The domestic equity benchmarks continued to trade with strong gains, near the day's high, in afternoon trade. The Nifty continued to hold above the 17,950 mark. IT, financials and auto stocks led the charge while realty, FMCG and metal shares lagged behind.
At 13:34 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 666.38 points or 1.11% to 60,626.23. The Nifty 50 index gained 183.90 points or 1.03% to 17,970.70.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.89% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.41%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,853 shares rose and 1,625 shares fell. A total of 156 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
India's forex reserves dropped by $3.847 billion to $524.52 billion for the week ended October 21, the RBI said on Friday. The overall reserves had dropped by $4.50 billion to $528.37 billion in the previous reporting week, and have been declining for many months now. In October 2021, the country's forex kitty had reached an all-time high of $645 billion.
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The reserves have been declining as the central bank deploys the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments. Foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, saw a drop of $3.593 billion to $465.075 billion during the week to October 21, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI on Friday.
Stocks in Spotlight:
NTPC slipped 2.21%. The power producer reported consolidated net profit of Rs 3417.67 crore in Q2FY23 from net profit of Rs 3690.95 crore reported in Q2FY22. Total income rose to Rs 44681.50 crore during Q2FY23 against Rs 33095.67 crore recorded in Q2FY22.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fell 0.37%. The company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 910.21 crore in Q2FY23 from net profit of Rs 6,235.39 crore reported in Q2FY22. Total income rose to Rs 2,33,800.98 crore during Q2FY23 against Rs 1,72,646.31 crore recorded in Q2FY22.
Vedanta declined 1.67%. On consolidated basis, Vedanta's net profit declined 53.71% to Rs 2,690 crore despite of 20.6% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 36,237 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22. The mining company said that the increase in revenue was supported by higher sales volume, strategic hedging gains and foreign exchange gains; partially offset by lower commodity prices.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories shed 0.96%. The drug maker reported 12% growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 11,128 crore in Q2 FY23 as compared with a PAT of Rs 9,920 crore recorded in the same period last year. Revenues improved by 9% YoY to Rs 63,057 crore in the second quarter. The company had posted a revenue of Rs 57,632 crore in the same period last year.
Global markets:
Shares in Europe opened higher while most of the Asian markets edged higher on Monday as investors digest the European Central Bank's decision to raise its interest rate by 75 basis points.
Investors will be watching for the latest inflation figures from the euro zone for October, as well as third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data.
Meanwhile, China's factory activity shrank in October compared with September, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index print came in at 49.2, missing expectations for a reading of 50. In September, the PMI reading stood at 50.1. China's official non-manufacturing PMI came in at 48.7, compared with a print of 50.6 in September.
A robust, broad-based rally sent the Wall Street to a sharply higher close on Friday as encouraging economic data and a sunnier earnings outlook fueled investor risk appetite ahead of next week's much-anticipated two-day policy meeting of the Federal Reserve.
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