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Benchmark equity indices ended higher in a truncated week as investors’ risk-on mood improved during the week. The RBI kept benchmark repo rate unchanged amidst global banking woes and uncertainty over global economic growth. The Sensex rose 1.43% to 59,833. For the week, the Nifty 50 index gained 1.38% to 17,599.15. The BSE Midcap index added 1.19% to 24,351.06. The BSE Smallcap index gained 2.85% to 27,725.34.
The markets were closed on Tuesday and Friday on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, respectively.
Top gainers among Nifty sectoral indices snapshot were Realty [4.3%], Financial Services [2.23%], Private Bank [1.03%], Auto [1.84%] and Bank [1.06%]. All indices closed in the positive territory.
FIIs were net buyers for Rs 1,962.4 crore and DIIs were net buyers for Rs 207.5 crore.
Indian rupee rose 11 paise to 81.88 against the US dollar on Thursday.
Company News
HDFC Bank: India’s largest private sector bank said its CASA increased 11.3% to Rs 8.36 lakh crore as on March 31, 2023, with the CASA ratio at 44%. Total deposits increased 20.8% to Rs 18.84 lakh crore. The bank recorded 16.9% YoY rise in gross advances at Rs 16.01 lakh crore.
Infosys: The company extended its collaboration with data and analytics company LexisNexis to provide end-to-end information services across their range of content, enterprise, and product applications.
Tata Steel: The steel manufacturer said India production volume grew by 5.1% to 5.15 million tonnes in Q4FY23 and delivery volume increased by 0.6% to 5.15 million tonnes compared to the year-ago period. Europe’s production volume remained flat at 2.31 million tonnes for Q4FY23 against Q4FY22, and delivery Volume fell significantly by 11.3% to 2.13 MT.
Reliance Industries (RIL): Reliance Retail Ventures, the retail arm of the conglomerate, opened its flagship store in Mumbai, and launched the app and website for its beauty brand Tira.
Oil companies: The Centre has slashed windfall tax on domestically produced crude oil to nil from Rs 3,500 a tonne, effective from April 4. It has also reduced the levy on diesel to 50 paise per litre from Rs 1. The move means crude oil, aviation turbine fuel (ATF), and petrol will not attract windfall tax.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T): The company announced that its hydrocarbon business, L&T Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH), has secured mega orders from a client in the Middle East. As per L&T classification, the value of the orders is more than Rs 7,000 crore. The scope of work comprises engineering, procurement, construction & installation for various new offshore facilities and integration with existing installations.
Coal India Ltd (CIL): The company plans to supply 610 million tonnes of coal to power sector in FY24 to meet the demand of coal fired plants in 2023-24. This is 4% higher than the record 586.6 MT that company supplied in FY23. Its apportioned quantity accounts for a little over 74% of the estimated coal requirement of domestic coal based plants during the year, which is 821 MT.
HDFC: During the quarter ended March 31, 2023, the company disbursed individual loans amounting to Rs 9,340 crore compared to Rs 8,367 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Individual loans sold in the preceding 12 months amounted to Rs 36,910 crore compared to Rs 28,455 crore in the previous year.
Tata Motors: The auto major’s total domestic sales rose 3% to 89,351 units sold in March 2023 as against 86,718 units sold in March 2022. The total domestic sales increased by 14.54% last month compared with 78,006 units in February 2023. Tata Motors said that its sales in the domestic and international market for Q4FY23 stood at 2,51,822 vehicles compared with 2,43,459 units during Q4FY22, up 3.4% year on year (YoY).
Tata Motors has announced its partnership with Inchcape plc as their distributor for their commercial vehicles in Thailand. With this partnership, Tata Motors will commence the sales and service of its commercial vehicles (CVs) across Thailand. Inchcape is the leading global automotive distributor, with operations across six continents.
Hero MotoCorp: The company said that total two-wheeler sales increased by 15% to 519,342 units in March 2023 from 450,154 units in March 2022. The company’s domestic sales increased by 21% YoY to 502,730 units, exports fell sharply by 52% to 16,612 units during the period under review. The company sold 53,28,546 units in FY23, registering a growth of 8% over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (FY22), when the company had sold 49,44,150 units.
In other news, Hero MotoCorp has launched a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its staff. The plan offers a one-time lump-sum amount, variable pay, gifts, medical coverage, retention of company car, relocation assistance, etc. With this move, the company expects to improve efficiency within the company.
One 97 Communication (Paytm): The value of loans disbursed jumped 63% YoY to 4.1 million as on 31st March 2023. The number of loans disbursed through the company’s platform zoomed 253% YoY to Rs 12,544 crore in the quarter. The number of merchants paying subscription for payment devices has reached 6.8 million, an increase of 1 million in the quarter. Merchant payment volumes (GMV) for the quarter stood at Rs 3.62 lakh crore, a rise of 40% YoY.
Bajaj Auto: The two wheeler maker’s total sales declined 2% to 2,91,567 units in March 2023 compared with 2,97,188 units sold in March 2022. The domestic sales surged 47% to 1,86,522 units, while exports slumped 38% to 1,05,045 units in March 2023 over March 2022. The company’s total two-wheeler sales decreased 4% to 2,47,002 units in March 2023 compared with 2,56,324 units sold in March 2022. The commercial vehicles sales in March 2023 stood at 44,565 units, registering growth of 9% as against 40,864 units in March 2022. On full year basis, total sales declined 9% to 39,27,857 units in FY23 as against 43,08,433 units sold in FY22.
