Indices pare gains after seeing a strong start; RIL up over 1% post-Q4 nos

Headline indices, S&P BSE Sensex and NSE's Nifty witnessed a decent start on April 24 but pared gains within a few minutes. At 09:19 am, the 30-share index was trading 0.22 per cent or 132 points higher at 59,787.17 levels while the NSE's Nifty quoted 42 points, or 0.24 per cent higher at 17,666.20 levels. 

Among individual stocks, Reliance Industries shares traded over 1 per cent higher at Rs 2,376.60 apiece on the BSE after the company's March quarter numbers beat estimates.

ICICI Bank was the top gainer on the Sensex with over 2 per cent gains. The lender reported higher than estimated earnings for the January-March quarter of the financial year 2022-23 (Q4FY23) on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Its profit rose by 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 9,121.8 crore in the quarter ended on March 31, 2023, as compared to Rs 7018.71 crore in the same period of a year ago quarter. Zee Business Research had estimated ICICI Bank’s profit to come in at Rs 8,850 crore during the quarter under review. READ MORE 

YES Bank, on the other hand, slipped over 1.5 per cent to Rs 15.97 on the BSE after the bank's net profit slumped 45 per cent YoY. 

Sun Pharma, too, as anticipated slipped in the trade. At the time of writing this news, the pharma major was trading nearly 2 per cent lower at Rs 970 on the BSE after the company on Sunday said there will be a temporary pause in the release of final product batches from its Mohali manufacturing unit until it implements the US FDA-mandated measures. Besides, in separate news, Sun Pharma and Hetero are recalling products in the US market for manufacturing issues, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Wipro was trading 1 per cent higher after it announced that the board will consider a buyback on April 27.

In the broader market, the small and mid-cap stocks were trading at par with the benchmarks. The S&P BSE MidCap index was trading 0.15 per cent higher at 24,883.34 levels and the S&P BSE SmallCap index traded at 28,292.05, up 0.20 per cent.

SECTOR WATCH

Banking and financial services were the top gainers in the morning deals. The S&P BSE Financial Services index traded 0.48 per cent higher at 8,795.12 levels and the S&P Bankex traded 0.60 per cent higher at 48,059.19 points.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares started cautiously on Monday in a week packed with economic data, central bank meetings, and earnings from the tech giants that have kept the S&P 500 afloat this year. EURO STOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures were both little changed. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures eased 0.2 per cent ahead of a busy week of earnings.