Indian shares down in volatile trading; Zomato soars on debut

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares were marginally down in volatile trading on Friday dragged down by telecom stocks, ahead of a few big corporate results including Reliance, while a stellar debut by India’s first unicorn Zomato failed to cheer the market.

By 0515 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.06% at 15,814.75 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.04% at 52,815.58.

Shares of Indian food delivery firm Zomato Ltd nearly doubled in value in debut, in the first stock market listing of an Indian startup valued at more than $1 billion.

Telecom shares fell after India’s top court dismissed applications for correction of AGR dues calculation errors.

Quarterly results from Reliance Industries Ltd, Ambuja Cements and JSW Steel, due later in the day, will also weigh on the market.

Investors are watching out for any possible impact of the pandemic and lockdowns earlier this year on the quarterly results of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance. First-quarter profit is estimated to come in at 128.38 billion rupees, and revenue at 1.55 trillion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.

“For cement and steel, the prices and sales have been pretty good in the previous quarter, making us positive about Ambuja and JSW Steel,” said Anita Gandhi, wholetime director at Arihant Capital Markets, Mumbai.

Mphasis Ltd topped the the Nifty IT index, with shares up as much as 10.3%, after the company announced its June-quarter results. HCL Tech, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and SBI Life Insurance were among other gainers.

Shares of steel companies such as SAIL and Tata Steel could react through the day after India’s union cabinet approved a production-linked incentive scheme on Thursday.

Asian share markets were in a mixed mood on Friday after a volatile week in which sentiment over global growth waxed and waned with every new headline on the Delta variant. Wall Street fared better, with investors now looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.

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