Broader market tumbles; FMCG shares in demand

The domestic equity benchmarks reversed early gains and slipped into negative territory in morning trade. Weak cues from other Asian equities spoiled investors sentiment. At 10:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 417.70 points or 1.19% at 34,753.57. The Nifty 50 index fell 127.70 points or 1.23% at 10,255.30.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 1.34% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 1.47%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 797 shares rose and 1494 shares fell. A total of 107 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty FMCG index rose 0.78% 29,988.10, outperforming other sectoral indices on the NSE. The index lost 1.18% on Friday.

Among the index constituents, Varun Beverages (up 1.75%), Britannia Industries (up 1.71%), Nestle India (up 1.50%), Marico (up 1.45%), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.13%), Tata Consumer Products (up 0.75%), Dabur India (up 0.55%) and Godrej Consumer (up 0.04%) advanced.

Emami (down 5.93%), United Breweries (down 1.31%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene (down 1.31%), United Spirits (down 0.89%), Colgate-Palmolive India (down 0.82%) and Jubilant Foodworks (down 0.61%) declined.

Q4 Results Today:

Among the large-cap stocks, Tata Steel (down 2.24%), BEL (down 0.88%), MRF (down 0.87%) and Petronet LNG (down 0.91%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Among the mid-cap stocks, Bharat Forge (down 1.66%), Minda Industries (down 1.27%), Bharat Dynamics (up 6.15%), Central Bank of India (up 3.34%), CESC (up 0.36%), SJVN (up 1.35%) and Phoenix Mills (down 2.61%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Among the small-cap stocks, Kiri Industries (down 0.77%), Lux Industries (down 1.27%), Minda Corp (down 3.07%), Maharashtra Seamless (down 1.30%), NOCIL (down 1.61%), Orient Refactories (up 0.87%), Panacea Bio (down 0.22%), Rail Vikas Nigam (down 1.54%), Jammu & Kashmir Bank (down 3.74%), Punjab & Sind Bank (down 4.95%), Raymond (down 2.52%), Venky's (India) (down 1.73%), Shree Renuka (up 5%) and Welspun India (down 5%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Earnings impact:

ITC rose 1.90% to Rs 198.80 after consolidated net profit rose 9.1% to Rs 3856.52 crore on 4.8% decline in net sales to Rs 12,456.45 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

Cigarettes segment revenue declined 3.3% YoY to Rs 5,750.44 crore while the revenue from other FMCG products segment fell 3.9% YoY to Rs 3,190.34 crore during the quarter. Hotel business revenue stood at Rs 494.76 crore (down 13.8% YoY), agri-business revenue was at Rs 1899.01 crore (down 15.9% YoY), paperboards, paper & packaging revenues were at Rs 1458.87 crore (down 6.2% YoY) and revenue from other businesses (viz. IT services, branded residences etc.) came in at Rs 575.68 crore (up 2.1% YoY) in the fourth quarter.

The tobacco major's board has recommended a dividend of Rs 10.15 per share (5.11% dividend yield to the current price) for the financial year ended 31 March 2020. It will be paid on Tuesday, 8 September, 2020.

NTPC shed 0.36% to Rs 96.70 after it reported a 70.5% drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 1523.77 crore on a 27% jump in net sales to Rs 30,201.08 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Profitability was significantly dented on the back of higher tax provisions. NTPC's total tax expenses in Q4 March 2020 stood at Rs 4,948.12 crore as against a tax rebate of Rs 7,465.19 crore received in Q4 March 2019. NTPC group's total installed capacity increased to 62,110 MW as on 31 March 2020 as against 55,126 MW as on 31 March 2019. The group's commercial capacity increased by 8,260 MW to 61,126 as on 31 March 2020 compared with 52,866 MW as on 31 March 2019.

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