India's second quarter earnings season has begun, with 392 companies expected to announce results this week, including notable names like Bharti Airtel, Maruti, and Sun Pharma. Analysts forecast a subdued quarter with Nifty earnings projected to rise only 2% year-over-year, amid a tepid demand environment and margin pressure.

India Grid Trust, reported a 154% year-on-year surge in consolidated net profit, reaching ₹98.73 Crore for the September 2024 quarter, compared to ₹38.89 Crore in the previous year’s quarter. This infrastructure investment trust’s total income rose significantly, hitting ₹839.75 Crore, up from ₹720.18 Crore in the same period last year, driven by increased revenues.

Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd (TRSL), the largest wagon manufacturer in the country, reported a 14.3% year-over-year rise in net profit, reaching ₹80.7 Crore in Q2 of the current fiscal, compared to ₹70.6 Crore in the same quarter last year. The company’s revenue from operations increased by 13% to ₹1,057 Crore, up from ₹935.5 Crore in the same period last year.

Indian stock market experienced its longest weekly decline since Aug 2023, with the Nifty 50 and Sensex plummeting 2.4% and 662.87 points due to foreign investor withdrawals and disappointing corporate earnings. The Nifty 50 has corrected 8% since reaching record highs, with all sectors affected except FMCG. Dharmesh Shah of ICICI Securities recommends Syngene International this week.

Vijay Bharadia of Wallfort PMS expects a strong festive season for consumer discretionary companies, jewellery stocks, and tourism-related sectors, but notes that most of this is already priced into the stocks, and valuations of some automobile stocks have become expensive, but sees growth potential due to low penetration.

IRDAI Proposes Strict Rules to Curb Fraud After Data Leaks and Online Scams: 📌Adoption of Anti-Fraud Policy: Insurance companies must adopt an anti-fraud policy approved by their boards. 📌Formation of Independent FMUs: These units will be responsible for addressing potential fraud cases. 📌Enhanced Cybersecurity: Companies must reinforce their cybersecurity infra to protect sensitive data.

Buy or sell: The Nifty Index concluded the week at 24,180, falling below the anticipated support zone of 24,800. As noted previously, a close beneath this level could trigger further selling in the equity market, positioning index toward the 24,000 mark. Ganesh Dongre, Senior Manager - Technical Research at Anand Rathi has recommended to buy 📌Torrent Pharma, 📌ICICI Bank & 📌BEL on Oct 21.

Business cycle mutual funds have been gaining traction in the investment landscape, delivering robust returns of 32-56% over the past year, with schemes from HSBC, Mahindra Manulife, and Quant generating returns exceeding 50%. These top three funds have substantially outperformed the Nifty 500 TRI index, which delivered 35.11% returns over the same period, according to the industry data.

Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc plans to pump in up to $2 billion (around ₹17,000 crore) to double its production capacity to 2 million tonnes in the next few years, its CEO Arun Misra said. The company which had already engaged consultants to ramp up its capacity is looking for mining partners for the same, Misra told PTI. "We have a plan of doubling the production to 2 million tonnes…...

Nine of the top-10 most valued firms together lost a whopping Rs 2,09,952.26 crore from market valuation last week, in line with weak trends in equities, with Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Industries Limited taking the biggest hit. Last week, the BSE benchmark tanked 1,822.46 points or 2.24 per cent. The dismal Q2 earnings so far have aggravated the investors' woes.

Novartis India Q2 Results: Novartis India declared their Q2 results on 25 October 2024, reporting a topline increase of 10.59% year-over-year. However, the company faced challenges as profit decreased by 13.81% in the same period. In comparison to the previous quarter, Novartis experienced a decline in revenue by 5.62% and a significant drop in profit by 20.71%.

Traditionally, the debt market has been the domain of banks, mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies, which are the primary institutional heavyweights. However, times are changing. The Rs 2.64 trillion debt market (Source: SEBI and ICCL) is seen as a significant opportunity for retail investors and is on the cusp of a major transformation.

Foreign investors have continued selling in the Indian market, pulling out a massive ₹85,790 crore (around USD 10.2 billion) from equities in October due to Chinese stimulus measures, attractive stock valuations, and the elevated pricing of domestic equities. October is turning into the worst-ever month in terms of foreign fund outflows. In March 2020, FPIs withdrew ₹61,973 crore from equities.

Despite reports of weak Chinese demand, gold surged to a fresh lifetime high last week. Gold prices have surged to a fresh lifetime high, driven by geopolitical tensions, US Fed's rate cuts, and robust demand from central banks, despite weak Chinese demand, with Indian gold prices doubling in five years and rising 24% this year.

Oil prices are expected to fall on Monday as Israel's retaliatory strike on Iran did not disrupt energy supplies, removing uncertainty and geopolitical risk premium that had been built into oil prices, with analysts predicting a return to $70-$75 a barrel levels for WTI and Brent respectively. Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 4% last week in volatile trade.