Share Market Highlights: Sensex ends 52 points down, Nifty below 11,300; Yes Bank, Bajaj Finance top gainers

India’s largest auto-maker Maruti Suzuki’s net profit dropped 27% on year, dented by higher depreciation expense and adverse commodity prices in the quarter. Maruti Suzuki Q1 net profit came in 27.3% lower at Rs 1433.55 crore. The earnings came in higher than street estimates, as a poll of CNBC TV18 analysts had expected a net profit of Rs 1,350 crore. The firm reported a 14.1% jump in net sales to Rs 18,735.20 crore. Amid a slowdown in the auto sector, the Company sold a total of 4,02,594 vehicles during the Quarter, lower by 17.9% compared to the same period previous year. Apart from higher depreciation and adverse commodity prices, higher sales promotion expense and lower capacity utilisation also weigh on the results.

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While the Narendra Modi government has been promoting cashless economy for a while now, supported by moves such as demonetisation, people all across the world believe that cash will actually vanish by 2035 in major economies. The G-10 countries — the Group of 11 wealthy nations — will stop using cash as currency by the year 2035, a survey report said. “Around the world, there is a building consensus that cash is on the way out,” Bloomberg found in its recent New Economy global survey. Bloomberg also said that globally, more than half of the respondents strongly agree or agree that the G-10 will no longer use cash as a medium of exchange in 2035.

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After opening lower, the headline indices Sensex and Nifty made a recovery in the afternoon trade on Friday. The Sensex up 62 points to 37,893, while the Nifty is trading near the 11,300-mark. Bajaj Finance, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, M&M shares are among the biggest gainers, jumping up to 10%. VEDL, Bharti Airtel are among the top losers, shedding more than 2% each. A look at LIVE Sensex heatmap.

India remains a favourable destination in the Asia Pacific for investment in commercial real estate market with returns much higher than peers, a global report said. With a cap rate or yield of 8.8 per cent, India offers the highest return potential in the office segment on account of favourable supply situation for investors, Knight Frank report on the commercial assets in the Asia Pacific Capital Markets released Friday said. The cap rate measures the real estate investments that are assessed for their profitability and return potential. In other words, it is the yield of a property measures over a time horizon of more than one year assuming the property is purchased on cash and not on loan.

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Shares of Bajaj Finance gained on Friday morning, after the firm reported record quarterly profit in the Apr-June quarter, led by strong growth in net interest income. Bajaj Finance share price gained nearly 6% to hit the day’s high at Rs 3,241. The firm has reported a 43% rise in net profit to Rs 1,195 crore. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 836 crore in the comparable period previous fiscal. Net interest income increased 43% to Rs 3,695 crore from Rs 2,579 crore in the first quarter previous year.The firm’s Consolidated assets under management grew 41% to Rs 1,28,898 crore.

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Shares of auto major Tata Motors are trading higher on Friday morning after it posted its Q1FY20 results on Thursday. Tata Motors shares jumped 4 per cent intraday to Rs 150.05 on BSE. The auto company’s consolidated net loss almost doubled in Apr-Jun to Rs 3,680 crore owing to a slowdown in the automobile sector. Its net loss stood at Rs 1,863 crore in the first quarter of FY19. Tata Motors’ consolidated revenue declined 29 per cent to Rs 60,830 crore on a quarterly basis and 8 per cent year-on-year.

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Aviation regulators in Australia and the European Union have lifted orders grounding operations of GippsAero GA8 planes after initial results of a probe into a crash in Sweden that killed nine people earlier this month, the regulators’ websites said. Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said the precautionary suspension had been triggered by initial information that showed the plane had broken up in flight but it had since received information that there was no evidence to indicate a potential unsafe condition associated with the aircraft.

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While Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, along with other big technology firms, faces regulatory scrutiny in the US and antitrust investigation in the European Union, the e-commerce giant has found another critic in American Treasury Secretary, who accused it of ruining the country’s retail industry. “If you look at Amazon, though there are certain benefits to it, they have destroyed the retail industry across the United States. So, there is no question that they have limited competition,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview to CNBC TV’s Squawk Box.

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The U.S. economy likely grew at its slowest pace in more than two years in the second quarter as an acceleration in consumer spending was probably offset by weak exports and business investment. The anticipated moderation in growth will come against the backdrop of rising risks to the economy’s outlook, especially from a trade war between the United States and China as well as slowing growth overseas, which are seen encouraging the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next Wednesday for the first time in a decade. With a strong labor market supporting consumer spending, a recession is, however, not on the horizon. The Commerce Department will publish the second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) report on Friday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT).

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After opening lower, the headline indices Sensex and Nifty have made a mild recovery in the late morning trade. The Sensex up 10 points to 37,842.37, while the Nifty is trading above the 11,250-mark. Bajaj Finance, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, M&M shares are among the biggest gainers, jumping up to 5%. VEDL, Bharti Airtel are among the top losers, shedding more than 2% each. A look at LIVE Sensex heatmap.

After a protracted battle, the NCLT Thursday finally cleared the Rs 4,350-crore bid by yoga-exponent Ramdev-run Patanjali Ayurved to take over edible oil player Ruchi Soya, which owes over Rs 9,345 crore to the lenders and around Rs 2,800 crore to other creditors. The NCLT approval comes after it dismissed the petitions filed by Standard Chartered Bank and Singaporean lender DBS, which had both challenged the low bid by Patanjali and the resultant lower payout. Ruchi Soya owes over Rs 9,345 crore to financial creditors led by State Bank of India, which has an exposure of Rs 1,800 crore, followed by Central Bank at Rs 816 crore, Punjab National Bank at Rs 743 crore and StanChart at Rs 608 crore and DBS at Rs 243 crore. 

