Indian equity benchmark indices fell in a volatile session on Thursday, after the two-session rally, mainly driven by selling in IT and tech stocks. However, heavy buying in auto, energy and metal stocks capped the losses.
The BSE Sensex fell 64.66 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 66,408.39 points. The NSE Nifty also declined 17.35 points or 0.09 per cent to close at 19,794 points.
According to analysts, selling in IT shares following mixed results by IT heavyweights TCS and Infosys dragged the key indices from the day’s high levels.
“Markets ended marginally lower in a sluggish trading session as frontline IT stocks led the fall after a lower-than-expected TCS results dampened the sentiment and fuelled a major sell-off. The lacklustre trend with a negative bias was seen despite optimism across the global equities on hopes interest rates could remain steady in view of global macro-economic woes,” said, Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Research (Retail), Kotak Securities.
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“Technically, after a muted opening benchmark Nifty witnessed a range bound activity near the 20-day SMA (Simple Moving Average) and has formed a small candlestick formation. For traders, 19750-19700 would be key support levels while 19850-19900 would act as important resistance areas,” he added.
Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd said that Infosys Q2 results are in line with markets expectation but the company trimming its revenue guidance would be negative for the stock. “Overall results are not so bad but discounted in prices. FY24 Guidance - revised downwards would put pressure on prices to sustain while it has maintained margins. Technically the last minute fall in prices shows that results were not in favour of bulls, hence a gap down opening between Rs 1400-1420 could be seen in the opening trade,” he said.
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Top Stocks To Watch On 13 October:
Infosys
The IT giant reported a jump of 4.45 per cent in its profit after tax (PAT) on a quarter-on-quarter basis to Rs 6,212 crore from Rs 5,945 crore in the previous quarter. The company’s revenue from operations for the second quarter jumped 2.80 per cent to Rs 38.994 crore from Rs 37,933 crore in the first quarter.
The company has trimmed its guidance for revenue growth to 1 to 2.5 per cent for FY24 in constant currency terms, from 1 to 3.5 per cent in previous quarter.
HCL Technologies
In the second quarter, HCL Tech reported a rise of 8.34 per cent in profit after tax quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,832 crore from Rs 3,534 crore in the previous quarter. The revenue from operations jumped to 1.43 per cent QoQ to Rs 26,672 crore from Rs 26,296 crore in the first quarter of FY24.
The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 12 or 600 per cent, of the face value of Rs 2 per equity share.
Tech Mahindra
The company announced to sell a 33 per cent stake in a South African unit for ZAR 23.95 million. Divestment is undertaken to comply with South African Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment guidelines.
Lupin
The company has received tentative approval from the US FDA to market a generic equivalent of Xywav Oral Solution, of Ireland’s Jazz Pharmaceuticals. The product will be manufactured at Lupin’s Somerset facility in the United States.
SJVN
Unit SJVN Green Energy received a LoA from Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam to develop a 100 MW solar power project worth Rs 600 crore to be executed over 18 months. The solar project will be developed on Build Own and Operate (BOO) basis.
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