The domestic market dropped for a second straight session on Friday, dragged by selling in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, HDFC and Infosys. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 463.95 points or 1.33% to 34,315.63, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index fell 149.50 points or 1.43% to 10,303.55, as per the provisional closing data.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.10%. The BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.32%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 879 shares rose and 1712 shares fell. A total of 155 shares were unchanged.
Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) declined. Indiabulls Housing Finance (down 17.66%), IIFL Holdings (down 11.07%), Edelweiss Financial Services (down 8.11%), Muthoot Finance (down 5.16%), Muthoot Capital Services (down 3.67%), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (down 2.63%), Reliance Capital (down 2.54%), LIC Housing Finance (down 2.3%), Manappuram Finance (down 1.55%), IDFC (down 1.46%), Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (down 1.24%), Shriram Transport Finance Corporation (down 0.61%) and Bajaj Finance (down 0.59%), edged lower. Bajaj Finserv was up 0.47%.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), today, announced that, with immediate effect, banks will be permitted to reckon Government securities held by them up to an amount equal to their incremental outstanding credit to NBFCs and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs), over and above the amount of credit to NBFCs and HFCs outstanding on their books as on 19 October 2018, as Level 1 HQLA under Facility to Avail Liquidity for Liquidity Coverage Ratio (FALLCR) within the mandatory SLR requirement. This will be in addition to the existing FALLCR of 13% of NDTL, and limited to 0.5% of the bank's NDTL. The above additional FALLCR will be available up to 31 December 2018. The single borrower exposure limit for NBFCs which do not finance infrastructure stands increased from 10% to 15% of capital funds, up to 31 December 2018.
Index heavyweight and housing finance major HDFC fell 4.16% to Rs 1664.
Index heavyweight and IT major Infosys fell 2.97% to Rs 683.60.
Reliance Industries (RIL) lost 4.17% after the company declared Q3 result after market hours on Wednesday, 17 October 2018. RIL's consolidated net profit rose 17.93% to Rs 9549 crore on 54.11% rise in total income to Rs 144574 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017.
Operating profit before other income and depreciation increased by 35.6% to Rs 21108 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017. Record operating performance was led by significant volume growth and margin improvement in petrochemicals business and multi-fold growth in contribution from Retail and Digital Services businesses.
Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL said that the company's integrated refining and petrochemicals business generated strong cash flows in a period of heightened volatility in commodity and currency markets.
RIL announced the strategic investments of primary investment of Rs 2045 crore through a preferential issue and secondary purchase of Rs 245 crore from the existing promoters for a 66% stake in Den Networks and primary investment of Rs 2940 crore through a preferential issue for a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom. These investments and partnerships will create a win-win outcome for the Local Cable Operators (LCOs), Consumers, Content providers and overall eco-system, RIL said.
ACC lost 7.32% after the company declared its Q3 result after market hours on Wednesday, 17 October 2018. ACC reported 15.21% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 209.14 crore on 10.34% rise in total income to Rs 3468.37 crore in Q3 September 2018 over Q3 September 2017.
The company's cement sales volumes rose by 10% during the quarter spurred by higher demand. The company's ready mix concrete sales volumes grew 12% driven by an increase in the sale of value added products and the addition of 8 new plants across the country. While costs of input materials such as coal, petcoke, diesel and slag continued to increase, they were partly offset by improvements in operating efficiencies and productivity.
In its outlook, ACC said that demand drivers including growth in affordable and rural housing segments as well as infrastructure projects will remain healthy.
Overseas, European stocks were trading lower, extending Thursday's losses. Stocks in Asia ended mixed on Friday after China's GDP growth for the third quarter of 2018 came in below expectations. Issues ranging from trade worries, Italy's 2019 budget and higher US interest rates also worried investors.
China's economic growth slowed to the weakest pace since the first quarter of 2009 as the country's trade war with the US puts pressure on growth, according to official data released on Friday. The world's second-largest economy said its economy grew 6.5% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2018. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China's economy grew 1.6%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
US stocks closed sharply lower Thursday, dogged by worries about global growth and as investors continued to weigh minutes of the Federal Reserve's September meeting, which were viewed as hawkish.
The minutes of the Fed's September meeting, released on Wednesday, indicated that policy makers are prepared to forge ahead with increases and will likely hike rates again as early as December, as expected.
On the data front, first-time jobless claims fell by 5,000 from a week ago, as the Labor Department reported just 210,000 Americans applying for initial jobless benefits in the week ending 13 October 2018, close to 49-year lows.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in slightly below last month's reading, with a print of 22.2 in October, compared with 22.9 in September. The Conference Board said its leading economic indicators rose 0.5% in September.
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