Stocks to Watch: Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Wipro and Others in News

Benchmark equity indices reversed sharply on July 19 after making fresh record highs early in the day as profit booking set across the market ahead of the Union Budget 2024. The BSE Sensex touched its new all-time high of 81,587.76 in the early trade but fell sharply by 738.81 points or 0.91 per cent to settle at 80,604.65. The NSE Nifty tumbled 269.95 points or 1.09 per cent to close at 24,530.90 after hitting its fresh record peak of 24,854.80.

The broader markets also extended losses for the second consecutive day as midcap and small-cap indices fell 2.3 and 2.2 percent, respectively. All the sectors ended in red with Metals being the biggest loser which fell 4 per cent.

IT sector was quiet resilient post better than expected results posted by Infosys. “Investors also shifted towards defensive sector like FMCG which is witnessing demand revival with increasing rural recovery. Overall markets got impacted due to new tensions between US and China which resulted in global profit booking. In addition, Microsoft outage impacted lot of large organizations, airlines, stock exchanges globally,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

“Investors are also cautious ahead of Union Budget next week on 23rd July which will provide next set of direction to the market. Earnings season will also pick up pace which will result in stock specific actions. Apart from Budget, US Core PCE data and PMI data will be key events to monitor,” he added.

Here are the key stocks to watch on July 22:

Reliance Industries: The oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate reported a net profit of Rs 15,138 crore for the April-June quarter of FY25, a 5.5 per cent decline compared to the year-ago period. However, revenue from operations increased by 11 per cent to Rs 2.36 lakh crore. EBITDA increased by 2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 42,748 crore on the back of strong contributions from Oil & Gas and consumer business offset weak O2C.

HDFC Bank: The country’s largest private sector bank reported a 33.17 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit to Rs 16,474.85 crore in the April-June quarter of FY25 compared to Rs 12,370 crore in the year-ago period. The bank's total income increased to Rs 83,701 crore from Rs 57,816 crore in June quarter of FY24. Its gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio increased to 1.33 per cent from 1.24 per cent in March 2024.

Kotak Mahindra Bank: The private lender reported a 2 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 3,520 crore on a standalone basis for the June 2024 quarter, compared to Rs 3,452 crore in the year-ago period. Total income during the period rose to Rs 15,675 crore as against Rs 13,183 crore in the June quarter of FY24. On the asset quality front, the bank's gross non-performing assets (GNPA) remained flat at 1.39 per cent of gross advances.

Wipro: The IT sector major reported a 5.2 per cent YoY rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,036.6 crore for the June quarter compared to Rs 2,886 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue fell 3.79 per cent to Rs 21,963.80 crore in the reported quarter against Rs 22,831 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Yes Bank: The private sector lender reported a 46.7 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 502 crore for the April-June quarter of FY25. The bank’s net interest income (NII) rose 12.2 per cent to Rs 2000 crore. However, net interest margin remained flat at 2.4 per cent.