Monday Mayhem: Sensex nosedives 650 points; Nifty below 14,450

After falling almost 2% in Friday’s session benchmark Indian equities extended their fall on Monday and opened with a gap down as investors would react to the assembly election result of four states and one union territory. In opening trade, Sensex nosedives 650 points or 1.33% at 48,134 and the broader market index Nifty tanked 207 points or 1.42% at 14,423.

26 out 30 Sensex stocks traded in the red. Titan was the biggest loser on the Sensex down 2.62%, Bajaj Finance lost over 2.5%, SBI was down 2.3%, Reliance Industries slipped 1.95% and HDFC Bank fell 1.64%. On the other hand, IndusInd Bank jumped 2.55%, M&M, HUL & Maruti gained up to 0.85%.

On the sectoral front, Nifty Bank lost over 1.5% while Nifty IT, Nfity Realty indices lost around 0.35%. On the upside, Nifty FMCG index was up 0.45%.

Pain in the broader market was much lesser compared to benchmark indices as BSE MidCap index lost 0.56% whereas the BSE SmallCap index was down 0.31%.

Election results:

On the political front, election results 2021 for West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry assemblies were declared on Sunday (May 2). The TMC managed a landslide victory in West Bengal, the same as DMK in Tamil Nadu and Left-led LDF in Kerala. The BJP managed to retain power in Assam and cruised to victory in Puducherry.

Economy:

On the macro front, the gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collection for April, 2021 hit yet another peak of Rs 1,41,384 crore, of which CGST was Rs 27,837 crore, SGST Rs 35,621, and IGST Rs 68,481 crore. Collections in April 2021 have surpassed even those of March.

Stocks in spotlight:

On a consolidated basis, Reliance Industries (RIL) reported a 108.36% surge in net profit to Rs 13,227 crore on a 9.59% increase in net sales to Rs 149,575 crore in Q4 March 2021 (Q4FY21) over Q4 March 2020 (Q4FY20).

EBITDA rose 1.9% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and it advanced 2.77% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 26,602 crore in Q4FY21 over Q4FY20. The sequential improvement was primarily due to improvement in O2C and retail businesses.

The company’s board also declared a final dividend of Rs 7 per share for the financial year ended March 2021.

IndusInd Bank reported a 190.2% surge in standalone net profit to Rs 875.95 crore on 0.45% increase in total income to Rs 9,199.48 crore in Q4 March 2021 (Q4FY21) over Q4 March 2020 (Q4FY20).

Yes Bank reported standalone net loss to Rs 3,787.75 crore in Q4 March 2021 (Q4FY21) as compared with net profit of Rs 2,628.61 crore in Q4 March 2020 (Q4FY20). Total income dropped 60.34% to Rs 4,805.30 crore.

The board of TCS at its meeting held on 12 April 2021, had appointed Samir Seksaria as chief financial officer. Prior to being appointed as CFO, he was heading the financial analytics, planning and business finance functions. Seksaria replaces V Ramakrishnan (‘Ramki’) who retiried from the services of the company effective 30 April 2021.

State Bank of India has reportedly reduced home loan interest rate to 6.70%. It said home loan interest rates are now starting from 6.70% for loans up to Rs 30 lakh and 6.95% for loans above Rs 30 lakh to Rs 75 lakh. The interest rate on home loans above Rs 75 lakh is 7.05%.

Shares of auto companies will be in focus as investors will react to the auto sales figures for the month of April. Maruti Suzuki India posted total sales of 159,691 units in April 2021. Total sales in the month include domestic sales of 137,151 units, sales to other OEMs 5,303 units and exports of 17,237 units. Since April 2020 had lockdown due to COVID19 and almost zero sales, a comparison with April 2020 doesn’t have any meaning, Maruti Suzuki India said.

Tata Motors sales in domestic and international market stood at 41,858 units in April 2021. Due to zero sales during April 2020 because of the lockdown there is no comparable figures available. Total sales were 66,609 units in March 2021.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M ) announced that its overall auto sales (passenger vehicles+ commercial vehicles+ exports) for the month of April 2021 stood at 36,437 vehicles. The units sold in April this year is not comparable with April 2020, since no vehicles were sold last year in the domestic market due to COVID related lockdown, M&M said.

Escorts said that Escorts Agri Machinery Segment (EAM) in April 2021 sold 6,979 tractors registering a growth of 889.9% as against 705 tractors sold in April 2020.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Monday, with thinner trading volumes expected as major markets in China and Japan are closed for holidays.

Wall Street ended lower on Friday, with Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and other tech-related companies weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq despite recent strong quarterly earnings reports, said a Reuters report.