India Stocks: Indian shares subdued on caution ahead of key earnings

Mastek

20/04/2023 11:18

(Updates closing levels)
    By Bharath Rajeswaran
       BENGALURU, April 20 (Reuters) - Indian shares were
subdued on Thursday as investors, who were hopeful of strong
domestic earnings last week, remained largely cautious ahead of
key results.
    The Nifty 50  .NSEI  closed 0.03% higher at 17,624.45, while
the S&P BSE Sensex  .BSESN  gained 0.11% at 59,632.35. Both
indexes had risen nearly 0.4% in the day, after losing over 1%
in the week till Wednesday.
    Weakness in information technology (IT) stocks persisted,
with the IT index  .NIFTYIT  losing 0.2%, and extending declines
to over 8% since weak earnings by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
 TCS.NS  last week.
    "Prevailing underperformance of sectors like IT and energy
might cap the momentum in the near term," said Ajit Mishra, vice
president - technical research at Religare Broking.
        Mishra advised investors to remain stock-specific and
identified banking, financials, auto and fast moving consumer
goods as sectors ideal for long trades.
    Analysts added that the underlying short-term trend of
equities remained choppy.
    "For now, the market is stuck in a narrow range," said
Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal
Financial Services.
    "While IT stocks continue to pile on pressure, even FIIs
have turned net sellers, adding to overall weakness."
    Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold Indian
equities over the last three sessions, offloading 131.7 million
rupees ($1.6 million) on Wednesday.
   Among individual stocks, HCLTech Ltd  HCLT.NS  closed
marginally lower ahead of its earnings on Thursday, and Reliance
Industries Ltd  RELI.NS , India's biggest firm by market
capitalisation, fell 0.25% ahead of its results on Friday.
    Domestic brokerage firm ICICI Securities  ICCI.NS  fell
nearly 5% after reporting a slide in net profit for the March
quarter, as rising costs dragged earnings.
    Online payments firm Paytm  PAYT.NS  rose almost 2% after
Motilal Oswal initiated coverage with a "buy" and expected
overall core profit breakeven by FY2025.
    Enterprise technology solutions provider Mastek Ltd
 MAST.NS  surged over 12% after reporting a strong revenue
growth in Q4.

($1 = 82.2400 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia
Cheema, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Varun H K)
 ((bharath.rajeswaran@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9769003463))