Rise With Profit: Israel's Airstrike On Iran, Swiggy IPO Dates, ICICI Bank Q2 Results

This is the daily morning update from NDTV Profit. Over the next few minutes we’ll bring you up to speed with everything you need to know at the start of the new week.

As we wind down what has been a tough month for the Indian equity markets, the cues are slightly better than they have been in the recent past. At least, the fears of a massive escalation of geopolitical tension has faded somewhat. That was evident in the fall of brent crude prices this morning—they fell over 5% and are now hovering below $73 to the barrel.  

Over the weekend, Israeli fighter jets carried out airstrikes on military targets across Iran. They’ve delivered on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to retaliate for the missile attack three weeks ago. Yes, it is an escalation, but an expected one. And the price action, after Iran said its oil infrastructure was safe, suggested that global investors were expecting this and were satisfied that there would be no disruption to oil supply.

In global markets, the rally in US stocks flagged somewhat at the end of the week, but tech stocks continued to gain. The S&P 500 ended flat and the Dow closed lower by 0.6%. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, rose over half a percent. In the Asia Pacific region this morning, the three early risers were all trading with gains—the Nikkei 225 leading with a rise of 1.6%, last I checked.

Of course, the Yen dropped to a three-month low after Japan’s ruling party failed to win a majority in the elections held over the weekend.

Back home, it’s going to be a smaller trading week—with the Diwali Muhurat session scheduled for Friday. The Nifty 50 is set to test 24,000 levels, with foreign portfolio investors continuing to be net sellers. On Friday, they sold about Rs 3,000 crore of equity in the twentieth straight session. Over the course of this streak, they’ve sold over Rs 1.12 lakh crore of equity.

In the primary market, there aren’t any mainboard initial public offers this week, but there are a few listings. One of them is Waree Energies Ltd., which is expected to list at a premium later today. The issue, remember, was subscribed nearly 80 times and only about 11 lakh retail investors received allocation.

Now, here’s something that you’re going to be interested in: Swiggy Ltd. is likely to launch its initial public offering as early as Nov. 6, according to people familiar with the matter. The price band for the $11.2 billion offering is likely to be announced in the next two days. On offer in the Swiggy IPO is a fresh issue of Rs 3,750 crore and offer for sale of 18.53 crore shares, according to the updated draft red-herring prospectus.

There’s been a lot of stock-specific action—particularly on the back of earnings. And there are a few major results to tell you about. ICICI Bank’s net profit for the quarter ended September rose 14.5% on year to Rs 11,746 crore, ahead of estimates. Net interest income rose 9.5% on year. Asset quality improved during the quarter. Gross non-performing assets ratio of the bank fell to 1.97% as at the end of Sept. 30, against 2.15% a quarter ago and 2.48% a year ago. The NIM was at 4.27% in the quarter ended September compared to 4.36%.

Coal India announced a fall in its profit, missing analysts' estimates. The company reported a 22% fall in the consolidated profit. The margin contracted when it was expected to expand. The operating profit declined over 14%, when it was expected to rise.

In some more news, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has, in an advisory note, called for better diligence from social media intermediaries. This is in light of the spate of hoax bomb threats on social media that has disrupted the operational efficiency of multiple airlines. The note further called for better diligence while passing on information on social media under the IT Act.