Sensex, Nifty Flat; RIL, ITC Gain Almost 1% Post Results, ICICI Bank Weak

The domestic stock markets are flat in early trading, after rebounding from intra-day lows, on the back of negative global cues. Asian shares struggled to rally on Monday and SGX Nifty had opened in the red. At 9:20 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 53026.30,  higher by 48.77 points and the NSE Nifty was at 15,872, up 17.70 points.

Asian shares struggled to rally on Monday as super-strong US corporate earnings sucked funds out of emerging markets and into Wall Street, where records were falling almost daily. Japan's Nikkei bounced 1.6 per cent in early trade, but that was off a seven-month low. South Korea has fared somewhat better thanks to demand for tech stocks, but was little changed on Monday.

Stocks rallied to records on Wall Street on Friday; the Dow Jones closed above the 35,000 level for the first time as the market continued to roar back from its short-lived swoon at the start of the week. The S&P 500 index climbed 1 per cent to top its prior all-time high, set early last week. The Dow rose 0.7 per cent and the Nasdaq composite gained 1 per cent.

Among stocks in the news, Reliance Industries on Friday reported net profit of Rs 12,273 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2021, marking a decline of 7.25 per cent from the same quarter last year on the back of increase in total expenses. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate's revenue from operations advanced 58 per cent to Rs 1.44 lakh crore compared with Rs 91,238 crore in the year-ago period.

ICICI Bank reported a 78 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 4,616 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared to Rs 2,599 crore in the same quarter a year ago. The country's leading private sector lender's provisions - excluding provision for tax - declined sharply as it has changed its policy on non-performing loans in the quarter to make it more conservative.

On the earnings front, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, SBI Life Insurance Company and Vedanta will be among the major companies to declare their Q1 numbers during the day.

On the stock-specific front, ITC has gained more than 1 per cent to Rs 215 top the gainers list on the BSE post its Q1 results. Titan, Sun Pharma and Infosys are the other significant gainers in the Sensex pack.

On the othe hand, SBI, HDFC and Axis Bank have lost almost one per cent on the BSE. Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank have also lost around half a per cent post their Q1 numbers.

The BSE market breadth is strong. Out of 2,836 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1,643 advancing stocks as against 1,067 declines.