Business News at 05:30 pm on 3rd May, 2024

Let’s begin – In the volatile session the Indian benchmark indices ended lower with Nifty below 22,500 amid selling across the sectors barring metals. At close, the Sensex was down 732.96 points or 0.98% at 73,878.15, and the Nifty was down 172.40 points or 0.76% at 22,475.80. About 1241 shares advanced, 2013 shares declined, and 79 shares unchanged. Biggest Nifty losers were L&T, Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Industries, Nestle India and Bharti Airtel, while gainers included Coal India, Grasim Industries, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Hindalco Industries. Among sectors, except metal, all other sectoral indices ended in the red with capital goods, realty, telecom and PSU Bank down 1% each, while oil & gas, auto, Information Technology and Media down 0.5% each.

Up next – Dabur’s stock price saw a 2% increase on Friday following the company’s announcement of strong earnings for the fourth quarter of FY24. Improved sales volume and the positive impact of a price hike contributed to the rise. Dabur shares climbed by 2.51% to reach Rs 537.50 each on the BSE. In the quarter ending March 2024, Dabur India reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 341.22 crore, marking a 16.5% increase from Rs 292.76 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Whereas the FMCG giant’s revenue increased by 5.11% to Rs 2,814.64 crore from Rs 2,677.80 crore, YoY. Friday’s gains followed Dabur’s board approval for share buyback and the release of its March quarter earnings. This marks Ajanta Pharma’s fourth share buyback since 2020.

Moving on – Indian refined sunflower oil volumes are estimated to decline by 8-10 per cent in fiscal 2025, said a report by CRISIL Ratings. This, it added, is due to domestic consumers shifting back to soybean oil amid a price correction on the back of a healthy soy harvest. Profitability of sunflower oil refiners, however, will expand 50-60 basis points on stable prices, hedging policies and the government’s announcement of continuing duty-free imports, the report stated. The credit risk profile of refiners will remain stable on strengthened balance sheets with strong accretions in fiscal 2021 and 2022 and the absence of major debt-funded capital expenditure over the medium term.

In another development – The share price of Coforge plunged more than 9% during Friday’s morning trades. This drop came after the company’s Q4 earnings report was released post-market hours on Thursday. Coforge Ltd’s shares traded down by 9.99% to an intra-day low of Rs 4487.15 on the NSE during early trading hours on Friday. In the quarter ending March 2024, Coforge recorded a significant 95% surge in net profit, reaching Rs 224 crore. Consolidated sales for the three months ending March 31 rose by 8.7% year over year to Rs 2,359 crore. Although Coforge’s fourth-quarter revenue met expectations, its margins fell short. JM Financial maintains a ‘BUY’ rating on Coforge with a revised target price of Rs 5,570, down from Rs 6,940.

Meanwhile – CEO Tim Cook has—once again—expressed confidence in Apple’s future AI roadmap. During the company’s Q2 2024 earnings call, Cook told investors that Apple was bullish on the potential of artificial intelligence—particularly generative AI—and was making significant investments in this field to ensure all its products were up-to-speed on the current big technology trend. Cook further emphasised that Apple was in a unique position in terms of technology enablement with clear-cut advantages over competing brands such as Samsung, Google, and others. With Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, scheduled for June 10, the spotlight will be on AI-powered innovations.

In other news – The inaugural Vande Bharat Metro, a compact version of the Vande Bharat Express trains, has been unveiled at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, Punjab. The trial runs for this modern metro are to begin in July. According to officials cited by PTI, the Vande Metro aims to offer a convenient shuttle-like experience at a reasonable cost, catering to both inter-city and intra-city travel needs. Operating at speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour, the metro network will link 124 cities spanning distances of around 100-250 kilometers. Vande Metro is designed to make daily travel quicker. This connectivity enables commuters to efficiently travel within cities and beyond.

Lastly – Nothing CEO Carl Pei is “unsure” if Apple CEO Tim Cook can transition to a war time CEO like Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, company that has made sizeable investments in OpenAI. The big news today was Apple’s high-profile Q2 2024 earnings call where Cook was seen pacifying investors with promise of AI and India as a silver lining amid a 4% decline in quarterly revenue. Reacting to the news, Pei wrote on X that Apple certainly had many pros including the fact that it made both its hardware and software and had a huge user base potentially with lots of data for harvest but at the same time, it was bound by the “innovator’s dilemma” much like any other big tech company.