Rise With Profit: Petroleum Board Proposes Removal Of Exclusivity, ITC Q2 Results, US Stocks Gain

Over the next few minutes, we’ll bring you up to speed with everything you need to know, so you can spend a little longer planning the weekend. If you’d like to listen to this as a podcast, make sure you look for 'All You Need To Know' on any of the major podcast platforms.

US stocks gained for the first time this week, but gains were concentrated in tech stocks—The S&P 500 ended with narrow gains of 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.76%. The Dow dropped by 140 points. Tesla was the stock of the day, gaining over 20%—registering its best day since 2013. It resulted in $26 billion being added to Elon Musk’s wealth.

Meanwhile, the US economy continued to show signs of resilience—the number of individuals claiming unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly. And other indicators also pointed to resilience. One of them was the sale of new homes, which increased to the highest level in nearly a year and a half in September. US treasuries have stopped their plunge and the yield on the 10-year actually fell about 5 basis points and now trades below 4.2%.

In the Asia Pacific region, two of the three early risers were trading positive last I checked—the Nikkei 225 was losing about 0.8%.

In the top news we’re tracking back home this morning, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board of India has proposed a change in the way city gas distribution companies operate, which could remove the exclusivity clause for existing operators. There are 73 networks in the country, through which gas is distributed and the regulator has said that these will be common carriers. And this means that any entity will be able to use this infrastructure to provide CNG services. It raises competition and could put pressure on pricing. You should watch out for stocks like Gujarat Gas Ltd., Indraprastha Gas Ltd., Mahanagar Gas Ltd., Adani Total Gas Ltd., and IRM Energy Ltd. in trade today.

We’re also tracking earnings at the start. ITC Ltd.'s operating margin contracted to the lowest in nearly three years in the second quarter, missing analysts estimates by nearly 4 percentage points.

The company's margin contracted by 470 basis points to 32.8%, according to its stock exchange notification on Thursday. That was the lowest since the second quarter of the financial year-ended March 30, 2022. The company attributed the pressures to subdued demand conditions, unusually heavy rains in parts of the country, high food inflation, and sharp escalation in certain input costs.

Its net profit rose 3% on a yearly basis in the July-September quarter to Rs 5,078.34 crore. The analysts tracked by Bloomberg had pegged the bottom line at Rs 5,154 crore. The topline, meanwhile, rose more than estimated, by 16%, to Rs 19,327.7 crore.

Of course, there are several other companies that have posted their results and that will likely react—IndusInd Bank Ltd., IEX Ltd., and NTPC Ltd.

In earnings today, Coal India, Bank of Baroda, Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. will post their results for the second quarter on Friday.

In the primary market, Shapoorji Pallonji Group's Afcons Infrastructure Ltd. has raised Rs 1,621.5 crore from anchor investors on Thursday, ahead of its initial public offering. The company allotted 3.5 crore shares at Rs 463 apiece to 80 anchor investors.

And finally, Justice Sanjiv Khanna has been formally appointed as the next Chief Justice of India and is set to take charge from Nov. 11. He is currently the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court and will become the 51st Chief Justice of India. His tenure will last for around seven months, till his retirement on May 13, 2025.

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