Share Market HIGHLIGHTS: Sensex gains 100 points, Nifty ends below 11,000 mark, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints major gainers

Shares of India’s largest mortgage finance lender HDFC surged on Friday afternoon after the firm reported stellar Q1 results. HDFC share price jumped by more than 3% to hit the day’s high at Rs 2,148.60 on BSE. In the quarter ended June 2019, HDFC has reported a 46% rise in standalone net profit to ?3,203.10 crore, as against Rs 2,190 crore during the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal year. HDFC’s total income (Standalone) increased to Rs 12,996.11 crore as compared to Rs 9,951.98 crore in the same period last year, HDFC Ltd said in a regulatory filing. 

Read more: HDFC share price jumps 3% after stellar Q1 results; net profit up 46% on-year

Gold price on MCX today made lifetime high of Rs.36067.00 per 10gms achieved vigorous gains which was in the line of prospect, while yesterday in morning session Gold prices opened with a gap down after FOMC rate decision has left many market participants scratching their heads. The bank did cut rates for the first time in 11years, they didn’t offer much pellucidity for what might be down-the-road and this was likely by design. Today gold prices got support after U.S. President Donald Trump promulgated incipient tariffs on more Chinese goods. Withal Gold prices got support after the Indian rupee slipped further and trading near the day's low at 69.56 per dollar versus antecedent close 69.05 amid cumbersomely hefty selling in domestic equities, and the possibility of below mundane rains present risks to inflation, which at any other time would have warranted a semblance of caution in the bond market, said Ajay Kedia, Kedia Commodity, Mumbai

Oil prices rose around 2% on Friday, regaining ground after their biggest falls in years on U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports. The move, due to take effect on Sept. 1, would intensify a trade war between the world's top two economies and crude consumers that has disrupted global supply chains and roiled financial markets. Brent crude futures slumped more than 7% on Thursday, their steepest drop in more than three years. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell nearly 8% to post their biggest drop in more than four years. (Reuters)

The government may impose an anti-dumping duty of up to USD 3,263 per tonne on imports of a certain type of steel from Brazil, China, and Germany for five years, according to a government notification. The commerce ministry's investigation arm DGTR has recommended the duty after concluding its probe on alleged dumping of 'High Speed Steel of Non Cobalt Grade' being imported from these three countries. (PTI)

Toyota Motor Corp cut its full-year profit forecast and Honda Motor Co reported a double-digit decline in quarterly profit as a resurgent yen hurt two of Japan's biggest automakers. The quarterly earnings unveiled on Friday by Japan's biggest and third-biggest automakers highlight how "safe-haven" demand for the currency - buoyed by global uncertainties and falling U.S. interest rates - could eat into profits at Japanese exporters in the months to come. (Reuters)

Emerging market assets were battered on Friday by resurgent U.S.-China trade tensions, with investors veering away from riskier assets and taking refuge in safe-haven bonds. U.S. President Donald Trump hit China with a 10% tariff on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports on Thursday, a day after negotiators from both countries concluded a meeting in Shanghai without significant signs of progress. (Reuters)

InterGlobe Aviation, parent of the country's largest airline IndiGo, will hold its annual general meeting on August 27, according to a regulatory filing.
The annual shareholders' meet also comes at a time when IndiGo promoters -- Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia -- are locked in a bitter battle over alleged corporate governance lapses. "The 16th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the members of the company is scheduled to be held at 10.00 am on August 27, 2019," the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges on Friday. The company, which got listed in 2015, has come under regulatory lens following a complaint by Gangwal about alleged corporate governance lapses. (PTI)

Shares of India's largest lender SBI are trading lower on Friday despite the government owned bank posted a standalone profit of Rs 2,312.02 crore for Apr-Jun of current fiscal. The bank had reported a net loss of Rs 4,875.85 crore in the first quarter of FY19.

The country's largest bank SBI on Friday posted a standalone net profit of Rs 2,312.02 crore for the first quarter of current fiscal, mainly driven by higher income and reduction in bad loans. The bank had reported a loss of Rs 4,875.85 crore in the April-June quarter of 2018-19.
SBI's standalone total income increased to Rs 70,653.23 crore in the first quarter of 2019-20 as against Rs 65,492.67 crore in the same period a year ago, as per the financial results posted by the bank on stock exchanges. Its gross non-performing assets (NPA) compared to assets declined to 7.53 per cent at June-end, over 10.69 per cent at June-end last year. Similarly, there was decline in net NPAs to 3.07 per cent in June 2019, compared to 5.29 per cent a year ago.
Shares of the public sector bank was trading at Rs 319.45 apiece on the BSE, up 0.71 per cent at around 1400 hours. (PTI)

China on Friday said it would not be blackmailed and warned of retaliation after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to slap a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from next month, sharply escalating a trade row between the world's biggest economies. (Reuters)

