The 30 share index (Sensex) and the 50 share index (Nifty) ended lower for the third consecutive session on Wednesday as we advanced towards the long weekend break.
At the closing bell on Wednesday’s session, the BSE Sensex was down 237.44 points or 0.41% at 58338.93 points, while the NSE Nifty was down54.60 points or 0.31%, at 17475.70 points. Many companies released their quarterly and annual results this week.
The Indian stock market remained closed on Thursday on account of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti/ Mahavir Jayanti, and on Friday on account of Good Friday. The stock markets remained closed on Saturday and Sunday due to the regular weekend holiday.
Market Movers
The top gainers on Wednesday’s session were ONGC, Apollo Hospitals, ITC, Sun Pharma, UPL, HUL, SBI and NTPC. The top losers were Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Tata Motors and Asian Paints.
Currency
| Price | Change | %Change | |
| Dollar-Rupee | 76.1750 | +0.0450 | +0.06 |
| Euro-Rupee | 82.4420 | +0.1040 | +0.13 |
| Pound-Rupee | 98.9960 | +0.1470 | +0.15 |
| Rupee-100 Yen | 0.6052 | -0.0019 | -0.31 |
Commodities
| Price | Change | %Change | |
| MCX GOLD | 53067.00 | 189.00 | 0.3574 |
| MCX SILVER | 69344.00 | 554.00 | 0.8053 |
| MCX CRUDEOIL | 7809.00 | 165.00 | 2.1586 |
| MCX NATURALGAS | 522.30 | 17.80 | 3.5282 |
The Recap
In this week’s recap, we shall talk about why did petrol sales reach a record high, Sebi’s new norms to evaluate the risk value of gold and related instruments, the RBI’s stance on interest rates, The trade forecast by WTO, why telecom companies are deeply disappointed and more.
Why did petrol sales in India reach a record high?
Sales of gasoline or petrol reached a record high in 1998, at 2.91 million tonnes. India turned to Russian barrels available at deep discounts to mitigate the costs that spiked soon after the elections.
UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said that the demand for oil was strongly supported by stockpiling activity/hoarding in anticipation of a rise in petrol and diesel prices in the later part of the month. The increase in price coupled with an increase in consumption increased the sales.
Sebi bought in new norms to evaluate the risk value of gold and related instruments.
Capital markets regulator Sebi has come up with a risk-o-meter for evaluating the risk level of commodities like gold and gold-related instruments.
Investment in such commodities by the mutual fund schemes will be assigned a risk score corresponding to the annualized volatility of the price of such commodities. This risk framework will come into force with immediate effect.
The RBI might gradually hike the benchmark interest rates
Economists say that the RBI might change its stance to neutral from accommodative in the June policy. The central bank might have to gradually hike the benchmark interest rate to its highest in three years in order to curb inflation that is hovering above its targeted range.
Economists from Deutsche Bank AG to Citigroup Inc. say that it will be the start of a tightening cycle that could eventually see the repo rate end at around 5.5%-5.75%.
The WTO lowered the global trade volume growth forecast to 3% for 2022
The World Trade Organization on Tuesday said that the world merchandise trade volume is expected to grow by 3 per cent in 2022 against the earlier forecast of 4.7 per cent, mainly due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
The most immediate impact was the rise in commodity prices as both the countries are key supplies of essential goods. Further, China is trying to prevent the spread of Covid-19 leading to disruption in seaborne trade. These factors could lead to shortages of manufacturing inputs and higher inflation.
Inflation soars to a 17-month high
According to official data released on Tuesday, retail inflation spiked to a 17-month high of 6.95 per cent in March, continuing to remain above the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance level while the factory output grew just 1.7 per cent in February.
On the other hand, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) or the factory output in February expanded by a modest 1.7% on an annual basis on account of improved performance by the mining and power generation sectors.
The RBI said that given the excessive volatility in global crude oil prices due to geopolitical tensions, any projection of growth and inflation is fraught with risk, and is largely contingent upon future oil and commodity price developments.
Telcos are “deeply disappointed” by TRAI recommendations on the 5G spectrum
Telecom industry body COAI (The Cellular Operators’ Association of India), whose members include Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, has expressed deep disappointment over TRAI’s recommendations on 5G and feels that the spectrum prices are “too high”.
They recommended a 90% lower price but saw only about a 35-40 % reduction. They were “deeply disappointed” and said that there is “enough and more headroom” available to reduce spectrum prices by 90 per cent, in line with global norms.
