Global cues are not painting a pretty picture ahead of the final trading day of this truncated week. Benchmark indices on Wall Street fell for the fourth day in a row with the Dow Jones falling nearly 300 points on Thursday. The index also turned negative for the year. Renewed fears of a contagion risk from the embattled regional banks are driving the sell-off and keeping investor sentiment subdued. The Dow Jones is down 2.8 percent so far for the week, its worst weekly performance in two months. Investors are also nervous about the forward path of the Federal Reserve following the 25 basis point rate hike on Wednesday.
On the other hand, the Nifty 50 index turned positive for 2023 after gaining for the seventh out of the last eight trading sessions on Thursday. Both foreign and domestic investors were buyers in the cash market during the weekly options expiry session.
What stood out in the post-market earnings on Thursday were the two-wheeler majors - Hero and TVS - both convincingly beating street estimates. Hero MotoCorp's EBITDA margin of 13 percent was 80 basis points higher than the CNBC-TV18 poll of 12.2 percent, while net profit of Rs 858 crore was also higher than expectations of Rs 747 crore. For TVS, the company reported revenue growth of 19 percent year-on-year, while EBITDA margin remained above 10 percent for the sixth quarter in a row. March quarter margin of 10.3 percent was a record high for the company.
Earnings continue to stream in with Britannia being the Nifty 50 constituent reporting results today. Among the broader market names - Marico, Bharat Forge, Federal Bank, Paytm, Piramal Enterprises, Equitas SFB, Ajanta Pharma, Alembic Pharma and Blue Dart will be reporting their results today.
In major global earnings, Apple Inc., the world's most valuable company beat subdued Wall Street expectations led by a turnaround in iPhone sales and its high margin services business. Shares rose around 2 percent in after-hours trading. Apple's revenue, Earnings per Share (EPS) and revenue from the products business beat street expectations. Services business revenue, while below estimates, grew 5.5 percent year-on-year.