The country's largest mortgage lender HDFC Ltd on Friday reported a 46 per cent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 3,203.10 crore for the first quarter ended June 30. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,190 crore during the corresponding April-June period of 2018-19. Total income (Standalone) increased to Rs 12,996.11 crore in the first quarter, as against Rs 9,951.98 crore in the same period of the preceding fiscal, HDFC Ltd said in a regulatory filing. Stock of HDFC traded at Rs 2,125.20 on the BSE, up 1.80 per cent from previous close. (PTI)

Importers of ethyl alcohol will now require a licence from the commerce ministry with the government putting restriction on its import. "Import policy of ethyl alcohol and other spirits, denatured of any strength has been changed from free to restricted,"according to a circular of the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT). Now, the prospective importers of this product shall have to apply for a licence from the DGFT, it said. (PTI)

While the Sensex has gained 220 points intraday, Nifty50 is trading at 11,040.80 level after media reports that PMO is taking stock of the market situation and are discussing FPI issue. 

Indiabulls Housing Finance said on Friday it will buy back bonds worth up to USD 50 million, which is a part of its USD 1.5 billion bond programme. “The company will be doing a buyback of up to USD 50 million of the USD 350 million 6.375 per cent notes issued by the company,” it said in a regulatory filing. The buyback is part of the company’s USD 1.5 billion secured euro medium-term note programme, it said. The buyback will be done upon receipt of necessary regulatory approval, it added. Stock of Indiabulls Housing was trading 1.02 per cent down at Rs 516.35 on the BSE.

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Indian energy companies are not facing any challenge in securing finances, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday. There are reports that some of the sovereign funds, including Norway’s State Pension Fund, have decided not to invest or finance fossil fuel-based projects and businesses. “There is no challenge…I have mentioned in speech that pension funds and other are keen,” the oil minister said at BNEF Summit here. He was replying to a question that whether Indian energy firms are facing any challenges in getting funding. “India’s growing energy sector is attractive for foreign investors. It has repeatedly received funding from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, long term strategic investors from western countries, Asian countries and Middle East,” the minister said.

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Gold prices rose 0.62 per cent to Rs 35,132 per 10 gram in futures trade Friday as speculators widened their bets, tracking a firm trend overseas.
On the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold for delivery in August contracts traded higher by Rs 216, or 0.62 per cent, to Rs 35,132 per 10 gram in a business turnover of 3,459 lots. The yellow metal contracts for October delivery also traded higher by Rs 232, or 0.65 per cent, to Rs 35,865 per 10 gram in a business turnover of 21,530 lots. Analysts said the rise in gold prices was mostly on the back of fresh positions built up by the participants taking positive cues from global markets. (PTI)

Criticising the compulsion to regularly change features of currency notes and coins, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the RBI to file an affidavit within two weeks explaining the reasons behind the same, The Indian Express reported. The court also noted that when demonetisation has already exposed the RBI’s argument that change in features is needed since fake currency is in circulation, what’s the compulsion to do such. The matter will be taken up in three weeks’ time, the court also said.

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Indian IT services firm Mindtree Ltd on Friday named former Cognizant executive Debashis Chatterjee as its new managing director and chief executive officer.The company also said S N Subrahmanyan, CEO of Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), would be appointed as non-executive vice chairman. L&T’s hostile bid to acquire a controlling stake in Mindtree was the first in India’s software services industry.

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Even as the Nifty 50 plunges hit a fresh 5 month-low giving up the crucial 11,000-mark, an index made excluding the top 10 stocks or Nifty 40 has performed much worse and would hover around the 9,000-mark, according to a study. According to Edelweiss, the top 10 stocks could turn the Nifty 40 way, leading to market cap erosion. While the top 10 companies by market-cap have gained around 21.4% since January 2018, the remaining 40 have seen market-cap coming down by 14.6%, a study by Edelweiss revealed. "The top 10 Nifty firms have not changed much in the last 18 months. What has changed is their correlation with the remaining 40 stocks," Edelweiss said in a report. 

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Global stocks took a beating on Friday, with investors piling into safe-haven assets but oil prices recouped some losses after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would slap a 10% tariff on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1. Pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 futures shed 2.0% in late Asian trade, indicating that European cash share markets will open sharply lower on Friday, while U.S. stock futures extended losses, dropping 0.2%, following the S&P 500 skidding 0.9% to hit one-month lows overnight. Oil prices rose more than 2%, after suffering their biggest one-day fall in years the previous day following further U.S. tariffs on China, intensifying trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies and crude consumers.  (Reuters)

After opening lower,  the headline indices Sensex and Nifty have made a mild recovery in the late morning trade. The Sensex is down 200 points to 36,822 while the Nifty is trading near the 10,900-mark. Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints shares are among the biggest gainers, jumping up to 3.5%. A look at live Sensex heatmap.

Reliance Jio has partnered with restaurant aggregator Dineout to bring an exclusive deal for Jio users. While 50% flat discount is offered on restaurant bills in 17 cities, Reliance Jio users can get extra Rs 100 off on first booking fees on the Dineout platform, the telecom subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd announced in a statement. The offer, which coincides with Great Indian Restaurant Festival, will be applicable for one month from 1 August- 1 September 2019. “Users of Dineout are generally charged a booking fee while making reservations on the platform,” the company said. However, with the Jio offer, the customers can evade booking charges. 

