Share markets in India are presently trading on a negative note.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 381 points, down 0.7%, at 52,179 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 108 points

Divi's Lab and SBI Life are among the top gainers today. Dr Reddy's and Axis Bank are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.4%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.7%.

On the sectoral front, barring stocks from the telecom sector and FMCG sector, all sectors are trading in the red.

Stocks from the banking sector are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

US stock futures are trading lower today, indicating a negative opening for Wall Street.

Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 10 points (down 0.1%) while Dow Futures are trading down by 67 points (down 0.2%).

The rupee is trading at 74.37 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up 0.1% at Rs 47,616 per 10 grams.

In global markets, gold prices were steady at around US$ 1,800 per ounce ahead of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve meeting.

Following a positive trend in international spot prices, gold prices were trading marginally higher in domestic markets today.

On MCX, gold futures were trading 0.2% higher at Rs 47,676 per 10 grams in early trade.

Speaking of the precious yellow metal, how lucrative has gold been as a long-term investment in India?

The chart below shows the annual returns on gold over the last 15 years...

As you can see, barring just two years - 2013 and 2015, gold has delivered positive returns in 13 of the last 15 years.

The recent price volatility in the bullion market has rattled many traders. Even with the recent volatility in prices, gold remains among the best-performing commodities this year to combat the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is IndusInd Bank.

Shares of IndusInd Bank gained over 1% in an otherwise weak market as the company's net profit doubled to Rs 10.2 bn for the June 2021 quarter.

The rise in net profit was due to an increase in net interest income, higher fee income, and a fall in provisions despite a rise in non-performing assets (NPAs). The bank's net interest income (NII) rose by 8% year on year (YoY) to Rs 35.6 bn while other income including fees and commissions increased by 18% YoY to Rs 17.9 bn.

IndusInd's NPAs rose during the quarter with gross NPAs at 2.88%, up from 2.67% in the March 2021 quarter and 2.53% a year earlier.

Total slippages came in at Rs 27.6 bn (Rs 10.6 bn from the vehicle finance and Rs 6.8 bn from microfinance) on account of the impact of localized lockdowns during the quarter.

Total provisions for NPAs and credit and losses at Rs 18.4 bn included Rs 10.7 bn to cover for NPAs and Rs 5.1 bn linked to the Covid pandemic. It was lower than the Rs 22.5 bn the bank had set aside a year earlier.

The bank's CEO, Sumant Kathpalia has set an ambitious target of 16-18% credit growth for the bank for the financial year 2022 as he expects a recovery in the bank's core areas namely, vehicle finance, microfinance and diamond financing business.

This is despite a slow 6% YoY growth in the first quarter.

Mr. Kathpalia said,

• 49% of our book is where we have domain specialization. We are expecting medium and heavy commercial vehicles to take off from September.
  
  Microfinance collections are on the path to recovery and our diamond book is still very pristine. These are the businesses where we have domain expertise and hence can, in terms of pricing, collections, and customer loyalty.

How the bank performs in the next quarter remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

At the time of writing, IndusInd Bank shares were trading up by 1.6% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the platform business space...

Zomato Shares Fall for Second Consecutive Session

Food delivery unicorn Zomato's shares fell nearly 6% on the exchanges in early trade today for the second consecutive day after registering solid gains during the earlier two consecutive sessions.

The online food delivery giant's shares had surged as much as 13% on the BSE on Monday, 26 July 2021, hitting an intraday high of Rs 143 per share after a bumper listing on 23 July.

The scrip was also up over 3% in early trade on Tuesday, 27 July but fell later due to overall market weakness.

Zomato made a stellar debut on bourses on July 23, listing at Rs 116 on the NSE, garnering a 52.6% premium over its issue price of Rs 76 per share. On BSE, the unicorn got listed at Rs 115, a premium of 51.3%.

The Rs 93.8 bn initial public offering (IPO) of Zomato witnessed strong interest from investors as the issue was subscribed 38.3 times. The offer received bids for 27.5 bn equity shares against the IPO size of 719 m equity shares.

Analysts believe the company has certain positivities such as an asset-light scalable business model, expanded target market post the pandemic, first-mover advantage in the food delivery business, etc.

But its operations in an almost duopoly market may attract regulatory actions, which would be negative for the company.

Zomato is the first Indian unicorn to go public and will be followed by other startups including PayTm, Policy Bazaar, among others.

We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.