Tata Steel Faces Profit Decline, Alkem Laboratories and Cummins India Show Strong Growth, GMR Airports Narrows Losses

Opening Bell: 

Gift Nifty is down by 73.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market                                  

Asian markets traded lower on Thursday, following overnight losses on Wall Street and in anticipation of key economic data from the region. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plummeted over 2%, and the Topix dropped 1.4%. South Korea’s Kospi decreased by 1%, and the Kosdaq slipped 0.6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures also pointed to a weaker opening.        

The US stock market closed lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones dropping over 1% to its lowest level in nearly a month. The S&P 500 declined by 39.09 points, or 0.74%, to 5,266.95, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 99.30 points, or 0.58%, to 16,920.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 411.32 points, or 1.06%, to 38,441.54.

Stocks News:

👉 Tata Steel: The steelmaker reported a 64% year-on-year decline in Q4 profit to ₹611.48 crore, attributed to lower steel realizations and poor performance in its international operations. Consolidated revenue dropped 6.7% to ₹58,687.3 crore. The board approved the issuance of additional debt securities up to ₹3,000 crore and an infusion of up to $2.11 billion into a wholly-owned subsidiary to repay debt and support restructuring costs at Tata Steel UK.           

👉 Alkem Laboratories: The company reported a three-fold increase in consolidated net profit for Q4FY24 to ₹293.56 crore, driven by the derecognition of deferred tax. Revenue for the quarter saw a modest year-on-year increase of 1.1%, totaling ₹2,935.8 crore.

👉 Cummins India: The company posted a 50% year-on-year rise in consolidated profit after tax to ₹530.5 crore for the March quarter, supported by robust demand in domestic and international markets. Revenue increased by 19.9% to ₹2,319 crore.

👉 GMR Airports Infrastructure: The company reduced its net loss to ₹167.6 crore, a significant improvement from a loss of ₹638.9 crore last year. Revenue surged 29.5% to ₹2,446.8 crore, up from ₹1,889.7 crore.

👉 On May 29, the Foreign institutional investors sold Indian equities worth Rs 5,841.84 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 5,233.79 crore on the same day.

Domestic and International Events

• S&P Global Ratings raised India’s sovereign rating outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ while retaining the rating at ‘BBB-‘, saying on Wednesday the country’s robust economic expansion was having a constructive impact on its credit metrics. “We expect sound economic fundamentals to underpin the growth momentum over the next two to three years,” S&P said, adding that regardless of the election outcome, it expected broad continuity in economic reforms and fiscal policies.

• Some Indian asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) have been circumventing regulations and have allowed themselves to be used for the evergreening of distressed assets, a deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India said in a recent speech. The RBI has increased supervision of regulated entities to prevent systemic risks and to ensure that regulations are followed. Swaminathan J. addressed a conference in Mumbai for directors and CEOs of ARCs, as a part of the central bank’s supervisory engagement programme earlier this month but the RBI uploaded the full speech on its website on Wednesday.

• Crude oil prices were steady after retreating earlier. West Texas Intermediate traded 0.10% higher at $79.31 a barrel after falling 0.8% in the previous session, while Brent oil traded 0.11% higher at $83.69 a barrel.