Rupee Update | Rahul Gupta, Head of Research-Currency at Emkay Global Financial Services

The USD/INR spot is trading in the broader range of 74.85-75.50 and we expect it to continue trading in it. The traders are keeping a wary eye on China’s trade relations with the United States and this caution will limit the fall in USD/INR. However, corporate dollar inflows and government fiscal stimulus package through coronavirus outbreak will keep the risk appetite intact. 75 is acting as a crucial support, if that breaks we can see a fall towards 74.80/74.85 with 75.50 being the resistance.

Market Update | BPCL was the top gainer while TCS remained the top loser among the Nifty50 index.

Market Watch | Dhananjay Sinha, Director & Head – Institutional Research of Systematix Group

Auto sector

“We are seeing significant traction and possibly an acceleration in rural consumption. There has been a significant re-bounce in auto sales especially with respect to two-wheelers and tractors. M&M is showing a growth of 12 percent, Escort is showing a growth of almost like 18 percent.”

Agri inputs

“I would say agri inputs are broader consumption items especially relating to the rural areas like small consumer goods or consumer appliances so that is another area. Agri inputs have been seen a good traction. If you look at the fertilizer sales or production numbers there is a fairly good traction.”

Metals stocks

“We are moving towards more cyclicals with addition in terms of metals stocks and also with respect to banking, wherein there is a lot of concern even now. A lagged impact of crude oil prices can be seen on industrial metals, steel etc. We have picked up Hindalco and JSW Steel to capture that.”

Britannia Industries Q1 | Britannia Industries reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 542.6 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 as against a net profit Rs 248.64 in the same period last year. Net profit beat CNBC-TV18 analysts poll estimates of Rs 395 crore.

The company’s revenue during the quarter rose to Rs 3,420.7 crore as against Rs 2,700.35 crore, YoY. Britannia’s volume growth was at 22 percent against estimates of 18-20 percent. Read more here.

No legal relief for Emami from Bombay high court on trademark war with HUL

A division Bench at Bombay High Court dismissed Emami’s petition challenging the court’s order directing Emami to give 7-day prior notice before initiating legal proceedings against Hindustan Unilever (HUL) overuse of trademark ‘Glow & Handsome’. On July 7, HUL had moved Bombay High Court seeking an injunction against Emami’s potential legal action against the company for trademark violations. Providing the necessary relief to HUL, the court had directed Emami to give 7-day prior notice to HUL before initiating any legal proceeding. Emami had challenged that very relief given to HUL by a single judge bench.

A division bench hearing the matter dismissed Emami’s plea, saying it was not inclined to interfere with the order passed by the single bench. Read more here.

Just in | Fortis-IHH Deal case hearing has been adjourned for 2 weeks after judges refused from hearing the case.

Commodity Update | Gold prices India traded flat with a positive bias on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) Friday tracking muted trend in the international spot prices. Strength in US dollar capped gains in the yellow metal prices, analysts said. Read more here.

Stock Update: Shares of IT firm Cyient rallied over 9 percent in the early trade on Friday after the company reported better than estimated earnings for the April-June quarter of fiscal 2021 with robust rise in net profit and improvement in operating performance.

The stock surged 9.27 percent to intraday high of Rs 310.50 in the BSE.

The company’s bottomline in Q1FY21 rose 76.2 percent to Rs 81.4 crore as against Rs 46.2 crore in previous quarter. CNBC-TV18 analysts’ poll had estimated profit of Rs 41 crore. Revenue fell 7.6 percent to Rs 991.7 crore from Rs 1,073.6 crore, QoQ.

Operating performance improved on sequential basis as EBIT increased 10.6 percent to Rs 50.2 crore while EBIT margin expanded by 90 bps to 5.1 percent.

Shiv Nadar steps down as HCL Tech chairman; daughter Roshni to replace him

The next generation is set to take over the chairperson seat at HCL Tech with Roshni Nadar Malhotra being appointed for the post with immediate effect. Shiv Nadar will be stepping down from the chairman’s post but will retain his MD position. He will also be appointed the chief strategy officer of the company and will oversee the strategic direction of the firm.

