Sensex, Nifty Give Up Early Gains

Indian shares were subdued in early trade on Monday, giving up early gains amid mixed cues from other Asian markets.

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex was down 20 points at 52,955 as investors react to the quarterly earnings of biggies Reliance, ICICI Bank and ITC. The broader NSE Nifty index dipped 13 points to 15,843.

Reliance Industries edged down half a percent as it reported a 7 percent decline in quarterly profit on the back of increase in total expenses.

ICICI Bank was modestly lower. The private sector lender reported a 78 percent rise in Q1 standalone net profit, but the bank’s asset quality worsened with gross non-performing assets as a percentage of total loan book increasing to 5.15 percent as of 30 June 2021 from 4.96 percent as of 31 March.

ITC advanced 1.3 percent on reporting 28.6 percent rise in Q1 profit.

ONGC fell about 1 percent. Oil prices were little changed in Asian trade as investors balanced concerns about fuel demand from the spread of COVID-19 variants and floods in China against expectations of tight supplies through the rest of the year.

Asian stocks hovered near seven-month lows as investors fretted over tighter government rules on the education and property sectors in China.

U.S. stocks finished at record highs on Friday after tech giants Snap and Twitter delivered better-than-expected earnings. The Dow climbed 0.7 percent, while the-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both rallied about 1 percent.

European stocks advanced on Friday as investors reacted to upbeat earnings updates, encouraging economic data and dovish comments from the European Central Bank.

The pan European Stoxx 600 jumped 1.1 percent. The German DAX rose about 1 percent, France’s CAC 40 index gained 1.4 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 added 0.9 percent.