Sebi fines the bourses for laxity in detecting misuse of clients’ funds by Karvy Broking
Capital markets regulator Sebi has penalised the BSE and the NSE with ₹3 crores and ₹ 2 crores respectively for their part in failing to detect the misuse of clients’ securities worth ₹ 2,300 crores by Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. (KSBL).
The brokerage misutilized client securities worth Rs 2,300 crore, belonging to more than 95,000 clients, by pledging them from just one Demat account. The proceeds were used by KSBL for itself and its group entities.
Future Enterprises defaults again on Rs 1.22 cr interest payment for NCDs
Debt-ridden Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL) has defaulted on the payment of interest of Rs 1.22 crore due on non-convertible debentures, according to a regulatory filing.
The due date for payment of Rs 1.22 crore interest was April 13, 2022, FEL said in the regulatory filing. “The company is unable to service its obligations in respect of the interest on Non-Convertible Debentures was due on April 13, 2022,” it said.
This is the second default by the Kishore Biyani-led Future group firm this week. On April 12, FEL had informed about the default on the payment of Rs 9.10 crore interest due on NCDs.
UltraTech invests USD 101.1 mn in UAE-based RAKWCT, acquires 29.39% share
The country’s leading cement maker UltraTech Cement on Friday announced investing USD 101.10 million (around Rs 839.52 crore) for a 29.39 per cent equity stake in the UAE-based RAK Cement Co for White Cement and Construction Materials PSC (RAKWCT). This is a “strategic investment” for the company, Aditya Birla Group firm said in a regulatory update.
“UltraTech Cement Middle East Investments Ltd (UCMEIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company in the UAE, has invested in 29.39 per cent equity share capital of RAKWCT, a company listed on the Abu Dhabi and Kuwait stock exchanges,” the company said.
The shares have been acquired at a cost of USD 101.10 million, it said. This together with the existing shareholding, will result in UCMEIL holding 29.79 per cent of RAKWCT”s equity share capital.
Dolly Khanna takes entry in a multibagger stock Nahar Spinning Mills in Q4
As per the latest shareholding pattern of Nahar Spinning Mills, seasoned investor Anil Kumar Goel has increased his stake in the multibagger. Ace investor Dolly Khanna’s name was also among the key shareholders as of March 31, 2022.
Dolly Khanna held 3,81,973 shares or a 1.06% stake in the company as of March 31, 2022. Earlier, she was not among those shareholders that held a stake of more than 1%, as per BSE data.
HDFC Bank Q4 Results: Standalone net profit jumps 23% to Rs 10,055 cr
The country’s largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 23 per cent jump in standalone net profit to Rs 10,055.20 crore for the March quarter, led by growth in loan demand across categories and lower provisioning as bad loans were trimmed.
The bank’s net profit during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal stood at Rs 8,186.51 crore.
“After providing Rs 2,989.5 crore for taxation, the bank earned a net profit of Rs 10,055.20 crore, an increase of 22.8 per cent over the quarter ended March 31, 2021,” HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing.
ICICI Prudential Life Q4 result: Net profit jumps over 2-fold to Rs 185 cr
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on Saturday posted over a two-fold jump in its net profit to Rs 185 crore for the January-March quarter on account of robust growth in new business.
The company had posted a profit after tax of Rs 64 crore for January-March FY2021, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said in a regulatory filing.
For the full year 2021-22, the company’s net profit declined to Rs 754 crore from Rs 960 crore for the year ended in March 2021, it said. The value of the new business (VNB) for FY2022 was Rs 2,163 crore, a growth of 33.4 per cent over FY2021.
This was led by a robust growth of 25 per cent in new business sum assured and 20 per cent in Annualised Premium Equivalent for the same period, the company said.
FPIs turn net sellers again, withdraw over Rs 4,500-cr from stocks last week
Adopting a cautious stance, foreign investors pulled over Rs 4,500 crore from the Indian equity market last week on fears of an aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.
This comes following a net investment of Rs 7,707 crore by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) during April 1-8 as a correction in the markets provided a good buying opportunity, data with depositories showed.
Prior to that, FPIs remained net sellers for six months to March 2022, withdrawing a massive net amount of Rs 1.48 lakh crore from equities.
These were largely on the back of anticipation of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve and due to the deteriorating geopolitical environment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
