Asian markets traded higher following overnight gains on Wall Street.

The Nikkei index was trading 0.3% higher, while Hang Seng was trading marginally lower. Meanwhile, the Shanghai index tanked 0.9%.

US stocks advanced on Monday as market participants looked ahead to this week's slew of megacap earnings, economic data, and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting.

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

Data Source: Equitymaster

At present, the BSE Sensex is down 123 points and NSE Nifty is trading flat.

ONGC, HUL and BPCL are among the top gainers today.

Bajaj Finance, Coal India and Bajaj Finserv on the other hand are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on mixed. The BSE Mid Cap is trading 0.2% higher and the BSE Small Cap index is trading 0.5% higher.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed, with socks in the realty sector, IT sector, and oil & gas sector witnessing the most buying. Meanwhile, stocks in the power sector and consumer durables sector witnessed selling pressure.

The rupee is trading at Rs 83.14 against the US dollar.

In commodity markets, gold prices are trading 0.1% higher at Rs 62,440 per 10 grams today.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading flat at Rs 72,376 per 1 kg.
 

GAIL Q3 Results

GAIL (India) on 29 January reported a multi-fold increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 31.9 billion (bn) in the third quarter of the financial year 2023-24 amid softening in liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices from last year.

The consolidated net profit of the country's largest gas distributor was Rs 3.9 bn in the same period last year. Sequentially, net profit increased 31% from Rs 24.4 bn in the quarter ending September 2023.

In 2022, GAIL had to cut down supplies to its customers after supply disruptions from Russia's Gazprom and was forced to buy expensive LNG from the short-term market.

Supply from Germany's SEFE (renamed by the German government after Russia relinquished ownership of Gazprom) was resumed in March 2023.

Revenue from operations came in at Rs 347.7 bn in the quarter ending 31 December, a marginal decline from Rs 359.4 bn in the year-ago period.

He further stated that the company has incurred capital expenditure of Rs 6,583 crore during the period from April'23 to December'23, mainly on pipelines, petrochemicals, equity to JVs, etc.

The board of directors declared an interim dividend of 55% for FY 2023-24 i.e. Rs 5.5 per equity share.

During the quarter, the average natural gas transmission volume stood at 121.54 MMSCMD (million metric standard cubic meters per day) against 120.31 MMSCMD in Q2 FY24.

A transition from grey to green hydrogen is happening at a faster pace than expected.GAIL is one of the companies contributing to this transition. 
 

ITC Q3 Profit Rises 11%

ITC Ltd reported a standalone net profit of Rs 55.7 bn for the December quarter of FY24, registering a growth of 11% from Rs 50.3 bn in the same quarter of the previous financial year.

Sequentially, the net profit rose 13% from Rs 49.3 bn in the September quarter.

The company announced a 6.5% increase in its consolidated net profit, reaching Rs 54 bn for the quarter ending in December.

Total revenue from operations of the company rose 2% on a year-on-year basis at Rs 176.5 bn from Rs 172.7 bn, the company said in a regulatory filing on 29 January. The consolidated revenue was up 2.4% at Rs 194.8 bn.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter were at Rs 60.2 bn down 3.2%. EBITDA margin was at 36.6% and fell by 1.8% YoY.

The cigarettes-to-hotel conglomerate also announced an interim dividend of Rs 6.25 per share for the financial year 2023-2024. The board fixed the record date for the same on 8 February.

The company had a resilient performance in the FMCG - Others segment despite subdued demand conditions, with a YoY increase of 7.6% in segment revenue and a 2-year CAGR of 12.8%.

In the cigarette segment, consolidation occurred on a high base following sustained growth momentum.

The hotels segment witnessed its best-ever quarter, with segment revenue and PBIT increasing by 18% and 57% YoY, respectively.

The Paperboards, Paper, and Packaging segment continued to be impacted by low-priced Chinese supplies, muted domestic demand, a surge in wood cost, and a high base effect.

ITC is one of the best dividend-paying stocks.

Apart from that, we also covered an editorial a couple of months ago explaining why the prospects for ITC look good.

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