Sensex Trades Marginally Lower As IT Stocks Witness Selling; HDFC & Infosys Top Losers

Asian stock markets are lower today as investors' worries grew over the intensifying crisis in Ukraine.

The Nikkei dropped 1.1% while Australia's ASX fell 0.2%.

In US stock markets, all three Wall Street indices ended higher on Wednesday, rising for a fourth straight session after a turbulent start to the year, aided by upbeat earnings from Google-parent Alphabet and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices.

Meanwhile, Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc's shares plunged more than 20% late in the day as the social media company posted a weaker-than-expected forecast, blaming Apple's privacy changes and increased competition for users from rivals like TikTok.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% while the Nasdaq climbed 0.5%.

Back home, Indian share markets opened on a negative note following the trend on SGX Nifty.

Market participants are tracking shares of ITC, Adani Transmission, Titan, GAIL (India), and Godrej Properties as these companies will announce their December quarter results today.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 230 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 56 points.

Maruti Suzuki and Asian Paints are among the top gainers today. HDFC, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is down 0.3%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading on a flat note.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the IT sector and finance sector witnessing most of the selling.

Automobile stocks and realty stocks, on the other hand, are trading in green.

Shares of Deepak Fertilizers and Bharat Dynamics hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 74.87 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 47,991 per 10 grams. Gold is flat as US Treasury yields retreated after a dip in US jobs data.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 61,389 per kg.

Crude oil prices eased today following weak US payrolls data and some profit-taking but remained underpinned by tight supply as OPEC+ producers stuck to planned moderate output increases.

In news from the telecom sector, telecom companies are once again sparring with each other over how much of the spectrum identified for 5G by the government should be up for bidding.

On one side there is Airtel, which has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), asking for a substantial trimming of the amount of 5G spectrum.

However, telcos led by Reliance Jio said that the entire spectrum that has been identified should be auctioned. They argue that without a minimum of 100 MHz of spectrum in this band, which is the global norm, a 5G standalone network offering high-speed services as well low-latency offerings will not attract consumers.

How these developments pan out remains to be seen.

In news from the FMCG sector, Tata Consumer is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Tata Consumer on Wednesday reported a 22.2% jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 2.9 bn for the third quarter ended December 2021.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2.4 bn in the corresponding quarter last year.

The Kolkata based company's revenues registered a muted growth of 4.5% to Rs 32.1 bn.

Commenting on the performance, the company's MD and CEO Sunil D'Souza said:

We delivered strong performance with improved profitability in a challenging operating environment. Both tea and salt recorded market share gains.

Despite inflationary pressures, we delivered double-digit growth in Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for Q3 (third quarter).

With tea inflation tapering off, the company has seen a significant expansion in the Indian beverages margin.

The company said there has been a sequential recovery in revenue since the opening up after the second wave of Covid, but the third wave and inflation are posing some operational challenges.

Total expenses of the Tata group company stood at Rs 28.3%, near the same levels of last year.

Tata Consumer share price is currently trading up by 1.3%.

Speaking of Tata Consumer products, note that the company has become the most globalised company in the Tata Group with 70% of its revenues coming from international operations.

More people around the world drink Tata Tea than using Tata vehicles, Tata steel, or even TCS software!

Here's a look at how the company has performed on the stock market over the years.

Moving on to news from the tyre sector, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a collective penalty of over Rs 17.9 bn on five tyre companies for indulging in alleged cartelization.

The five tyre companies include Apollo Tyres, MRF, Ceat, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd and Birla Tyres.

The penalty stands at Rs 4.3 bn on Apollo Tyres, Rs 6.2 bn on MRF and Rs 2.5 bn on Ceat. While JK Tyre and Birla Tyres will have to pay penalties of Rs 3.1 bn and 1.8 bn, respectively.

The anti-monopoly watchdog has also imposed a penalty on the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) for indulging in cartelisation by acting in concert to increase the prices of cross-ply/bias tyres variants sold by each of them in the replacement market.

The CCI noted that the tyre manufacturers had exchanged price-sensitive data amongst them through the platform of their association ATMA and had taken collective decisions on the prices of tyres.

Following this news, shares of the five tyre manufacturers started with deep cuts today. Apollo Tyres, Ceat and Birla Tyres fell over 5% while the fall was marginal for MRF.

Disclosure: Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited (Research Analyst) bearing Registration No. INH000000537 (hereinafter referred as 'Equitymaster') is an independent equity research ...

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