Informist, Wednesday, Oct 18, 2023
By Anshul Choudhary
MUMBAI – Analysts said that benchmark indices were impacted by the escalation in the Israel-Hamas war after a deadly air strike on a hospital in Gaza. Indices ended lower after this escalation, which also led to a rise in crude oil prices.
Palestinian officials said that the attack on the hospital killed 500 people and was carried out by Israel, reported Al Jazeera. At the same time, Israel attributed the explosion to a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group, who denied the allegations, the report added.
“In the famous tale of ‘The Pied Piper’, as he started to play the flute, all the rats that infested the town followed him blindly to their doom. Such can be described as the virtue of markets this past week, dancing to the tunes of new concerns rising in the Middle East,” said Avdhut Bagkar, technical and derivatives analyst at StoxBox, in a note.
Brent crude oil futures traded on the Intercontinental Exchange rose above $90 per barrel after the overnight developments in West Asia. At 1646 IST, Brent crude oil futures were up 2.5% at $92.11 per bbl.
Today, the Nifty 50 closed 0.7% lower at 19671.10 points and the Sensex ended 0.8% down at 65877.02 points.
Apart from the escalation in the war, analysts also pointed towards the lacklustre performance of banking and financial stocks after a few companies announced earnings.
“Results as of now are failing to excite markets,” said Raj Deepak Singh, head of derivative research at ICICI Direct Research.
Among banking and financial stocks, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and IndusInd Bank fell 1.1-2.8%. HDFC Bank announced its earnings after market hours on Monday. The stock witnessed gains on Tuesday, but it lost all those gains today and was among the worst-hit stocks.
Bajaj Finance reported a net profit of 35.51 bln rupees, up 28% on year, on the back of strong growth in assets under management. However, the company’s net interest margin contracted 14 basis points sequentially in Jul-Sep, which may be a concern among investors, analysts said.
According to ETNow on X, formerly Twitter, Macquarie has maintained an “underperform” rating on Bajaj Finance due to expensive valuations. Macquarie said it expects net interest margins to continue to fall for the rest of the current financial year.
Today, shares of Bajaj Finance closed 2.8% lower at 7,866.55 rupees on the National Stock Exchange.
Analysts expressed concerns over weakness in the stock of Reliance Industries, which was positive in early trade but ended 1.3% lower. “…a downtick in other heavyweights like Reliance is pointing towards further slide,” said Ajit Mishra, senior vice-president – technical research at Religare Broking.
On the upside, pharmaceutical stocks gained. Shares of Cipla rose 3.2%, and those of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories rose 2.4%, and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries ended 1.5% higher. Owing to this, the Nifty Pharma ended 0.8% higher at 15331.30 points.
In the broader market, mid-cap indices fell 0.7-1.1%, while small-cap indices were down 0.2-0.4%. Singh also said mid-cap indices are seeing profit bookings after continuously gaining in recent months.
Several stock-specific reactions were also seen. Shares of Syngene International ended 6.7% lower at 727.30 rupees, its lowest level in three months. The share volume rose over 700% as compared to Tuesday. While announcing its Jul-Sep earnings on Tuesday, the company had reduced its revenue growth guidance for 2023-24 (Apr-Mar) to mid teens. It had earlier guided for the revenue to grow in high teens.
Shares of Jaiprakash Associates surged to close 12% higher at 13.10 rupees after ETNow reported that the Adani Group is in talks with the company to buy its Shahabad cement plant in Karnataka. The cement plant is owned by Jaiprakash Associates’ subsidiary Jaypee Cement Corp, and it has an annual operating capacity of 1.2 mln tn and a captive power plant of 60 MW.
* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 10 rose and 40 fell
* Of the Sensex stocks, 3 rose and 27 fell
* On the BSE, 1,386 stocks rose, 2,322 fell, and 135 were unchanged
* Nifty Pharma: up 0.8%; Nifty Bank: up 1.2%; Nifty PSU Bank: up 1.7%
BSE NSE
Sensex: 65877.02, down 551.07 pts or 0.83% Nifty 50: 19671.10, up 140.40 pts or 0.71%
S&P BSE Sensitive Index Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 67927.23 (Sep 15, 2023) : Lifetime High: 20222.45 (Sep 15, 2023)
Record Close High: 67838.63 (Sep 15, 2023) : Record Close High: 20192.35 (Sep 15, 2023)
2023 1st day close: 61167.79 (Jan 2) : 2023 1st day close: 18197.45 (Jan 2)
2023 Closing High: 67838.63 (Sep 15, 2023) : 2023 Closing High: 20192.35 (Sep 15)
2023 Closing Low: 59288.35 (Feb 27) : 2023 Closing Low: 17311.80 (Oct 17)
2023 High (intraday): 67927.23 (Sep 15) : 2023 High (intraday): 20222.45 (Sep 15)
2023 Low (intraday): 58699.20 (Jan 30) : 2023 Low (intraday): 17098.55 (Jan 17)
2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan 3) : 2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan 3)
2022 Closing High: 63284.19 (Dec 1) : 2022 Closing High: 18812.50 (Dec 1)
2022 Closing Low: 51360.42 (Jun 17) : 2022 Closing Low: 15293.50 (Jun 17)
2022 High (intraday): 63583.07 (Dec 1) : 2022 High (intraday): 18887.60 (Dec 1)
2022 Low (intraday): 50921.22 (Jun 17) : 2022 Low (intraday): 15183.40 (Jun 17)
2021 Closing High: 61305.95 (Oct 14) : 2021 Closing High: 18338.55 (Oct 14)
2021 Closing Low: 46285.77 (Jan 29) : 2021 Closing Low: 13634.60 (Jan 29)
2021 High (intraday): 61353.25 (Oct 14) : 2021 High (intraday): 18350.75 (Oct 14)
2021 Low (intraday): 46160.46 (Jan 29) : 2021 Low (intraday): 13596.75 (Jan 29)-
2020 Closing High: 47751.33 (Dec 31) : 2020 Closing High: 13981.95 (Dec 30)
2020 Closing Low: 25981.24 (Mar 23) : 2020 Closing Low: 7610.25 (Mar 23)
2020 High (intraday): 47896.97 (Dec 31) : 2020 High (intraday): 14024.85 (Dec 31)
2020 Low (intraday): 25638.90 (Mar 24) : 2020 Low (intraday): 7511.10 (Mar 24)
2019 High (intraday): 41809.96 (Dec 20) : 2019 High (intraday): 12293.90 (Dec 20)
2019 Low (intraday): 35287.16 (Feb 19) : 2019 Low (intraday): 10583.65 (Jan 29)
2018 High (intraday): 38938.91(Aug 28)) : 2018 High(intraday): 11760.20 (Aug 28)
2018 Low (intraday): 32483.8 (Mar 23) : 2018 Low (intraday): 9951.9 (Mar 23)
2017 High (intraday): 34005.37 (Dec 26) : 2017 High(intraday): 10515.10 (Dec 26)
End
Edited by Tanima Banerjee
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