Energy, banking, commodity and engineering stocks today made up for most of the losses that they had accumulated over the past few sessions. While the BSE-Sensex closed higher by 180 points (up 1%), the NSE-Nifty gained 65 points. The BSE Mid Cap index closed higher by 0.7% while the BSE Small Cap index gained about 0.3%.
As regards global markets, while Asian indices closed a mixed bag today the European indices have opened lower. The rupee was trading at Rs 59.58 to the dollar at the time of writing.
CV major Ashok Leyland which announced a disappointing set of results earlier this week, is hoping to reap the benefits of investments made in acquisitions and joint ventures. The company will be conserving cash and rationalize production across its facilities during the downturn. The company's revenues fell by 22% YoY during 1QFY14. This poor performance was on account of the sluggish conditions in the MHCV segment. Not only did volumes fall, but the industry also witnessed heavy discounts all of which took its toll on the topline. Although Ashok Leyland also had to resort to discounts, it made attempts to ensure that they were not as steep as some of those offered by the company's competitors. However, in the process, the company lost some market share.
Kotak Mahindra Bank declared the results for the first quarter of financial year 2013-14 (1QFY14). The bank has reported 27% YoY and 42% YoY growth in net interest income and consolidated net profits respectively in 1QFY14. The growth in net interest income was on the back of 19.3% YoY growth in advances. The NIMs moved higher to 4.8% at the end of 1QFY14, higher than 4.7% in 1QFY13. The gross and net NPA to advances moved up from 1.3% to 1.6% and from 0.6% to 0.8% of advances in 1QFY14. The bank's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was also comfortable at 18.8%, Tier I CAR at 17.6% at the end of 1QFY14.
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