2021 JULY FOURTH WEEK - STOCK MARKET NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Indian Stock Markets ended in Green this week as NIFTY closed at 15,856 and SENSEX closed at 52,975. Banks, IT & FMCG stocks were top performers.

1) Adani Ports: Ministry of State of Finance said that Adani companies are being investigated by SEBI for non-compliance.

2) Maruti Suzuki said it has tied up with the Bank of Maharashtra for offering inventory financing to its dealer partners.

3) Reliance: Bernstein Research in a report said that Reliance Industries’ plans to invest Rs 75,000 crore in solar, batteries, fuel cells and hydrogen could create a valuation of Rs 2.6 lakh crore for the new energy business.

4) L&T: Larsen & Toubro has secured five projects under its construction, building and factories segment.

5) Cipla board allotted 45,704 equity shares under the ESOP Scheme.

6) Bajaj Finance: The net profit of Bajaj Finance was reported at Rs 843 crores for the April to June quarter. This is a 3% fall from the same quarter last year.

Net Interest Income (NII) increased by 6% to Rs 4, 153 crores.

Assets under management (AUM) was up 12% to Rs 1.19 lakh crore as of 30 June 2021 from Rs 1.06 lakh crores as of 30 June 2020. Loan losses and provisions rose to Rs 1,724 crores in the quarter from Rs 1,641 crores.

The share price of the company was down 1.22% to Rs 5,941.85 per share. The results were declared when the markets closed.

7) Asian Paints recorded consolidated net profit growth of 160.2% year on year. The net profit after minority interest stood at Rs. 568.50 crores as compared to Rs. 218.45 crore in June 2020.

Revenue from operations jumped by 91.1% to Rs 5,585.36 crores from Rs. 2,922.66 crores in the June quarter of the previous year. The share price of the company was up by 5.94% to Rs. 3,159.05 per share. The results were declared around 2 PM.

8)  Hero MotoCorp launched a new bike called ‘Glamour Xtec’ with some ‘first-in-segment' features like bluetooth connectivity, turn-by-turn navigation, an Integrated USB charger and an LED headlamp.

9) Tata Motors: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala reduced his stake in Tata Motors from 1.29% to 1.14% in the June quarter.

Tata Motors rolled out 10,000th Safari SUV within 5 months of its launch.

10) Infosys: Parliament was informed that Infosys has acknowledged the technical glitches in the new income tax portal and it has mitigated some of the initial issues such as the slow functioning of the portal.

Infosys has reopened offices after a long period of work from home because of the pandemic.

11)  ICICI Bank announced the launch of a new co-branded credit card with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).

12) Wipro fully exited its investment in IntSights, a cyber threat intelligence service provider, for USD 19.17 million.

13) Bajaj Auto: The net profit of Bajaj Auto during the April to June quarter was Rs 1,061 crores. This is a 101% jump from a net profit of Rs 528 crores during the same quarter last year.

Revenue from operation was up almost 140% to Rs 7,386 crores. Net profit fell 20% when compared to the January to March quarter in 2021 and revenue fell 14% during this time frame.

The company sold 10.06 lakh vehicles (including exports and imports of all categories) during the quarter. It had sold 11.69 lakh during the January to March quarter in 2021 and 4.43 lakh vehicles during Q1FY21.

The share price of the company fell 1.34% to Rs 3,853.2 per share.

14) Hindustan Unilever (HUL): The net profit of HUL rose 10% to Rs 2,061 crores.

Revenue from operations rose 13% to Rs 11,915 crores.

Segment Revenue Growth:

Home care segment – a growth of 12%

Beauty and personal care segment – a growth of 13%

Foods and refreshments segment – a growth of 12%

The share price of the company was down 2.33% to Rs 2,378.15 per share.

15) UltraTech Cement

The net profit of the company rose 108.6% to Rs 1,681 crores during the April to June quarter from the same quarter last year. Net sales growth was up 35.6% to Rs 11,327 crores.

The share price of the company was up 0.46% to Rs 7459 per share.

