Asian stocks fell after Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Stocks opened lower in Japan and South Korea, adding to weakness in Australia.

US stocks fell on Friday as more details over a global IT outage trickled in and the major averages failed to recover from a sell-off that saw the Dow snap a run of wins.

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

Source: Equitymaster

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading 100 points lower and NSE Nifty is trading 41 points lower.

BPCL, NTPC, and HDFC Bank are among the top gainers today.

Wipro, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank the other hand are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on a positive note. The BSE Midcap index is trading 04% higher and the BSE Smallcap index is trading marginally lower.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed today, with stocks in the metal sector and power sector witnessing the most buying. Meanwhile, stocks in the realty sector and IT sector witnessing selling pressure.

The rupee is trading at Rs 83.65 against the US dollar.

In commodity markets, gold prices are trading 0.1% higher at Rs 73,046 per 10 grams today.
 

ONGC acquires Equior stake

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has acquired Norwegian firm Equinor's stake in an Azerbaijan oilfield and an associated pipeline for US$ 60 million (m).

The acquisitions, expected to be completed in the upcoming months, involve a total investment of up to US$ 60 m.

OVL currently has a 2.3% stake in the ACG field and 2.4% in the BTC pipeline. The buyout of Equinor will help raise its stake.

Equinor, in December last year, announced an agreement to sell all its remaining assets in Azerbaijan to SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic).

The assets comprised a 7.3% non-operated interest in the Azeri Chirag Gunashli oil fields in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, 8.7% interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, and 50% in the Karabakh field.

SOCAR already held a 25% stake in ACG, a 25% stake in BTC via Azerbaijan BTC Limited, and 50% in Karabakh.

It is not clear how Eqinor, which had agreed to sell all of its stake to SOCAR, ended up selling a 0.615 percent stake in the oilfield and a 0.7% stake in the pipeline. The statement made no mention of this.

Originally, OVL acquired a 2.7% stake in ACG in March 2013.

Yes Bank Q1 Results

Private sector lender YES Bank's net profit rose by 46.7% to Rs 5 bn during the first quarter of FY25 (Q1 FY25) from Rs 3.4 bn in the previous corresponding period, owing to a healthy increase in net interest income and a sharp fall in provisions.

Sequentially, the Mumbai-based lender's profit rose by 11.2% from Rs 4.5 bn in the last quarter of FY24.

The bank's net interest income (NII) grew by 12.2% to Rs 22.4 bn in the reported quarter, compared to Rs 20 bn in the same quarter a year ago. Sequentially, NII rose by 4.2% from Rs 2,153 crore in Q4FY24.

Its provisions declined by 41.2% to Rs 2.1 bn in Q1 FY25, from Rs 3.6 bn in the year-ago period. Sequentially, provisions declined from Rs 4.7 bn in Q4 FY24.

The bank's net interest margin (NIM) slipped to 2.4% from 2.5% in Q1 of FY24. Sequentially, NIM was flat at 2.4% in Q4 of FY24.

Advances grew 14.7% Y-o-Y to Rs 2.3 tn at the end of June 2024, while sequentially, it was up 0.8%. Total deposits increased 20.8% Y-o-Y to Rs 2.7 tn.
 

HDFC Bank Q1 Results

HDFC Bank announced its April-June quarter results for fiscal 2024-25 (Q1FY25) on Saturday, July 20, reporting a drop of two percent in net profit at Rs 161.8 bn, compared to Rs 165.1 bn in the preceding January-March quarter of FY24.

India's leading private lender's net interest income (NII)-the difference between interest earned and paid-rose 2.6% sequentially to Rs 298.4 bn, compared to Rs 290.8 bn in the fourth quarter of FY24.

The gross non-performing asset (NPA) rose six percent sequentially to Rs 330 bn in the June quarter, compared to Rs 311.7 bn in the preceding March quarter. The gross NPA ratio jumped nine basis points sequentially, as it stood at 1.3% in Q1FY25 as against 1.2% in Q4FY24.

The net NPA rose 17.5% sequentially. It stood at Rs 95.1 bn in Q1FY25, as against Rs 80.9 bn in Q4FY24. The net NPA ratio increased by 6 basis points to 0.4%, as against 0.3% in the preceding March quarter.

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