Indian Indices End Flat; HCL Technologies and Eicher Motors Among Top Nifty Losers

Fri, 16 Jul Closing

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   SGX Nifty   

   09:30 am   

   12:30 pm   

After starting the day on a strong note, Indian share markets witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day today and ended on a flat note.

Benchmark indices gave up early gains and ended on a flat note as investors worried about the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the country and different parts of the world.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 19 points (down 0.1%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 1 point (down 0.1%).

Divi's Laboratories and Bharti Airtel were among the top gainers today.

HCL Technologies and Eicher Motors, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 15,944, up by 23 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index and the BSE SmallCap index ended up by 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the IT sector, banking sector and finance sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

Telecom and realty stocks, on the other hand, witnessed buying interest.

Shares of Page Industries and Godrej Properties hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note today.

The Hang Seng ended on flat note, while the Shanghai Composite ended the day down by 0.7%.

The Nikkei ended down by 1% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 51 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.56 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.3% at Rs 48,268 per 10 grams.

Speaking of the stock markets, India's #1 trader, Vijay Bhambwani, talks about a new market that the Reserve Bank of India has opened for investors, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

Tune in to the video below to find out more:

In news from the IT sector, L&T Infotech was among the top buzzing stocks today.

L&T Infotech (LTI) reported a net profit of Rs 5 bn for the quarter ended 30 June 2021, up 19.3% year on year (YoY).

Revenue for the three-month period rose 17.4% to Rs 34.6 bn.

In dollar terms, revenue was 20.4% higher YoY, and up 5.1% sequentially to US$470.2 m. In constant currency terms, revenues were up 17.8%.

Commenting on the earnings, CEO and managing director of L&T Infotech said,

• We are pleased to report our best-ever quarter one sequential growth of 5.1% driven by holistic growth across our verticals, service lines, client pyramid and geographies.
  
  Our healthy pipeline and continued strong demand make us confident of future growth.
  
  Also, quarter one marks the 5-year anniversary of LTI's IPO, and our board has declared a special dividend to commemorate this occasion.
  
  Over these past 5 years, we have delivered US dollar revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% and more than doubled our net profit.

The company added a net 2,300 employees during the quarter, taking total headcount to 38,298.

Jalona said LTI will hire about 4,500 freshers during the year, compared to 3,000 last year, pointing to increased demand across verticals.

The new recruits will primarily be based in India, where 85% of LTI's employees are located.

The attrition rate for the quarter was 15.2% compared to 12.3% in the previous quarter.

The company signed on 23 new clients during the quarter, including one in the over US$50 m category.

L&T Infotech share price ended the day down by 2.7% on the BSE.

Speaking of the stock markets, a right investing process can help you win in the long term. It might offer some unexpected and undesirable results in the short term but lets you fare well when you average the outcomes.

According to Richa Agarwal, Senior Research Analyst at Equitymaster, any investment process should not be judged based on individual outcomes. Instead, it should have stood the test of the time.

Her smallcap service Hidden Treasure has had its fair share of failures. But sticking to a disciplined process meant that Hidden Treasure's internal rate of return (IRR) increased to 24.38% since inception. This compares favourably to the IRRs of 9.6% for the Sensex, and 8.8% for the smallcap index in the same period (February 2008 - June 2020) as can be seen in the chart below.