In its release, HCL Tech said, “The Board of Directors has appointed Ms. Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Non-Executive Director as the Chairperson

of the Board of Directors and the Company w.e.f. July 17, 2020, in place of Mr. Shiv Nadar who expressed his desire to step down from the position of the Chairman. Mr. Shiv Nadar would continue to be the Managing Director of the Company with the designation as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Company.” Read more

Kotak Equities prefers Bajaj Finserv; recommends “reduce” on Bajaj Finance

Domestic brokerage Kotak Institutional Equities seems divided over Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserve given the changes and challenging circumstances faced by these Bajaj Group companies post COVID-19 pandemic. The brokerage has downgraded Bajaj Finance to Reduce from Buy but raised the fair value of the stock to Rs 2,800 from Rs 2,700 per share earlier. It, however, recommends buying Bajaj Finserv for a target of Rs 7,150 post-roll-over to June 2020. Here’s why!

Stock Update: Cadila Healthcare’s shares gain as much as 2 percent to Rs 368.5 per share on the NSE after the company secures an approval from COFEPRIS to conduct clinical trials in Mexico with Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b to treat Covid-19. The trials will commence this month with dosing in patients, the company said in an exchange filing. Trials are already underway in India for the same, it added later. 

Rupee Update: The Indian currency opened flat on Thursday at 75.25 against the US dollar as compared to Thursday’s close of 75.19. 

Buzzing Stock | Shares of Cyient Ltd rallied over 9 percent in the early trade after the company reported 76.2 percent rise in Q1FY21 net profit to Rs 81.4 crore as against Rs 46.2 crore in previous quarter. The company’s revenue fell 7.6 percent to Rs 991.7 crore from Rs 1,073.6 crore, QoQ. Operating performance improved as EBIT increased 10.6 percent to Rs 50.2 crore while EBIT margin expanded by 90 bps to 5.1 percent sequentially.

Just In | Zydus Cadila receives approval from the Mexican regulatory authority COFEPRIS to conduct clinical trials with its biological therapy ‘PegiHepTM’. Trials in India are already underway with Pegylated Interferon alpha-2.

Opening Bell: Market opens higher; BPCL, Britannia top gainer

The Indian market opened higher on Friday following the positive trend in the Asian markets.

The Sensex opened 134 points higher to 36,609 while the Nifty50 index opened at 10,786, up 46 points higher. Broader markets remained in-line with the benchmarks, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes traded half a percent higher.

Nifty Metal was the best-performing sector, up 1.52 percent while Nifty IT posted the most losses, down 1 percent.

BPCL and Britannia were the top index gainers while the IT stocks remained in the red. HCL Technologies’ shares declined nearly 2 percent post Q2FY20 earnings.

FIDC seeks govt support to direct liquidity to small, mid-sized NBFCs

Non-bank lenders’ association Finance Industry Development Council (FIDC) has sought government intervention to ensure that smaller NBFCs get access to funds.

In a letter addressed to the Finance Minister, FIDC said that despite various government and regulatory measures, small and medium NBFCs continued to face difficulties in raising funds.

“The interventions by the Government through TLTRO 2.0, PCG 2.0, Special Liquidity Scheme etc. targeted to infuse liquidity has provided only limited relief to small and medium-sized NBFCs as most of the money has flowed into a small number of large NBFCs, which are highly rated,” it said in its letter. Continue readng

Q1FY21 earnings preview: Consumer goods companies continue to see weak earnings

The consumer goods firms are expected to see a significant impact on earnings in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 led lockdown on supply chain and manufacturing. The consumer discretionary segments and categories vulnerable to social distancing have also seen persistently weak demand for a major part of the quarter.

Near-normalcy was witnessed in the month of June in several staples categories with some of the discretionary demand also surprisingly bouncing back in the month. Read more

Jefferies’ Chris Wood decries blanket lockdown in India, claims there is no need for COVID-19 vaccine

Coronavirus-forced lockdown is hurting India more than COVID-19, Christopher Wood, the global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, told CNBC-TV18 on Thursday.

Wood advocated for localised lockdowns in impacted localities and expressed aversion to blanket lockdowns that engulf the entire country. “I think it is sensible for the authorities to impose localised lockdowns where there is a cluster of cases. What I believe is not sensible is to impose the blanket lockdown on the whole economy.”

He added that with India’s young demographic and relatively low death rate there is no justification for putting the entire country under lockdown. Click here to read more