Morning Alert..
* Retail inflation eases to 4.83% in April on softening fuel prices*
Retail inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) marginally eased by 2 basis points to an 11-month low of 4.83 per cent in April aided by softening core and fuel inflation even though food inflation accelerated. The data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday showed food inflation shot up to 8.7 per cent in April from 8.52 per cent in the preceding month, driven by acceleration in the prices of fruits (5.22 per cent), oils (9.43 per cent), cereals (8.63 per cent), and protein-rich items like meat and fish (8.17 per cent). Though the prices of vegetables (27.8 per cent), and pulses (16.84 per cent) decelerated compared to the preceding month, they still recorded a double-digit rise in April. D K Srivastava, chief policy advisor, EY India, said retail inflation in April this year continued the downward trend that started in December 2023 and it was the second successive month when inflation was below 5 per cent. "Although food inflation is marginally higher at 8.7 per cent, the downward pressure emanates from petroleum-related commodity groups namely, fuel and light, and transport and communication services.
* Urban demand slows down for FMCG products as rural picks up steam*
Rural demand has overtaken urban demand in the quarter, but urban demand, which was driving fast-moving consumer goods sales, is now starting to witness a slowdown. According to Kantar Worldpanel, rural has overtaken urban growth at the quarterly level quicker than expected. “In fact, urban has considerably slowed down. It was growing at 5.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of calendar year (CY) 2023; however, that dropped to 4.7 per cent (January-March),” K Ramakrishnan, managing director, South Asia, Kantar Worldpanel, said. In its outlook for the year, Ramakrishnan stated, “We expect growth to be muted for another quarter at least, led by urban slowdown. However, rural seems certainly on a path of revival, as can be noted, and if we see a solid performance from rural, it is likely to bring back growth towards the second half of the year.” In non-food, personal care continues to grow at a faster clip at 4.8 per cent in January-March compared to 3.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year, and this comes on the back of shampoos, talcum powder, rubs and balms, and hair colour witnessing higher demand in the quarter.
* Global market action*
Dow Jones – Down by 0.08% or 32.14 points
FTSE – Down by 0.22% or 18.77 points
CAC – Down by 0.12% or 9.86 points
DAX – Down by 0.16% or 30.63 points
Gift Nifty – Up by 0.43% or 95.00 points
*FII/DII activities*
FII – Sold 4498.92Cr worth of shares
DII – Bought 3562.75Cr worth of shares.
*Stocks with high delivery Percentage*
Sundaram Fasteners Ltd – 90.2%
Westlife Foodworld Ltd – 88.6%
V-Mart Retail Ltd – 88.5%
Pfizer Ltd – 87.8%
Prince Pipes & Fittings Ltd – 87.3%
*Primary market activities*
Listing today
Finelistings Technologies Ltd (BSE SME) – Subscribed 37.44x
Winsol Engineers Ltd (NSE SME) – Subscribed 682.14x
Refractory Shapes Ltd (NSE SME) – Subscribed 255.08x
*Commodities updates*
Gold – Rs 74235/10gm, Silver – Rs 84874/kg, Brcrude – Rs 6603/barrel, Copper – Rs 883.5/kg.
*Corporate News*
TCS announces creation of Global AI Center of Excellence in Paris.
ICICI Securities breached shareholder privacy rules: Shareholders tell NCLT.
DLF Q4 results: Net profit up 62% at Rs 920 cr, total income at Rs 2,316 cr.
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