Stock Market Today: All You Need To Know Going Into Trade On Oct. 20

(Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash)

Asian markets fell as volatility gripped Wall Street with traders looking wary of a potential escalation of the Middle East conflict, while weighing Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's remarks for clues on the policy outlook.

Shares in Australia, South Korea and Japan fell. Contracts for Hong Kong suggested a flat open.

After multiple twists and turns on Thursday, the S&P 500 notched its third straight loss, weighed by disappointing Tesla Inc. earnings. Early Asian trading for U.S. share futures slipped while the dollar edged higher.

Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year U.S. bond was trading at 4.98% and Bitcoin was above 28,000-level. Brent crude was trading below $93 a barrel, whereas WTI Crude was above $90-mark.

At 5:55 a.m., the GIFT Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50 Index's performance in India was down 5 points of 0.03% at 19,606.

India's benchmark stock indices declined on Thursday before paring some losses to close lower for the second consecutive day. The metals and energy sectors declined, whereas auto and consumer durables advanced. Nifty ended below the 19,700 level, whereas Sensex closed below the 65,700 mark. The indices closed at the lowest level since Oct. 9.

Overseas investors became net sellers of Indian equities on Thursday. Foreign portfolio investors offloaded stocks worth Rs 1,093.5 crore, while domestic institutional investors turned net buyers and mopped up equities worth Rs 736.2 crore, the NSE data showed.

The Indian rupee strengthened 3 paise to close at 83.24 against the U.S. dollar on Thursday.

Stocks To Watch: Tata Motors, Grasim, Tata Steel, Piramal Enterprises, Cyient, RVNL, Tejas Networks, Gati In Focus

Grasim Industries: The company received a Rs 141 crore demand notice from the Rajasthan Stamps Collector for non-payment of stamp duty on a scheme of arrangement between Indian Rayon and the company from FY1999.
Indoco Remedies: A U.S. FDA inspection at the company's Solid Oral Formulation facility ended with four observations. The U.S. FDA conducted a pre-approval inspection at the Goa facility from Oct. 12 to 18.
Cyient: The company approved the merger of wholly-owned arms Citec Engineering and Cyient Insights. The board also approved an interim dividend of Rs 12 per share.
Natco Pharma: U.S. FDA inspection at Natco Pharma's Hyderabad facility ended with eight observations. Inspections were conducted between Oct. 9 to 18.
Tata Steel: NCLT approves the merger of Tata Steel and Tata Steel Long Products. Tata Steel is also set to acquire a 26% stake in unit TP Vardhaman Surya for Rs 1.3 lakh.
RVNL: RVNL JV gets a Rs 174.27 crore contract from the Vadodara Division of Western Railway for civil engineering works in Gujarat. The project is to be executed in 24 months.
Gulf Oil: The company and S-Oil Seven inked a pact to expand business in India. In this partnership, Gulf Oil will oversee the production, distribution, and promotion of OEMs like the KIA India dealer network. Gulf also has the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute the S-OIL SEVEN range throughout its network.
Gati: Registrar of Companies approves the name change of Gati to Allcargo Gati, effective Oct. 19.
Tejas Networks: The company received an order worth Rs 107.73 crore from TCS to supply equipment for BSNL's Pan-India 4G and 5G networks.
Tata Motors: The company signed a Securities Subscription Agreement for acquiring a 26.79% stake in Freight Tiger for Rs 150 crore. SSA includes provisions allowing the company to invest an additional Rs 100 crore over the next two years.
Elecon Engineering: The company got an order for supply and supervision of a pipe conveyor system from Arcelormittal Nippon Steel India worth Rs 51.41 crore.
Vakrangee: The company has partnered with Karnataka Bank Ltd. to provide BC Banking services from Vakrangee Kendra outlets across Pan India.
Piramal Enterprises: Company's board will meet on Oct. 24 to consider and approve the issuance of non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis.
CCL Products: NCLT has sanctioned the scheme of arrangement between Continental Coffee Pvt. (the demerged company) and CCL Products (India) (the resulting company).
PTC India: The board approved the sale of unit PTC Energy to ONGC for Rs 925 crore.

IPO Offerings

IRM Energy: The IPO was subscribed to 4.37 times on day two. The bids were led by non-institutional investors (9.09 times), retail investors (4.36 times), institutional investors (1.18 times), and a portion reserved for employees (0.94 times or 94%).

Earnings Post Market Hours

ITC Q2 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue up 3.55% at Rs 17,774.45 crore vs. Rs 17,107.99 crore.
Ebitda is up 3.11% at Rs 6,454.22 crore vs. Rs 6,259.1 crore.
Margin at 36.31% vs. 36.58%, down 27 bps
Net profit is up 6.11% at Rs 4,955.9 crore vs. Rs 4,670.32 crore.

HUL Q2 FY24 (Consolidated figures, YoY)

Revenue up 3% at Rs 15,623 crore vs. Rs 15,144 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 15,597.48 crore).
Ebitda rises 9% to Rs 3,797 crore vs. Rs 3,249 crore (Estimate: Rs 3,619.88 crore).
Margin at 24.3% vs. 23% (Estimate: 23.2%)
Net profit is flat at Rs 2,657 crore vs. Rs 2,670 crore (Estimate: Rs 2,603.92 crore).

