Range bound

Nifty50: 17,828 ▲ 15 (+0.08%)
Sensex: 60,431 ▲ 38 (+0.06%)

Hi readers!

Move over, humans - it's time for cats to rule the world! A famous ginger cat named Mikan has been appointed as the honorary station master of a metro station in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Mikan, who has been a familiar sight around the station area for years, has achieved celebrity status with over 59,000 followers on Instagram. And it looks like Mikan is not done just being a station master. Rumour has it that she's planning to launch her own product line soon, befitting an influencer!

While we wait for her collection to drop, let’s look at what happened in the markets today.

• Markets end with marginal gains.
• Out of the Nifty50 stocks, 29 stocks closed in green.
• India’s trade deficit widens to $19.7 billion in March.

Among the Nifty sectoral indices, PSU Bank (+1.4%) and Bank (+1.3%) were the top gainers, while IT (-2.2%) and Pharma (-0.7%) were the top losers.

What’s trending

⭐ Infosys’ quarterly profit rises 8%

The IT giant (-3.1%) reported an 8% YoY growth in net profit to ₹6,128 crore for the quarter ended March 2023. Meanwhile, consolidated revenues grew 16% YoY to ₹37,441 crore for the same period. The company also declared a final dividend of ₹17.50 per share. 

⭐ Coal India boosts coking coal output

Coal India (-1.0%) has reported a 17.2% YoY growth in coking coal production to 54.6 million tonnes in FY23. Coking coal is an important feedstock in steel making. The Ministry of Coal has asked the company to increase coking coal production to 105 million tonnes by 2030 to reduce the country's imports and foreign exchange outgo.

⭐ Automotive Axles to acquire minority stake

The auto component maker (-0.2%) plans to invest in a solar power generation company, Torrent Saurya Urja. The objective of this 26% acquisition is to off-take solar power electricity generated from the project to Automotive Axle’s production unit in Mysore. The cost of this acquisition is ₹2.7 crore.

⭐ Anupam Rasayan signs new deal

Shares of Anupam Rasayan soared over 4% today. This comes after the company announced that it has signed a ₹1,500 crore deal with a leading Japanese multinational to manufacture and supply three high value speciality chemicals for the next seven years. The company will be the exclusive supplier from India for these three molecules.

In Focus

Indian economy remains robust: Inflation ▼ Factory output ▲

India’s retail inflation fell to a 15-month low of 5.66% in March. Meanwhile, factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), accelerated further to 5.6% in February 2023. What are the key factors behind this upbeat economic data? Let’s find out.

Inflation eases further 

In March, consumer inflation eased to 5.66% from 6.44% in the previous month and below the market forecast of 5.8%. This was mainly due to a high base effect and easing price pressures across categories. Continued declines in food, fuel, clothing and footwear prices helped bring headline inflation back within the RBI’s tolerance range after a gap of two months.  

Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and fuel components, also fell below 6% in March. This is positive given that core inflation is one of the key data considered by the central bank when deciding on policy rates. 

Factory output stays steady 

India’s industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), rose to 5.6% YoY in February from 5.5% in January. The steady growth in the figure comes amid favourable base effects and output growth in mining (4.6%), manufacturing (5.3%) and electricity (8.2%) sectors.   

All in all, the steady growth in these data is a positive sign for the Indian economy.

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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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