Stocks to Watch: The stock market will continue to remain under pressure on Friday, October 18. At 7:48 AM, the GIFT NIFTY futures were trading at 24,735, points, down 23.50 points, or 0.09%. This, as per publicly available information, suggests that the NIFTY50 index will open 109 points lower.
Asian stocks were mixed, with Japan's Nikkei rallying amid a weaker yen. The dollar index, which measures the currency against six rivals, including the euro and yen, held steady at 103.78 after climbing to 103.87 on Thursday for the first time since August 2.
Crude oil futures inched higher on Friday, supported by a surprise drop in US oil inventories and simmering Middle East tensions.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pared their gains to end essentially unchanged on Thursday, while the Dow notched a record closing high as investors parsed an array of mixed quarterly earnings and digested a series of robust economic reports.
Here is a list of stocks that are likely to be in focus today.
Results today: As many as 44 companies are slated to release their September quarter (Q2 FY25) results today. The list includes names such as
Hindustan Zinc, Jio Financial Services, L&T Finance, Indostar Capital Finance, Mastek, MRPL,
Oberoi Realty, Tata Consumer Products, ICICI Lombard, Tejas Networks, and ZEE Entertainment.
TCS:
TCS shares will trade actively as the company has set October 18, 2024, as the record date to determine shareholders' eligibility for its latest dividend payout, scheduled for November 5.
Infosys: The company reported a net profit of ₹6,506 crore, up 4.7% YoY and 2.16% QoQ. Revenue from operations stood at ₹40,986 crore, up 5.1% YoY and 4.2% QoQ. EBIT came in at ₹8,649 crore, up 4.4% QoQ, while margin stood at 21.1% against 21% logged in Q1 FY25.
Wipro: Wipro on Thursday, October 17, reported a 6.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth in its net profit at ₹3,210 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 (Q2 FY25). On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the figure grew 21.3%. Gross revenue came in at ₹22,300 crore, an increase of 1.5% QoQ and decrease of 1.0% YoY. The company also announced a bonus share in the ratio of 1:1.
LTIMindtree:
LTIMindtree on Thursday, October 17, reported a 7.7% year-on-year (YoY) rise in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter of FY25 ending in September to ₹1,251 crore. The company had reported a ₹1,161.8 crore net profit in the previous year. The consolidated net profit increased by 10.33% sequentially.
Axis Bank: Axis Bank on Thursday reported an 18% growth in net profit to ₹6,918 crore in the second quarter ended September 2024. The private sector lender had earned a net profit of ₹5,864 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Its total income increased to ₹37,142 crore during the quarter under review against ₹31,660 crore in the same period last year, Axis Bank said in a regulatory filing.
Tata Chemicals: The company on Thursday reported a 54.67% decline in its consolidated net profit at ₹194 crore during the second quarter ended September 2024. Revenue from operations of the company was flat during the quarter under review at ₹3,999 crore compared to ₹3,998 crore during the same period of FY24.
"Unprecedented heavy rains in July and August impacted Mithapur operations, leading to lower production as compared to the previous quarter, thus impacting margins," Tata Chemicals Managing Director and CEO R Mukundan said.
Zomato: Zomato on Thursday said its board will consider fundraising through qualified institutional placement (QIP) on October 22. Zomato also said its board will approve the second quarter results on October 22.
Polycab India: The company reported a smaller-than-expected second-quarter profit on Thursday as competition hurt its high-margin retail business, with a rise in expenses pressuring the bottomline further. Polycab said its consolidated net profit rose 3.4% to ₹440 crore ($52.4 million) for the three months ended September 30. Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of ₹453 crore, according to LSEG data.
Revenue from operations rose 30.4% to ₹5,498 crore, beating analysts' estimate of ₹4,956 crore. Polycab India said that a lower contribution from its high-margin retail business in a highly competitive market weighed on its bottomline.
Jindal Stainless: Jindal Stainless Ltd (JSL) on Thursday reported a 20% fall in consolidated net profit at ₹609.42 crore during the quarter ended September 2024 due to increased input costs. The company's total income fell to ₹9,823.88 crore in the quarter under review from ₹9,828.97 crore in the same quarter a year ago. The cost of materials consumed by the company surged to ₹6,759.95 crore, from ₹6,024.01 crore in the year-ago period.
Tata Communications:
Tata Communications on Thursday reported a 2.98% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to ₹227.23 crore in the September quarter. Its consolidated net profit, attributable to equity holders of the parent firm, stood at ₹220.66 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenues for the second quarter of FY25 came in at ₹5,767.3 crore, 18.36% higher year-on-year from ₹4,872.5 crore in Q2 FY24, according to a regulatory filing.
With inputs from Reuters
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