HDFC Bank’s Modest Growth, Wipro’s Marginal Revenue Dip, Jio Financial’s Profit Surge, IREDA Robust Performance

Opening Bell: 

Gift Nifty is up by 134.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market

On Monday, Asian markets saw an uptick in trading activity, with investor attention turning towards a wave of corporate earnings reports and forthcoming economic indicators. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed by 0.86%, and the Topix surged by 1.44%. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kospi experienced a notable 1.13% jump, accompanied by a 1.04% rise in the Kosdaq index. Additionally, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index signaled a promising opening.

Friday saw a mixed close for the US stock market, marking a sixth consecutive session of decline for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, their lengthiest downturn since October 2022. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by 211.02 points, or 0.56%, reaching 37,986.40, the S&P 500 retreated by 43.89 points, or 0.88%, to settle at 4,967.23. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite concluded 319.49 points, or 2.05%, below at 15,282.01.

Stocks News:

👉 HDFC Bank: The private sector lender reported standalone net profit of Rs 16,511.9 crore for the quarter ending March FY24, marking a modest 0.9 percent increase over the previous quarter, primarily due to notably higher provisions. Net interest income for the quarter stood at Rs 29,077 crore, reflecting a 2.1 percent uptick compared to the preceding quarter. While the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) dipped by 2 basis points (bps) quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 1.24 percent, the net NPAs rose by 2 bps to 0.33 percent during the quarter.

👉 Wipro: The technology services and consulting firm posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,834.6 crore for the quarter ended March FY24, showing a 5.2 percent growth from the previous quarter. Despite a marginal 0.3 percent sequential decline in IT services revenue to Rs 22,079.6 crore, the company saw its Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) increase by 2.2 percent QoQ to Rs 3,619.5 crore, with a margin expansion of 40 bps to 16.4 percent in Q4 FY24, surpassing analysts’ expectations. Wipro reported a 0.1 percent QoQ increase in IT services revenue in dollar terms to $2,657.4 million, though revenue in constant currency was down 0.3 percent QoQ. Wipro anticipates revenue in the range of $2,617–$2,670 million in Q1 FY25.       

👉 Jio Financial Services: The financial services firm recorded a profit of Rs 310.6 crore for the quarter ended March FY24, showing a 5.7 percent growth from the previous quarter. Interest income for the quarter reached Rs 280.7 crore, marking a 4.3 percent increase, while total revenue from operations rose by 1 percent to Rs 418.1 crore compared to the December FY24 quarter.

👉 Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency: The green financing Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) reported a net profit of Rs 337.4 crore for the March FY24 quarter, indicating a substantial 33 percent rise over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Net interest income surged by 35.07 percent to Rs 481.4 crore during the same period, and total revenue from operations increased by 34.3 percent to Rs 1,391.3 crore. The loan book grew by 26.81 percent to Rs 59,698.11 crore for the quarter, with loan disbursements rising by 14 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 12,869.35 crore.

👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 129.39 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold Rs 52.50 crore worth of stocks on April 19, provisional data from the NSE showed.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s net direct tax collections for the fiscal year 2023-24 surged by 17.70% to Rs 19.58 lakh crore, surpassing the previous fiscal year’s Rs 16.64 lakh crore. This figure exceeded the FY24 Budget estimate by Rs 1.35 lakh crore, marking a 7.40% increase. Initially set at Rs 18.23 lakh crore, the budget estimate for direct tax collections for the previous fiscal was later revised upward to Rs 19.45 lakh crore.

• The minutes from the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting emphasized the necessity for continued active disinflationary policy to anchor the inflation target and ensure full transmission. The MPC believes that maintaining durable price stability will lay the groundwork for a period of robust growth.

• India’s foreign exchange reserves dipped by $5.401 billion to $643.162 billion for the week ending April 12, as reported by the Reserve Bank on Friday. However, overall reserves saw a $2.88 billion increase, reaching a new high of $648.562 billion in the preceding reporting week.

• Crude oil prices experienced a decline following their first consecutive weekly drop this year. Brent crude oil retreated by 0.53% to $86.83 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped by 0.16% to $83.01.