Business News at 09:30 am on 18th October 2023

Let’s begin. HDFC Bank’s share price surged on the back of 50.60% jump in its Q2 net profit. On a half-yearly basis, the net profit grew 41% to 27,928 crore. This was the first quarterly financial result of the bank post merger with HDFC, which came into effect on July 1. However, the second quarter financial numbers are not comparable with the same period of previous fiscal as the two entities followed different accounting norms. Motilal Oswal said, quote, “We estimate HDFC Bank to deliver a CAGR of 18%/20% in loans/deposits and a 21% CAGR in earnings over FY24-26, translating into RoA/RoE of 2%/17.4% by FY26E. We reiterate our BUY rating with an unchanged Target Price of Rs 1,950,” unquote.

Speaking of share price, The share price of Dalmia Bharat tumbled 4.13% to Rs 2,226.15 during the intra-day trade on Tuesday. Despite today’s downfall in the stock price of the company, the brokerage houses have shown optimism on the stock. The share price, however, surged 3.52% yesterday on the news of the company’s earnings in Q2. The company on Saturday, October 14, reported 55% year-over-year growth in EBITDA to Rs 590 crore, driven by lower costs. HDFC Securities said, quote, “We maintain our ‘Buy’ rating on Dalmia Bharat with an unchanged TP of Rs 2,560/sh (13x its Sep-25E consolidated EBITDA). We continue to like Dalmia for its healthy volume, margin, and comfortable balance sheet outlook,” unquote.

In some more market news, Tata Metaliks posted profit for the second quarter of FY24 at Rs 44.16 crore, up 209 percent in comparison to Rs 14.29 crore during the same period last year. It posted revenue from operations at Rs 754.71 crore, down 13.9 percent as against Rs 876.98 crore during the second quarter of FY23. The company EBITDA stood at Rs 90.1 crore and EBITDA margin was at 11.9 per cent. The company recorded a total income during the quarter ended September 2023 at Rs 758.05 crore, down 14 percent from Rs 881.77 crore during the same period of FY23. Meanwhile, total expenses during the quarter in review stood at Rs 696.41 crore.

Meanwhile, The tensions between India and Canada are less likely to impact the assets under management of education loan non-banking financial companies, CareEdge Ratings said in a report on Monday. This is because students are likely to seek alternative destinations for their education instead of postponing their academic pursuits. The assets under management of retail education loan NBFCs for the students pursuing education in Canada increased to Rs 5,183 crore as of June 30 from Rs 1,424 crore as of March 31, 2021. This constituted nearly 20% of the total assets under management. While the incremental volume of applications to Canada may be impacted in the short-term due to ongoing bilateral tensions between the two countries, analysts believe that these issues will be resolved.

Moving on. Hong Kong’s BC Technology Group Ltd. is exploring the sale of its crypto platform OSL, one of only two exchanges licensed under digital-asset rules the city introduced in June, people familiar with the matter said. BC Technology has gauged interest in OSL from possible buyers such as industry players and funds, and a HK$1 billion valuation has been mooted, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Shares of BC Technology slumped as much as 16.7% in early Tuesday trading in Hong Kong, the biggest decline since June 12, following the Bloomberg News report. OSL’s platform spans prime brokerage, exchange and custody services for crypto markets as well as a business providing infrastructure to financial institutions.

Next up, technology. WhatsApp is rolling out a new search feature for the Updates tab. This feature allows users to search for status updates and channels on the app right within the section. According to WaBetaInfo, this feature has already been released to some Android beta testers with the recent WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.21.7 update, and is now rolling the search feature on the iOS app as well. The feature basically allows you to search channels that you follow right within the new search bar. In short, it makes it easier to search for a specific channel among the sea of updates. Those who do not follow any channel, they can collapse the section listing recommended channels.

Lastly, let’s see how the share market performed today. Benchmark indices ended higher on October 17 with Nifty above 19,800 amid buying across the sectors. Top gainers on the Nifty were BPCL, Power Grid Corporation, SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life and Coal India, while losers included Tata Motors, L&T, UPL, IndusInd Bank and TCS. All the sectoral indices ended in the green with power index up 1 percent, while FMCG, PSU Bank, metal and oil & gas added 0.5 percent each. BSE Midcap index added 0.4 percent and Smallcap index gained 0.7 percent.