Jindal Stainless Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue up 11.95% at Rs 9,797.04 crore vs. Rs 8,750.86 crore.
Ebitda is up 79.72% at Rs 1,230.57 crore vs. Rs 684.71 crore.
Margin at 12.56% vs. 7.82%
Net profit is up 120.16% at Rs 764.03 crore vs. Rs 347.02 crore.

Cyient Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, QoQ)

Revenue up 5.45% at Rs 1,778.5 crore vs. Rs 1,686.5 crore.
EBIT is up 4.83% at Rs 260 crore vs. Rs 248 crore.
Margin at 14.61% vs. 14.7%
Net profit is up 8.57% at Rs 183.6 crore vs. Rs 169.1 crore.

Kirloskar Pneumatic Q2 FY24 (YoY)

Revenue down 4.5% to Rs 281.92 crore vs. Rs 295.2 crore.
Ebitda is down 20.38% at Rs 31.66 crore vs. Rs 39.76 crore.
Margin at 11.23% vs. 13.46%
Net profit is down 25.83% to Rs 20.18 crore vs. Rs 27.21 crore.

HFCL Q2 FY24 (YoY)

Revenue down 10.51% at Rs 1,001.76 crore vs. Rs 1,119.35 crore.
Ebitda is down 24.71% at Rs 114.25 crore vs. Rs 151.74 crore.
Margin at 11.4% vs. 13.55%
Net profit is down 10.93% to Rs 67.55 crore vs. Rs 75.84 crore.

Ganesh Housing Corp. Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue down 50.15% to Rs 163.35 crore vs. Rs 327.67 crore.
Ebitda is up 54.23% at Rs 121.43 crore vs. Rs 78.73 crore.
Margin at 74.33% vs. 24.02%
Net profit is up 345.67% at Rs 86.01 crore vs. Rs 19.299 crore.

Accelya Solutions India (Consolidated, QoQ)

Revenue up 3.91% at Rs 127.29 crore vs. Rs 122.5 crore.
EBIT is down 0.3% at Rs 40.63 crore vs. Rs 40.75 crore.
Margin at 31.91% vs. 33.26%
Net profit is down 1.8% to Rs 31.53 crore vs. Rs 32.11 crore.

Tanla Platform Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, QoQ)

Revenue up 10.69% at Rs 1,008.59 crore vs. Rs 911.11 crore.
EBIT is up 5.07% at Rs 174.19 crore vs. Rs 165.77 crore.
Margin at 17.27% vs. 18.19%
Net profit is up 5.27% at Rs 142.54 crore vs. Rs 135.4 crore.

Updater Services Q1 FY24 (Consolidated, QoQ)

Revenue up 0.83% at Rs 576.44 crore vs. Rs 571.68 crore.
EBIT is up 11.07% at Rs 19.25 crore vs. Rs 17.32 crore.
Margin at 3.33% vs. 3.02%
Net profit is up 28.26% at Rs 12.39 crore vs. Rs 9.66 crore.

Havells India Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue up 6% at Rs 3,900.33 crore vs. Rs 3,679.49 crore.
Ebitda is up 30.15% at Rs 373.35 crore vs. Rs 286.85 crore.
Margin at 9.57% vs. 7.79%
Net profit is up 33.19% at Rs 249.08 crore vs. Rs 187.01 crore.

Hatsun Agro Product Q2 FY24 (YoY)

Revenue up 9.02% at Rs 1,905.4 crore vs. Rs 1,747.72 crore.
Ebitda is up 23.81% at Rs 218.8 crore vs. Rs 176.71 crore.
Margin at 11.48% vs. 10.11%
Net profit is up 82.6% at Rs 77.57 crore vs. Rs 42.48 crore.

Sagar Cements Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue up 23.65% at Rs 586.82 crore vs. Rs 474.55 crore.
Ebitda at Rs 60.22 crore vs. Rs 2.41 crore
Margin at 10.26% vs. 0.5%
Net loss for the period at Rs 10.53 crore vs. loss of Rs 43.53 crore.

Tata Coffee Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue down 3.11% at Rs 695.95 crore vs. Rs 718.26 crore.
Ebitda is up 24.39% at Rs 102.09 crore vs. Rs 82.07 crore.
Margin at 14.66% vs. 11.42%
Net profit for the period was down 56.64% to Rs 63.7 crore vs. Rs 146.93 crore.

Note: PAT is down due to an exceptional gain of Rs 136.7 crore in Q2 FY23.

Tata Communications Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, QoQ)

Revenue up 2.11% at Rs 4,872.5 crore vs Rs 4,771.36 crore.
EBIT is down 7.65% at Rs 410.33 crore vs. Rs 444.29 crore.
Margin at 8.42% vs. 9.31%
Net profit for the period was down 42.04% to Rs 221.26 crore vs. Rs 381.75 crore.

