Update at 11.20 AM: The BSE Sensex was trading 147 points down at 30,511 while the NSE Nifty was down 65 points to 9,461, tracking sell-off across stock markets globally. TCS and Wipro were bucking the trend, up 3.55 percent. Hindustan Unilever was down 1.08 percent at Rs 995.
Top buzzing stocks on the BSE include Tata Steel (down 0.54 percent to Rs 490), Allahabad Bank (down 1.77 percent to Rs 86) Shree Cement (unchanged at Rs 18,859) and JSW Steel (down 3 percent to Rs 200).
Stocks that hit new 52-week high on Thursday included Ceat, Hindustan Unilever, MRPL, Indian Hotels and Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
The weak opening was expected in view of US stock markets closing in the red the previous day. "Indian markets are likely to open negative tracking the SGX Nifty and Global markets . The US markets closed sharply lower during the day. The Dow Jones tumbled 373 points one of the biggest fall in nearly one year, while the Tech heavy NASADQ fell by 158 points. The sell off on Wall Street Came as ongoing political turmoil in Washington further offset optimism about President Donald Trump's ability to implement tax reforms and deregulation," Angel Broking said in a note on Thursday morning in its pre-opening note.
Original story:
When trading opened at stock exchanges on Thursday, Sensex was 200 points down, while Nifty too was below 9500 points on concerns of US President Donald Trump's future after it was reported that he tried to interfere with a federal investigation.
Shares of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL) and JSW Steel were expected to spurt on the back of their fourth quarter performance. The two companies had declared their results after markets closed for trading on Wednesday. However, JSW Steel was among the losers in early trading.
The 14th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will begin on Thursday (May 18). The two-day meeting to be held in Srinagar will be keenly watched for movement on fitment of tax rates to various goods and services.
JSW Steel's net profit zoomed to Rs 1,003 crore from Rs 367 crore in the corresponding period last year while income from operations rose 60 percent to Rs 16,952 crore as against Rs 10,615 crore in the year-ago period, the company said in a statement.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL), the Indian subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch FMCG company Unilever, posted 6 percent growth in standalone net profit for the fourth quarter (Q4) at Rs 1,183 crore while revenues grew 6.7 percent to Rs 8,969 crore aided by 8 percent volume growth.
On Wednesday, JSW Steel closed 2.48 percent higher at Rs 207 apiece on the BSE while HUL hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,010 before ending at Rs 1,006.
Allahabad Bank, Kolkata-based public sector lender, posted net profit of Rs 111 crore for Q4 as against Rs 581 crore in the year-ago period, helped by treasury gains. Total income was up marginally at Rs 5,105 crore. Gross and net performing assets as a percentage of total advances stood at 13.09 percent and 8.92 percent, respectively.
Allahabad Bank shares closed 1.96 percent lower at Rs 88 apiece on the BSE.
The BSE Sensex ended 76 points higher at 30,658 while the NSE Nifty was up 13 points at 9,525, marking a record closing high for both the indices. Top index gainers were Tata Steel (up 7.95 percent), Tata Motors (up 2.82 percent) and ICICI Bank (up 2.35 percent).
"Market continued to set new high but lacked strength on the upside due to worries about US political turmoil. Investors are gearing up for the start of the two day GST council meet from tomorrow for getting clarity on rates & products category," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said in a note on Wednesday.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net sellers of Indian equities worth Rs 731 crore while domestic institutional investors ended up as net buyers of stocks worth Rs 615 crore according to provisional data published by the National Stock Exchange.
Stocks that hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday included Ceat, ICICI Bank, HUL, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Godrej Industries and Bajaj Holdings.
Companies that will be declaring their Q4 results on Thursday include CESC, Coffee Day Enterprises, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Tata Coffee.
