Hero Motocorp quarterly results, ONGC posts a decline in net profit, Paytm’ new committee and more

Opening Bell:

Gift Nifty is up by 91.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.

Asia markets were mixed Monday to start a holiday-shortened week for most markets, while China remains shut for the week. Many major stock markets in Asia-Pacific were closed Monday including Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Japan’s Nikkei 225 opened 0.1 percent higher, while the broader Topix dipped 0.2 percent at the open.

S&P 500 closed above 5,000 for the first time on Friday and Nasdaq briefly traded above 16,000, with boosts from megacaps and chip stocks, including Nvidia as investors bet on artificial intelligence technology and eyed strong earnings data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 54.64 points, or 0.14 percent, to 38,671.69, the S&P 500 gained 28.70 points, or 0.57 percent, to 5,026.61 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 196.95 points, or 1.25 percent, to 15,990.66.

Stocks News:

👉 Hero MotoCorp registered a 51 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in standalone net profit to Rs 1,073.38 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. The country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer’s net profit stood at Rs 711.06 crore during the same period last year.

👉 Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) posted a decline of around 8 percent in consolidated net profit at Rs 10,748 crore in the December quarter of the financial year 2023-24. The oil and gas exploration giant reported a 2.2 percent decrease in revenue from operations for the third quarter of the current fiscal year, amounting to Rs 1,65,569 crore. This is in contrast to the Rs 1,69,213 crore recorded in the same period of the previous year.

👉 The board of One97 Communications Ltd, the company that runs the Paytm payments app, has formed a panel headed by N. Damodaran, a former chairman of India’s markets regulator, to advise Paytm Payments Bank Ltd on compliance and regulation a day after the banking regulator criticised the lender for repeated non-compliance of rules.

👉  TATA Power recorded net profit at Rs 1,076 crore for the third quarter of FY24, growing 2 percent over a year-ago period, supported by better realization in the core business segments consisting of generation, transmission & distribution, and renewables. Revenue from operations grew by 3 percent year over year to Rs 14,841 crore for the quarter.

👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 141.95 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold Rs 421.87 crore worth of stocks on February 9, provisional data from the NSE showed.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s Net direct tax collection so far in current fiscal grew 20 percent year-on-year to Rs 15.60 lakh crore, which is 80 percent of revised budget estimates for full fiscal year. Direct tax collection, net of refunds, till February 10 of FY24 stands at Rs 15.60 lakh crore, which is 20.25 per cent higher than the net collections in the corresponding period last year.

• Investment in important sectors identified to spur domestic manufacturing under the flagship Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme of the Centre is slowing just a year after their launch. Investment growth is “significantly slow” in textiles, information technology hardware, and speciality steel this financial year, according to a review report by an inter-ministerial panel which does periodical stocktaking of the scheme.

• Gold and Silver Prices Today: Gold prices saw a slight increase on Sunday. The cost of 24 carat gold is Rs. 6425.2 per gm, up by Rs. 313.0. The cost of 22 carat gold is Rs. 5885.5 per gm, up by Rs. 286.0.

• Oil declined following last week’s advance after Iran’s foreign minister flagged the Israel-Hamas conflict could be moving closer to a diplomatic solution. Trading remained muted with many Asia markets closed for Lunar New Year holidays.