Grasim Industries: The company said that it has entered into three term loan agreements on 3 April 2023 to avail the rupee term loan facility aggregating to Rs 5,000 crore from Axis Bank in terms of the approval by the finance committee of the company. One secured term loan of Rs 4,850 crore will be used for capital expenditure to be incurred, reimbursement of capex that has already been incurred in the last 12 months, and repayment of existing borrowings, said the company. Further, two other unsecured term loans of Rs 70 crore and Rs 80 crore respectively, will be used for identified projects, it added. All of the aforesaid rupee term loans are for the period of 10 years.
Dabur India: The FMCG major announced that its India business is expected to report mid-single digit revenue growth, however, the International business is expected to deliver high single-digit growth in constant currency in Q4 FY23. Dabur said that the demand trajectory across both urban and rural markets in India showed a slight improvement sequentially, although it falls short of a full recovery. While urban markets have returned to positive volume growth, rural markets still remain muted. It has also strategically increased it’s spends behind the brands, leading to short term pressure on the operating margin, which is expected to be lower by around 200-250 bps as compared to Q4 FY22.
Macrotech Developers (Lodha): The realty firm announced that it had achieved pre-sales of Rs 3,025 crore in Q4FY23, recording a decline of 12% on a YoY basis. The company’s FY23 pre-sales stood at Rs 12,064 crore, up by 34% from Rs 9,024 crore recorded in FY22. The company said that FY23 has witnessed addition of 12 new projects having approximately 14 million sq. ft. of saleable area with GDV of approximately Rs 19,800 crore across various micro-markets of MMR, Pune and Bengaluru.
Ashok Leyland: The commercial vehicles maker reported 19% jump in total vehicle sales to 23,926 units in March 2023 from 20,123 units in March 2022. While medium & heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) sales increased 20% YoY to 16,773 units, total light commercial vehicles (LCV) sales rose by 17% YoY to 7,153 last month. The company’s domestic sales of commercial vehicles during the period under review aggregated to 22,885 units, higher by 23% compared with the same period last year.
Ultratech Cement: The company said that it had recorded 14% increase in consolidated cement sales volume to 31.7 million tons (MT) in Q4FY23 from 27.7 MT in Q4FY22. As compared with Q3FY23, the company’s consolidated sales volume has risen by 22%. The company’s total cement sales volume has improved by 12% to 105.7 MT in FY23 from 94 MT in FY22.
Steel Authority of India (SAIL): The state-owned company said it has achieved the best ever annual production during the financial year 2022-23 ending on 31 March 2023. SAIL recorded 19.409 million tonnes (MT) of hot metal and 18.289 MT crude steel production, a growth of 3.6% YoY and 5.3% YoY respectively over the previous best.
Economy News
The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met on 3rd, 5th and 6th April 2023 and assessed the macroeconomic situation and its outlook. The central bank kept key repo rate unchanged at 6.5%. To read about the key highlights of the RBI monetary policy decision, click here
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose from 55.3 in February to 56.4 in March, signalling the strong improvement in operating conditions.
The gross GST revenue collected in March 2023 was Rs 1,60,122 crore. The total gross collection for FY2022-23 stands at Rs 18.10 lakh crore.
Global Markets
Major benchmark equity indices ended lower over a holiday-shortened week as investors were concerned about a slowing economy. For the week, the S&P fell 0.11%, the Dow Jones added 0.64%, the Nasdaq dropped 1.10%.
A slew of US economic data was released during the week. The S&P Global Manufacturing PMI stood at 49.2 in March 2023. The S&P Global Services PMI for March 2023 stood a 52.6. The Composite PMI came in at 52.3 in March. The ISM ( Institute for Supply Management) manufacturing PMI stood at 46.3 in March 2023. The ISM non-manufacturing PMI fell to 51.2 last month from 55.1 in February. Factory orders declined 0.7% month-on-month in February 2023.
JOLTS Job opening in February 2023 came in at 9.931 million. The ADP non-farm employment rose 145,000 in March 2023. Trade deficit widened to $70.50 billion in February. The Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended April 1 stood at 228,000.
The data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed on Friday that Nonfarm Payrolls rose by 236,000 in March. This reading came in slightly lower than the market expectation of 240,000 and followed February’s print of 326,000 (revised from 311,000).
The Unemployment Rate ticked down to 3.5% from 3.6% in March and the Labor Force Participation Rate improved to 62.6% from 62.5%. Finally, annual wage inflation, as measure by the Average Hourly Earnings, declined to 4.2% from 4.6%, compared to the analysts’ estimate of 4.3%.
Chinese stocks advanced during the week as recovery in services activity and the property sector boosted investor sentiments. For the week, the Shanghai Stock Exchange index gained 1.67% and the CSI 300 rose 1.79%.
In economic news, the private Caixin/S&P Global survey of services activity rose to 57.8 in March, up from February’s 55.0, the third consecutive monthly expansion after Beijing lifted pandemic restrictions in December. China’s Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ index for March was 50. The reading for March fell from 51.6 seen in February. China’s official PMI for March stood at 51.9.
Japanese stocks declined over the week, with the Nikkei 225 Index falling 1.9% and the broader Topix index down 2.1% through Thursday’s trading.
The final au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index released on Monday rose to 49.2 in March from February’s 47.7, marking the slowest contraction since November 2022.