News Wrap | Sensex, Nifty Gain; Maruti Suzuki’s Q2 Woes; Senco Gold Tanks On Fake News

Starting with Asian equity markets, most indices ended the day higher, following positive cues from Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei extended Monday’s gains, adding almost one percent, with encouraging news for the economy. The nation’s jobless rate declined from 2.5 percent in August to 2.4 percent in September. South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also closed in the green. However, China’s Shanghai Composite fell over one percent, bucking the regional trend.

Back home, Indian equities started on a weak note but closed higher for the second straight session. The Sensex gained half a percent to end near 80,400, while the Nifty saw a similar increase, closing just below 24,500. Of the Nifty fifty stocks, 34 advanced, 18 declined, and one remained unchanged. Among the gainers, public sector lender SBI saw the highest jump at five percent, followed closely by Bharat Electronics, another PSU stock.

Staying with stocks—auto major Maruti Suzuki was the top laggard on the Nifty on Tuesday, ending the session down by four percent. The automaker’s shares fell after its second-quarter performance disappointed the market. Maruti’s revenue remained nearly flat year-on-year at 37,200 crore rupees, while profit dropped by over 17 percent. The company’s bottom line was impacted by a deferred tax expense of over 1,000 crore rupees and changes to long-term capital gains tax, including the withdrawal of indexation benefits.

And now, let’s talk about the dangerous impact of fake news—Kolkata-based jewellery chain Senco Gold saw its share price plummet by 19 percent on Dhanteras. The sell-off came as social media posts alleged that the company’s promoters had been raided by an investigative agency. However, Senco promptly addressed the rumours, stating to the exchanges, 'We would like to clarify that the said news/messages are rumours and speculative in nature and we would like to categorically state that the information mentioned is inaccurate as no such event has taken place.' After this clarification, the stock recovered from the lows, ending the day down by four percent.

Shifting focus - Jio Payment Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jio Financial Services, announced it has received the Reserve Bank of India approval to operate as an online payment aggregator. Meanwhile, Jio Financial Services and American banking giant BlackRock also announced the incorporation of two joint ventures, Jio BlackRock Asset Management Private Limited and Jio BlackRock Trustee Private Limited, to undertake mutual fund operations. Following these developments, shares of Jio Financial Services closed up by nearly three percent.With that, it’s a wrap on this edition of the Business Hook News Wrap podcast. We will be back tomorrow with the next edition of our podcast. Have a great evening and check out our YouTube channel Business Hook for the top business developments of the day.