First Trade: Indices open with mild gains, Nifty at 25,455; Trent down 8%

Indian equities on the last trading day of the week tracking strong overnight session on the Wall Street opened higher. At the open, Nifty opened with mild gains of 49.75 points or 0.2 per cent at 25,455, while the BSE 30-share Sensex was up 194.3 points or 0.23 per cent at 83,433.7. 

Importantly, for the past three sessions, foreign investors have been net sellers in Indian equities, having sold 5,012.95 crore.

Stocks to watch

Stocks set to trade ex-dividend

Sona BLW Precision Forgings, Tech Mahindra, M&M, Nestle India, Axis Bank, Max Healthcare, Cyient, Bharat Forge and Navin Fluorine are scheduled to trade ex-dividend at the opening bell.

Concor bonus

Container Corporation and Sharda Motors shares are set to trade ex-bonus. 

Stock split

Paras Defence shares are set to trade ex-split in the ratio of 2:1 (two for one). 

UCO Bank

In a quarterly update, UCO Bank has said its total advances grew 16.6 per cent while deposits increased 11.6 per cent in the April-June period.

IEX

IEX has registered a 15 per cent rise in its electricity trade volume to 3,238 crore units in the June quarter.  

Bank of Baroda

The PSU lender has reported a 12.5 per cent increase in advances and 8.1 per cent in deposits in the June quarter.

Marico

The FMCG company has clinched low twenties percentage growth in its consolidated revenue amid improvement in rural demand in Q1.

Bajaj Finance

The NBFC has seen 15 per cent growth in its deposit book to Rs 72,100 crore in Q1. 

Its assets under management have increased by one-fourth to Rs 4.41 lakh crore during this period. 

ONGC

The oil and gas company has signed a pact with Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines for two very large ethane carriers (VLECs).

Asian markets

Most Asian stock markets traded on a subdued note, while South Korea and Hong Kong stocks nursed steep losses after US President Donald Trump said he would start sending letters to trading allies for setting new tariff rates by today.

The key MSCI Asia ex Japan index was trading with a cut of 0.44 per cent. 

Meanwhile, US markets in the overnight session clocked sharp gains amid stronger-than-expected jobs data that pointed out at the economy’s resilience.