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Sensex Ends 241 Points Lower; Telecom & Realty Stocks Witness Selling
Tue, 12 Feb Closing

Indian share markets witnessed most of the selling pressure during closing hours and ended their trading session lower. Barring metal sector, healthcare sector and energy sector, all sectoral indices ended on a negative note with telecom stocks, realty stocks, and IT stocks losing the most.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 241 points (down 0.7%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 57 points (down 0.5%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down 0.1% and the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 0.4%.

The rupee was trading at 70.74 against the US$.

Asian stock markets finished on a positive note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite was up by 0.7%. The Nikkei 225 was up 2.6%.

Market participants were tracking Sun Pharma share price, Bata India share price, Coal India share price, and Oil India share price as these companies announced their December quarter results today.

You can also read our recently released Q3FY19 results: Reliance Industries, Infosys, TCS, Trident, HDFC bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Aurobindo Pharma, MRF, Gillette.

In the latest development from the results corner, Hindalco share price was in focus today as the company reported 47% YoY rise in its net profit.

The company reported consolidated profit at Rs 7.1 billion for the December ended quarter. The company had reported Rs 4.8 billion profit in the same quarter last year.

Revenues rose 8.1% to Rs 119.4 billion as against 110.4 billion in the corresponding quarter previous year.

The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was reported at Rs 19.3 billion, a growth of 4% YoY.

The above figures included numbers from its Utkal Alumina unit.

In another news, CARE Ratings share price also reported its Q3FY19 results today.

The company reported a fall of 23.8% in its net profit at Rs 284.1 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2018 as compared to Rs 372.8 million for the same quarter in the previous year.

Total income of the company decreased by 7.4% at Rs 736.2 million for Q3FY19 as compared Rs 794.7 million for the corresponding quarter previous year.

CARE ratings share price ended the day down by 2.6%.

Moving on to the news from the banking sector, Punjab national bank (PNB) share price witnessed buying interest today on reports that the company is planning to sell its 22% stake in PNB Housing Finance to General Atlantic Partners (GA) and Varde Partners for around Rs 35 billion.

As per an article in The Economic Times, PNB revived its plans to cash out of the venture in December after the initial plan of a 66% sale by PNB and private equity investor Carlyle was dropped in the wake of liquidity pressure following the default by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) in September-October.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

  • GA, an existing investor, is likely to pick up another 12% in the mortgage firm, thereby taking its stake to around 22%. Varde is expected to pick up a 10% stake. Binding bids were submitted last Friday, and a formal announcement is expected later this week.

    Chrys Capital and Carlyle Group the latter already has a 32.6% stake through Quality Investment Holdings - were the other two contenders but chose not to bid. A consortium of Blackstone and GIC, tipped to be the strongest contender, opted out last week following Blackstone's decision to buy Aadhar Housing Finance from the cash-strapped DHFL.

PNB holds 32.8% stake in its housing finance arm and has decided to hold 10.7% stake and sell the remaining shares to two buyers instead of selling the entire block to one suitor.

PNB Housing Finance, founded in 1988, has assets worth Rs 622.5 billion under management as on March 31, 2018.

PNB share price ended the day up by 0.5%.

To know more about the company, you can read PNB latest result analysis on our website.

Speaking of interesting development in the banking sector, Tanushree Banerjee, Co-head of Research at Equitymaster believes that financial inclusion will be an important element in driving the growth for India.

On 28th August 2014, the Indian Prime Minister launched an ambitious financial inclusion programme called the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

The aim of this programme was to bring 7.5 crore low-income households under the banking net. So far, the programme has already got around 34 crore accounts.

Have a look at the chart below that shows the increase in Jandhan accounts over the years:

Financial Inclusion Will Be a Big Growth Driver

Here's what she wrote in today's edition of The 5 Minute WrapUp...

  • Financial inclusion is an important element of economic growth because it enables individuals and businesses to access financial products that meet their needs.

    As mentioned earlier, the reform that the Prime Minister Modi introduced - the opening of Jandhan accounts - was a big positive for India.

    The opening of these accounts helped increase the number of savings and current accounts in the country.

    And this trend is not done. It will play out in the coming years too.

More importantly, the Jandhan data shows, the balance in Jandhan accounts is set to touch Rs 90,000 crores!

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

Read the latest Market Commentary


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