Asian stocks climbed, with equity benchmarks in Japan rising after a holiday as a weaker yen is seen providing support for exporters.

MSCI's Asia-Pacific stock index traded at its highest level since Aug. 5, after it recovered from last week's rout.

US stocks declined marginally on Monday after opening higher as investors brace for a deluge of economic data including consumer price inflation.

Here's a table showing how US stocks performed on Monday:

Source: Equitymaster

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading 77 points lower and NSE Nifty is trading 11 points lower.

Cipla, Nestle, and ICICI Bank are among the top gainers today.

BPCL, Tata Motors, and HDFC Bank the other hand are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on positive. The BSE Midcap index is trading flat and the BSE Smallcap index is trading 0.4% higher.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed today, with stocks in the power sector and the FMCG sector witnessing buying speed. Meanwhile, stocks in the banking sector and financial sector witnessed selling pressure.

The rupee is trading at Rs 83.96 against the US dollar.

In commodity markets, gold prices are trading marginally lower at Rs 70,700 per 10 grams today.
 

IRFC Q1 Results

Shares of Indian Railways Finance Corporation Ltd. (IRFC) will be in focus on Tuesday after the company reported its June 2024 quarter results on Monday evening, which were mostly flat on a year-on-year basis.

The railway financier reported revenue of Rs 67.7 bn, which is a growth of 1.4% from the revenue of Rs 66.7 bn that it reported in the same quarter of last year.

IRFC's net profit too remained flat on a year-on-year basis, coming in at Rs 15.8 bn, compared to Rs 15.5 bn last year.

The state-run company is yet to disclose metrics on its asset quality.

IRFC's revenue and net profit remained flat on a year-on-year basis for the June quarter but while revenue was higher compared to the March quarter, the net profit declined.

IRFC had earlier declared a final dividend of Rs 0.7 per share and has fixed 22 August 2024, as the record date to determine the eligibility of shareholders.

IRFC and its peers like RVNL, IRCON, and RailTel were in focus earlier in the day after The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved eight projects of the Ministry of Railways with a total estimated cost of Rs 246.6 bn on Friday.

These projects are slated to be completed by the financial year 2030 - 2031.

The company is the financing arm of the Indian Railways. It's a Government of India enterprise under the Ministry of Railways.

Wipro's Leadership Exodus Continues

Wipro, one of India's leading IT companies, has announced the resignation of its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Subha Tatavarti. According to an exchange filing, Tatavarti will step down from her role at the close of business hours on 16 August 2024 to explore opportunities outside the company.

Tatavarti joined Wipro in March 2021, bringing a wealth of experience from her previous role at Walmart, where she played a pivotal role in leading product, technology development, and commercialisation of enterprise infrastructure, including key areas such as security, data science, and edge platforms.

Tatavarti's resignation follows a series of high-profile exits from Wipro this year.

In May, the company's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Amit Choudhary resigned, citing a desire to pursue opportunities outside the organisation.
 

Hindustan Copper Q1 Revenue Jumps 33%

State-run Hindustan Copper Ltd., in which the government holds a 66.1% stake at the end of the June quarter reported quarterly earnings for the April-June period to which the stock will react on Tuesday.

For the June quarter, Hindustan Copper's net profit surged to Rs 1.1 bn from Rs 470 m last year. This is despite higher employee expenses, power and fuel costs and lower other income.

The bottom line was aided by an increase in revenue, which grew by 33% from the same period last year to Rs 4.9 bn.

However, on a sequential basis, revenue and net profit are down from levels of Rs 5.7 bn and Rs 1.2 bn respectively.

Hindustan Copper's Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) increased to Rs 1.9 bn from RS 832 m. The EBITDA figure was also down from Rs 2.1 bn that the company reported in the March quarter.

EBITDA margin expanded to 38.2% from 22.4% last year and 36.8% in the March quarter.

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