Information technology (IT) companies have been on the road to revival in the past one year. From being the worst-hit sector in 2022 with a loss of 26 per cent, the Nifty IT index closed 2023 with gains of 24 per cent. So far in 2024, the index is up around 7 per cent against the nearly flat Nifty 50 benchmark index. The IT index has been on a continuous decline in the last three sessions.
Despite the uncertainties created by rising bond yields and oil prices, fund managers have been proactively deploying fresh flows into the equity market. The cash available with equity fund managers, which has remained lower at around 5 per cent in the past few months, hit a 16-month low of 4.8 per cent in September, shows a Motilal Oswal Financial Services report. Cash holdings in equity schemes had topped 6 per cent in February amid subdued equity market sentiment.
Airports across the country witnessed chaotic scenes on Friday after dozens of flights were either delayed or cancelled after a widespread global computer outage that also hit operations like cash withdrawal at some banks, and impacted functioning of some brokerages. Globally, the Microsoft cloud outage led to US airlines cancelling flights, but the tech giant later reportedly said its cloud services outage in the Central US region has been resolved.
'Exposure to small and midcap stocks exceeded desired levels in many portfolios, prompting rebalancing.'
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Investors' wealth has eroded by over Rs 6.15 lakh crore in three days of market decline amid weak global cues and persistent selling by foreign funds. The BSE benchmark Sensex tumbled for the third straight session on Friday to close at 59,306.93, down 677.77 points or 1.13 per cent. In three days, the 30-share index has lost 2,043.33 points or 3.33 per cent.
The recent price correction in broader markets has hit cement companies hard. So far in the current month, smallcap firms like Visaka Industries, Andhra Cements NCL Industries, Sahyadri Industries, and KCP have lost 19.7 per cent, 14.3 per cent, 13.8 per cent, 13.5 per cent, and 11.5 per cent, respectively. On the contrary, largecap companies, while registering losses for the month, have seen a softer blow.
Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard and Nippon Life have evinced interest for the profit-making insurance arm of Reliance Capital (RCap), joining several prominent financial companies from India and abroad in the race for RCap's assets. The final day to submit an expression of interest (EoI) was March 25 and the bidders will now get access to the latest information about RCap before they make financial bids.
Bharat Forge, the Pune-based automotive component maker, has been one of the top-performing companies in its segment. The company's stock price is up 39.3 per cent since the beginning of the 2023 calendar year, surpassing other leading automotive component makers such as Bosch and Samvardhana Motherson International. The stock also outperformed the benchmark BSE Sensex, which is up 17.3 per cent year to date so far.
Despite a largely stable December quarter, investors booked profit in shares of IndusInd Bank (IIB) as an increase in slippages took them by surprise. Analysts, on their part, believe investors may, now, wait for actual delivery on slippage decline, potentially limiting near-term upside. "The management has indicated that corporate slippages (from legacy stressed book) have ended and inch up in consumer finance slippages was more one-off, and should meaningfully improve Q4FY24 onwards.
Tata Motors surpassed Maruti Suzuki (India) (MSIL) to become the most-valuable automobile company, in terms of market capitalisation (mcap), after a gap of seven years. With this, the company's stock hit a new high on the BSE on Tuesday (January 30). The combined mcap of Tata Motors (Rs 285.51 crore) and Tata Motors DVR (Rs 29,119 crore) stood at Rs 3.146 trillion.
Analysts cautious on outlook, expect earnings to remain under pressure over medium term.
The Indian equity market valuation has been moving in tandem with the US 10-year treasury yield. While the benchmark US bond yield has witnessed a nearly 70 basis point decline since the end of October this year, dropping from 4.93 per cent to 4.23 per cent on Friday, the Sensex earnings yield has slipped by nearly 45 basis points - from 4.5 per cent to 4.05 per cent. Previously, Indian equities' earnings yields rose in sync with the US bond yields.
Analysts expect Bajaj Auto to perform well in Q1.