16) HCL Technologies received the 2020 Google Cloud “Specialisation Partner of the Year” for infrastructure award.

17) SC rejects Vi, Airtel appeal in AGR issue

The Supreme Court of India has rejected the appeal by Vodafone-Idea (Vi), Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices in the AGR issue.

[AGR stands for annual gross revenue and as the name suggests, telecom operators are required to share a percentage of their AGR as spectrum license fee and spectrum usage charges. The dispute between the department of telecom and the telecom companies was mainly on the definition of AGR.]

The companies had appealed for a correction in the calculation of their respective AGR dues.

The telecom operators are required to pay almost Rs 1.3 lakh crores which includes the said charges, including interest, and penalties.

While Vodafone sought arithmetic errors, Airtel had claimed unaccounted payments, duplication of amount and other such errors.

Bharti Airtel owes over Rs 43,000 crore as AGR dues, while Vodafone-Idea has a balance payment of more than Rs 57,000 crores according to various reports. Vi had self-assessed its dues at Rs 21,533 crores and Airtel at Rs 13,003 crores.

18) Zomato stock  lists at 52% premium:

Zomato listed at Rs 116 per share on the NSE which is a 52.63% premium to its issue price of Rs 76 per share. On the BSE, it listed at Rs 115 per share, a 51.32% premium.

It ended 65.79% higher at Rs 126 per share on the NSE.

The IPO was open for subscription between July 12 and 16, 2021. It was subscribed 38.25 times at the end of day 3 of bidding.

19) Yes Bank: The net profit of Yes Bank during the April to June quarter was Rs 207 crores. This is a 355.5% jump from a net profit of Rs 45 crores during the same quarter last year. The net interest income (NII) stood at Rs 1,402 crores. Asset quality of the bank worsened from last year.

Net NPA as a percentage of net advances was at 5.78% during the April to June quarter as compared to 4.96% from the same quarter last year. Increase in net NPA shows more loan defaults as a percentage of total loans that were given out by the bank.

The results were announced after the markets closed. The share price of the bank was up 0.38% to Rs 13.05 per share.

20) JSW Steel: The net profit of JSW Steel was at Rs. 5,900 crores during the April to June quarter.

The company has reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 582 crores during the same quarter last year.

Revenue from operations was up 145% to Rs 28,902 crores.

The results were declared after market hours. The share price ended 0.14% higher at Rs. 717.55.

21) Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.: Expanding the scope for FDI in privatization of BPCL, the union cabinet approved a proposal to allow 100% foreign direct investment in public sector refiners.

22) Britannia Industries plans to invest Rs 94 crore to expand its Odisha Unit.

23) Fineotex Chemical has entered into a joint venture with HealthGuard Australia to become the exclusive global marketing and sales channel partner with joint operations from Malaysia. With this tie-up, Fineotex will add to its portfolio the much-required metal-free safety for its customers around the world with all the required global certifications.

24) Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said it is recalling around 600 vehicles manufactured at its Nashik plant to inspect and replace faulty diesel engines.

25) Maruti Suzuki India said it has tied up with Bank of Maharashtra for offering inventory financing to its dealer partners. This is the first time that Bank of Maharashtra will be offering dealer inventory financing to the company's dealers, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) said.

26) HDFC Life Insurance saw a 40.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 269.55 crore. This was on the back of rise in reserves. New business margins (NBM) during the quarter saw an improvement on a sequential as well as YoY basis on the back of growth and balanced product mix. 

27) Indian Bank recorded a net profit of Rs.1,182 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2021, marking a 220 per cent increase from profit of Rs.369 crore seen in the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal. The bank saw its net profit decline 31 per cent sequentially in comparison to Rs.1,709 crore registered in the March quarter of FY21. Net Interest Income (NII), the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew 3 per cent to Rs.3,994 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs.3,874 crore.

28) Amazon urged the Supreme Court (SC) to restrain Kishore Biyanifounded Future Group from disposing of its assets to Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd.'s subsidiaries as a part of the Rs. 24,713 crore deal signed in August last year.