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Japan's government agreed on Friday to remove South Korea from a so-called white list of favoured export partners, defying warnings from Seoul that the move would have "grave consequences" for security ties between the US allies. Japan says the move is necessary for national security, accusing Seoul of violating export rules, but the measure comes with the countries mired in a long-running dispute over World War Two forced labour in South Korea. "The government at a cabinet meeting today approved a revision to the export control law... South Korea, the only Asian nation on the list, will be removed," Japan's Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters. (From PTI)

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, a gaming phenom who draws millions of fans to watch him play via streaming, is jumping to Microsoft Corp.’s Mixer platform. The move is a blow for Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch, a rival streaming service where Blevins has dominated viewership over the past two years. At 14.7 million followers, he has more than twice as many as the next-closest streamer. Earlier this year, he set a record of 667,000 viewers watching at once, breaking his own previous record of 628,000.

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Since the Budget 2019 announcements were made early last month, the BSE Sensex is down by almost 3000 points. Another 800-point fall will remove almost all the gains made in the year till date. The situation is far worse for mid and small-cap indices and if the market continues to slide further from here, the investor confidence may get shaken up soon. As on August 1, 2019, the 5-year CAGR is about 7.76 per cent and over the 7-year period it is about 11.52 per cent. 

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Bharti Airtel shares surged 4.5 per cent Friday after the company posted its Q1FY20 results on yesterday. At 9:33 AM on BSE, shares of Bharti Airtel were trading at Rs 333.90 per share, up 3.07 per cent from the previous close.  The telecom major reported a loss of Rs 2,866 crore for Apr-Jun of the financial year 2019-20. Bharti Airtel posted a consolidated profit of Rs 97.30 crore in the same quarter a year ago. The company reported a revenue of Rs 20,737.9 crore in the quarter ending Jun 30 as compared with Rs 19,799 crore in the year-ago period. 

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Hours after announcing to impose 10 per cent additional tariff on the import of Chinese products worth USD 300 billion, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said it’s time China change what they have been doing for the past a few decades. “For many years, China has been taking money out by hundreds of billions of dollars a year. We have rebuilt China. So now it’s time that we change things around. If they don’t want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me. We’d save a lot of money,” Trump told reporters here. Soon after his announcement to impose additional tariff on the import of Chinese products, the stock markets in New York took a plunge.

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The headline indices Sensex and Nifty opened lower tracking global cues. The Sensex is down 250 down points to 39,820 while the Nifty is trading near the 10,900-mark. Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints shares are among the biggest gainers, jumping up to 3.5%. A look at LIVE Sensex heatmap.

Last month, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the policy rate by 25 basis points, against the backdrop of a slowdown in global as well as domestic growth. In its monetary policy statement, the central bank mentions that the recent slowdown in the March 2019 quarter is predominantly a consequence of decelerating consumption and export growth in the previous quarter. So, the question needs to be asked: What has been affecting consumer demand?

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In a recent insightful article in Business Standard entitled “The Budget, the Survey and the trilemma” (https://bit.ly/2Yva1ri) the author, Sajjid Chinoy, discusses the challenges facing the Indian economy. The author examines the investment-led model as the key driver for a sustained 8% growth. Furthermore, he highlights that export growth remains a key determinant of investment rate and cites the 2001-2006 period as an evidence. That is, the causation runs from exports to investments rate. Finally, he concludes by emphasising that the over/under valuation of real exchange rate is a key determinant for export growth. Hence, rupee depreciation should not be resisted as an under-valued exchange rate implies higher export, which thrusts up investment rate and, hence, overall GDP growth.

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For the second year in a row, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is unlikely to borrow from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in an effort to rein in the cost of funds. It had borrowed Rs 10,000 crore each from the EPFO in 2016-17 and 2017-18, but refrained from borrowing from the retirement fund body in 2018-19 again as its rates were higher. Sources said EPFO’s portfolio managers are not willing to lend the NHAI at anything below 8%, which the latter finds a bit expensive as its average cost of funds hovers a trifle below 8%. The NHAI is authorised to raise up to Rs 75,000-crore debt in the current fiscal – it raised Rs 60,000 crore in 2018-19.

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State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) has decided to purchase its own rail wagons under the General Purpose Wagon Investment Scheme (GPWIS), a scheme which the railways announced last year in view of boosting up logistics support for general cargo. Earlier, there were schemes for owning tankers and container wagons to carry special goods like petroleum, oil and other container cargo serving the ports.However, the railways in April last year opened up for the general cargo movers and allowed owning rakes for movement of general goods. 

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Global stocks are set to take another beating on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would slap a 10% tariff on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports from next month. U.S. stock futures lost 0.25% in early Asian trade after the S&P 500 lost 0.90% to hit one-month lows. Pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.87% while Japan’s Nikkei is on course to fall 2.2% based on futures traded in Chicago. Trump’s move breaks a truce in the trade war struck in June and could further disrupt global supply chains.

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