Indices trade with modest gains; European stocks decline

The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with moderate gains in the afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered near the 17,650 level. Bank and financial services stocks advanced while media, metal and realty shares declined.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 310.42 points or 0.52% to 59,513.32. The Nifty 50 index gained 71.45 points or 0.41% to 17,635.40.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.54% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.19%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,635 shares rose and 1,695 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

A strong weekly jobless claims in the US and hawkish comments from the US Fed`s Philadelphia President Patrick Harker bolstered concerns about the central bank sticking to aggressively hiking the interest rates further, potentially pushing the American economy to recession.

Gainers & Losers:

Axis Bank (up 8.37%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 3.04%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (up 2.35%), ICICI Bank (up 2.12%) and Hindustan Unilever (up 1.89%) were the top Nifty 50 gainers.

Bajaj Finance (down 2.75%), Bajaj Finserv (down 1.70%), Adani Ports And Special Economic Zone (down 1.64%), Eicher Motors (down 1.59%) and Divi`s Laboratories (down 1.16%) were top Nifty 50 losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Axis Bank jumped 8.37%. The private lender`s net profit surged 70% to Rs 5,329.77 crore on 20% increase in total income to Rs 24,180.08 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22. Net interest income (NII) increased by 31% YoY and 10% QoQ to Rs 10,360 crore. Net interest margin (NIM) for Q2 FY23 stood at 3.96%, up 57 basis points YoY and 36 basis points QoQ. The scrip hit an all time high at Rs 898.45 in intraday today.

ITC declined 0.49% after the company`s standalone net profit rose 20.8% to Rs 4,466 crore on 27.4% increase in net revenue to Rs 15,976 crore in Q2 September 2022 over Q2 September 2021. Total FMCG segment revenue increased 22% YoY to Rs 11839 crore during the period under review. In the FMCG segment, cigarettes revenue rose by 23% YoY to Rs 6954 crore while the revenue from other FMCG segment improved by 21% YoY to Rs 4885 crore during the quarter.

Hotel business revenue stood at Rs 536 crore (up 82% YoY), agri-business revenue was at Rs 3997 crore (up 44% YoY) and paperboards, paper & packaging revenues were at Rs 2288 crore (up 25% YoY) in the second quarter of FY23.

Tata Consumer Products declined 0.95%. The FMCG major`s group consolidated net profit surged 36.26% to Rs 389.43 crore on 10.88% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 3,363.05 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22. The increase in the group net profit was mainly aided by the revenue growth in both branded and non-branded business, partly offset by margin decline due to inflation and weakness of GBP for International markets and higher exceptional income on account of sale of land in Tata Coffee.

Global Markets:

European stocks tumbled across the board while most of the Asian stocks declined on Friday as investors await inflation data from several economies.

US stocks ended the session lower on Thursday after investors weighed generally upbeat earnings against the prospect that the Federal Reserve could hold firm on its aggressive policy for longer than they had hoped.

Remarks from Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker suggested the central bank will "keep raising rates for a while".

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday, bringing to a close a brief 44-day tenure mired by �mini-budget� chaos, economic turmoil and political infighting. Truss said she will remain in place as caretaker prime minister until a successor is named, with a leadership contest expected to take place over the next week. Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and even former Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among the likely frontrunners to replace Truss.

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