Metro Brands Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue up 16.66% at Rs 555.7 crore vs. Rs 476.31 crore.
Ebitda is up 12.38% at Rs 165.37 crore vs. Rs 147.15 crore.
Margin at 29.75% vs. 30.89%
Net profit for the period was down 13.18% to Rs 67.62 crore vs. Rs 77.89 crore.

Equitas Small Finance Bank Q2 FY24

Net profit for the period was Rs 198.13 crore vs. Rs 116.42 crore, up 70% YoY.
NII at Rs 765.59 crore vs. Rs 609.69 crore, up 26% YoY.
Gross NPA at 2.27% vs. 2.75% QoQ
Net NPA at 0.97% vs. 1.18% QoQ
NIM drops 33 basis points to 8.43% QoQ.

United Breweries (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue up 14.13% at Rs 1,890.05 crore vs. Rs 1,682.31 crore.
Ebitda is down 16.02% at Rs 184.29 crore vs. Rs 219.42 crore.
Margin at 9.75% vs. 13.04%
Net profit is down 20.09% to Rs 107.17 crore vs. Rs 134.12 crore.

Agro Tech Foods Q2 FY24 (Consolidated, YoY)

Revenue down 14.97% at Rs 201.11 crore vs. Rs 236.5 crore.
Ebitda is down 18.12% at Rs 8.59 crore vs. Rs 10.49 crore.
Margin at 4.27% vs. 4.43%
Net profit for the period was down 37.87% to Rs 1.87 crore vs. Rs 3.01 crore.

Voltas Q2 FY24 Consolidated YoY

Revenue up 29.65% at Rs 2,292.75 crore vs. Rs 1,768.36 crore.
Ebitda down 30.32% to Rs 70.26 crore vs. Rs 100.84 crore.
Margin at 3.06% vs. 5.7%
Net profit for the period was Rs 35.65 crore vs. a loss of Rs 6.04 crore.

Earnings In Focus

JSW Steel, Hindustan Zinc, One 97 Communications, L&T Finance Holdings, Poonawalla Fincorp, CreditAccess Grameen, Kajaria Ceramics, ATUL, Tejas Networks, Century Textiles & Industries, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Authum Investment & Infrastructure, Elecon Engineering, KFin Technologies, CSB Bank, ICRA, Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances, Sasken Technologies, Tanfac Industries, PNB Gilts, Onward Technologies, Central Bank of India, JSW Energy, Justdial, Laurus Labs, Lloyds Engineering Works, CG Power and Industrial Solutions.

Bulk Deals

DCW: APMS Investment sold while Eriska Investment Fund bought 49.72 lakh shares (1.68%) for Rs 56.25 apiece.
Kiri Industries: APMS Investment sold, while Eriska Investment Fund bought 11.40 lakh shares (2.19%) for Rs 270.25 apiece.

Insider Trades

Som Distilleries: Promoter Deepak Arora purchased 20,000 shares on Oct. 19.

Pledge Share Details

Emami: Promoters Suraj Finvest and Diwakar Finvest revoked pledge of 8.22 lakh and 11 lakh respectively on Oct. 16 and 17.

Trading Tweaks

Price band revised from 10% to 5%: Nucleus Software Exports.
Price band revised from 20% to 10%: Jai Corp.
Move in to short term ASM framework: Polo Queen Industrial and Fintech.
Move out of short term ASM framework: Infibeam Avenues, NIIT, Sasken Technologies.

Who's Meeting Whom

Welspun India: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 25.
IHCL: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 27.
Pricol: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 9.
Prudent Corporate Advisory: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 27.
Muthoot Capital: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 30.
Coromandel International: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 27.
TTK Prestige: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 30.
Radico Khaitan: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 25.
Clean Science & Technology: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 2.
Escorts Kubota: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 3.
SBI Cards: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 27.
Ajanta Pharma: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 31.
Aptus Value Housing Finance: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 3.
Kirloskar Pneumatic: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 20.
Sandhar Technologies: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 10.
Dreamfolks Services: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 25.
Berger Paints: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 2.
SIS: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 31.
Jubliant FoodWorks: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 25.
Home First Finance: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 27.
Som Distilleries: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 25.
Dixon Technologies: To meet analysts and investors on Oct. 26.
Sanghvi Movers: To meet analysts and investors on Nov. 8.

F&O Cues

Nifty October futures fell 0.34% at 19,616.10, at a discount of 8.6 points.
Nifty October futures open interest fell by 3.06% by 5,650 shares.
Nifty Bank October futures fell 0.48% to 43,842.00, at a premium of 87.5 points.
Nifty Bank October futures open interest fell 10.24% by 18,383 shares.
Nifty Bank Options Oct 26 Expiry: Maximum call open interest at 46,000 and Maximum put open interest at 42,000.
Nifty Options Oct 26 Expiry: Maximum call open interest at 19,800 and Maximum put open interest at 19,500.
Securities in the ban period: Balrampur Chini Mills, Delta Corp, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals, India Bulls Housing Finance, India Cements, Mannapuram Finance, MCX.

Money Market Update

The Indian rupee strengthened 3 paise to close at 83.24 against the U.S dollar on Thursday. Intraday, the local currency touched its lowest-ever level against the U.S. Dollar at 83.29.