre.

In Kolkata, the petrol will be sold at Rs. 107.44 per litre and diesel will be sold at Rs. 98.73 per litre. The prices in Chennai on Friday, stands at Rs. 103.92 per litre for petrol and Rs. 99.92 per litre for diesel.

Indian indices may open in the green amid volatility 

Indian stock markets are expected to remain volatile on Friday, while trends in SGX Nifty indicate a tepid opening for domestic benchmark indices. 

On Thursday, the BSE Sensex ended at 60,923.50, down 336.46 points or 0.55% and the Nifty was at 18,178.10, down 88.50 points or 0.48%.

₹9,489 cr festive cheer for govt workers

The central government on Thursday decided to raise the dearness allowance (DA) to employees and the dearness relief (DR) to pensioners by 3% to 31% from July to cushion them from the rise in cost of living.

The decision by the Union cabinet will cost the exchequer ₹9,488.7 crore a year, Union minister Anurag Singh Thakur said. It will benefit more than 4.7 million central government employees and 6.8 million pensioners, Thakur added. ( Read more)

Oil climbs

Oil prices resumed their climb on Friday on continued tightness in U.S. supply, but were headed for a flat finish on the week as coal and gas prices eased, curbing fuel-switching which had stoked demand for oil products for power.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 20 cents, or 0.2%, to $82.70 a barrel. 

Brent crude futures climbed 24 cents, or 0.3%, to $84.85 a barrel.

China’s Evergrande avoids default with last-minute payment: Report

China’s Evergrande Group pulled back from the brink of default by reportedly paying a bond coupon before this weekend’s deadline, the latest twist in a months-long drama that has captivated global investors.

The company wired the $83.5 million payment and bondholders will receive the funds before Saturday, state-backed newspaper Securities Times said, citing “relevant channels”.

PM Modi to address nation at 10 am today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 10 am on Friday. This comes in the backdrop of India administering more than one billion jabs to protect against the coronavirus.

“PM @narendramodi will address the nation at 10 AM today,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a tweet on Friday morning. 

Stocks to Watch: Reliance, Zee, Bharti Airtel, JSW Steel, TVS Motors

Markets will  also eye stocks of prominent companies that will announce earnings today, including Reliance Industries, Tata Elxsi and Yes Bank ABB Power, Aditya Birla Fashion, Crompton Greaves Consumer, Deepak Fertilizers, Federal Bank, Gland Pharma, HDFC Life Insurance, Hindustan Zinc, Inox Leisure, PVR

Asian stocks mixed

Asian stocks were mixed on Friday as traders weighed earnings reports, worries about inflation, and a report indicating that indebted developer China Evergrande Group may meet a key payment deadline

S&P 500 futures fell 0.1%. Nikkei 225 index was down 0.36%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was flat South Korea’s Kospi index was steady.

US markets mixed

US stock indexes were mixed on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.26 points, or 0.02%, to 35,603.08, the S&P 500 gained 13.59 points, or 0.30%, to 4,549.78 and the Nasdaq Composite added 94.02 points, or 0.62%, to 15,215.70.