After starting the session on a firm note, the Indian share market continued its momentum throughout the session and ended higher.

Benchmark indices remained immune to weak global cues as strong corporate earnings and renewed FII buying lifted sentiment. Wall Street indices had ended in red overnight.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 375 points (up 0.6%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 133 points (up 0.7%).

Adani Enterprises, Divis Laboratories, and NTPC were among the top gainers today.

Axis Bank, Eicher Motors, and Reliance, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 18,242, up by 182 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets ended on a positive note. The BSE Midcap inched higher by 1% and the BSE SmallCap index ended 0.3% higher.

Barring the banking sector, all sectoral indices ended in green with stocks in the power sector, healthcare sector, IT sector, and realty sector witnessing the most buying.

Among the best pharma stocks, Divi's Lab and Natco Pharma surged over 5% today.

Continuing the downtrend, Intellect Design's share price fell today post weak Q2 results.

Shares of NTPC, Sun Pharma, and Torrent Pharma hit their 52-week high today.

Outside the home ground, Asian share markets ended on a strong note.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei ended up inched higher by 0.3%, while the Hang Seng ended up by 5.2%. The Shanghai Composite ended 2.6% higher.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note with Dow futures trading higher by 0.6%.

The rupee is trading at 82.7 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading higher by 0.5% at Rs 50,322 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 2.8% at Rs 57,678 per kg.
 

Bajaj Auto logs lower sales in October 2022

In news from the auto sector, Bajaj Auto was among the top buzzing stocks.

Bajaj Auto reported a 10% decline in total sales for October 2022. The sales figure came in at 395,238 units, down from 439,615 reported in the same month last year.

The domestic sales rose 11% YoY to 242,917 units in October as against 218,565 units in October 2021.

However, domestic two-wheeler sales grew 4% at 206,131 units compared to 198,738 a year ago. On the other hand, two-wheeler exports declined 29 percent to 135,772 units.

On the overall basis, the domestic sales of commercial vehicles grew 86% at 36,786 units as compared to 19,827 units in the same month last year. The exports were down 42% at 16,549 units from 28,485 units in October 2021.

Bajaj Auto is an Indian multinational two and three-wheeler manufacturing company based in Pune.

Riding the century revolution of the electric vehicle (EV) megatrend, the company has invested more than Rs 10 bn in new EV units.

Note that the EV revolution has taken the auto sector by storm. All segments of the sector are ripe for disruption, and India's top EV stocks are set to benefit from this shift.

Take a look at the chart below, which shows the massive opportunity in two-wheeler EVs.

Bajaj Auto sold about 2,000 units of its electric two-wheeler Chetak during the December 2021 quarter and is among India's best 2-wheeler EV stocks.
 

Nykaa reports a 3-fold jump in Q2 profits

Moving on to the news from the retailing sector, reversing the downtrend for the past couple of sessions, shares of Nykaa jumped 3% today.

Nykaa's share price was falling but it has seen a sharp rally in the past few sessions.

The online fashion retailer Nykaa reported a 330% jump in second-quarter profits to Rs 52 m. The company reported a profit of Rs 10 m in the same quarter a year ago.

The revenue of the company rose 39% YoY to Rs 12.3 bn from Rs 8.8 bn in the corresponding quarter of the fiscal year.

Commenting on it, Managing Director, and CEO of Nykaa, Falguni Nayar, said,

Our online and offline presence in Beauty has delivered strong growth with improving margins. Consumer demand for premium beauty, personal care and wellness is showing signs of buoyancy as we gear up for a promising H2 FY23.
Digital marketing costs for the fashion business are slightly higher than during the covid period, resulting in marketing costs sustaining at Q2 FY22 levels.

The company's GMV demonstrated strong growth with the improvement in gross margin for the quarter. The EBITDA margin of the company also saw an improvement due to a reduction in the marketing cost of the company.

Further, Nykaa has increased its physical store count to 124 stores, including two new fashion stores.
 

Punjab National Bank Q2 profit declines 63%

Moving on to the news from the banking sector, PNB's share price fell 5.7% today.

Private lender Punjab National Bank reported a 62.8% dip in the net profit to Rs 4.1 bn for the September quarter. The company reported a profit of Rs 11.1 bn in the year-ago period.

The total income in the September quarter increased to Rs 230 bn as against Rs 212.6 bn a year ago.

The net interest income grew by 30.2% to Rs 82.7 bn in the quarter under review from Rs 63.5 bn a year ago.

The gross non-performing assets declined to 10.5% from 13.4% earlier.

However, provisions for bad loans increased to Rs 35.6 bn for the quarter as against Rs 26.9 bn in the year-ago period.

With its substantially high NPA and low performance, it is amongst India's worst-performing banks on this all-important ratio.

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