TVS Srichakra, Vadilal Industries among 88 BSE stocks to hit 52-week highs, 21 BSE stocks touch 52-week lows Domestic indices Nifty and Sensex are down in trade today as the indices lose despite positive global cues. Nifty 50 gave up the 18,000 mark intraday as it fell 0.3% to 17,982 while Sensex dropped 437 points to trade at 60,219. Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank are the most active Nifty 50 stocks intraday.Nifty 50 Gainers and Losers On the NSE Nifty index, Britannia, Bajaj Auto, JSW Steel, BPCL and HDFC Life are the top winners, with Britannia up 1.70%. The biggest laggards are Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, Power Grid and Apollo Hospitals, with Bajaj Finance down 7.37%. On the flip side, 21 stocks fell to their 52 week lows. AAVAS Financiers, Abans Holdings, Balaji Amines, Arex Industries, Galaxy Surfactants, Kanchi Karpooram, C.E. Info Systems, National General Industries, STL Global, Jyoti Structures and others were among these scrips. On the NSE Nifty, 31 stocks hit their 52 week highs including Fourth Dimension Solutions, Archean Chemical Industries, Anand Rathi Wealth, Apollo Tyres, Landmark Cars, Paramount Communications, Raj Rayon Industries, Sundram Fasteners, Shriram Pistons & Rings, TVS Electronics, TVS Srichakra, Vadilal Industries, Vinny Overseas and Kapston Services are among others. Alternatively, 25 stocks including Aavas Financiers, Abans Holdings, Astron Paper & Board Mill, Avonmore Capital & Management Services, C.E. Info Systems, Wonder Electricals, Galaxy Surfactants, Zim Laboratories, Pansari Developers are the stocks at 52 week lows. RKEC Projects, Sastasundar Ventures, Kapston Services, TVS Electronics, TVS Srichakra, Engineers India, Bannari Amman Sugars are the top volume gainers of the day on NSE. Bajaj Finance, Infosys, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors are among the volume toppers on the BSE Sensex-30 index.
The move had also prompted the country’s largest organised retailer Reliance Retail to step into the value retail segment with Yousta, which was announced on Thursday. Like Intune, Yousta began its operations in Hyderabad, with plans to expand across the country. Intune has three stores – two in Hyderabad and one in Dombivli, near Mumbai, with plans to add another three more outlets in the coming months.
Nair had admitted on a recent earnings call that the apparel segment in general was witnessing moderation and that the value retail foray by Shoppers Stop could help the company tap into the growing trend for affordable fashion and lifestyle products, aiding sales growth.
That was an important statement for Shoppers Stop, which reported a nearly 37% year-on-year drop in net profit to Rs 14.5 crore in the June quarter of FY24, even as revenue grew only 4.8% versus the previous year to nearly Rs 994 crore.
On a yearly basis, the company had last reported a net profit of nearly Rs 114 crore in FY23 after three consecutive years of loss between FY20 and FY22 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. FY23 topline also jumped nearly 60% year-on-year to Rs 4,022 crore, the highest in six years, its results showed.
Logistics, good or bad, are driven by the states and the commerce ministry has a LEADS (Logistics Ease Across Different States) report, based on perceptions. The 2023 version was released in December. Since states are heterogenous, in the reporting, they are divided into four groups—coastal, landlocked, north-east, and UTs. States that do well are called achievers. Nomenclature matters. Thus, states that are middling aren’t called average. They are called fast movers. States that are sub-par are called aspirers. Let me highlight coastal states, since 75% of export cargo is estimated to originate from them. Among coastal states, ones that do well are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The ones that lag are Goa, Odisha, and West Bengal. While India’s logistics performance may have improved over time, that’s not true of every state. Some have slipped. Most states have a state-level logistics policy, including Goa and Odisha. West Bengal, bottom of the pecking order in the coastal category, doesn’t have one. To quote from LEADS 2023, “Looking ahead, the State (West Bengal) could benefit from formulating a State Logistics Master Plan and State Logistics Policy to drive efficiency improvements and facilitate investments within the logistics sector and undertake consultation with the logistics stakeholders for educating and informing them about the initiatives State is undertaking for the development and improvement of logistics sector.”
Logistics has been talked about for a long time and India has also focused on improving performance. We are now getting some precise data on measurement and quantification. That helps.
Bibek Debroy, chairman, EAC-PM. Views are personal.