Bears take over

Nifty50: 18,069 ▼ 186 (-1.0%)
Sensex: 61,054 ▼ 694 (-1.1%)

Hello readers!

Get ready to be inspired by the ultimate rags-to-riches story of a US woman who went from being homeless to a multimillionaire! She hit the jackpot with just one lucky lottery ticket from a Walmart Supercentre and walked away with $5 million.

And that's not all. She's also getting married and earning her associate degree. Now, isn’t that fascinating? The markets today, however, weren’t so lucky. Let's take a look at what the bears have been up to.

• Markets slide into red, close below 18,100
• In all, 30 of the Nifty50 stocks closed in the red
• European Central Bank hikes interest rates by 0.25%

Among the Nifty sectoral indices, Auto (+0.4%) and FMCG (+0.2%) were the top gainers, while Bank (-2.3%) and Media (-1.7%) were the top losers.

What’s trending

⭐ Good Day for Britannia 

Biscuit maker Britannia announced strong results for Q4 2023, with consolidated sales growing 11% to ₹3,892 crore and net profit rising by 47% to ₹559 crore. The company said softness in prices of palm oil and packaging material aided profitability. During the quarter, the company added two greenfield biscuit units in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.   

⭐ Coal India’s future investment

Despite the market fall, shares of Coal India closed in the green. This comes after the management announced plans to invest ₹91,000 crore in various projects by FY26. Around ₹36,000 crore will be spent on gasification projects, which will produce various petrochemical and energy products. 

⭐ Marico Q4 profit up 20%

FMCG major Marico (-0.5%), which sells Parachute coconut oil, reported a 20% YoY growth in Q4 profit to ₹302 crore from ₹251 crore. The growth in profit was aided by other income, which included a one-time gain of ₹28 crore on the sale of overseas land. Meanwhile, its revenue grew by 3.6% YoY to ₹2,240 crore. Domestic volumes grew by 5% YoY.

⭐ Ajanta Pharma reports subdued numbers 

Specialty pharmaceutical company, Ajanta Pharma (+0.5%), reported a 19% YoY decline in its net profit at ₹122 crore for the quarter ended March 2023. During the same period, its revenue from operations grew by 1% to ₹882 crore.

⭐ Gold prices fall from record high

After yesterday’s record high, the gold rally witnessed a pause in today’s session. MCX Gold futures traded around ₹60,500 per 10 gram, down 1.6%. Despite the fall, on a weekly basis, gold prices are set for gains, up by nearly 1%.

In Focus

What made the markets fall today?

Indian markets suffered a sharp fall today. The key indices Nifty 50 and Sensex were down over 1%, while Nifty Bank plunged by 1000 points. Around 30 stocks from the Nifty50 universe closed in the red. Here are the key factors that led to volatile markets:    

HDFC twins drag markets down 

Index heavyweights HDFC twins were at the epicentre. Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and HDFC Bank fell over 5% intraday, wiping out over ₹80,000 crore of their combined market capitalisation. 

In the previous session, private sector lender HDFC Bank had touched a fresh 52-week high of ₹1,734. However, the stock witnessed a turnaround in investor sentiment today. HDFC Life, the listed subsidiary of HDFC Ltd, also underperformed, falling over 1%.

Bank Nifty tanks

Lack of confidence in the HDFC twins rubbed off on other banking stocks. Shares of IndusInd Bank (-4.5%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (-1.5%) and Federal Bank (-8.1%) traded lower. The fall in these stocks dragged the Bank Nifty down by over 2% today. 

Weak global sentiments 

Following yesterday's fall in US indices, confidence around Indian equities were also lower. So far this week, Dow Jones and S&P 500 are down over 2.5% each as the regional banking crisis continues to impact the US markets.

In addition, the 0.25% interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank received a mixed response from the markets.

All in all, it was a volatile week for the markets. Looking ahead to next week, markets will take cues from domestic inflation numbers, the ongoing earnings season and the outcome of state elections.

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Phrase of the day

Going Long

When you buy a stock, futures or an option contract with the hope that its price will rise, it is called going ‘long’.  When should you go long, find out from this chapter What does going Long mean? 

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