Indian equities extended gains after opening flat on Thursday with Sensex and Nifty trading marginally higher ahead of the Q4 earnings of major private sector bankers Axis Bank and Yes Bank among others. Shares of India’s third-largest Wipro emerged as the top losers among the BSE Sensex components on Thursday after the IT major reported weaker-than-expected financial results for the quarter ended 31 March 2018. Shares of heavyweight private sector banks such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank traded in negative territory steering the benchmark Nifty Bank index in red. The benchmark Sensex was trading 0.25% higher at 34,586.4 while NSE Nifty was trading up 0.19% at 10,590.35 on Thursday.
Following the earnings first reaction on Thursday, the stock of Wipro tanked 4.56% to a day’s bottom of Rs 274.1 after opening 3.55% lower at Rs 277 on BSE. Wipro posted more than 20% drop in the consolidated profit to Rs 1,800.8 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2018 as against a profit of Rs 2,267 crore in the corresponding period last year, according to Indian accounting norms. Wipro’s net income in the January-March period of the financial year 2017-2018 came at Rs 14,304.6 crore, down by 4.9% as compared to Rs 15,045.5 crore in the same quarter a year earlier.
Shares of RIL, HUL, Asian, Paints, M&M, Infosys, TCS were the major gainers on BSE Sensex on Thursday. Shares of Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd crashed more than 18% to a fresh all-time low of Rs 18.55 on BSE. Earlier on Monday this week, Reliance Naval and Engineering said that its net loss has been escalated nearly three-fold. Reliance Naval and Engineering net loss for the quarter ended 31 March 2018 came at Rs 408.6 crore as against a loss of Rs 139.92 crore in the same quarter last year.
Shares of PC Jeweller crashed for the second consecutive day on Thursday. The stock of PC Jeweller plunged 15% to a day’s low of Rs 207.65 on BSE today. Earlier yesterday, shares of Delhi-based jewellery maker PC Jeweller Ltd tanked nearly 18% in the late afternoon trade on Wednesday amid the unusual volumes. PC Jeweller shares tumbled as much as 17.71% to a day’s bottom of Rs 238.1 before settling down 16.02% at Rs 244.4 on NSE on Wednesday.
Wall Street limped into positive territory on Wednesday on optimism over a spate of upbeat earnings that was nearly offset by jitters over rising U.S. bond yields and corporate costs, Reuters said in a report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 59.7 points or 0.25% to 24,083.83, the S&P 500 gained 4.84 points or 0.18% to 2,639.4 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.62 points or 0.05% to 7,003.7
