Nifty 50 and Sensex Fall as RIL and HUL Disappoint Investors with Q3 Results

Domestic market benchmarks the Nifty 50 and the Sensex ended in the negative on Saturday, January 20. Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) were among the top drags as their December quarter results failed to impress investors.

RIL’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter rose 10.9% YoY to ₹19,641 crore, with gross revenue increasing by 3.2% YoY to ₹2,48,160 crore. EBITDA for the quarter jumped 16.7% YoY to ₹44,678 crore.

HUL posted a standalone net profit of ₹2,519 crore for Q3FY24, a growth of just 0.55% compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. The company’s total revenue in Q3FY24 fell 0.38% to ₹14,928 crore.

Nifty 50 and Sensex closed down by 0.23% and 0.36% respectively. Top drags on the Sensex index were TCS, HUL, RIL, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra, ITC, and HCL Tech. Midcaps and smallcaps outperformed the benchmarks, with the Midcap index rising 0.46% and the Smallcap index rising by 0.41%.

Shares of Adani Ports, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and TCS closed as the top gainers in the Nifty 50 index, while HUL, TCS, and Mahindra and Mahindra closed as the top laggards. Nifty FMCG and IT indices fell by 1.17% and 1% respectively, while Nifty PSU Bank registered a gain of 1.86%.

Next week, market dynamics are anticipated to be driven by the interest rate decisions of the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank, along with US GDP data.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, stated that domestic markets exhibited a subdued trend influenced by extended holidays, low volumes, and weekly option expiration. Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, mentioned that the overall consolidation phase may persist for the next few days or until the Nifty stays within the range of 21,500-21,700.