Asian shares were subdued on Thursday ahead of anxiously-awaited Sino-US trade talks, while the US dollar consolidated recent bumper gains after the federal reserve reaffirmed the outlook for more rate hikes this year. Shares in Hong Kong are lower today as the Hang Seng falls 1.7%. While, the Shanghai Composite is trading down by 0.2%. US stocks fell on Wednesday as potential US restrictions on Chinese telecom companies reinforced investor concerns about worsening trade relations between the United States and China.
Back home, India share markets opened the day marginally lower. The BSE Sensex is trading down by 20 points while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 11 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index both opened the day down by 0.5%.
Barring metal stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in red with realty stocks and capital goods stocks witnessing maximum selling pressure.
The rupee is trading at 66.66 to the US$.
HCL Technologies share price fell over 4.7% after the company reported a 9.8% dip in consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2018 at Rs 22.3 billion against Rs 24.7 billion for the same quarter in 2017.
In the news from the aviation space. Indigo share price plunged over 11.1% in the opening trade after its net profit for the March quarter fell 73% from a year ago on costlier fuel, lower yields and aircraft groundings.
The airline, run by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, reported a net profit of Rs 1.2 billion during the quarter, down from Rs 4.4 billion a year ago.
IndiGo said its finance income during the March quarter earned from fixed deposits and mutual funds stood at Rs 2.5 billion.Revenue, however, grew 17.8% from Rs 51.4 billion a year ago to Rs 60.6 billion in the latest quarter. Fuel cost during the quarter rose to Rs 23.4 billion from Rs 17.5 billion a year ago.
For the fiscal year 2017-18, IndiGo reported a profit of Rs 22.4 billion, up 35% from Rs 16.6 billion in 2016-17. The airline's revenue stood at Rs 239.7 billion during FY18, up 23.74% from Rs 193.7 billion in FY17, as the airline flew more passengers during the year and benefitted from relatively lower oil prices during the first couple of quarters of the year (FY18).
