Indian shares started little changed on Monday as investors remained cautious ahead of the release of key retail inflation data amid lingering slowdown concerns and tepid global markets. Economists’ predict that the country’s gross domestic growth (GDP) would fall to below 5 percent for the current fiscal, while the numbers for the second quarter are seen just over 4 percent.
The BSE Sensex was trading 14 points up at 40,359 in initial trade, while the Nifty also rose nearly 7 points to trade at 11,920. The Nifty MidCap 100 index surged over 23 points to 16,835, while the banking gauge gained 43 points.
Among gainers, Britannia rose almost 5 percent post Q2 results, while Yes Bank, Coal India, Tata Consultancy Services and Power Grid rose by up to 2.5 percent.
Among laggards, Zee Entertainment, Hindalco, Gail, Infosys and BPCL shares slipped by a little over 2.5 percent.
Britannia shares rose almost 5 percent after the FMCG major a 32.90 percent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 402.73 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 303.03 crore for the July-September period a year ago, it said in a BSE filing.
Net sales were up 5.88 percent to Rs 3,022.91 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,854.81 crore of the corresponding quarter previous fiscal.
Hindalco shares fell as posted a 32.7 percent decline in consolidated profit at Rs 974 crore for the September quarter, 2019 on the back of lower commodity prices and global slowdown.
The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 1,448 crore in the year-ago period, Hindalco Industries Ltd said in a BSE filing.
The consolidated income of the company declined to Rs 29,944 crore in the July-September period, over Rs 32,726 crore in the year-ago period, the filing said.
Infosys shares also traded under pressure amid a new whistleblower complaint that alleged IT major's chief executive officer Salil Parekh of committing misdeeds and urged the chairman and the board of directors to act against him, according to news agency IANS.
This is the second whistleblower's complaint after a few anonymous employees accused Parekh and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy of unethical practices in a 2-page letter to the board on September 20.
Yes Bank shares also rose after a Mint report stated that Sunil Munjal, chairman of Hero Corporate Services Ltd, and Hemendra Kothari, veteran investment banker and founder of DSP Group, have held separate talks with Yes Bank Ltd to purchase stakes of 5-10 percent each in the cash-starved private lender.
In the currency markets, the Indian rupee opened lower by 29 paise at 71.75 per dollar versus Monday's close of 71.46.
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