Titan Company on November 21, became the second Tata group firm to join Rs 3 trillion market capitalisation (market cap) club after its shares hit a new high of Rs 3,400, up nearly 2 per cent on the BSE in Tuesday's intra-day trade. At 12:28 PM; with a market cap of Rs 301,847 crore (Rs 3.02 trillion) Titan stood at number 16th position in overall market cap ranking on the BSE listed companies, the exchange data shows. Titan overtook paint company Asian Paints, which has a market cap of Rs 300,579 crore, data shows.
However, experts caution that investors should not expect the big returns they got from the sector between March and September 2020.
At a time when investors are preferring higher-risk investment products like thematic and small-cap mutual fund (MF) schemes, some fund houses are exploring the possibility of going further down the market-capitalisation (m-cap) ladder to unearth newer investment opportunities. HDFC MF had filed papers with the capital markets regulator - the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - earlier this year for an active micro-cap scheme. Some more fund houses are keen on launching such schemes, say industry observers.
The inflation data for May and the US Fed interest rate decision are the crucial factors that would dictate terms in the equity market this week, analysts said. Moreover, foreign fund trading activity, movement of rupee and crude oil prices would be the other key monitarables for the markets, they added. "All eyes will be on the US FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) decision scheduled on June 15, and the market is fearing aggressive rate hikes amid inflation monster. "Bank of Japan will also announce its credit policy on June 17.
InterGlobe Aviation, the operator of India's leading airline IndiGo, delivered a better than expected performance across most parameters in Q2FY24. The company posted its fourth consecutive quarter of net profit of Rs 188 crore. It had reported a loss of Rs 1,583 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
Shares of Avenue Supermarts, which owns and operates the DMart stores, hit a two-year high of Rs 4,710.15 as they surged nearly 6 per cent on the BSE in Thursday's (April 4) intraday trade after reporting strong revenue growth in the January-March quarter (Q4) of the previous financial year (FY24). DMart, in the Q4FY24 pre-quarter update, said the company reported 20 per cent growth in standalone revenue from operations at Rs 12,393 crore, as against Rs 10,337 crore in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022-23 (FY23), driven by a 7 per cent growth in revenue per store and a robust 13 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase in store additions. In Q3 of 2021-22, the company reported revenue of Rs 8,606 crore and in Q3 of 2020-21, it posted revenue of Rs 7,303 crore.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Domestic equities will be mainly driven by global market trends, foreign institutional investors' movement and developments around new Covid variant Omicron this week, according to analysts. Markets traded under pressure last week following weak global cues and overall investor sentiment remained downbeat throughout the week, they observed. "Global markets, Omicron variant, dollar index and FIIs' behaviour will be key factors to drive the market this week," said Santosh Meena, head of research, Swastika Investmart Ltd. One major event last week was US Federal Reserve's announcement that it will end bond-buying from March, and it also signalled starting rate hike cycle thereafter.
Equity investors have become poorer by more than Rs 18.74 lakh crore as the market continued to remain bearish for the fifth session on the trot on Thursday. The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 1,158.08 points or 2.14 per cent to end below the 53,000-level at 52,930.31 points on Thursday. Markets have been falling for five straight sessions and the BSE benchmark has tumbled 2,771.92 points or 4.97 per cent during this period.
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
Investors may have to wait a little longer for Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based block mechanism in the secondary market even as the market regulator has set the effective launch date as January 1, 2024. Several brokerage firms said they may take a few months more to implement it. Investors will be able to register for this facility only if the stock broker has opted for the UPI block facility.
An in-line ICICI Bank result for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, has led to analysts raising target price and earnings per share (EPS) forecast on the stock. ICICI Bank, they said, appeared least vulnerable to regulatory action on its digital offerings or for risk monitoring lapses.
Even though Bharat Forge's performance in the July-September quarter broadly met Street estimates and defence orders are on the rise, the subdued outlook for its global business has prompted some brokerages to adopt a cautious stance on the company. Analysts have reduced the company's earnings per share (EPS) estimates to account for the slow recovery of its overseas subsidiaries. Valuations are also trading at long-term averages, which could limit potential upsides.
Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) traded 2 per cent higher at Rs 2,310.10 on the BSE in intra-day trade in an otherwise volatile market after the company reported a 27.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 17,394 crore for the September quarter (Q2FY24). While revenue growth of the company was flattish YoY at Rs 2.32 trillion, the profit rose on the back of operational improvement across most segments, especially higher profits in the O2C (oil-to-chemicals) and oil & gas businesses, as well as the retail business. "Strong operational and financial contribution from all business segments has helped Reliance deliver another quarter of robust growth," said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of the company.
Equity benchmark index Sensex buckled under selling pressure for the second straight session to close below the 65k mark on Friday, as investors offloaded IT, teck and metal stocks amid a bearish global trend. Besides, fresh foreign fund outflows also hit investor sentiments, traders said. In a volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 202.36 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 64,948.66.
Mutual fund (MF) houses have started realigning their overseas product offerings after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) advised them to stop subscriptions. PPFAS Asset Management has decided to suspend transactions in Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund with effect from February 2, 2022. Though new lump-sum and systematic investment plans (SIPs) will not be accepted, existing SIPs and systematic transfer plans (STPs) will continue.
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Q1 results indicate more pain ahead, as slowdown has spread to more sectors, pricing power has come down and rising interest cost is eating into profits.
For the first time, the rupee declined to the low level of 80 against the US dollar in intra-day spot trading on Monday before ending the session 16 paise lower at 79.98 amid a surge in crude oil prices and unrelenting foreign fund outflows. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 79.76 against the greenback but lost ground to touch the psychological low mark of 80 against the American currency. The local unit clawed back some lost ground and closed at 79.98, registering a fall of 16 paise over its previous close.
Equity investors became poorer by over Rs 8 lakh crore in five days of market plunge. The BSE benchmark has lost 2,062.99 points or 4 per cent in five trading sessions. On Thursday, the 30-share BSE benchmark tanked 585.10 points or 1.17 per cent to close at 49,216.52. Following the bearish trend, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined by Rs 804,216.71 crore to Rs 2,01,22,436.75 crore in five days.
rediffGURU Ulhas Joshi answers your personal finance and mutual fund queries.
Shrinking inflows and surging outflows on account of profit-booking has curtailed mutual fund (MF) investments in equities since April. The total investments made by equity MFs during the first three months of 2023-24 stands at just Rs 2,980 crore, compared with an average monthly investment of Rs 14,500 crore in 2022-23, reveals data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. "We are seeing signs of moderation in non-systematic investment plan (SIP) contribution, which has impacted domestic fund inflows in recent months to some extent," says Kunal Vora, head-India equity research, BNP Paribas.
Portfolio management services (PMS), catering to higher networth individuals (HNIs), are facing tough competition from emerging alternative investment funds (AIFs), evident from their dwindling client base. In May, the number of clients for the industry stood at 125,390, down 20,528 in two months, shows data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). "PMS managers also have a high active ratio, which means their portfolios are quite differently positioned and more actively managed, compared to the benchmark, which is also a highlight for long-term investors.
Investors should view any bounce-back in bank stocks as an opportunity to exit the pack, analysts suggested, as the worst may not be over yet. The recent quarterly results of HDFC Bank and Axis Bank disappointed the Street, triggering a marketwide selloff by foreign institutional investors, especially in banking counters. While HDFC Bank, which was the anchor for the market correction during the past week, ended 2 per cent higher amid short covering on Wednesday, Axis Bank's shares settled 3 per cent lower.
The stock market is likely to continue with its positive momentum but may face bouts of profit-booking amid lofty valuations in this holiday-shortened week, analysts said. The trading sentiment will be guided mostly by global trends in absence of major domestic events, they said. Markets would remain closed on Friday for 'Ganesh Chaturthi'.
A muted revenue performance in the September quarter and weak management commentary weighed on the stock of consumer major Marico which shed 8.5 per cent to Rs 542 from its intraday highs on Tuesday. The company indicated that demand trends were similar to that of the June quarter with instances of increasing food prices and below-normal rainfall distribution in some regions impeding the anticipated recovery in rural demand.
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