Republic Business Wrap: Fed's stance sees markets volatility, manufacturing PMI dips, auto sales up

Fed decision causes market movement: The overnight much-anticipated decision of the US Fed to leave policy rates unchanged and hint at a possible rate hike this September, saw capital markets back home in India react to it. Buoyed by the impact of the April auto sales data and a 5 per cent fall in crude prices, oil stocks as well as the automobile pack remained under focus. 

Billionaire Gautam Adani-backed Adani Enterprises saw Q4 net profits fall 38 per cent and state-owned Coal India Limited posted profit-driven earnings for the fourth quarter of financial year 2023-24. Besides, the Adani Group’s sustainability arm, Adani Green has announced that it has secured $400 million from international banks for its 750 MW power projects.  The HSBC final India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, dipped to 58.8 in April from a 16-year high of 59.1 in March, below a preliminary estimate for no change from the previous month. Here's a wrap of the day's top stories from policy-making to corporate action and stock markets:

Markets 

The stock markets ended higher with Nifty around 22,650 on Thursday, May 2 after the overnight announcement of the US Fed's two-day US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which left interest rates unchanged. 

Image credit: Unsplash 

Among the stocks include state-owned REC Limited, up over 9 per cent to hit a fresh record high. Other energy stocks ESC and Power Grid also hit fresh highs. On Wednesday, REC Limited had posted its highest-ever annual net profit at Rs 14,019 crore and declared a final dividend of Rs 5 per share. As many as 49 companies, including Gautam Adani's flagship firm Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Coal India, Dabur, Federal Bank, Coforge,  announced their results for the quarter ended  March 31, 2024. 
While the Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (“APSEZ”) net profit jumped by 50 per cent.  Adani Enterprises Ltd, which saw its net profit see dip, said that the company received two show-cause notices from the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of its ongoing investigation into the Hindenburg's report against the conglomerate. Auto majors Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto gained significantly after posting 11.5 per cent and 17 per cent YoY growth in their April sales. Kotak Mahindra, which was barred by the  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week for onboarding new customers online, saw shares hit a 52-week low after veteran KVS Manian resigned from the position of Managing Director on Wednesday. In the personal finance space, Bajaj Allianz announced its all-time high bonus of  Rs 1,383 crore for FY24 for over 11.66 lakh policyholders.

Economy

Almost eight years after the central government pressed demonetization, in an interesting revelation the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said 97.76 per cent of the Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes have returned to the banking system, and only Rs 7,961 crore worth of the withdrawn notes are still with the public.

Global fine print: The US trade deficit narrowed slightly in March as a decline in imports was tempered somewhat by a plunge in exports. The trade deficit contracted 0.1 per cent to $69.4 billion, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday.

Business 

A day that witnessed a milestone in India’s aviation sector, after Air India’s flagship Airbus A350 operated on the Delhi-Dubai route, marking its international debut, also saw an optimistic projection of the global air travel sector.

 
International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its March air travel data stated that global air passenger demand in March rose to 13.8 per cent in comparison to the year-ago period. After the Delhi High Court on Wednesday deregistered Go First's 54 aircraft, paving the way for lessors to gain back possession, industry experts
said there were significant challenges for lessors, with prolonged timelines for their relocation out of the country due to the dire need for engines and spare parts. The country’s largest Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) maker Mahindra & Mahindra’s 41,008 SUV sales in April fuelling an 18 per cent growth in this booming vehicle segment, has reflected a key trend in the automobile space. Analysts feel the growing aspiration of prospective car buyers is the reason for the likes of M&M’s SUV Scorpio having pipped some of the mass-market segment cars such as Maruti Suzuki’s Alto.