Despite a massive underperformance at the bourses since the last six months, analysts are turning optimistic on Reliance Industries (RIL). Those at Jefferies, for instance, say that the company is a proxy play for India's consumption growth story. The key catalysts for the stock, according to a Jeffries note, include faster-than-expected market share gain in retail, oil-to-chemicals (O2C) stake sale, recovery in gross refining margins (GRM), potential public listing of Jio and even a possible banking licence going ahead. That apart, analysts feel any tariff hike in Reliance Jio (RJio) - its telecom venture - will also aid performance. With balance sheet adequately de-levered, proceeds from a strategic stake sale in the O2C business will create a sizeable war chest for the company, analysts say.
Overall forex market sentiment remained cautious
'While foreign institutional investor flows are still negative, they will turn positive in the latter part of 2023 as India's resilient growth becomes perceptible.'
Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 6 per cent, followed by HDFC, IndusInd Bank, TCS, Asian Paints, Titan, HCL Tech and ICICI Bank. On the other hand, ONGC, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, M&M and Reliance Industries were among the laggards.
Indian equity, forex, money and commodity markets will remain closed today on account of Mahashivratri.
Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by M&M, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, TCS, Maruti and Infosys. NSE Nifty surged 122.10 points to 15,885.15.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) declared disappointing results in Q1FY24. While it reported a net profit of Rs 9,540 crore in Q1FY24, this was attributable to the transfer of Rs 7,490 crore from non-participating (non-par) products to shareholders' accounts due to the accretion on available solvency margin. In operational terms, annualised premium equivalent (APE) declined and value of new business (VNB) margin was flat. But the medium-term prospects may be better.
Fundraising via initial public offers (IPOs) dropped 52.2 per cent to $147.2 billion in the first eight months of calendar year 2023 (CY23), suggests a recent report by GlobalData, a London-based analytics and consulting company. At the country level, the report suggests, India topped the charts with 152 transactions worth $3.8 billion during this period, primarily due to a higher number of SME IPOs, followed by the US with 99 deals totaling $16 billion, while China ranked third with 88 transactions worth $32.3 billion. "An analysis of GlobalData's Deals Database reveals that there were 750 IPO listings registered with an aggregate deal value of $147.2 billion in the first eight months of 2023 on the stock exchanges worldwide.
Net investments in active equity mutual fund (MF) schemes rose to Rs 7,300 crore in December after declining to a 21-month low of Rs 2,260 crore in November, shows the latest data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). The rebound in net inflows was driven by a surge in investments and moderation in redemptions. While the inflows into these schemes rose 5 per cent month-on-month (MoM) in December, the redemptions were 14 per cent lower compared to November.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The value of the foreign portfolio investors' (FPI) holdings in the domestic equities reached $667 billion in three months ended September 2021, a surge of 13 per cent from the preceding quarter, according to a Morningstar report. This was largely on the back of strong performance by the Indian equity markets along with net inflows from FPIs at the later part of the quarter. "At the end of the quarter ended September 2021, the value of FPI investments in Indian equities shot up sharply to $667 billion, which was considerably higher than the $592 billion recorded in the previous quarter, a spike of around 13 per cent," the report noted.
Benchmark BSE Sensex recovered from early lows to close at a five-month high on Friday, riding on gains in banking and auto stocks ahead of the release of key inflation data. The 30-share index gained 123.38 points or 0.20 per cent to settle at 62,027.90, the highest closing level since December 12, 2022. The barometer opened lower due to early weakness in energy, power and IT stocks and touched a low of 61,578.15 in the day trade.
The NSE Nifty touched a fresh 25-month high of 5,447, and ended with a gain of 43 points at 5,442. The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 3,014 stocks traded today, 1,546 ended higher, while 1,362 declined.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap was down 0.2%, while BSE Smallcap fell 0.1%.
The broader NSE Nifty gained 17.35 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 10,997.35.
In the first eight months of 2019, 70 per cent stocks in the BSE 500 universe were down. These stocks account for 94 per cent of India's total market capitalisation.
The nation is now home to 52 billionaires, up from 27 last year and only two short of what India had at the peak of its stock market boom in 2007.
A firming trend in domestic stock markets, however, capped the rupee fall to some extent
Though the outcome of the general elections will offer a short-term boost to the market, a sustained rally will be determined by the economic data, according to a JP Morgan Asset Management report.
The markets snapped their three-day losing streak due to buying in index heavyweights and a rebound in IT stocks.
Currency market participants do not expect the rupee to slide immediately but feel a sharp rise is unlikely because of month-end dollar demand from importers.
Private life insurers experienced reasonable growth in the July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), and the October data is also encouraging. The individual weighted received premium (WRP) for private players grew by 19.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in October. However, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India had slower growth, pulling the industry growth rate down to 13 per cent Y-o-Y.
Gains were led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys.
SBI was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying up to 12 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, HDFC, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel.
Benchmark BSE Sensex rose by 160 points on Thursday in choppy trade following gains in select banking and auto counters amid mixed global cues. The 30-share index gained 160 points to settle at 62,570.68 as 13 of its components advanced while 17 declined. The barometer opened lower but later gained momentum to touch a high of 62,633.56 in the day's trade.
'If there is any drastically negative news either in the local or global markets we could touch the previous bottoms again.'
Markets opened marginally higher helped by a rebound in index heavyweights
Oil & gas, banking and pharma sector stocks stole the show
Nifty regains 5K; Global peers contribute to the gain.
Gold prices rebounded by Rs 190 to Rs 31,000 per ten grams in the national capital today on pick up in festive season demand.
Mudar Patherya lists companies whose shares can bring on Xmas cheer for investors.
The broader markets are, however, outperforming the larger peer.
The fees charged by investment banks to manage initial public offerings (IPOs) have increased to an average 3.23 per cent of the issue size this calendar year, the highest since 2020. The average fee is up 8 per cent compared to last year, when it stood at 2.99 per cent. The investment banking fees have increased as the average IPO size has shrunk this year.
Overseas investors buoyed by recent rate cut by RBI and hopes of a good monsoon
Check out some of the stocks that will react on the basis of their numbers in the near term.
HCL was followed by Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, L&T, TCS, M&M, Nestle India and Infosys. NSE Nifty rose 23.75 points or 0.20 per cent to 11,896.80.
The broader NSE Nifty climbed 61.60 points, or 0.58 per cent, to close at 10,772.05.
The NSE Nifty ended at 4,587, up 14 points. The market breadth was positive, out of 2,891 shares traded, 1,522 advanced and 1,314 declined on Friday.
Major global indices - the Nasdaq, Bovespa, Seoul Composite, S&P 500, Dow Jones, S&P BSE Sensex, NYSE, DAX, Nikkei and, CAC 40 - have all gained 37 per cent to 75 per cent since their respective March 2020 low.
Markets across the globe gained after China Securities Regulator removed its four-day-old circuit-breaker system.
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