Business News at 05:30 pm on 20th October 2023

Let’s begin. Hindustan Unilever’s share price fell 2.27% to Rs 2,490.25, a day after the company reported a 0.3% decline in its second quarter profit at Rs 2,656 crore Vs Rs 2,665 crore in Q2FY23. The company posted a total income of Rs 15,806 crore, again flat, up 3.6% as against Rs 15,253 crore during the same period last year. The FMCG major recorded total sales at Rs 15,364 crore. The company EBITDA stood at Rs 3,797 crore and EBITDA margin at 24.7%. The share price of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) fell 2.74% in the last five days, while it gained 1.23% in the last one month, 0.22% in the last six months. The share price tumbled nearly 4% in the last one year.

In some more market news, ITC’s share price fell over 2% in intra-day trade on Friday on concerns about earnings moderating going forward. For Q2, the company reported a 6.11% growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,955.90 crore Vs Rs 4,670.32 in Q2FY23. The company’s revenue from operations in the Q2FY24 rose 3.55% to Rs 19,270.02 crore, compared to Rs 18,608 crore last year. The share price of ITC fell 1.23% in the last five days, 2.32% in the last one month, while it gained 10.50% in the last six months and 32.88% year-to-date. Prabhudas Lilladher said, quote, “We are largely retaining our estimates and introduce FY26 EPS. We believe FMCG and IT services will add significant shareholder value over the coming few years,” unquote.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday stressed that the monetary policy must remain actively disinflationary to ensure that the decline in inflation from its peak of 7.44 percent in July continues smoothly. Addressing the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2023, he also said price stability and financial stability complement each other and it has been an endeavour at RBI to manage both efficiently. Retail inflation declined to a three-month low of 5.02 percent annually in September on account of moderation in vegetables and fuel prices, and was back within the Reserve Bank’s comfort level. The inflation based on Consumer Price Index was 6.83 percent in August and 7.41 percent in September 2022.

Moving on. Vedanta group firm Hindustan Zinc Ltd on Friday reported a 35.4 per cent drop in consolidated profit to Rs 1,729 crore for the September quarter due to lower income. The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 2,680 crore in the year-ago period, HZL said in a filing to the BSE. Consolidated income during the second quarter of the current fiscal declined to Rs 7,014 crore, over Rs 8,703 crore in the year-ago period. Hindustan Zinc is the country’s largest and the world’s second largest integrated zinc producer. HZL is a subsidiary of Vedanta Ltd, which owns 64.9 per cent stake in the company while the government has a 29.5 per cent stake.

Next up, industry. Cisco has launched its Secure Networking approach in India, an offering that integrates advanced networking and cybersecurity capabilities. This offering is based on the zero-trust concept, aimed at delivering secure and seamless connectivity to help businesses address cybersecurity risks in a hybrid environment. Vish Iyer, President of Architectures, Asia Pacific, Japan and China at Cisco, said quote, “One of Cisco’s unique differentiators is its unmatched visibility of the network, which allows us to secure everything that’s connected. With Cisco Secure Networking, we are bringing together security capabilities including the ability to apply zero trust principles and enforce granular security policies into a single console,” unquote.

Over to technology. Netflix announced a price increase for its Basic and Premium plans. The Basic plan will now cost $11.99 per month, up from $9.99, while the Premium plan will cost $22.99 per month, up from $19.99. The Standard plan will remain at $15.49 per month, and the ad-supported plan will remain at $6.99 per month. The price hike comes as Netflix reported strong third-quarter earnings. The company reported revenue of $8.5 billion. It added 9 million paid net subscribers with a total of 247 million subscribers worldwide. Netflix says that its adoption of its advertising plan is growing, with a nearly 70% increase in membership quarter-over-quarter. Around 30% of new sign-ups in countries with the ads plan are opting for it.

Lastly, let’s see how the share market performed today. The benchmark domestic indices ended the week’s last trading session in the negative territory. The NSE Nifty 50 fell 82.05 points or 0.42% to settle at 19,542.65, while the BSE Sensex shed as much as 231.62 points to 65,397.62. The broader indices ended in the red, with Midcap stocks leading the losses. The Bank Nifty index shed 31.45 points, or 0.07% to settle at 43,723.05. The other sectoral indices also settled in the negative territory except for Private Bank. The volatility index (India VIX) settled down 0.55%.