Key market barometers reversed early gains and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade. The Nifty slipped below 11,600 level. At 11:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 54.14 points or 0.14% at 39,004.69. The Nifty 50 index was down 21.30 points or 0.18% at 11,582.80.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.27%. The Small-Cap index was down 0.03%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 957 shares rose and 1008 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged. In the Nifty, 17 stocks advances while 32 stocks declined. 1 stock was unchanged.
Shoppers Stop fell 2.47% to Rs 383.80. On a consolidated basis, the department store chain reported a net loss of Rs -8.18 crore in Q2 September 2019 over a net profit of Rs 11.85 crore in Q2 September 2018. Net sales fell 2.6% to Rs 866.48 crore in Q2 September 2019 over Q2 September 2018.
JK Paper rose 0.56% to Rs 125.60. On a consolidated basis, the paper manufacturer's net profit fell 2.7% to Rs 123.66 crore on a 10.9% rise in net sales to Rs 790.62 crore in Q2 September 2019 over Q2 September 2018.
Torrent Pharmaceuticals added 3.71% to trade at Rs 1743. On a consolidated basis, the pharma company's net profit rose 36.3% to Rs 244 crore on a 5.9% rise in net sales to Rs 1968 crore in Q2 September 2019 over Q2 September 2018.
PVR gained 2.68% to Rs 1818.30. The company's 'fund raise committee' approved the preliminary placement document dated 23 October 2019 in connection with the qualified institutional placement (QIP) and authorize the opening of the QIP from 23 October 2019. The floor price for the said QIP stood at Rs 1809.53 per share, based on the pricing formula as per SEBI norms. The company's 'fund raise committee' on Tuesday, 29 October 2019, will determine the issue price pursuant to the QIP.
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The Nifty IT index was down 0.17% to 14,807.75. The sector major, Infosys was down 0.94% to Rs 644.65. An anonymous whistleblowers accused the chief executive officer (CEO) Salil Parekh and chief financial officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy of unethical practices.
Infosys clarified that consistent with company's practice and whistleblower policy, complaints are presented to the audit committee of the board and thoroughly reviewed and appropriately dealt with. While dealing with these complaints, the company evaluates the requirements of various regulations including disclosures. As disclosed in the company's stock exchange filings made on 22 October 2019, the anonymous whistleblower complaints have been placed before the audit committee who has retained the law firm of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. to conduct an independent investigation. Before conclusion of the investigation of the generalized allegations in the complaints, a disclosure was not required. The disclosure made on 22 October 2019 was to respond to multiple media inquiries and reports. The company undertakes to continue making timely disclosures.
Infosys added that it has been in touch with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the anonymous whistleblower complaints (Anonymous Complaints) and has learnt that the SEC has initiated an investigation into this matter. The company will cooperate with the SEC's investigation. Also, Securities and Exchange Board of India ("Sebi") has requested additional information from the company concerning the anonymous complaints. The company will provide the information as per SEBI's request. The company is also aware of a securities class action lawsuit that has been filed against the Company in federal court in the United States based on the generalized allegations in the anonymous complaints. The company intends to defend itself vigorously in such a lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra (up 1.44%), Persistent Systems (up 1.27%) and MphasiS (up 0.13%) advanced.
Hexaware Technologies (down 5.87%), Wipro (down 1.73%), MindTree (down 0.56%) and TCS (down 0.55%) declined.
HCL Technologies advanced 2.75% after consolidated net income rose 19.4% to Rs 2,651 crore on 6.7% increase in revenues to Rs 17,528 crore in Q2 September 2019 over Q1 June 2019. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 October 2019.
The Indian rupee edged lower against the dollar in mid-morning trade on Thursday. The rupee was last seen trading at 70.92. On Wednesday, rupee had settled at 70.91 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, India has moved 14 places to be 63rd among 190 nations in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking released on Thursday on the back of multiple economic reforms by the Narendra Modi government. The country's score improved from 67.3 last year to 71.0 this year, as per The Doing Business 2020 study, released by the World Bank on Thursday morning. However, it failed to achieve government's target of being at 50th place.
On the political front, the Election Commission (EC) is set to declare the results for the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections. EC began the counting of votes at 8:00 IST and the final results will be declared by the evening. Ongoing trends suggest that BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra and the saffron party in Haryana are likely to retain power in the two states.
Voting in Maharashtra's 288 constituencies and Haryana's 90 constituencies was held on 21 October. In Maharashtra, 61.3% voters turned up to cast their vote while the voter turnout in Haryana was 68.31%.
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