29) Motilal Oswal Private Equity (MOPE) is looking to raise a Rs 4,000 crore private equity fund from domestic and global investors, a top executive from the fund manager said. "We intend to invest in mid-market companies in financial services, consumer and pharma sectors," said Vishal Tulsyan, managing director & CEO.

30) Granules India Limited announced that Granules Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (GPI), a wholly owned foreign subsidiary of the company located in Chantilly, Virginia, USA had undergone a Pre-approval Inspection (PAI) audit by the US FDA from 21st June 2021 to 25th June 2021.

31) Sterling GTake E-mobility (SGEM) announced that it has received order worth Rs 60cr for motor control units (MCUs) from a leading 2W EV OEM. With the contract business commencing from Aug-2021, SGEM aims to emerge as the largest domestic supplier of MCUs by the end of 2021.

32) Bharti Airtel, and Intel announced a collaboration to develop 5G network by leveraging virtualized radio access network (vRAN) and open radio access network (O-RAN) technologies. The collaboration is part of Airtel’s 5G roadmap for India as it transforms its networks to allow its customers to reap the full possibilities of the hyper connected world where Industry 4.0 to cloud gaming and virtual / augmented reality become an everyday experience.

33) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will build the nation's first "green hydrogen" plant at its Mathura refinery, as it aims to prepare for a future catering to the growing demand for both oil and cleaner forms of energy. 

34) ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd reported 12.2% YoY fall in revenues in the Jun-21 quarter at Rs 16,724cr. While net premium incomes were higher, the income from investments were sharply lower on a yoy basis due to a sharp fall in the unit linked portfolio investment income due to fall in market value of securities. Overall revenues were still down. The company reported loss of Rs. 185.3cr as compared to Rs.286.86cr profit last year same period and expectation of Rs.260cr.

35) ICICI Securities reported 36.5% growth in total revenues for the Jun-21 quarter on consolidated basis at Rs 745.3cr on higher volumes and better yield realization overall.

 On a sequential basis, the revenues were flat +0.81% compared to Rs 739.3cr revenues reported in the Mar-21 quarter as COVID 2.0 took its toll on the sequential growth. 

While treasury income was lower yoy, the broking and distribution income was up 35% yoy. The issuer services business grew revenues by more than 100%, albeit on a much smaller base.

 The net profit for the quarter was 60.9% higher at Rs 310.7cr. Sharp profit boost was largely driven by a boost to EBITDA growth and the EBITDA margin of the broking and distribution business even as the issuer services vertical also gained from positive EBITDA traction.

36) The Union Cabinet approved Rs 6,322-crore production linked incentive scheme for specialty Steel, a move aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports from the sector, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said. He said that incentives worth Rs 6,322 crore will be provided over five years and it would create over 5.25 lakh jobs.

37) Apparel retailer Arvind Lifestyle Brands Limited (ALBL) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its value-fashion retail chain Unlimited to retailer V-Mart Retail Ltd., for an estimated Rs 150 crore in an all-cash transaction.

38) Sterlite Technologies will acquire Clearcomm Group, a leading Network Integration company in the UK, to further globalise its system integration business at an enterprise valuation of around Rs 160 crore.

39) Mutual Funds: According to AMFI data, more than 16% of the assets of the mutual fund industry came from B30 locations in June 2021. 

Assets from B30 locations increased from 5.33 lakh crore in May 2021 to 5.56 lakh crore in June 2021, representing an increase of 4%. 

Assets from B30 increased from 4.01 lakh crore in June 2020 to 5.56 lakh crore in June 2021, representing an increase of 39%.  Moreover, 70% of the assets from B30 locations are in equity schemes in June 2021. For T30 locations, equity oriented schemes accounted for 40% of assets in June 2021.

40) Cash Segment: Foreign Institutional & Domestic  Institutional Investors Activities

41) Brent Crude prices traded with high volatility and closed on a flat note on weekly basis US$ 73.6 /barrel. 42) Gold prices ended lower at $ 1798/ounce as compared to previous week’s closing price of $ 1815/ounce. 43) Bond yields ended higher at 6.16% as compared to previous week’s closing price of 6.13%.