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Weak equity markets, elevated crude oil prices and weak monsoon seem to be weighing on Indian rupee besides the strong dollar which gained strength after the US Federal Reserve Chairman indicated towards a rate cut in the upcoming policy. Today, the rupee opened at 69.12 a dollar against the last close of 69.04 a dollar. Since last 15-20 days it has been under pressure and likely to remain under pressure for a week, according to analysts Financial Express Online spoke to.

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India’s plan for its maiden overseas bond offering is becoming mired in confusion. The office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is opposed to selling debt in foreign currencies, ET Now television channel reported Thursday, citing Cogencis news agency. The report comes a day after the top finance ministry official overseeing the $10 billion debt sale was transferred to another department. Yields on India’s benchmark 10-year debt jumped 12 basis points, the most since January, to 6.55%, on concern the plan will be changed. The sale was announced at the July 5 budget, and had spurred a bond rally on expectation that the government will sell less debt locally.

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Aadhar architect Nandan Nilekani has come up with a new platform ‘Sahamati’ via which, the Infosys co-founder plans to make bank account operations paperless. With the new application, individuals and small businesses can share their digital financial data with third parties in a safe and secure manner. This will give them greater control over how their data is being used. The application Sahamati — an account aggregator (AA) model — had the company work for around four years before it is rolled out. The creation of application was also catalysed by the fact that four major financial regulators RBI, SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA had come together to allow related entities, which were under their control, to share data with user consent.

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The headline indices Sensex and Nifty opened marginally lower, tracking global cues. The Sensex is down 50 points to 37,779, while the Nifty is trading below the 11,250-mark. VEDL, Bajaj Auto shares are among the biggest losers, shedding up to 3%. IndusInd Bank, M&M shares are among the biggest gainers, jumping up to 3%. A look at LIVE Sensex heatmap.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday stayed its own July 18 order to implead Deloitte Haskin & Sells and BSR & Associates in the IL&FS proceedings. The NCLT gave the audit firms time till July 28 to file an appeal, according to the order uploaded on the tribunal’s web portal. The legal counsel of Deloitte Haskin & Sells had last week moved the tribunal seeking a four-week stay on the order passed by the tribunal to implead the auditors of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) in the tribunal’s proceedings against IL&FS for operational mismanagement.

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In what underlines the urgency of revamping the UDAY scheme, power distribution entities’ (discoms) losses are again mounting, after declining over two years till FY18 — at FY19 end, the losses were up 44% year-on-year at Rs 21,658 crore. Worse, if these entities had paid generating companies in time, the losses would have been higher — dues to producers were up 28% at Rs 38,884 crore at May end.

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Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) on Thursday submitted a resolution plan to lenders who have signed the the inter-creditor agreement (ICA). Mutual funds and other institutional bond holders have not signed the ICA. The resolution plan, however, is not final. A senior banker explained that lenders have met with mutual funds to take into account their views. “While typically mutual funds do not formulate resolution plans, and this is the first for many lenders, it could take time,’ he said. Sources have indicated to FE that lenders worked along with the company on the resolution plan and are
largely in consensus with the proposal.

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Oil prices fell on Friday after a Reuters poll showed global economic growth is likely to slow further amid the U.S.-China trade war, although losses were limited by tensions in the Middle East. Brent crude futures were down 24 cents, or 0.4%, at $63.15 a barrel by 0049 GMT. They rose 0.3% in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 5 cents, or 0.1%, at $55.97 a barrel, after gaining 0.25% overnight. A global economic growth rut risks deepening, despite expectations that major central banks will cut rates or ease policy further, according to Reuters polls of over 500 economists who remain worried about the U.S.-China trade war.

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U.S. stocks backed off record highs and bond yields rose following mixed earnings and rosier-than-expected economic sentiment from the European Central Bank’s governor. The ECB signaled its intention to explore monetary easing but did not cut interest rates, and bank President Mario Draghi sounded more upbeat on the economy than investors expected, sending equities lower and boosting government debt yields. “The ECB’s rosier outlook may be giving the market a bit of a chill,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive of Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. “The market continues to hope for dovish central banks and the actions of one central bank lead the market to wonder what that means for the Federal Reserve.”

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Bajaj Finance on Thursday reported its highest-ever quarterly consolidated net profit at Rs 1,195 crore during the quarter ended June 30, up 43% from the year-ago period. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 836 crore a year ago. Net interest income increased 43% to Rs 3,695 crore from Rs 2,579 crore in Q1FY19. Consolidated assets under management grew 41% to Rs 1,28,898 crore. Given the sectoral challenges, the company has started off the year quit well and has added Rs 34,000 crore in new assets since September 2018 when the crisis hit the NBFCs. There was a granular growth and the 66% growth came from existing customers, said managing director Rajeev Jain.

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Asian share prices opened a tad lower on Friday on mixed U.S. earnings reports and the euro held above two-year lows struck overnight after the European Central Bank held interest rates steady, though officials said a cut was certain in September. Wall Street shares fell from record highs on Thursday, with the S&P 500 losing 0.53%, following a flurry of downbeat quarterly results from Ford Motor and other companies. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.15% while Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.3%.

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US President Donald Trump on Thursday said private companies were doing a much better work in creating jobs in the country. “Companies can train so much better than governments. Governments get into that, and they really do not have a clue as to what they are doing. And it costs a lot of money,” Trump said at a White House event to celebrate one year of the Pledge to American Workers. An initiative of the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, the Pledge to America’s Workers is a call for business and industry to create more and better jobs for US citizens by imparting education and skills to American students and workers. In the last one year, it has helped some 12 million people, Trump said.

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